Tag - africa

 
 

AFRICA

A woman walks past a mural adorning a family clinic in Nairobi in 2017.
WORLD / Society
Jan 28, 2025
Trump 2.0 instills fear in African abortion activists
Trump has reinstated an anti-abortion pact that cuts off U.S. funds to foreign charities that provide or promote abortions.
Residents run away after seeing members of the M23 armed group walking through a street of the besieged Congolese city of Goma on Monday.
WORLD
Jan 28, 2025
Rwandan-backed M23 militia enters eastern Congo's largest city
The U.N. said the rebels were supported by at least some regular Rwandan troops, in the worst escalation of a long-running conflict for more than a decade.
Yuji "Gump" Suzuki, the Japanese runner and social media sensation, runs with supporters while pushing his rickshaw as he nears his goal in Cape Town, South Africa, on Sunday.
JAPAN
Jan 28, 2025
Japanese man ends his 6,000 kilometer Africa rickshaw trek in Cape Town
His latest quest started in the Kenyan capital in July and took him through Tanzania, Zambia, Botswana and Namibia.
Solar panels near the cooling towers of the retired coal-fired Komati Power Station in South Africa's Mpumalanga province on May 9
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jan 27, 2025
South Africa's patchwork climate plans risk widening inequality
Poorer regions may be left behind in the transition away from polluting industries to green jobs.
Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces commander, Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, attends a meeting in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum on June 8, 2022.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 8, 2025
Daglo, the feared Darfuri general accused by the U.S. of genocide
The paramilitary commander went from feared Darfur militia commander to de facto vice-president before unleashing a devastating war for power in Sudan.
Africa’s growing resource nationalism is prompting governments to renegotiate mining deals, aiming for a larger share of profits from mineral resources and reducing the revenues for multinational companies.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 25, 2024
Africans demand a bigger share of their natural resources wealth
Multinational companies should hurry to find sustainable ways in which they can share risk and revenue with governments, as they do elsewhere.
Supporters of the French far-right National Rally party wave French flags on Dec. 15. In Europe this year, the far right made gains in several legislatures, including that of France.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 24, 2024
Democracy heads into 2025 bloodied but unbowed
Overall, there were no attempts this year to prevent a peaceful transfer of power, but autocracies grew more repressive.
A volunteer at a Sudanese mobile kitchen prepares food at one of the displacement centers in New Halfa, Sudan, on Nov. 2.
WORLD
Dec 24, 2024
Sudan drops out of hunger-monitor system on eve of famine report
The move is likely to undercut efforts to address one of the world’s largest hunger crises.
South Africa's Corbin Bosch (left) celebrates after the dismissal of Pakistan's Saim Ayub during the third One Day International cricket match between South Africa and Pakistan in Johannesburg on Sunday.
MORE SPORTS / Cricket
Dec 24, 2024
South Africa aims for place in World Test Championship final
A run of five successive test victories in the last five months has catapulted South Africa to first in the WTC standings.
Chinese President Xi Jinping's government is strengthening cooperation with Middle East countries and diversifying its involvement in African nations, a Japanese government think tank said.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 18, 2024
China boosting influence over Global South, Japan think tank says
An annual report on China by the National Institute for Defense Studies says that Beijing's growing sway has the risk of destabilizing the region.
An Apple logo is seen in Brussels, Belgium, in 2016.
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 17, 2024
Congo files criminal complaints against Apple over conflict minerals
International lawyers representing Congo argue that Apple uses minerals pillaged from the country and laundered through international supply chains.
Customers queue at a bank ATM in Lagos. Roughly 93% of total currency in circulation sits outside of banks.
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 16, 2024
Nigeria’s dying ATMs leave a cash-shaped hole filled by agents
Roughly 93% of total currency in circulation — or 4 trillion naira ($2.6 billion) — sits outside of banks as of September.
185 content moderators sued Meta last year, saying they had lost their jobs for trying to organize a union.
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 16, 2024
Meta contractor dismissed threats to moderators by Ethiopia rebels: court documents
Court documents say that Meta allegedly ignored advice from experts it hired to tackle hate speech in Ethiopia.
Insurance tycoon Douw Steyn’s 250 million rand home overlooks the luxury residential estate bearing his name near Johannesburg, South Africa.
BUSINESS
Dec 9, 2024
Luxury estates for the rich are a booming business in South Africa
Despite a 20% decline in South Africa’s millionaire population over the past decade, it remains a hub for the continent’s high-net-worth individuals.
Since Oct. 24, there have been 406 cases of an unidentified illness in Congo’s southwest.
WORLD / Science & Health
Dec 9, 2024
‘Disease X’ outbreak widens as U.N. sends health team to Congo
The unidentified illness is marked by fever, headache, cough, runny nose, and body aches, with 31 deaths currently on record.
A grapnel, used to retrieve cables, on the deck of the Leon Thevenin in Cape Town on April 30. In a wireless world, it is easy to forget the all-too-real cables that snake across the turbulent ocean floor — until they snap.
WORLD
Dec 4, 2024
When undersea cables break, a wireless world’s vulnerability is exposed
Landslides, a ship dragging its anchor, military skirmishes and sabotage can all damage cables.
The challenge for African governments and communities is how to harness this wave of youthful talent — with all their innovation, resilience and determination — rather than lose them to developed economies.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 29, 2024
Africa must act to stem its youth brain drain
African governments must harness youthful talent or risk losing it to developed economies.
A woman carries firewood she bought at a marketplace in Harare, Zimbabwe, on Oct. 2. Telehealth — the use of technology to provide and access health care services remotely — has been growing around the world but is relatively new in Zimbabwe.
WORLD / Science & Health
Nov 27, 2024
In Zimbabwe, Starlink’s fast internet gives telehealth a boost
The satellite unit of Elon Musk's SpaceX received the green light in May to operate its internet services in Zimbabwe.
The time and location for Amapinight parties are never certain, but two things you can be assured of when attending are that there will be dancing and a lot of amapiano.
CULTURE / Music
Nov 24, 2024
There's no room for wallflowers at Amapinight
From amapiano to dancehall, Japanese dancers and DJs are moving the masses with African beats at Tokyo's most energetic party.
Genetically modified mosquitos are being released in Djibouti as the African nation tries to stem the tide of malaria infections.
WORLD / Science & Health
Nov 19, 2024
Djibouti tests genetically modified mosquitoes to fight malaria
A species of mosquito native to Asia and the Middle East is a key factor in an unprecedented spike in malaria cases in Djibouti.

Longform

Professional cleaner Hirofumi Sakurai takes a moment to appreciate some photographs in a Gotanda apartment whose occupant died alone.
The last cleanup: Life and death in a lonely Japan