Africa

Top stories

Screen-Shot-2024-07-04-at-7.34.14-PM.jpg

At least 89 people dead after migrant boat sinks off Mauritania’s coast

A Malian soldier walks past a army building that was taken by the jihadists before being destroyed during aerial bombing in Diabaly on January 21.

ISSOUF SANOGO/AFP/Getty Images

Around 40 killed in attack on central Mali village

Sierra Leone's President Julius Maada Bio addresses the 78th Session of the U.N. General Assembly in New York City, on September 20, 2023. On July 2, 2024, Bio signed into law a bill banning child marriage in Sierra Leone.

Eduardo Munoz/Reuters/File

Sierra Leone outlaws child marriage with new bill

kenya protester shot thumbnail.jpg

CNN witnesses protesters being shot in Kenya 2:28

Police officers detain a man during a demonstration over police killings of people protesting against Kenya's proposed finance bill, in Nairobi, Kenya, on June 27, 2024.

Monicah Mwangi/Reuters

Kenya rocked by fresh protests despite president’s U-turn over tax bill

Mali's Al Hassan Ag Abdoul Aziz Ag Mohamed Ag Mahmoud is seen prior to the ruling of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the case of this former jihadist police chief accused of "unimaginable crimes" during an alleged reign of terror and sexual slavery in the fabled Malian city of Timbuktu. Al Hassan Ag Abdoul Aziz Ag Mohamed Ag Mahmoud, 46, is accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including torture, rape and sexual slavery, and destroying religious and historic buildings. (Photo by Peter Dejong / ANP / AFP) / Netherlands OUT (Photo by PETER DEJONG/ANP/AFP via Getty Images)

Peter Dejong/ANP/AFP/Getty Images

ICC convicts al Qaeda-linked leader of crimes against humanity and war crimes in Mali

Kenyan President William Ruto

Jung Yeon-Je/AFP via Getty Images/FILE

Kenyan President Ruto withdraws controversial finance bill following deadly protests

Protesters retreat from a cloud of tear gas during a nationwide strike to protest against tax hikes and the Finance Bill 2024 in downtown Nairobi, on June 25, 2024.

Tony Karumba/AFP/Getty Images

At least five dead, 31 injured as Kenyan police fire live rounds at protesters, Amnesty says

After a week of street protests over higher taxes proposed in the Finance Bill 2024, organizers have declared “7 Days of Rage” and called for a “total shutdown” of Kenya on Tuesday.

Concerns over missing protesters as Kenya erupts in tax hike demonstrations

Featured

Ntoyie Lenkanan at her home

The British Army trains in Kenya. Many women say soldiers raped them and abandoned children they fathered

Against the backdrop of rising anti-LGBTQ sentiment, these Nigerian fashion labels feel forced to show in private

Jacob Zuma has made a dramatic comeback in South Africa’s elections. Will he have the last laugh over Ramaphosa?

Nelson Mandela’s party has been dealt a seismic election blow. Where does it leave South Africa?

Nelson Mandela’s party has ruled South Africa for three decades – it now faces a critical moment of truth

South Africa has failed its Black majority. Nelson Mandela’s political heirs may pay the price

Forced to pay bribes at every step. How trans and intersex people say they survive in Kenya

South Africa’s democracy is turning 30 – but a silent crisis threatens its hard-fought gains

A life in fear: The dangers of finding love online as a queer woman in Nigeria

How the Chibok abductions continue to cast a long shadow over girls’ education in Nigeria

Nigeria wants a road to rival the Pacific Coast highway. A prime Lagos beach resort stands in the way

‘Iwájú’: Nigeria-based ‘first-of-its-kind’ animated series premieres on Disney+

Humanitarian relief amid the Sudanese civil war is nearing a ‘breaking point.’ How you can help

African Voices Changemakers

<p>Wendy Shay, the most streamed Ghanaian female artist on Boomplay, is not just a singer and songwriter; she’s a musical innovator. Formerly a nurse and midwife, Shay shifted her focus to music, her first love, and rose to fame in 2018. Her unique music style, a blend of Afrobeats, Highlife, and Hiplife genres, has earned her hits like “Uber Driver” and “Africa Money.” Larry Madowo sat down with Shay in Accra, to discuss her achievements and how the singer has still found ways to “nurse” the world back to health with her music and nonprofit work.</p>

• Video 22:56

Clipped From Video

Video How Wendy Shay went from midwife to the most streamed Ghanaian female artist 22:56

Adekunle Gold on sickle cell advocacy: ‘It’s time to learn my voice – people are dying’

Video Nigerian designers Veekee James and Andrea Iyamah redefine global fashion 22:56

Video Nigerian singer star Tiwa Savage reveals journey to take “Water & Garri: from EP to feature film 22:59

Video Meet the Ghanaian YouTuber connecting Africans one video at a time 23:00

Video Nigerian singer Simi captivates fans with authenticity 22:59

Ghanaian Afro-dancehall star Stonebwoy records at Bob Marley’s Tuff Gong Studios, inspired to unite the Black diaspora

‘Africa is the cradle of mankind, but also the cradle of creativity’: The photographer showcasing its artistry to the world

Inside Africa

After trying Madecasse's Madagascar-made chocolate, trace it back to its source and explore the country's natural features yourself such as along the Avenue of the Baobabs.

Finally, an answer to a mystery surrounding these 1,000-year-old trees

The original occupant of an Egyptian sarcophagus was unknown. Then a tiny ornament revealed a very big name

A Black photographer added himself to places where history didn’t want him

‘How do you not just set everything on fire?’: A film about a Zambian family’s dark past sets Cannes ablaze

A lack of equipment and coaching hasn’t stopped software engineer Kathleen Noble from making history with landlocked Uganda

‘Find my Friends for rhinos’: How high-tech tracking is keeping tabs on wildlife

Connecting Africa

Businessman and industrialist Aliko Dangote told CNN despite challenges he had "no choice" but to finish building one of Africa's largest oil refineries in Nigeria.

