(NAFB) – Over 122 million more people around the world are facing hunger since 2019 due to COVID-19 and repeated weather shocks and conflicts like the war in Ukraine.

That’s according to the latest “State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World” report published this week by the United Nations. Several agencies within the U.N. says if the trends remain as they are, the Sustainable Development Goal of ending hunger by 2030 won’t be reached.

The latest report shows that between 691 and 783 million people faced hunger in 2022. While the numbers have stalled between 2021 and 2022, there are many places in the world facing increasing hunger. Hunger was still rising in western Asia, the Caribbean, and throughout all the subregions of Africa in 2022.

Africa remains the hardest-hit region in the world with one in five people facing hunger on the continent, more than twice the global average.