February 10, 20254:20 PM ET
The Trump administration is dismantling the United States Agency for International Development, USAID. They had been doing humanitarian work in more than 100 countries. We hear from NPR correspondents around the world about what the agency had been doing on the ground and what it’s elimination could mean.
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February 9, 20252:34 AM ET
Namibian and ruling Swapo party President Sam Nujoma speaks during an election rally in Windhoek, Namibia, Nov. 13, 2004.
Themba Hadebe/AP
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Themba Hadebe/AP
WINDHOEK, Namibia — Sam Nujoma, the fiery freedom fighter who led Namibia to independence from apartheid South Africa in 1990 and served as its first president for 15 years, and was known as the father of the nation, has died. He was 95.
Nujoma’s death was announced Sunday by current Namibian President Nangolo Mbumba. Mbumba said Nujoma died on Saturday night after being hospitalized in the capital, Windhoek.
“The foundations of the Republic of Namibia have been shaken,” Mbumba said in a statement. “Over the past three weeks, the Founding President of the Republic of Namibia and Founding Father of the Namibian Nation was hospitalized for medical treatment and medical observation due to ill health.”
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“Unfortunately, this time, the most gallant ..
January 14, 20255:15 PM ET
A rescue operation is underway to bring up the miners who are still alive after a two-month standoff in South Africa between police and illegal miners. They’ll recover the bodies of those who died.
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January 13, 20254:06 AM ET
Sudan’s military has recaptured a strategic city from the paramilitary group accused of genocide. Could this be a key moment to mark a turning point in the conflict?
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January 7, 202512:30 PM ET
Sudanese refugees arrive in Acre, Chad, Oct 6. 2024.
Sam Mednick/AP
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Sam Mednick/AP
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration said Tuesday that a Sudanese paramilitary group and its proxies are committing genocide in a civil war with the country’s military that has killed tens of thousands of people, leveling sanctions on the group’s leader and affiliated companies.
Up First from NPR Sudan’s ‘Forgotten War’Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the conflict, which began nearly two years ago and is considered the world’s biggest current humanitarian catastrophe, had escalated beyond a war crimes and ethnic cleansing determination he made in December 2023.
Blinken said that based on more recent reporting, he found that the Rapid Support Forces group is committing genocide.
“The RSF and RSF-aligned militias have continued to direct attacks against civilians,” Blinken said. “The RSF and allied militias have systematically m..
January 2, 20253:00 AM ET
Fighting between the Sudanese army and a paramilitary group have displaced some 12 million people in one of Africa’s biggest countries. In a story we first brought you in October, our correspondent travels to Sudan and gives us a glimpse of the devastation the war has caused.
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December 31, 20246:07 PM ET
An emerging film festival in Lagos, Nigeria, is trying to change the stories mainstream Nigerian films tell.
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December 31, 202410:52 AM ET
Democratic Republic of the Congo – vector map
pavalena/Getty Images/iStockphoto
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In early December, international alarm bells went off because of a mysterious disease circulating in a remote part of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention dubbed it “Disease X.”
National and international health experts raced to the scene. But because the rainy season made dirt roads hard to pass, it took days to get from the capital Kinshasa to villages in the Panzi district in Kwango Province, located in the south of the vast country. It was in these far-flung villages that about 900 people had fallen ill between late October and mid-December with symptoms ranging from fever to body weakness to difficulty breathing. Forty-eight of them died. And many of the ill are young children. At the very end of November, local medical providers alerted national autho..
December 29, 20248:34 AM ET
An emerging film festival in Lagos, Nigeria is trying to change the stories mainstream Nigerian films tell.
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December 26, 20244:33 AM ET
Nigeria’s president is defending his economic reforms, which have led to the worst economic crisis in decades. Poverty levels have soared. Fuel costs have more than tripled and people are hungry.
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