‘I don’t get scared of anything’: Aliko Dangote’s mission to build Africa’s largest oil refinery

Video A rare look inside Africa’s largest oil refinery 23:00

‘We’re constructing an ecosystem’: How a small, windy city could become a gateway for trade

South Africa has one of the world’s largest manganese reserves. So why does it outsource for processing?

A new city is rising in Egypt. But is it what the country needs?

South African innovator’s medicine-dispensing lockers win prestigious prize

More of the latest stories

A general view of a collapsed building at the scene following a fire at a ammunition depot in N'Djamena on June 19, 2024.

Joris Bolomey/AFP/Getty Images

Chad military arms depot blast leaves 9 dead

Members of the Chadian security forces stand at the scene of the fire at an ammunition depot in N'Djamena on June 19, 2024.

Joris Bolomey/AFP/Getty Images

Massive blasts hit Chad capital as fire engulfs military arms depot

This August 2023 photo shows sudanese people, who fled the conflict in Murnei in Sudan's Darfur region, crossing the border between Sudan and Chad.

Zohra Bensemra/Reuters

Darfur may be on the brink of another genocide. Will the world act this time?

The ANC, which has been in power since the 1994 elections that marked the end of apartheid, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/south-africas-coal-belt-anc-heartland-voters-defect-en-masse-2024-05-31/" target="_blank">lost its majority</a> for the first time in a May 29 vote.

Chris McGrath/Getty Images

South Africa’s governing alliance emerges as the new parliament convenes

Deadly shipwrecks are frequent in the DRC as the country lacks road infrastructure and many people rely on boats to cross the many branches of the Congo River.

From @SergeKanyinda13/X

DR Congo shipwreck kills more than 80 people

Al-Fashir, in the Darfur region of northwestern Sudan, is home to more than 1.8 million residents and displaced people, and is the latest front in a <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/truce-crumbles-sudanese-armys-last-darfur-holdout-2024-04-23/" target="_blank">war</a> between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces which began in April 2023.

AFP/Getty Images

International criminal court investigating allegations of war crimes in Sudan

The wreckage of the plane was located on Tuesday.

Malawi State TV

Malawi vice president killed in plane crash along with 9 other passengers

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) teams assist the war wounded from West Darfur, Sudan, in Adre hospital, Chad June 16, 2023 in this handout image. Courtesy of Mohammad Ghannam/MSF/Handout via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY.
MANDATORY CREDIT

Mohammad Ghannam/MSF/Reuters

Medics flee as rebels attack and shut down North Darfur’s only hospital

Girls rescued by Nigerian soldiers from Islamist militants Boko Haram at Sambisa Forest line up to collect donated clothes at the Malkohi refugee camp in Yola on May 5, 2015.

Emmanuel Arewa/AFP/Getty Images

Girls freed from Boko Haram in Nigeria can face further detention and abuse by military, Amnesty report finds

People from states of Khartoum and al-Jazira, displaced by the ongoing conflict in Sudan between the army and paramilitaries, queue to receive aid from a charity organisation in Gedaref on December 30, 2023.

AFP/Getty Images

Sudan’s government accuses militia of killing scores in massacre

Residents salvage their belongings from destroyed houses in the aftermath of a tornado and extreme weather at an informal settlement in Tongaat, north of Durban on June 04, 2024. Twelve people have died in flooding caused by torrential rain on South Africa's eastern coast, local authorities said on Monday. In Eastern Cape province, "the death toll is currently sitting at seven," a spokesperson from Nelson Mandela Bay municipality, at the heart of the floods, told AFP. More than 2,000 people have been evacuated from Nelson Mandela Bay, notably from makeshift homes in the municipality's slums. (Photo by RAJESH JANTILAL / AFP) (Photo by RAJESH JANTILAL/AFP via Getty Images)

Rajesh Jantilal/AFP/Getty Images

Deadly tornadoes tear through South Africa, killing 11

FILE - Supporters of Capt. Ibrahim Traore parade wave a Russian flag in the streets of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, Oct. 2, 2022. Just weeks after Burkina Faso's junta ousted hundreds of French troops, there are signs that the West African country could be moving even closer to Russia, including the mercenary outfit, the Wagner Group. (AP Photo/Sophie Garcia, File)

Sophie Garcia/AP/FILE

Russia will increase the number of military instructors in Burkina Faso, foreign minister says

African start-up

CHEVERUX 8.jpg

Credit: Kakwerre Juliet

This start-up is making artificial hair from bananas

Gallery How African startups are embracing innovation

Video Nigerian ride-sharing app provides safe space for young professionals 2:26

Video What makes African startups different 4:48

Video Streamlining logistics within Africa’s blue economy 2:18

Africa Avant Garde

‘I’m amazed I lived to tell the tale’: Award-winning photographer on a life spent in the wild

‘Westernization is not the answer’: Artist Àsìkò explores Yoruba culture through mythology

From ‘sorcerer’ and illegal immigrant to Cannes and the Oscars: this filmmaker’s remarkable path to success

These three African photographers are celebrating the birthplace of coffee

Call to earth

Steve Boyes, founder and project leader of The Wilderness Project, is gathering scientific information across the length of the Congo River. It is part of the Great Spine of Africa research expeditions, in partnership with the Rolex Perpetual Planet Initiative, which will also include researching the Zambezi, Nile, Chad, and Niger river basins.

‘There’s magic, there’s mythology, there’s power to these rivers’: Inside the expeditions documenting the Congo Basin