Life has never been easy in southern Madagascar, but it wasn’t always this hard, either. Sandstorms, drought and poverty have pushed the vast region into a hunger crisis – with 1.3 million people experiencing severe food insecurity. 

The United Nations has warned the situation is at risk of spiralling into the “first climate change famine on earth”, though others argue that decades of deforestation and underdevelopment have played a much larger role in creating the current crisis. 

In the last two to three years the price of water has jumped by 300 per cent, while food has become increasingly scarce as the worst drought in four decades has decimated harvests. Locals increasingly rely on raketa mena, or red cactus fruit, to survive.

“I don’t want to scaremonger, but the situation is going from bad to worse,” said Dr Soja Lahimaro, the governor of Androy region. “The cactus are supposed to be the last resort. I was born and raised here, and I’ve never before seen people eating the leaves of the cactus, or people so reliant on its fruits. It’s very alarming.”

Watch the report by Sarah Newey, produced by Harriet Barber, above and read the full dispatch here.