Villagers fetch gunny bags containing food rations in Ayod county, South Sudan, where World Food Programme carried out a food drop of grain and supplementary aid on February 6, 2020. Tony Karumba | AFP | Getty Images

Famines of "biblical proportions" are becoming a serious risk as the coronavirus crisis threatens to double the number of people nearing starvation, a U.N. body has warned. In projections released Tuesday, the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) predicted that the number of people facing "acute food insecurity" stood to rise to 265 million by the end of this year, up from 135 million in 2019. That would mean an additional 130 million people were "living on the edge of starvation," largely due to the economic impact of the coronavirus crisis, with wages, supply chains and humanitarian aid under pressure as a result of the outbreak. The International Monetary Fund warned last week that the global economy was likely to experience the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, predicting global growth would contract by 3% this year because of the virus.

'A hunger pandemic'

Addressing the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday, WFP Executive Director David Beasley said the world was facing "the worst humanitarian crisis since World War Two." "At the same time as dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic, we are on the brink of a hunger pandemic," he said. Beasley noted that the WFP currently offers food assistance to almost 100 million people, but warned that the coronavirus could make it difficult for them to be reached and urged the U.N. to provide more assistance.