Eight out of 10 Venezuelan households are at risk of food shortages in the country's economic crisis, a study has found. The study by three Venezuelan universities indicated that 80 percent of households were "at risk of food insecurity because 90 per cent of the population do not have enough income to buy food," said one of the researchers, Anitza Freitez of Andres Bello Catholic University.

Hyperinflation and shortages of basic foods and medicine have led to a volatile political crisis in Venezuela. Opposition leader Juan Guaido has declared himself the country's leader in a challenge to socialist President Nicolas Maduro, who has blocked foreign aid shipments from entering the country.

The study released on Wednesday by the Andres Bello, Venezuela Central and Simon Bolivar universities found that half of all households were in a state of what it called "multidimensional poverty." It indicated that only half of all Venezuelan children were going regularly to school, due to a lack of water, food and transport, or other causes.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2019