The figures are contained in a new global report on food crises which was released in Brussels on Friday.
The report calls for a new and innovative collaboration between the EU, regional food security institutions and UN agencies
It says the dramatic increase in food insecurity reflects the trouble people have in producing and accessing food due to conflict, record-high food prices in local markets in affected countries and extreme weather conditions such drought and erratic rainfall caused by El Niño.
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Civil conflict is the driving factor in nine of the 10 worst humanitarian crises, underscoring the strong linkage between peace and food security, says the global report on food crises 2017.
By joining forces to deliver neutral analytical insights drawn from multiple institutions, the report claims to enable better-informed planning decisions to respond to food crises "in a more timely, global and coordinated way."
The report said that 108 million people reported to be facing severe food insecurity in 2016 represent those suffering from higher-than-usual acute malnutrition and a broad lack of minimally adequate food even with external assistance.
This includes households that can cope with their minimum food needs only by depleting seeds, livestock and agricultural assets needed to produce food in the future
Speaking at the launch, Neven Mimica, European international cooperation and development Commissioner, said, "This report highlights the critical need for prompt and targeted action to effectively respond to the food crises and to address their root causes.
"The EU has taken leadership in this response. In 2016, we allocated €550m already, followed by another €165m that we have just mobilized to assist the people affected by famine and drought in the Horn of Africa."
Christos Stylianides, European humanitarian aid and crisis management Commissioner, said the report is the outcome of a joint effort and a concrete follow-up to the commitments the EU made at the World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul, which identified the "urgent need for transparent, independent but consensus-based analysis of crises."
"I hope this document will be a strong tool for the whole international community to improve the coordination of our responses to crises."
This year, the report says four countries are at risk of famine: South Sudan, Somalia, Yemen and northeast Nigeria.
Other countries that require massive levels of assistance because of widespread food insecurity are Iraq, Syria, Malawi and Zimbabwe.
"In the absence of immediate and substantive action not only to save people's lives, but also to pull them back from the brink of famine, the food security situation in these countries will continue to worsen in coming months," according to the new report.
"The cost in human and resource terms only increases if we let situations deteriorate," said FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva. "We can prevent people dying from famine but if we do not scale up our efforts to save, protect and invest in rural livelihoods, tens of millions will remain severely food insecure."
Ertharin Cousin, Executive Director of the World Food Programme, said, "The numbers tell a deeply worrying story with more than 100 million people severely food-insecure, a level of suffering which is driven by conflict and climate change. Hunger exacerbates crisis, creating ever greater instability and insecurity. What is a food security challenge today becomes tomorrow's security challenge.
"It is a race against time - the world must act now to save the lives and livelihoods of the millions at the brink of starvation."