Amman, March 17 (Petra) -- A report by the World Food Programme published on Tuesday said that tens of millions of people will face acute hunger if the war in the Middle East continues until next June.

The programme’s Deputy Executive Director Carl Skau said in remarks to journalists in Geneva that an additional 45 million people are expected to suffer from acute hunger due to rising food, oil and shipping prices, which would raise the total number of affected people worldwide from the current level of 319 million to record levels.

Skau said shipping costs have risen by 18 percent since the start of the war, and that some shipments have had to reroute, noting that these additional costs come alongside significant spending cuts by the World Food Programme, as donors focus more on defence.

//Petra// AF