Macron Phones PMs of Sudan, Ethiopia

French President Emmanuel Macron phoned on Saturday the Prime Ministers of Sudan and Ethiopia to facilitate the delivery of aid to the Tigray region.

More than 100,000 children in Tigray, Ethiopia, could suffer from life-threatening severe acute malnutrition in the next 12 months, a tenfold jump over average annual levels, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said on Friday.

UNICEF spokesperson Marixie Mercado told a UN briefing in Geneva that humanitarians’ worst fears about the health and wellbeing of children have been realized.

Assessments also indicate that 47 per cent of pregnant and breastfeeding women are acutely malnourished, suggesting that they could face more pregnancy-related complications, an increased risk of maternal death during childbirth and the delivery of low-birthweight babies, who are much more prone to sickness and death.

"We need unfettered access into Tigray and across the region, in order to provide support children and women urgently need," she said, her comments coming as UN emergency relief chief Martin Griffiths and US aid relief (USAID) head, Samantha Power, reportedly planned to hold talks in Ethiopia this week to push for increased access in Tigray.