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Half of 's children are in need of humanitarian aid, Save the Children has warned, as the war in Ukraine has causedÌý to rise further.

Thousands of children are at risk of malnutritionÌýas families struggle to cover the cost of even the most basic foodstuffs, the NGO Ìýon Thursday.

Food prices haveÌýrisen globally sinceÌý on 24 February, as both Russia and Ukraine are major suppliers of wheat, sunflower oil and other staples.

In Lebanon, the cost of bread has risen 38%Ìýsince the invasion, while the price of sunflower oil has jumped byÌý88 percent, Save the Children said.

“The country faces an irreversible decline in living conditions for children and families that will take generations to recover from if we don’t act now," saidÌýJennifer Moorehead, Save the Children’s Country Director in Lebanon.

A food crisis has been gripping Lebanon since 2019, when the country's economy crashed.ÌýThe cost of food in Lebanon has surged 400% in a year, Save the Children said.

The financial turmoil was exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic and the Beirut port blast, as well as domestic political wrangling.

More than three-quarters of Lebanese households currentlyÌýlive in poverty.

TheÌýInternational Monetary Fund (IMF) announced last week that it would provide Lebanon to help it emerge from the economic crisis.Ìý

earlier this month that the rise in food prices due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine would put Lebanese children at risk of malnutrition.