There are warnings that more than a million people in southern Madagascar are facing acute food shortages due to the island’s worst drought in 40 years.

The rights group, Amnesty International, said people were resorting to eating cactuses to survive.

It said people were selling their belongings and sending children out to work in order to raise money to buy food.

A 63-year-old widow with nine grandchildren explained how her family now only ate once a day – some cassava (manioc) for dinner.

“In the morning and at lunchtime, we either don’t eat anything, or we eat young cactuses. We remove the thorns and then we boil them, and we give that to the children. I even cry when I watch the children eat sometimes, but there’s nothing more I can do,” Oline Ampisoa said.

The United Nations says entire villages are being emptied as people move elsewhere to seek help.

Madagascar’s borders have been shut since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, making it difficult for aid agencies to deliver supplies.