Around 45 million people across the globe are currently threatened by famine, with the situation especially dire in Afghanistan, the United Nations said on Monday.
This is about 3 million more cases than had been anticipated at the beginning of the year, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said in Rome on Monday.
The coronavirus pandemic and its knock-on effects are responsible for the hunger of 15 million people, it said.
WFP chief David Beasley appealed to wealthy individuals to help with one-time donations.
He calculated that 7 billion dollars would be enough to provide all 45 million people with a daily meal for a year.
"While Covid is undeniably exacerbating fragility around the world, man-made conflict is driving instability and powering a destructive new wave of famine that threatens to sweep the world. The toll being paid in human misery is unimaginable," Beasley said in a statement.
The WFP said Afghanistan "is becoming the world's largest humanitarian crisis," with the country's needs surpassing those of other hard-hit places like Ethiopia, South Sudan, Syria and Yemen.
