UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- The UN humanitarian sector is facing a "perfect storm" -- underfunded, overstretched and under attack, said UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher on Monday.

"The underfunded bit of it has, if anything, got worse since I was last here. So we've only been funded 19 percent of what we need," which is a 40 percent drop from last year, Fletch told journalists at a briefing at the UN headquarters in New York.

So far this year, only 8.7 billion U.S. dollars out of the 45.5 billion dollars requested in the Global Humanitarian Overview has been received, he said.

To tackle the funding cuts, the United Nations has hyper-prioritized its planning in order to target saving 114 million lives, which would cost 29 billion dollars -- "1 percent of what the world will spend on defense this year," he said.

"We're overstretched," as evidenced by millions of people now going without essential food, healthcare services and protection, said the UN relief chief.

Programs to shield particularly women and girls have been slashed, and hundreds of aid organizations across the humanitarian community have been shut down, he said.

According to the UN Children's Fund, an extra 6 million kids are likely to be out of school, Fletcher said, adding that the UN World Food Programme says they can only reach 1 million of the 3 million Afghans who currently need food.

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees says that 11 million refugees may no longer get the help they need, according to Fletcher.

In addition, UN humanitarians are under attack, he said, adding that a record 380-plus aid workers were killed last year, and 270 have been killed so far this year. "It's a record that I fear we'll break again."

Violence against humanitarians, particularly in Yemen and the Gaza Strip, "is somehow being normalized," he stressed. "It's an age of impunity."

Fletcher said the UN humanitarian sector has taken measures of reform, including dealing with the unnecessary layers, processes, duplication, dead weight, regrouping and renewing, to build a genuinely global organization that saves lives, builds resilience, stops conflict and defends rights.

The UN relief chief also briefed reporters on the headline country crises, including the Gaza Strip, Occupied Palestinian Territory, Sudan, Syria, Haiti, Afghanistan and Yemen. These crises will be big themes for the High-Level Week of the 80th session of the UN General Assembly later this month, he said.

In Gaza, more than half a million people face catastrophic hunger, and the number could exceed 640,000 by the end of September, while in Sudan, more than half a million people are now in famine-like conditions, 30 million people need aid, and sexual violence is rampant, said Fletcher. ■