Across Southern Africa, one of the worst droughts in living memory has left millions facing hunger.

According to the UN World Food Programme (WFP), nearly six and a half million people are starving there. A staggering 21 million children are malnourished, after crops failed and livestock perished, amid last year’s El Niño climate phenomenon.

A record five countries have declared a national disaster because of the drought and requested international assistance – Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe – but Angola and Mozambique have been hit hard, too.

But this is just the start of the emergency, because October marks the beginning of the lean season, as WFP’s Tomson Phiri tells UN News’s Daniel Johnson.