NEW YORK - The number of people suffering from hunger has increased during the past three years, after years of decline, a UN report suggests.
According to the analysis, 821 million people globally were undernourished in 2017 - about one person in every nine.
And nearly 151 million under-fives - 22% of the global total - have their growth stunted by poor nutrition.
The authors say extreme climate events are partly to blame for the rise and call for urgent global action.
The report, The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World, also says difficulties accessing nutritious food is contributing to the growing problem of obesity in the world, with one in eight adults - more than 672 million - being classified as obese.
The authors note the frequency of extreme climate events - floods, heat, storms and droughts - has doubled since the early 1990s.
And they say: "The report sends a clear message that climate variability and exposure to more complex, frequent and intense climate extremes are threatening to erode and even reverse the gains made in ending hunger and malnutrition."(FA)
