Afghanistan, Ethiopia, India.

Today's three stories you should know.

Apr 10, 2023

Afghanistan

Afghanistan is at its highest risk of famine for 25 years, the UN food agency said today as it issued a plea for $800 million to provide aid for the next six months. Millions of Afghans were driven into poverty after the Taliban took control of the country in late 2021 when the World Bank and the IMF withheld aid funding and Washington froze billions of dollars in Afghan government money that was held in the US. The Taliban has recently made the situation worse by banning women from working for aid groups and the UN. The UN has said Afghanistan is its lowest-funded operation globally, despite being the world’s biggest humanitarian crisis.

Ethiopia

Gunfire was heard as protests continued for the fifth day in Ethiopia’s Amhara region over a government plan to integrate regional special forces into the country’s national army. Under Ethiopia’s federal system, all 11 of its regions have their own militia forces. While the plan applies to every region it appears to have been particularly badly received in Amhara. The region’s special forces fought alongside the national army during a two-year war with forces from the neighboring Tigray region. Amhara fighters were accused of committing widespread atrocities during the conflict.

India

The Dalai Lama has issued an apology for kissing a boy on the lips and asking him to “suck my tongue” after an unsettling video of the incident went viral. A tweet from the spiritual leader’s official Twitter account said: "his Holiness often teases people he meets in an innocent and playful way, even in public and before cameras. He regrets the incident." The 87-year-old has caused controversy several times in recent years. He told a BBC journalist in 2019 that the next Dalai Lama should be “attractive” if she was a woman, and the previous year when responding to a question about African migrants in Europe said it would be better to “keep Europe for Europeans.”