News Feature

Africa faces widespread instability. In the past year, there have been coups in Mali, Chad, Sudan, Burkina Faso and Guinea, and attempts to overthrow governments in the Central African Republic (CAR), Ethiopia and Guinea-Bissau. Violent extremism has also spread due to the political and economic marginalisation of some communities, the...

The relentless evolution of the Covid-causing coronavirus has taken a bit of the shine off the vaccines developed during the first year of the pandemic. Versions of the virus that now dominate circulation – Omicron and its subvariants – are more transmissible and adept at evading the body’s immune defences...

As an 18-month civil war grinds on, Ethiopia is gearing up for a national dialogue aimed at bridging the country’s many fault lines. But key rebel groups have not been invited, and opposition figures are accusing the government of trying to orchestrate the process. The commission tasked with overseeing the...

After nearly 18 months of conflict between the federal government and Tigray rebels, the health system of the beleaguered region has “totally collapsed”, according to health officials and doctors there. Interviewed by phone health workers in Tigray said shortages are so acute they are using expired drugs to treat chronic...

As the devastation in Ukraine continues to unfold, many of the warnings about the global food crisis precipitated by the war have focused on the risks of famine and severe food insecurity. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, for instance, projected last month that between eight...

When the Taliban seized power across Afghanistan last August, Aaila’s first reaction was to stage an act of quiet protest. As Taliban fighters swept into Bamiyan, the ancient city in central Afghanistan, the 37-year-old got behind the wheel of her white Toyota and drove around town. “I wanted to tell...

Thami Nkosi points to the tell-tale black box atop a utility pole on a street once home to two Nobel Peace Prize laureates: South Africa’s first Black president, Nelson Mandela, and the anti-apartheid activist and theologian Desmond Tutu. It always happens this way, Nkosi says. First the fibre; then the...

Facebook is struggling to contain pro-Russian and anti-western posts that are contributing to political instability in West Africa, investigators and analysts have said. The platform, which has expanded rapidly across the continent in recent years, has made significant investment in content moderation, but still faces enormous challenges in curbing deliberate...

The latest research into creativity compares the brain function of exceptionally creative visual artists and scientists with a highly educated group. Scientists used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to scan participants’ brains while they performed tasks that tested creative thinking. The researchers found that the brains of exceptionally creative people...

In Nigeria, the meaning of “tech” is rapidly changing. In the last year, data centres have been spreading all across Africa. In response, Lagos-founded MainOne – the largest ISP and data centre operator in West Africa – was acquired by Equinix for $320 million in 2021, with the hopes of...