South Korea will offer $200,000 in humanitarian aid to Madagascar to help combat food shortages caused by a recent drought, the foreign ministry said Friday.

Southern Madagascar is suffering its worst drought in about 40 years, and more than 1.3 million people, almost half of the population, are facing acute food insecurity, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

OCHA also warned that around 130,000 children aged five and younger are acutely malnourished.

"The government expects that our support will help the people in Madagascar overcome the crisis," the ministry said in a release. (Yonhap)