The global hunger crisis has left more than 700 million people unsure when or if they will eat again, and demand for food is rising relentlessly as aid funds dry up, the United Nations said.
World Food Program Executive Director Cindy McCain told the UN Security Council on Thursday that lack of funding has forced the agency to cut food rations for millions of people and will have to do it again.
The agency estimates that almost 47 million people in over 50 countries are just one step away from starvation, and it is estimated that around 45 million children under the age of five are now suffering from acute malnutrition.
More than 345 million people face high levels of food insecurity this year, an increase of nearly 200 million people since the start of 2021 before the coronavirus pandemic, the agency said.
Cindy McCain said the cause of the increase in the number of hungry people is "a deadly combination of conflict, economic shocks, extreme climate change and rising fertilizer prices."
The economic fallout from the pandemic and the war in Ukraine has pushed food prices beyond the reach of millions of people around the world at the same time as high fertilizer prices have caused production of corn, rice, soybeans and wheat to fall, the agency said.
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