More than 113 million people across 53 countries experienced acute hunger last year because of wars and climate disasters.

United Nations body, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in its 2019 global report, today said Africa was the worst-hit region.

It said Yemen, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Afghanistan and Syria were among the eight nations accounting for two-thirds of the total number of people worldwide exposed to the risk of famine.

Launched three years ago, the annual study takes stock of the countries facing the greatest difficulties.

FAO’s emergencies director Dominique Bourgeon said African states were disproportionally affected as close to 72 million people on the continent suffered acute hunger.

Conflict and insecurity remained key factors, along with economic turbulence and climate-related shocks like drought and floods, the report found.

Bourgeon said up to 80 per cent of the population depend on agriculture in the affected regions.

The report highlighted the strain put on countries hosting a large number of refugees, including war-torn Syria as well as Bangladesh, which has received more than a million Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar.

Globally, the study noted that the overall situation slightly improved in 2018 compared to 2017 when 124 million people suffered acute hunger.