In pictures: Food crisis in northern Nigeria

One of the main ways to get money is to sell firewood to middlemen who in turn sell it to people as far as Kano.

”We have to scrape together what we have for a few bags of food," says Yakub.

"Normally we’d have enough for three meals a day at this time of year. Now we only eat once.”

The children are often sent away so there are not so many mouths to feed.