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Indonesians are getting ready to welcome Idul Fitri with its colorful, food-centered festivities. But for Muslims across the globe, rising food prices threaten to prolong the fast.

International aid group, Oxfam and European NGO, MADE, said the rising food prices and lack of political will across the globe meant millions of people were feeling the financial squeeze of breaking the fast. 

“Muslims across the world have been feeling the effects of rising food prices... it has affected how millions of people across the world have been breaking their fasts during the holy month of Ramadan,” the organizations stated in a press release.

“With depleting land and energy resources and the gathering pace of climate change this is likely to get worse,” they said.

Many of the families Oxfam spoke to said providing food for Iftar, the breaking of the fast, has been particularly difficult this year due the high food prices.

Penny Lawrence International Director for Oxfam said it was important at this time of reflection that people had enough to eat, “especially at the end of a fast when people need to replenish themselves.”

But in East Africa, having enough to eat is not easy, with more than 12 million people reported to be facing desperate food shortages following the worst drought in 60 years.

Aisha, a woman in Kenya's Dadaab, the largest refugee camp in the world, told Oxfam how all she had to offer her family at Iftar was a simple meal of maize flour paste.

“Every fifteen days I get a few kilos of maize flour, beans and cooking oil.” she said. “I know it is important to eat well during Ramadan, but this is all I have.”

On the contrary Pakistan has an ample supply of food stocks. But Oxfam said the wavering economy and rising inflation have pushed tens of millions of people below the poverty line.

Oxfam said the price of staple food had increased by 17 percent just before Ramadan.

Vegetables rose by 14 percent, wheat by 3 percent, rice by 3 percent, chicken by 19 percent and milk by 1 percent in July.

“With increased poverty and the hike in food prices, Pakistanis are eating less and less,” said the aid organization.

In both Bangladesh and Yemen the stories were much the same.

Jamila, a vegetable vender in the Dhaka Cantonment area of Bangladesh, said “prices of vegetables, lentils, dates and chickpeas have risen so high that I am finding it difficult to manage my family's spending.”

One woman told Oxfam she was worried about what to eat at Iftar.

“Everything [sugar, rice and wheat] has become expensive,” she said.

In Gaza, The United Nations' World Food Program said despite the high levels of food aid the country received, 66 percent of families in the region still did not have enough food to eat.

“Many families used to fish, raise sheep and chickens or grow their own food, but with access to the sea and open land heavily restricted it has become increasingly difficult to do this,” it said.

However, the financial squeeze hasn't confined itself to the Third World — food prices in the Western World are also on the rise.

Families in London told Oxfam they too were feeling the impact of the rising prices of basic food items.

MADE and Oxfam are calling on governments to take action.

“With 925 million people going hungry every day, with food prices predicted to more than double within the next twenty years —  the food crisis is deepening.

“Governments must steer us away from the crisis to a more sustainable and fair future by regulating markets, tackling climate change and investing in sustainable agriculture to ensure people have enough to eat.”

Saif Ahmad CEO of MADE, said in the UK Muslims have been fasting for 18-hour days but at least they know at the end of it there would be enough for them to eat and drink.

“People in other countries break their fasts with very little because there is no food to eat,” he said.