The number of chronically hungry people in the world is on the rise again after a decade of decline, the United Nations reported Friday, citing intensifying conflicts, floods and droughts as reasons.

In an annual report on the state of food security, the UN said 815 million people were chronically undernourished last year, 38 million more than the previous year, the Associated Press reported. 

Sixty percent of the world's chronically hungry people were in areas experiencing man-made conflict.

The UN has said some 20 million people face possible famine in parts of South Sudan, northeast Nigeria, Somalia and Yemen. Overall, 11 percent of the world's population was hungry last year.

The heads of major UN agencies warned that without concerted action, the ambitious goal set by world governments to end hunger and prevent malnutrition by 2030 will not be reached.

"The prevalence of malnourished has also increased. It is now up to 11 percent of the world population, the same level of five years ago, 2012. This is the price we are paying for the recession, conflicts and climate change altogether. This means that in 2016 one in nine people in the world is going to bed hungry, every day. And this is happening just two years after all countries committed to eradicating hunger and extreme poverty by 2030, unfortunately," said Jose Graziano da Silva, Director General of the Food Agriculture Organization (FAO). 

While the report blamed conflicts as the main driver of food insecurity, hunger is worsened when conflict areas are also affected by climate-related problems such as droughts and floods linked in part to the El Nino phenomenon.