We told you earlier about the charity Save The Children's warning that nearly 70,000 children in sub-Saharan Africa risk dying of extreme hunger before the end of the year as a result of the pandemic.

It says lockdown measures have meant families are facing a serious decline in their livelihoods, and nutritious food is becoming increasingly hard to find, or expensive.

Dr Adelheid Onyango, regional adviser on nutrition at the World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa, told the BBC World Service's Newsday programme: "We know that the underlying conditions were already setting us on the path towards this food insecurity because in the eastern and south African region, there were locusts, and there was drought and now, there is some flooding.

"The same thing is happening in the western African region, where in addition to the usual difficulties that we have with food insecurity and health, there is also the insecurity, due to all the political strife that exists there. The activities that put everybody at very high risk."

She says lockdowns and restrictions due to the pandemic have severely affected the ability of the authorities in African countries to get food to children:
"We know from the World Food Programme, for example, that many children in the eastern and southern African region, who depend for a decent meal on the school's feeding programme, are unable to have recourse to this because schools are closed in many cases."