Almost 282 million people in 59 countries suffered from acute hunger in 2023, with war-torn Gaza the territory with the largest number of people facing famine, the Global Report on Food Crises says.
The United Nations report, released on Wednesday, said 24 million more people faced an acute lack of food than in 2022 due to the sharp deterioration in food security, especially in the Gaza Strip and Sudan.
The number of nations with food crises that are monitored has also been expanded.
Maximo Torero, chief economist for the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation, said 705,000 people in five countries are at phase five - the highest level on a scale of hunger determined by international experts - the highest number since the global report began in 2016 and quadruple the number that year.
More than 80 per cent of those facing imminent famine - 577,000 people - were in Gaza, he said.
Many thousands also face catastrophic hunger in South Sudan, Burkina Faso, Somalia and Mali.
According to the report's future outlook, about 1.1 million people in Gaza, where the Israel-Hamas war is now in its seventh month, and 79,000 in South Sudan are projected to be in phase five and facing famine by July.
It said conflict would also continue to drive food insecurity in Haiti, where gangs controlled large portions of the capital.
The report said while the El Nino phenomenon peaked early this year, "its full impact on food security - including flooding and poor rain in parts of east Africa and drought in southern Africa, especially Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe - are likely to manifest throughout the year".
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called the report "a roll call of human failings".
"In a world of plenty, children are starving to death," he wrote in the report's foreword.
"The conflicts erupting over the past 12 months compound a dire global situation."
Guterres highlighted the conflict in the Gaza Strip, as the enclave holds the highest number of people facing catastrophic hunger.
There was also the year-old conflict in Sudan, which had created the world's largest internal displacement crisis "with atrocious impacts on hunger and nutrition", he said.
According to the report, more than 36 million people in 39 countries and territories are facing an acute hunger emergency, a step below the famine level in phase four, with more than a third in Sudan and Afghanistan.
It's an increase of a million people from 2022, the report said.
Arif Husain, the UN World Food Program's chief economist, said every year since 2016 the number of people acutely food insecure had risen and was now more than double the numbers before the COVID-19 pandemic.
While the report looked at 59 countries, he said the target was to get data from 73 countries where there were people who were acutely food insecure.
Secretary-General Guterres called for an urgent response to the report's findings that addressed the underlying causes of acute hunger and malnutrition while transforming systems that supply food.
Funding was not keeping pace with need, he said.
"We must have the funding, and we also must have the access," WFP's Husain said, stressing that both "go hand-in-hand" and are essential to tackle acute food insecurity.
The report - the flagship publication of the Food Security Information Network - was based on a collaboration of 16 partners including UN agencies, regional and multinational bodies, the European Union, the US Agency for International Development, technical organisations and others.
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Australian Associated Press
