BERLIN, Oct 12: More than 850 million people worldwide suffer from hunger, with sub-Saharan Africa and southern Asia bearing the brunt of the scourge, a German aid organisation reported on Friday.

German Agro Action (DWHH) presented its Global Hunger Index 2007 which examined conditions in 115 developing countries, including the mortality rate of children under five, the number of small children who are undernourished and the percentage of hungry children among the population as a whole.

It found that among the countries studied, Libya, Argentina and Lithuania did the best job ensuring their most vulnerable citizens were fed.

The situation was worst in Eritrea, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Burundi.

DWHH and Washington-based International Food Policy Research Institute prepared the report ahead of World Food Day on Oct 16.

“Any progress is encouraging but we mustn’t relax our efforts. It’s still the case that one in seven people go to bed hungry every day,” DWHH chairwoman Ingeborg Schaeuble told reporters.

The organisation said it still believed the nourishment targets in the UN’s Millennium Development Goals, which call for the number of people suffering from hunger to be halved by 2015, could still be reached.—AFP