Hunger reached alarming' ten-year high in 2017, according to latest UN report

More people went hungry in 2017 than at any time in the previous decade as food deprivation on the rise due to conflict and climate change, according to the latest edition of the UN's annual multi-agency flagship report on the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World.

The report estimates that the number of undernourished globally, increased to 821 million in 2017; meaning that one in every nine people, does not have enough to eat.

It was published Tuesday by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the World Food Programme (WFP), the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and World Health Organization (WHO).

The number of undernourished people has increased from 777 million to 821 million over the last two years, confirming a worrying reversal of positive trends seen earlier in the new millennium.

"We now have three years of global hunger or chronic deprivation, Senior Economist at FAO Cindy Holleman said. Many governments and organisations had made a lot of achievements in reducing hunger and it had been falling for 10-15 years," she said, adding that "the levels of hunger are now where they were, almost a decade ago."