‘We just pray for rain’: Niger is in the eye of the climate crisis – and children are starving

A malnourished child at Maradi hospital in southern Niger. Nearly half of Niger’s children are malnourished and 41 million west Africans face food insecurity. Photograph: Giles Clarke/Getty

The food is all finished and until the rains come no planting can be done in southern Niger.

Three-month-old twins Hassan and Husseina are in intensive-care beds at a clinic in Aguié, watched over by their mother, Hadjara Hamissou. They were admitted a few days ago, their frail bodies wasted by hunger. Each weighs under 2kg (4lb, 4oz), less than half the healthy weight for their age.