For the past three years, Mr Beldar has lived alone in his gloomy one-room hut in Hatkarwadi, a stony hillside outback ringed by forests. Drought forced his wife and three sons out of the village.

Zimbabwe is experiencing a historic El Niño-induced drought that compromised most of the crops in the 2023-2024 farming season, leaving over five million citizens in urgent need of food aid.