The UN warned Tuesday (April 11th) of a growing risk of mass deaths from starvation among people living in conflict and drought-hit areas of Yemen, the Horn of Africa and Nigeria, AFP reported.
An "avoidable humanitarian crisis... is fast becoming an inevitability", as the UN faces a "severe" funding shortfall to help people affected by famine, said UN refugee agency spokesman Adrian Edwards.
UNHCR's operations in famine-hit Yemen, Nigeria, South Sudan and Somalia are funded at between just three and 11%, he said.
As a whole, the UN has requested $4.4 billion to address the crisis in the four countries, but has so far received only $984 million, UN humanitarian agency spokesman Jens Laerke said.
The current crisis could be worse than the 2011 drought in the Horn of Africa that killed more than 260,000 people, Edwards said.
"A repeat must be avoided at all costs."
More than 20 million people across Yemen, Nigeria, South Sudan and Somalia are in areas hit by drought and are experiencing famine or are at high risk of famine, according to the UN.
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