the United Nations said Friday. The UN's World Food Programme (WFP) said a "deepening hunger crisis" was unfolding in the region, but warned it was only able to reach a fraction of those in need due to acute funding shortages and access difficulties. "One in three people in DRC's eastern provinces of North Kivu, South Kivu, Ituri, and Tanganyika are facing crisis levels of hunger or worse. That's over 10 million people," said Cynthia Jones, the WFP's DR Congo country director. "Of that, an alarming three million people are in emergency levels of hunger," she told a media briefing in Geneva. She said this higher level meant people were facing extreme gaps in food consumption and very high levels of malnutrition. "The numbers of people that are facing emergency levels of hunger is surging. It has almost doubled since last year," said Jones. "People are already dying of hunger," she added. (Bssnews)