Morning Briefing

"The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) is warning that more than a million children below the age of five in the Sahel are facing a disaster amid the ongoing food crisis in the drought-prone region of Africa," the U.N. News Centre reports (3/16). "'More extreme conditions could see this number rise to about 1.5 million and the problem is that funding is not coming in at the rate that we need in order to prepare properly,' [UNICEF spokesperson Marixie Mercado] said. 'So far we have received just one-fifth of the $119 million we have asked for in 2012,'" VOA News writes (3/16).