Over 250 million people across 58 nations experienced acute food insecurity last year due to various factors spearheaded by conflicts, climate change, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, according to a U.N. report published Wednesday.

"More than a quarter of a billion people are now facing acute levels of hunger, and some are on the brink of starvation. That's unconscionable," U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said.

The Global Report on Food Crises, an alliance of humanitarian organizations founded by the U.N. and European Union, said people faced starvation and death in seven of those countries: Somalia, Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Haiti, Nigeria, South Sudan and Yemen.

The report found that the number of people facing acute food insecurity and requiring urgent food aid – 258 million – had increased for the fourth consecutive year, a "stinging indictment of humanity's failure" to implement U.N. goals to end world hunger, said Guterres.

The figure compared to 193 million people in 53 countries reported in 2021.

"Conflicts and mass displacement continue to drive global hunger," Guterres said.

"Rising poverty, deepening inequalities, rampant underdevelopment, the climate crisis and natural disasters also contribute to food insecurity."

While the increase last year was due in part to more populations being analyzed, the report also found that the severity of the problem increased as well, "highlighting a concerning trend of a deterioration."

Rein Paulsen, director of emergencies and resilience for the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), said an interplay of causes was driving hunger.

They include conflicts, climate shocks, the impact of the pandemic and the consequences of Russia's war in Ukraine which has had an impact on the global trade in fertilizers, wheat, maize and sunflower oil.

The impact has been most acute in the poorest countries that depend on food imports. "Prices have increased (and) those countries have been adversely affected," Paulsen said.

He called for a "paradigm shift" so that more funding is spent investing in agricultural interventions that anticipate food crises and aim to prevent them.

"The challenge that we have is the disequilibrium, the mismatch that exists between the amount of funding money that's given, what that funding is spent on, and the types of interventions that are required to make a change," he said.

Acute food insecurity is when a person's inability to consume adequate food puts their lives or livelihoods in immediate danger.