The data comes from the latest edition of the Global Report on Food Crises (GRFC) produced by the Food Security Information Network (FSIN), which analyzed 59 food-crisis countries/territories. Although the global percentage of the analyzed population facing high levels of acute food insecurity was slightly lower than in 2022, it remained higher than pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels. The conflicts that began last year in the Gaza Strip and Sudan caused a rapid increase in acute food insecurity and malnutrition in these populations. "The severe escalation of conflict in Sudan from April 2023 and in the Gaza Strip from October 2023 led to devastating food crises," the report says. To assess a situation of acute food insecurity, international agencies use a technical tool: the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), which is based on a scale of international scientific standards. The "Famine" classification represents the most severe phase of the IPC's five-stage acute food insecurity scale: Phase 1 (minimal), Phase 2 (stressed), Phase 3 (crisis), Phase 4 (emergency), and finally, Phase 5 (catastrophe/famine). Sudan has the highest number of people in the world facing Emergency (IPC Phase 4) levels of acute food insecurity, according to the report. The Gaza Strip has become the most severe food crisis in the history of the IPC and the GRFC, with its entire population of 2.2 million at IPC Phase 3 or worse. The analysis carried out in December last year identified more than a quarter of the Palestinian enclave's population facing the catastrophe phase (IPC Phase 5) and at risk of famine. Last month, famine was imminent in northern Gaza, a region under intense Israeli bombardment since October 7, 2023, in retaliation for an unprecedented attack by the Islamist group Hamas. According to the report, by next July, half of the enclave's population (about 1.1 million people) is expected to suffer from catastrophe levels (IPC Phase 5) of acute food insecurity, reaching 70% in the northern provinces. It is also estimated that almost a third of children suffer from acute malnutrition, amid ongoing hostilities and lack of access to humanitarian aid and essential services. More than 700,000 people in five countries faced catastrophe/famine (IPC Phase 5) in 2023 -- the highest number in GRFC reports and almost double the number recorded in 2022. "At this stage of acute food insecurity, people face extreme lack of food and depletion of coping capacities, leading to starvation, acute malnutrition, and death," the survey explains, stressing that this level requires urgent action to avoid more widespread extreme outcomes. Recurring and increasingly intense shocks are interconnected and superimposed on food crises, the document notes, emphasizing that last year, conflicts were the main factor in 20 countries/territories, leading 135 million people to face high levels of acute food insecurity. "It was the main driver of most of the top ten food crises - in number or percentage," the report also highlights, adding that economic shocks and extreme climate events also contributed to increased food insecurity in 2023. In the global panorama, in countries with comparable data between 2022 and 2023, the report prepared by FSIN emphasizes that acute food insecurity worsened in 12 of them, where an additional 13.5 million people were in urgent need of food and livelihood assistance. Meanwhile, food security improved in 17 countries, resulting in 7.2 million fewer people facing high levels of acute food insecurity. The Global Report on Food Crises is the result of a unique partnership and technical process that brings together the expertise of 16 of the world's leading food security and nutrition organizations. Read Also: One in six children in Nigeria goes hungry, 25% more than in 2023 (Portuguese version)