World Environment Day: drought drives global rise in hunger – in pictures

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On World Environment Day, more than a quarter of a billion people, half of them children, are suffering the impact of severe drought across three continents. Aid agencies are working to deliver emergency food parcels to prevent people starving, and to help build livelihood resilience to extreme weather events

Main image: Precious inspects her family’s failed crop in Malawi. Across six southern African countries, 28 million people face starvation due to the El Niño related drought Photograph: Charles Kabena/World Vision

  • In India’s Lalitpur district, Avadrani, a widow, has been unable to find work during the drought. She walks across the parched landscape with her son, Somath, to collect an emergency relief package that will help feed her family for a month. More than 300 million people in India have been affected by the two-year drought
    In India’s Lalitpur district, Avadrani, a widow, has been unable to find work during the drought. She walks across the parched landscape with her son, Somath, to collect an emergency relief package that will help feed her family for a month. More than 300 million people in India have been affected by the two-year drought

  • Because of the drought, Karori, 60, from Achanwara in India, has lost the crop that would have provided the annual income to feed his family. ‘I can only pray to God now for the rains to come so our hardships may be lifted,’ he says
    Because of the drought, Karori, 60, from Achanwara in India, has lost the crop that would have provided the annual income to feed his family. ‘I can only pray to God now for the rains to come so our hardships may be lifted,’ he says

  • Maurice Kaduka Lukaro, 54, inspects his beehives. His region of Kenya has been ravaged by drought, but for three years he has been involved in a World Vision land management programme to plant and retain acacia trees. He says the trees reduce the topsoil blowing away, boost the soil with organic matter and provide shade to livestock, which drop manure. ‘I used to harvest eight bags of maize. But last year my harvest shot to 25 bags of maize,’ he says
    Maurice Kaduka Lukaro, 54, inspects his beehives. His region of Kenya has been ravaged by drought, but for three years he has been involved in a World Vision land management programme to plant and retain acacia trees. He says the trees reduce the topsoil blowing away, boost the soil with organic matter and provide shade to livestock, which drop manure. ‘I used to harvest eight bags of maize. But last year my harvest shot to 25 bags of maize,’ he says

  • In Ethiopia, Tadesse, 73, inspects his severely malnourished stock. During his country’s worst drought in 50 years, he has lost 15 sheep and two cows. Ethiopia’s farmers have lost a million head of cattle and 90% of their crops. An estimated 430,000 children are facing malnutrition this year
    In Ethiopia, Tadesse, 73, inspects his severely malnourished stock. During his country’s worst drought in 50 years, he has lost 15 sheep and two cows. Ethiopia’s farmers have lost a million head of cattle and 90% of their crops. An estimated 430,000 children are facing malnutrition this year

  • Precious inspects her family’s failed crop in Malawi. Twenty-eight million people across six southern African countries face starvation due to a drought linked to the El Niño weather phenomenon
    Precious, 13, inspects her family’s failed crop in Malawi. Twenty-eight million people across six southern African countries face starvation due to a drought linked to the El Niño weather phenomenon

  • Children in Malawi, which has been affected by the El Niño-related drought
    Children in Malawi, which has been affected by the El Niño-related drought

  • Ma Moe Thu, 11, and Zin Mar Win, 7, carry clean water across the rice paddy fields to their home in Dala, Myanmar. Residents of Dala now get drinking water from local donors organised by Buddhist monks, after almost all the local lakes and ponds dried up. Farmers in Myanmar suffer from a lack of accessible water as El Niño brings record high temperature and drought
    Ma Moe Thu, 11, and Zin Mar Win, 7, carry clean water across the rice paddy fields to their home in Dala, Myanmar. Residents of Dala now get drinking water from local donors organised by Buddhist monks, after almost all the local lakes and ponds dried up. Farmers in Myanmar suffer from a lack of accessible water as El Niño brings record high temperature and drought

  • Fishermen search for a catch in the mud of a dried-up pond in Cambodia’s drought-hit Kandal province
    Fishermen search for a catch in the mud of a dried-up pond in Cambodia’s drought-hit Kandal province

  • In Zimbabwe’s Chivi district, Last Zimaniwa touches the parched ground at a spot that used to be a reliable source of water but has since dried up due to lack of rain
    In Zimbabwe’s Chivi district, Last Zimaniwa touches the parched ground at a spot that used to be a reliable source of water but has since dried up due to lack of rain

  • Carcasses of goats are seen near Jidhi town in Awdal, Somaliland, in April. Across the Horn of Africa, millions of people have been affected by drought
    Carcasses of goats are seen near Jidhi town in Awdal, Somaliland, in April. Across the Horn of Africa, millions of people have been affected by drought

  • Children look at their sheep, which have been affected by drought, at a temporary shelter in Maroodi Jeex town in southern Hargeysa, in the semi-autonomous Somaliland region of Somalia
    Children look at their sheep, which have been affected by drought, at a temporary shelter in Maroodi Jeex town in southern Hargeysa, in the semi-autonomous Somaliland region of Somalia

  • Women pray as they wait for assistance in Hariirad town, Awdal region. In Somaliland and the Puntland region, 1.7 million people are in need of aid, according to the UN
    Women pray as they wait for assistance in Hariirad town, Awdal region. In Somaliland and the Puntland region, 1.7 million people are in need of aid, according to the UN

  • Farmer Carlos Lopez shows lettuce crops that were damaged by lack of rain linked to the El Niño weather phenomenon, in the municipality of Madrid near Bogotá, Colombia
    Farmer Carlos Lopez shows lettuce crops that were damaged by lack of rain linked to the El Niño weather phenomenon, in the municipality of Madrid near Bogotá, Colombia

  • On the parched ground of the Tisma lagoon wetland park, in Nicaragua, an image is seen of how the park looked in 2008, before the drought
    On the parched ground of the Tisma lagoon wetland park, in Nicaragua, an image is seen of how the park looked in 2008, before the drought

  • A woman carries a bucket of potable water on her head in Tisma town, Nicaragua, which is facing a severe food crisis amid a three-year drought
    A woman carries a bucket of potable water on her head in Tisma town, Nicaragua, which is facing a severe food crisis amid a three-year drought
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