in addis ababa, stanley chitekwe is the chief of nutrition at unicef ethiopia.ashington, d.c., alemayehu fentaw weldemariam, constitutional law scholar, political theorist, and conflict analyst. previously served as a national peace advisor to the ministry of federal affairs and currently lectures at mekelle university school of law. he is also political commentator for ethiopia insight. we're going to turn to you first, alemayehu weldemariam. thank you for joining us. can you talk about the significance of the cease-fire, why it happened, and all this and in context of the elections and the famine that could engulf this area of to gray? >> thank you for having me. i think one thing we need to be very clear about, the unilateral truth, there is not such a thing as unilateral truth in this context in which the prime minister declared the unilateral cease-fire. he was defeated in the first two weeks. [indiscernible] several divisions -- so after the defeat federal government said it has called for unilateral truce. it is true the significance is also something the

ethiopia. on friday, unicef said more than 100,000 children could face extreme starvation in the next year as ault of major fighting in that country's northern region. aid administrator samantha power leaves for the nation in hopes of easing what is the world's worst hunger crisis in a decade. the pictures are heart-wrenching. children in the streets, families in disarray. all under the threat of starvation. food convoys have been barred from accessing the region. it's been over a month since the last one made its way through. >> our worst fears about the health and well-being of children in that conflicted region of northern ethiopia are being confirmed. >> reporter: at a press conference on friday, unicef's spokesperson said aid workers need unfettered access to prevent famine and assaults like the one she described on a young woman. >> she watched her grandmother get killed. she was raped by several men as she watched her 9-month-old baby being tossed around by other men. >> reporter: the conflict pits ethiopia's central government led by prime minister ahmed against forces to the north. the

getting back into ethiopia, is not going to try region, but the situation remains, di, one and 5000000 people need emergency food aid, 900000 of them are facing families conditions. now unicef has warned that children in lebanon are the worst effected by the countries worst thing. economic crisis research by the u. an agency found more than 30 percent of children have been forced to skip nails and go to bed hungry and 77 percent of household phase spoke to are suffering from food shortages. lebanese pound has lost 90 percent of its value in 2019, causing the price of bread and fuel to for far have is a spokeswoman for unicef. she says the kind of like economic crisis is affecting all aspects of children's lives. sin never, non. we've been working with them on the ground and seeing a situation steadily deteriorate over many, many months. that situation is essentially many years old. right now we really want to raise the country. is this really hurting off and eat, you know, my precipice into one of the well known re thing, total collapse if the economy that did they buy the home with that. and then if there was the explosion in the court last year, which doesn't make much of