A United Nations report warned of the worsening global hunger crisis, as millions of people around the world suffer from severe food insecurity.

The report, published on Saturday, said that conflicts and climate change have led to a sharp increase in the number of hungry people, especially in areas such as Sudan and the Gaza Strip.

UN officials, briefing on the semi-annual update of the Global Report on Food Crises 2024, which covers the period until the end of August 2024, stressed the urgent need to increase humanitarian funding and work to address the root causes of food crises, such as conflicts and climate change, in order to prevent the situation from worsening and avoid wider famines.

The report indicated that the number of people facing a catastrophic level of food insecurity doubled from 705,000 people in 5 countries and regions in 2023 to 1.9 million in 4 countries or regions in 2024.

Gaza's hunger is the most severe in history.

On the situation in Gaza, Maximo Torero, Chief Economist at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), says that the food crisis remains the most severe in the history of the Global Report on Food Crises, with nearly 2.2 million people still in dire need of food and assistance.

The crisis has intensified, with half the population suffering from famine between March and April, up from a quarter of the population between December 2023 and February 2024.

This percentage is expected to decrease to 22% of the population - about 495,000 people - between June and September 2024. The available evidence does not indicate famine, although the risk of it still exists, according to the report.