NPR News -Africa

April 3, 20241:58 PM ET
Enlarge this imageReading glasses are easy to come by in Western countries. But getting a pair in the Global South can be a challenge. A new study shows the surprising benefits that a pair of specs can bring.

Maica/Getty Images

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Maica/Getty Images

Reading glasses are easy to come by in Western countries. But getting a pair in the Global South can be a challenge. A new study shows the surprising benefits that a pair of specs can bring.

Maica/Getty Images

Jasmin Atker calls her reading glasses her best friend – and a companion she does not take for granted. But her spectacles do something most best friends don’t do: They help her make a lot more money.
Atker, 42, is a grandmother who lives in Manikganj, Bangladesh, on a small family farm. It started as a cattle farm producing milk. After she got glasses through the nonprofit group VisionSpring in 2022, Atker says, her improved vision enabled her to set up a vegetabl..

April 2, 20245:29 PM ET

Senegal’s youngest ever president has been sworn-in after a dramatic prison to presidential palace rise to power.

April 2, 20244:45 PM ET
Enlarge this imageThe Nkamira Transit Camp is home to more than 6,000 refugees fleeing violence in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

Jacques Nkinzingabo for NPR

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Jacques Nkinzingabo for NPR

The Nkamira Transit Camp is home to more than 6,000 refugees fleeing violence in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

Jacques Nkinzingabo for NPR

Violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo is increasing and has caused over a million people to flee their homes. It is threatening to become a regional war. Many of the displaced end up next door in Rwanda and we hear about the conflict from some Congolese in a refugee camp.

April 1, 20244:54 PM ET

The Nkamira Transit Camp is home to more than 6,000 refugees fleeing violence in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The decades-long conflict is a legacy of the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

April 1, 20245:00 AM ET
Enlarge this imageSouth Africans have had to line up for water as the country’s largest city, Johannesburg, confronts a collapse of its water system affecting millions of people.

Jerome Delay/AP

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Jerome Delay/AP

South Africans have had to line up for water as the country’s largest city, Johannesburg, confronts a collapse of its water system affecting millions of people.

Jerome Delay/AP

JOHANNESBURG — Lungile Khoza is at her wits’ end. The mother of four has been without water at her home for three weeks, the kids are dehydrated and sick, and she can’t run her small hair salon so she’s losing money.
Khoza, 37, lives in Soweto, a sprawling township of Johannesburg, which is among the areas worst hit by a water crisis in the city. She says there are sometimes government trucks distributing water, but it often runs out before you make it to the front of the line.
Then she says, the water seems to cause stomach problems..

March 29, 202411:51 AM ET
This aerial photo depicts the sawmills of Lagos, Nigeria. The timber from the country’s rainforests, some of the most heavily deforested in the world, are processed in this coastal city, polluting the lagoons.

Edward Burtynsky, courtesy Robert Koch Gallery, San Francisco / Nicholas Metivier Gallery, Toronto

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Edward Burtynsky, courtesy Robert Koch Gallery, San Francisco / Nicholas Metivier Gallery, Toronto

Humans have made an indelible mark on the planet. Since the mid-20th century, we’ve accelerated the digging of mines, construction of dams, expansion of cities and clearing of forests for agriculture — activity that will be visible in the geological record for eons to come.
Some scientists are calling it the Anthropocene era, or the age of the humans (“anthropos” is Greek for human), and argue that geologists should recognize it as a distinct chapter in Earth’s history. But after more than a decade of investigation ..

Enlarge this imageIn this image taken from video provided by eNCA, a bus carrying worshippers headed to an Easter festival plunged off a bridge on a mountain pass and burst into flames in Limpopo, South Africa, on Thursday killing multiple people, authorities said.

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In this image taken from video provided by eNCA, a bus carrying worshippers headed to an Easter festival plunged off a bridge on a mountain pass and burst into flames in Limpopo, South Africa, on Thursday killing multiple people, authorities said.

AP

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — A bus carrying worshippers headed to an Easter festival plunged off a bridge on a mountain pass and burst into flames in South Africa on Thursday, killing at least 45 people, authorities said.
The only survivor of the crash was an 8-year-old child, who was receiving medical attention, according to authorities in the northern province of Limpopo. They said the child was seriously injured.
The Lim..

March 28, 20244:50 PM ET

Thirty years ago, Rwanda experienced one of the worst genocides of the 20th century. NPR’s Juana Summers reports from Rwanda about how the country has changed in the years since.

March 27, 20245:00 AM ET
Enlarge this imageThe palms of a patient with mpox during an outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1997. The country is now seeing a dramatic spike in mpox — with a strain that is deadlier than the one that sparked the global outbreak in 2022.

CDC/BSIP/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

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CDC/BSIP/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

The palms of a patient with mpox during an outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1997. The country is now seeing a dramatic spike in mpox — with a strain that is deadlier than the one that sparked the global outbreak in 2022.

CDC/BSIP/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

“It’s just a matter of time, if nothing is done, that the transmission crosses the border in the African region and, again, globally,” says Dr. Jean Nachega, an epidemiologist at the University of Pittsburgh.
Nachega is one of a number of public health experts expressing alarm ov..

March 26, 20245:13 AM ET
Enlarge this imageSupporters of presidential candidate Bassirou Diomaye Faye gather outside his campaign headquarters, in Dakar, Senegal.

Mosa’ab Elshamy/AP

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Mosa’ab Elshamy/AP

Supporters of presidential candidate Bassirou Diomaye Faye gather outside his campaign headquarters, in Dakar, Senegal.

Mosa’ab Elshamy/AP

In Senegal a 44-year-old opposition leader, who was in prison less than two weeks ago has secured a stunning victory in the Presidential election there.
The run up to the polls had been marred by tensions and at one point were postponed, sparking fury across the country – fury that has now given way to celebrations. NPR Emmanuel Akinwotu reports from Lagos.
Ayen Deng Bior