Latest Africa News

Malaria is still killing people in Kenya, but a vaccine and local drug production may help

Apr. 25, 2024 03:13 AM EDT

MIGORI, Kenya (AP) — As the coffin bearing the body of Rosebella Awuor was lowered into the grave, heart-wrenching sobs from mourners filled the air. Her sister Winnie Akinyi, the guardian to Awuor’s orphaned son, fell to the ground, wailing. It was the latest of five deaths in...

Climate change is bringing malaria to new areas. In Africa, it never left

Apr. 25, 2024 01:13 AM EDT

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — When a small number of cases of locally transmitted malaria were found in the United States last year, it was a reminder that climate change is reviving or migrating the threat of some diseases. But across the African continent malaria has never left, killing or sickening...

Portugal marks the 50th anniversary of the Carnation Revolution army coup that brought democracy

Apr. 25, 2024 00:10 AM EDT

LISBON, Portugal (AP) — Military vehicles and red carnations return to the streets and squares of downtown Lisbon on Thursday as Portugal reenacts dramatic moments from the army coup that brought democracy 50 years ago. Thousands of people are expected to attend celebrations of the...

William Strickland, a longtime civil rights activist, scholar and friend of Malcolm X, has died

Apr. 23, 2024 13:08 PM EDT

BOSTON (AP) — William Strickland, a longtime civil rights activist and supporter of the Black Power movement who worked with Malcolm X and other prominent leaders in the 1960s, has died. He was 87. Strickland, whose death April 10 was confirmed by a relative, first became active in...

In Vietnam, farmers reduce methane emissions by changing how they grow rice

Apr. 22, 2024 22:16 PM EDT

LONG AN, Vietnam (AP) — There is one thing that distinguishes 60-year-old Vo Van Van’s rice fields from a mosaic of thousands of other emerald fields across Long An province in southern Vietnam’s Mekong Delta: It isn’t entirely flooded. That and the giant drone, its wingspan...

A Nigerian chess champion plays the royal game for 60 hours — a new global chess record

Apr. 20, 2024 14:57 PM EDT

NEW YORK (AP) — A Nigerian chess champion and child education advocate played chess nonstop for 60 hours in New York City’s Times Square to break the Guinness World Record for the longest chess marathon. Tunde Onakoya, 29, hopes to raise $1 million for children's education across...

The US attempts a new military deal with Niger in a last ditch effort to stay

Apr. 19, 2024 12:45 PM EDT

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — The United States is attempting to create a new military agreement with Niger that would allow it to remain in the country, weeks after the junta said its presence was no longer justified, two Western officials told The Associated Press Friday. The officials,...

The West African Sahel is becoming a drug smuggling corridor, UN warns, as seizures skyrocket

Apr. 19, 2024 10:21 AM EDT

NIAMEY, Niger (AP) — Drug seizures soared in the West African Sahel region according to figures released Friday in a new U.N. report, indicating the conflict-ridden region is becoming an influential route for drug trafficking. In 2022, 1,466 kilograms, (3,232 pounds), of cocaine...

AP Week in Pictures: Europe and Africa

Apr. 19, 2024 05:04 AM EDT

April 12-18, 2024 Performers take part in the official flame lighting ceremony in Athens in preparation for the Paris Olympics. A local resident swims in floodwater in Orenburg, Russia, after a dam on the Ural River burst. The northern lights shine over an erupting volcano near the...

Donors pledge $630 million for conflict-hit Ethiopia but fall far short of $1 billion needed

Apr. 16, 2024 14:57 PM EDT

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — A United Nations-backed gathering raised pledges of almost $630 million for Ethiopia's humanitarian crisis on Tuesday but fell short of the $1 billion sought to help feed and support millions of people facing conflict and climate change in Africa's second most populous...