Rome, 8 November 2021 (dpa/MIA) - 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.