Yemeni children carry jerrycans after they filled them with clean water provided by a charity group in Sanaa, Yemen, on Nov. 14, 2016. (Xinhua/Mohammed Mohammed)

UNITED NATIONS, March 15 (Xinhua) -- An estimated 17 million people in Yemen are hungry, according to analysis released Wednesday by the United Nations and humanitarian partners, up more than 20 percent in the past nine months.

"Twenty of the country's 22 governorates are in 'emergency' or 'crisis' food insecurity phases and almost two-thirds of the population are now facing hunger and urgently require life and livelihood-saving assistance," the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) said in a press release.

These numbers represent an increase of 21 percent since June 2016, according to information from the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis, a partnership of FAO, UN World Food Program (WFP) and a number of governmental and non-governmental organizations.

Given the number of people who are food insecure, "Yemen currently has one of the worst hunger crises in the world," FAO said.

The crisis was fuelled by the two-year long conflict, with almost 80 percent of households in Yemen report having a worse economic situation than before the fighting.

"The conflict has a devastating impact on agricultural livelihoods. Crop and livestock production fell significantly compared to pre-crisis levels," said Salah Hajj Hassan, FAO Representative in Yemen.

UN officials are calling not only for immediate food aid but also for agricultural assistance to save livelihoods, and for access to the people in need.

The food insecurity is causing malnutrition rates to spike. Of the 2.2 million children suffering from acute malnutrition, more than 460,000 are severely and acutely malnourished.