The UK’s plan to cut spending on helping feed children in impoverished countries by 80 percent compared with pre-pandemic levels will “leave tens of thousands of children hungry and at risk of starvation,” Save the Children has warned.

“We are looking at the near-collapse of UK help for hungry children in some of the world’s poorest and most dangerous countries, including Yemen, Somalia and Sudan,” said Kirsty McNeill, executive director of Save the Children UK.

“Ending preventable child deaths will never be achieved when we ignore the role prolonged malnutrition plays in the development of a child and their future quality of life.”

The charity said the government will spend less than £26 million ($36,333) this year on vital nutrition services in developing and crisis-hit countries.

It comes as UN agencies call for “urgent action” to avoid serious famines in 20 countries, most notably Yemen. Malnutrition is partly responsible for almost half of child deaths around the world.

The Global Report on Food Crisis, published this week by the G7, revealed that the number of people requiring urgent nutrition support worldwide is at its highest in the report’s five-year history, and that 155 million people are in urgent need.

Simon Bishop, CEO of The Power of Nutrition, an anti-poverty group, said it “simply isn’t credible” for the UK to claim global leadership in tackling hunger while cutting aid.

“People see right through it,” he added. “What makes this so sad and self-defeating is that the UK has been a genuine global leader in this area for the last decade, saving lives and getting huge soft power from doing it. That’s all now rapidly disappearing down the drain.”

This week, the International Rescue Committee said the UK government had also cut 75 percent of its funding to Syria, where more than 12 million people have been displaced by the country’s conflict.

The organization said the spending cut will result in the immediate end of projects that support more than 10,000 vulnerable people, including women and children in northern Syrian camps.