NPR News -Africa

May 6, 20255:12 PM ET

A glimpse inside the shattered city of Khartoum, Sudan’s capital, destroyed by the two-year conflict and now in the process of trying to recover.

Sponsor Message

Smoke billows after drone strikes by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) targeted the northern port in the Red Sea city of Port Sudan, on Tuesday.

‎/AP

hide caption

toggle caption

‎/AP

Sudan’s temporary capital city, Port Sudan, previously a safe haven during the country’s two-year civil war, has come under attack for the first time by a series of drone strikes for consecutive days.
World Sudan’s war is 2 years in and shows no signs of slowing, as talks take placeThe strikes, launched by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces for the third day, attacked a terminal at the city’s airport overnight on Tuesday. All flights have been grounded, local officials told NPR.
The popular Marina Hotel, opposite the newly built presidential palace, and the city went without power, eyewitnesses said. Possible casualty numbers were not immediately clear.
The strikes on Tuesday followed attacks on a military warehouse near the airport, civilian infrastructure and an oil depot on th..

May 6, 20254:26 AM ET
Rwanda’s Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe speaks during a Declaration of Principles signing ceremony with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, left, and Congo’s Foreign Minister Therese Kayikwamba Wagner on April 25 at the State Department in Washington.

Jacquelyn Martin/AP

hide caption

toggle caption

Jacquelyn Martin/AP

Rwandan Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehetold Rwandan state TV that his government was in “early talks” with Washington regarding taking in third-country nationals deported from the U.S.
Africa Rwanda faces growing pressure for role in Democratic Republic of Congo conflict”We are now in talks with the U.S. about a deal on migration,” he said, confirming days of rumors.
Nduhungirehe said plans weren’t concrete yet, but noted that Rwanda has experience in taking in migrants, saying, “it’s not the first time that we’d be engaging in such a kind of deal.”
Asked to confirm the comments, the U.S. State Department told NPR only that “ongoi..

April 30, 20253:00 AM ET
Enlarge this imagePeople hold handmade signs at a Stand up for Science rally protesting the Trump administration’s science policies and federal job cuts on Friday, March 7, 2025, in Chicago.

Nam Y. Huh/AP News

hide caption

toggle caption

Nam Y. Huh/AP News

People hold handmade signs at a Stand up for Science rally protesting the Trump administration’s science policies and federal job cuts on Friday, March 7, 2025, in Chicago.

Nam Y. Huh/AP News

In its first 100 days, the Trump administration — and specifically, the Department of Government Efficiency — shuttered agencies and slashed budgets pertaining to foreign aid, scientific research, food safety, and more.
How will this impact people’s health and well-being both in the U.S., and around the world?
To answer that question, we’re calling in our colleagues: global health correspondent Gabrielle Emmanuel and health policy reporter Selena Simmons-Duffin. They break down what cuts to sc..

April 29, 202512:39 PM ET
Community health worker Geoffrey Chanda used to distribute HIV medications to long-haul truck drivers and sex workers at truck stops like this one near the border of Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Ben de la Cruz/NPR

hide caption

toggle caption

Ben de la Cruz/NPR

On a morning in early April, Geoffrey Chanda’s phone was going off almost constantly. Truck drivers were calling him.
“They are crying: ‘We’ve got no [HIV] medicine. Where do you get [it] from?’ ” says Chanda, 54.
For 15 years, Chanda has been meeting truckers in dusty parking lots at the border of Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo to give them their HIV medications. Now, he says, he doesn’t know what to tell them.
He’s lost his job as a community health worker. The U.S.-funded program he worked for — which supported the mobile clinic where he collected the medications for distribution — shut down.

Sponsor Message

On inauguration night — 100 days..

April 26, 20258:54 AM ET

Sudan’s capital city Khartoum has been liberated after more than two years of civil war. But as NPR’s Emmanuel Akinwotu witnessed when he travelled there, it has been left in ruins.

Sponsor Message

April 25, 20251:41 PM ET
Angeline Murimirwa of Zimbabwe has really racked up kudos for her work as head of CAMFED, a charity that has enabled millions of girls in five African countries to stay in school — and thrive with the help of mentors. Murimirwa is one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people of 2025. Above: She accepts an award at Rihanna’s 3rd Annual Diamond Ball in 2017.

Kevin Mazur/Getty Images

hide caption

toggle caption

Kevin Mazur/Getty Images

I don’t mean to humble brag, but I am on a first name basis with one of the most influential people in the world (according to the new list from Time magazine).
It’s not Serena Williams. It’s not Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum.
It’s Angeline Murimirwa, who goes by “Angie.”
I interviewed Angie back in 2018 in a pub in Oxford. We were attending the Skoll World Forum – a yearly gathering of social activists and advocates. She was then Africa director of CAMFED — the Campaign for Female Education)..

March 25, 20252:31 PM ET
Susan Anderson began using skin lightening creams at age 12. Now 52, she has stopped using the products but her skin shows the damage they caused.

Yagazie Emezi for NPR

hide caption

toggle caption

Yagazie Emezi for NPR

Susan Anderson, age 52, sits in the corner of a sunlit waiting room at a dermatology clinic in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja. Dark patches of skin, dotted with brighter pigments, surround her eyes and cover her cheeks.
“It used to be much worse,” she says, scrolling through pictures of her face on her phone, taken more than a year ago, when the blotches were raw and parts of her skin seared pink. Doctors who first saw her said it looked as if she had first-degree burns.
The first time Anderson used a skin whitening cream she was 12. Her stepmother gave it to her but didn’t tell her what it was for. “She never explained it to me,” she says. “I just felt it was a normal cream, and I was using them. I was naïve and I was vulnerable.”

..

March 22, 20258:08 AM ET
Southern Sudanese who have returned to the south by barges stand on the banks of the Nile river in Juba’s port on Jan. 10, 2011.

Jerome Delay/AP

hide caption

toggle caption

Jerome Delay/AP

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — Another conflict is looming in the world’s youngest country, South Sudan, whichgained independence from Sudan in 2011 and saw civil war erupt shortly after its foundation.
A tenuouspower-sharing deal is teetering on the brink. An evacuation of non-emergency U.S. government employees is underway, and the United Nations has warned of a “regression” amid political infighting and escalating militia violence.
On Saturday, the German government was the latest to temporarily close its embasy in the capital Juba. “After years of fragile peace, South Sudan is once again on the brink of civil war,” German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock posted on social media.

Sponsor Message

Here’s all you need to know about the potential threat of..

March 22, 20258:05 AM ET

Sudan’s military forces have retaken the country’s seat of government after nearly two years of Civil War. Could this be a turning point?

Sponsor Message