NEARLY 282 million people in 59 countries suffered acute hunger last year, with war-torn Gaza worst hit, according to the annual Global Report on Food Crises.

The Food Security Information Network’s report, published on Wednesday, said that an acute lack of food was experienced by 24 million more people than in 2022, due to a sharp deterioration in food security, especially in the Gaza Strip and Sudan, another scene of armed conflict.

Food and Agriculture Organisation chief economist Maximo Torero said that 705,000 people in five countries are at Phase 5, the top 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. South Sudan, Burkina Faso, Somalia and Mali each have many thousands also facing catastrophic hunger.

About 1.1 million people in Gaza, where the Israeli invasion is now in its seventh month, and 79,000 in South Sudan are projected to be in Phase 5 and facing famine by July.

It said conflict will also continue to drive food insecurity in Haiti, where criminal gangs control much of the capital.

In the foreword, United Nations secretary-general Antonio Guterres described the report as “a roll call of human failings” noting that, “in a world of plenty, children are starving to death.”

According to the findings, over 36 million people in 39 countries and territories are facing an acute hunger emergency, a step below the famine level in Phase 4, with more than a third in Sudan and Afghanistan. It’s an increase of a million people from 2022, the report said.

Mr Guterres called for an urgent response that addresses the underlying causes of acute hunger and malnutrition while transforming the systems that supply food.