Syria, Nigeria, Afghanistan.

Today's three stories you should know.

Syria

A horrific 9.3 million Syrian children are in need of aid, the UN said today, warning that the funding needed to help them was “dwindling.” Some 6.5 million of the children are inside Syria, while 2.8 million are refugees in neighboring countries. "Many families struggle to make ends meet. Prices of basic supplies including food are skyrocketing, partially as a result of the crisis in Ukraine," Adele Khodr, UNICEF's Middle East chief, said in a statement. The UN said it has received less than half the funding it needs to help the record number of at-risk children.

More from Middle East Eye here.

Nigeria

Armed men today killed at least 48 people in coordinated attacks on three villages in Nigeria. The north of the country has been terrorized by criminal gangs, known locally as bandits, for years but the attacks appear to have become more frequent in recent months. President Muhammadu Buhari has been under pressure from an angry public to root out the gangs, but has so far failed to get the situation under control.

More from AFP via France 24 here.

Afghanistan

Afghan women have reacted with fury to yesterday’s Taliban announcement that they must cover their faces in public and wear head-to-toe clothing, preferably the burqa. “The Taliban regime was imposed on us, and their self-imposed rules have no legal basis, and send a wrong message to the young women of this generation in Afghanistan, reducing their identity to their clothes,” activist Huda Khamosh told Al Jazeera, urging Afghan women to protest the move. “Never be silent,” she said.

More from Al Jazeera here.