Hamburg (IINA) : US President Donald Trump on Saturday promised $639 million in aid to feed people left starving because of drought and conflict in Somalia, South Sudan, Nigeria and Yemen.

Trump’s pledge came during a working session of the G20 summit of world leaders in Hamburg, providing a “godsend” to the United Nations’ World Food Program (WFP), the group’s Executive Director David Beasley told Reuters on the sidelines of the meeting.

“We’re facing the worst humanitarian crisis since World War Two,” said Beasley, a Republican and former South Carolina governor who was nominated by Trump to head the UN agency fighting hunger worldwide.

The new funding brings to over $1.8 billion aid promised by the United States for fiscal year 2017 for the crises in the four countries, where the United Nations has estimated more than 30 million people need urgent food.

The WFP estimates that 109 million people around the world will need food assistance this year, up from 80 million last year, with 10 of the 13 worst-affected zones stemming from wars and “man-made” crises, Beasley said. “We estimated that if we didn’t receive the funding we needed immediately that 400,000 to 600,000 children would be dying in the next four months,” he added.

Trump’s announcement came after his administration proposed sharp cuts in funding for the US State Department and other humanitarian missions as part of his “America First” policy. Beasley said the agency had worked hard with the White House and the US government to secure the funding, but Trump would insist that other countries contributed more as well.

A WFP spokesman said Germany recently pledged an additional 200 million euros for food relief.