NPR News -Africa

November 12, 20247:57 AM ET
Mahamat Djouma, 14, fled the war in Sudan without parents; his mother died in 2023 and his father subsequently disappeared. He came with 5-year-old twin brothers, whom he now cares for. Entesar, a 21-year-old student, also fled to escape the violence — and was raped by three soldiers. She asked to be identified by her middle name since she has not yet told close family members about the attack.

Claire Harbage/NPR

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Claire Harbage/NPR

Editor’s note: This story contains descriptions of sexual assault.
When I meet him, 14-year-old Mahamat Djouma is doing what many teenagers do in their spare time: dribbling a soccer ball with his foot.
But when he’s done, tired and hungry, he doesn’t have anyone to welcome him home with a warm plate of food. Instead, he has a world of responsibilities: He’s the sole caregiver for his 5-year-old twin brothers, Hassan and Hissein, who are waiting for him in their mud brick home in a refugee c..

November 10, 20248:33 AM ET

How a unique wilderness in the Democratic Republic of Congo is being revived and preserved for future generations.

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November 9, 20247:58 AM ET

We look at what will a second Trump term will mean for Africa – a continent the President elect has never visited and has openly denigrated.

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November 3, 20247:48 AM ET

The Marburg virus is notable for its very high fatality rate. But in the current Marburg outbreak, in Rwanda, the fatality rate is far lower than normal.

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November 1, 20244:40 PM ET
Marburg can be an exceptionally deadly virus. An outbreak in Rwanda is being handled with “unprecedented” success, say public health experts. In this photo from a 2014 Marburg outbreak in Kenya, a medical worker in protective gear carries a meal to a man quarantined in an isolation tent after coming into contact with a virus carrier.

Ben Curtis/AP

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Ben Curtis/AP

Marburg virus is notorious for its killing ability. In past outbreaks, as many as 9 out of 10 patients have died from the disease. And there are no approved vaccines or medications.
That was the grim situation in Rwanda just over a month ago, when officials made the announcement that nobody wants to make: The country was in the midst of its first Marburg outbreak.
Now those same Rwandan officials have better news to share. Remarkably better.
“We are at a case fatality rate of 22.7% — probably among the lowest ever recorded [for a Marburg outbreak],&rd..

November 1, 202412:42 PM ET
A police officer looks through damage caused by a shell at the Omdurman Maternity Hospital in Omdurman, Sudan, on Sept. 7.

Luke Dray for NPR

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Luke Dray for NPR

OMDURMAN, Sudan — A drive from the sandy northern outskirts through Sudan’s once-vibrant city of Omdurman passes by shoots of normal life reemerging from the worst moments of war.
AfricaSudan’s cities transform into front lines after more than a year of warSudan’s cities transform into front lines after more than a year of warListen

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In bustling pockets of the city, which lies just across the Nile River from the capital of Khartoum, a stream of cars, trucks and carts hauled by d..

November 1, 20248:17 AM ET

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Photographer Julia Gunther made the portraits in this story 10 years apart for her independent documentary project, Rainbow Girls. She wanted to know what, if anything, had changed for these South African lesbian women over a decade that, on paper, promised big gains for LGBTQ rights.
In the autumn of 2012, photographer Julia Gunther was working in South Africa, researching a documentary project about activism within LGBTQ communities in and around Cape Town.
Gunther was particularly interested in making portraits of individuals advocating in the challenging environments of the city’s many townships.
By chance, during a meeting with Professor Zethu Matebeni, at the time a senior researcher at the Institute for Humanities in Africa (HUMA) at the University of Cape Town, a fax arrived inviting Matebeni to judge a lesbian beauty pageant in the township of Khayelitsha a few days later. She suggested that Gunther attend, as it would be a good opp..

October 31, 20244:15 PM ET
People look at a billboard in Kinshasa on Oct. 30, 1974, announcing the fight between U.S. boxers Muhammad Ali and George Foreman. That day, Ali knocked out Foreman in a clash of titans known as the “Rumble in the Jungle,” watched by 60,000 people in the stadium in Kinshasa and millions elsewhere.

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KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of Congo — Judex Tshipanda, 71, sits on a wall outside this Kinshasa’s Tata Raphaël Stadium, recalling the day that has gone down as one of the most memorable in this central African country’s history.
On Oct. 30, 1974, Muhammad Ali fought heavyweight boxing champion George Foreman in an eight-round match — and emerged victorious after he knocked his opponent to the ground with a vicious uppercut.
Billed as the “Rumble in the Jungle,” and watched by millions of viewers worldwide at the time, the fight is regarded as one of the gre..

October 28, 20243:09 AM ET

Even for a war as brutal as the one in Sudan, this past week has been one of the deadliest. Hundreds of people have been killed by bombings and revenge attacks, tens of thousands more were displaced.

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October 27, 20243:00 AM ET
Enlarge this imageAbass Khelani comforts his daughter, Samira Abass (age 4) at the Port Sudan Paediatric Hospital in Port Sudan, Republic of the Sudan on September 3, 2024.

Luke Dray

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Luke Dray

Abass Khelani comforts his daughter, Samira Abass (age 4) at the Port Sudan Paediatric Hospital in Port Sudan, Republic of the Sudan on September 3, 2024.

Luke Dray

12 million displaced. As many as 150,000 dead. Half the country facing starvation. The simple truth? War is tearing apart Sudan. NPR’s West Africa correspondent Emmanuel Akinwotu recently reported near the heart of that fighting. Along the way, he met a young man who, with his family, survived for months on flour and water while hiding under a bed. He found doctors caring for the sick and dying even as shells exploded nearby. The current humanitarian crisis in Sudan is seen as one of the worst in the world, but has little global attention. “They forget about us,” on..