The crisis, worsened by the 2023-2024 El Nino climate phenomenon, is expected to deepen until at least the next harvests due in March or April next year.

"Today we have up to 26 million people facing acute food insecurity in the region and this is because of El Nino induced drought," said Eric Perdison, regional director for southern Africa at the WFP.

The seven worst affected nations were Angola, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe, Perdison added.

Those need an additional $300 million to tackle the crisis., according to the WFP.

Five countries -- Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe -- have declared a state of national disaster in the past months as the drought has destroyed scores of crops and livestock.

In many places, farmers who would normally be planting seeds at this time of the year, are not able to do so.

In Malawi, the WFP said it has had to import food to provide assistance due to the shortages.

"Nearly half the maize crops were damaged by El Nino drought earlier this year," said the group's representative in the country, Paul Turnbull.

Despite Zambia being "known as the food basket of southern Africa", the country "stands at the brink of a hunger crisis," said WFP's country director Cissy Kabasuuga.

In Namibia, an upper middle-income country, the situation was also dire.

"All 14 regions were impacted by the drought, of which there are some that have very worrying levels (of food insecurity) and that's a very worrying situation for Namibia," said WFP's Tiwonge Machiwenyika.

US President Joe Biden on Tuesday during a trip to the region announced a $1 billion humanitarian aid package to 31 African countries, including for people affected by the drought.