Mumbai: UN officials say a convergence of droughts, harvest failures; locust invasions and political conflicts in Mali have left 4.75 million people without enough to eat.
The officials said on Friday that close to half a million children will suffer from acute malnutrition by the end of the year.
UNICEF Emergency Director Afshan Khan said malnutrition rates in Mali are now comparable to the crises in South Sudan and the Horn of Africa.
John Ging, the director of UN humanitarian operations, warned that without additional funds "we can expect that the situation will continue to deteriorate."
The latest figures are worse than Ging's assessment in June that nearly 500,000 children under the age of five were at risk of acute malnutrition and 1.5 million people were "food insecure."
