Humanitarian crisis worsens as Benue residents continue to flee

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he spoke with Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed about the unfolding crisis in Tigray and called for a cease-fire.

Aid workers inside Ethiopia have warned that hostilities will only aggravate the humanitarian situation in the Tigray region. Clashes have already driven hundreds of thousands of people into famine-like conditions.

France 24 hosts Peter Maurer, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross. Maurer just returned from Afghanistan, where he witnessed the worsening humanitarian situation and met with the Taliban, the country's new rulers. He hopes the ICRC will continue to bring humanitarian aid, and says he is "optimistic" even if the operations are likely to be "complex".

The African human rights campaigner has helped convict 800 men of wartime sexual violence against women. She has been given a $1 million prize to help even more women in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The German foreign minister said more needs to be done to help Afghanistan in the wake of the Taliban takeover. Some 15,000 people which Germany vowed to take in are still stranded there.

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The fighting between forces of the Ethiopian government and rebels from the Tigray region has had a devastating effect on the civilian population. The UN has warned of a "grave humanitarian situation."

The United Nations is seeking more than $5 billion from international donors this year to tackle the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan. It's the largest ever UN appeal for a single country, to avert what it describes as a "catastrophe". More than half of Afghanistan's population will need emergency assistance this year, with the UN estimating that 55 percent of Afghans are suffering from acute hunger. FRANCE 24's Business Editor Stephen Carroll has the details.

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Six months after the Taliban took over Afghanistan, the health system is collapsing. Amid the deteriorating humanitarian situation, a raging measles outbreak has already killed more than 150 people and infected tens of thousands more in January alone. Measles is not the only sanitary threat facing young children in the country.

The fighting between forces of the Ethiopian government and fighters from the Tigray region has had a devastating effect on the civilian population. The UN has warned of a "grave humanitarian situation."

The Ukraine conflict dominates this year's Munich Security Conference, as world leaders pay less attention to the Afghan crisis. Two decades ago, a similar negligence unleashed catastrophic consequences for global peace.