United Nations, More than 10 million children in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), northeast Nigeria, the Central Sahel, South Sudan and Yemen will suffer from acute malnutrition in 2021, the UN Children's Fund (Unicef) said.

All of these countries and regions are experiencing "dire humanitarian crises", while also grappling with intensifying food insecurity, the coronavirus pandemic and, with the exception of the Central Sahel, "a looming famine", the Unicef said in a statement on Wednesday.

"For countries reeling from the consequences of conflicts, disasters and climate change, Covid-19 has turned a nutrition crisis into an imminent catastrophe," Unicef Executive Director Henrietta Fore said.

"Families already struggling to feed their children and themselves are now on the brink of famine. We can't let them be the forgotten victims of 2020," she added.

Severe acute malnutrition is the most extreme and visible form of under nutrition.

Children with severe acute malnutrition have very low weight for their height and severe muscle wasting.