The United Nations has declared famine in parts of South Sudan and warned that more than 20 million people risk dying from starvation because of drought and conflict in Yemen, Somalia, South Sudan and northeast Nigeria, while more than 100 million face acute malnutrition worldwide.

Stephen O’Brien, the United Nations’ top humanitarian official underlined the link between conflict and famine. “Those (hunger crises) all share this terrible and devastating commonality: violence and conflict which have contributed to or directly caused famine risk conditions,” he said.

A decade ago most international aid organizations focused almost 80% of their resources on natural disaster threats and the rest on “manmade humanitarian risks”, but it is now the other way around, he said.