Blog
An estimated 350,000 African artefacts, from human remains and photographs to natural history specimens and manuscripts, have been found in a university’s collections. Dr Eva Namusoke spent 15 months liaising with University of Cambridge librarians, curators and archivists, as well as delving into their stores, to uncover the items. It “is fairly common” for large […]
Nigeria, which has more malaria deaths than any other country in the world, has begun rolling out a vaccine against the disease for the first time. The West African nation accounts for almost a third of those who die from malaria each year. The vaccine being introduced – called R21/Matrix-M – is the second to […]
An Islamic school teacher, Masud Abdulrasheed, is struggling to come to terms with the killing of his seven-year-old daughter in drone strikes by Nigeria’s military during a religious festival in their large but sparsely populated village exactly a year ago. The military said the bombing was caused by “a failure of intelligence”, leading the army […]
US President-elect Donald Trump has threatened to impose 100% tariffs on a bloc of nine nations if they were to create a rival currency to the US dollar. “The idea that the BRICS Countries are trying to move away from the Dollar while we stand by and watch is OVER,” Trump wrote on social media […]
Voting began on Wednesday but in parts of the country continued up until Saturday, following a lack of ballot papers in some places as well as malfunctioning technical equipment. Is Namibia going to elect its first female leader? Namibia is a geographically vast nation with about three million people, around half of whom are registered […]
Tanzanian opposition youth leader Abdul Nondo has been found after being dumped at a beach, less than a day after he was reportedly kidnapped in the main city of Dar es Salaam. His party, ACT Wazalendo, says Nondo was severely beaten and injured and has been taken to hospital. The party’s deputy chairperson, Isihaka Mchinjita, […]
A power cut plunged Zimbabwe’s parliament into darkness as Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube was finishing his budget speech. The lights flickered and died, leaving top officials like President Emmerson Mnangagwa, Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga and members of parliament sitting in the dark. The outage is a symptom of Zimbabwe’s ongoing crisis, with daily 12-hour blackouts driven […]
One of Zambia’s most popular actors and filmmakers Owas Mwape broke a social taboo by admitting that one of his young sons has an addiction to drugs when he posted a recent appeal for advice on Facebook. The 52-year-old told the BBC he wanted to use his standing as a public figure to open the […]
Mahmoud is a cheeky teenager who beams the biggest of smiles even though he lost his front teeth in the rough and tumble of kids’ play. He is a Sudanese orphan abandoned twice, and displaced twice in his country’s grievous war – one of nearly five million Sudanese children who have lost almost everything as […]
Votes are being counted in Namibia in what could be the most competitive election since independence from white-ruled South Africa 34 years ago. The poll was marred by logistical issues with voting continuing for an unscheduled second day on Thursday in some areas. Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah is seeking to become the country’s first female president. She […]