And with conflicts and climate extremes “likely to sustain or worsen conditions in many countries”, the outlook for 2026 is “bleak”, it said.

“Acute food insecurity remains highly concentrated (in) 10 countries -- Afghanistan, Bangladesh, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Myanmar, Nigeria, Pakistan, South Sudan, Sudan, Syrian Arab Republic, and Yemen,” the report said.

Improvements in some countries, such as Bangladesh and Syria, were “almost fully offset by notable deteriorations” in Afghanistan, DRC, Myanmar and Zimbabwe, it said.

For the first time in the report, which is in its 10th edition, famine was confirmed in two separate contexts -- in Gaza and parts of Sudan -- in the same year.

Around 266 million people in 47 countries or territories experienced high levels of acute food insecurity last year, nearly double the share recorded in 2016, the report said.