The coronavirus pandemic could nearly double the number of people around the world facing acute hunger, the UN's World Food Programme has warned.

“The number of people facing acute food insecurity stands to rise to 265 million in 2020, up by 130 million from the 135 million in 2019, as a result of the economic impact of Covid-19,” the WFP said its projections had shown.

The warning came as the WFP and other partners released a new report on food crises around the world, which found that food insecurity was already on the rise last year before the outbreak of the coronavirus crisis.

“Covid-19 is potentially catastrophic for millions who are already hanging by a thread,” the WFP's Senior Economist Arif Husain said in a statement.