Tag: Africa

RSF Announces Plans for Breakaway Government in Sudan

The Rapid Support Forces, the paramilitary group battling for power in Sudan’s ruinous civil war, took a step toward forming its own breakaway government on Tuesday when it hosted a lavish political event in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. The group’s deputy leader, Abdul Rahim Dagalo, who is under American sanctions, was greeted by hundreds of […]

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I’ve Seen the World Our Trash Makes, and It’s Terrifying

In the closing years of the Cold War, something strange started to happen. Much of the West’s trash stopped heading to the nearest landfill and instead started crossing national borders and traversing oceans. The stuff people tossed away and probably never thought about again — dirty yogurt cups, old Coke bottles — became some of […]

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It’s America That Suffers When We Cut Foreign Aid

President Trump and Elon Musk were entirely right that America’s aid programs merited scrutiny and reform. Yet so far what these two billionaires have achieved is to crush the world’s poorest children in a cauldron of confusion and cruelty. Having covered the United States Agency for International Development for decades, I reached out to my […]

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Trump and Musk Bring Vast Aid Machinery to a Halt in Africa

For decades, sub-Saharan Africa was a singular focus of American foreign aid. The continent received over $8 billion a year, money that was used to feed starving children, supply lifesaving drugs and provide wartime humanitarian assistance. In a few short weeks, President Trump and the South African-born billionaire Elon Musk have burned much of that […]

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Guess Which Top Trump Adviser Took USAID Money?

“You spoke to half a dozen Trump loyalists, Republican aides, and advisers inside and around the administration,” Vitali started. “I think many of them, even though they say they’re shocked to be saying this, the rift almost seemed inevitable. But how much of a rift actually is it? And what is the sense behind the […]

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The World’s Richest Men Take On the World’s Poorest Children

The world’s richest man is boasting about destroying the United States Agency for International Development, which saves the lives of the world’s poorest children, saying he shoved it “into the wood chipper.” By my calculations, Elon Musk probably has a net worth greater than that of the poorest billion people on Earth. Just since Donald […]

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Trump’s Foreign Aid Freeze Leaves Millions Without HIV Treatment

Two weeks into President Trump’s sweeping freeze on foreign aid, H.I.V. groups abroad have not received any funding, jeopardizing the health of more than 20 million people, including 500,000 children. Subsequent waivers from the State Department have clarified that the work can continue, but the funds and legal paperwork to do so are still missing. […]

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How the World Is Reeling From Trump’s Aid Freeze

Most of the soup kitchens that feed 816,000 people in Khartoum have shut down. Organizations that provide maternal care, vaccinations and firewood were forced to suspend operations. Patients were told to leave a U.S.-funded refugee hospital on the Myanmar border. A U.S. contractor that provides security for a camp that holds ISIS members and their […]

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Where the Taxis Are Motorcycles, and the Drivers Are Women

When her three children didn’t have enough to eat, Monica Atieno decided to apply for a job through a new program that was recruiting women to become motorcycle taxi drivers — a profession long dominated by men. At first, she kept her plan a secret from her husband, who was himself a motorcycle taxi driver […]

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State Department Permits Distribution of H.I.V. Medications to Resume — for Now

The Trump administration on Tuesday issued a waiver for lifesaving medicines and medical services, offering a reprieve for a worldwide H.I.V. treatment program that was halted last week. The waiver, announced by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, seemed to allow for the distribution of H.I.V. medications, but whether the waiver extended to preventive drugs or […]

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U.S. Halt to Foreign Aid Cripples Programs Worldwide

Treating H.I.V. across dozens of nations. Stopping the forced labor of Chinese workers. Training Mexican and Colombian police in anti-narcotics enforcement. Those are just a tiny sample of aid programs around the world operating with grant money from the U.S. government that could be permanently shut down under an executive order President Trump signed last […]

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Rwanda, the West’s ‘Donor Darling,’ Seizes an Opportunity in Congo

After Rwanda-backed rebels seized the Congolese city of Goma in 2012, powerful nations across the world registered their disapproval, announcing sanctions against Rwanda and other measures that led to the rebels’ defeat a year later. When those same rebels battled to capture Goma on Sunday, several nations once again voiced their criticism, but they have […]

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Rebels Backed by Rwanda Announce Capture of Key City in Eastern Congo

A rebel militia backed by Rwanda has announced the capture of the city of Goma in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, a major victory for the group and one of the most significant escalations in the conflict between the two countries in years. The militia, known as M23, briefly occupied Goma once before, in 2012, […]

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In African Publishing, ‘There Is a Renaissance Going On’

For decades, there was one path to becoming a successful African writer: Getting a book deal in the publishing meccas of New York, London or Paris. But a radical shift is underway, transforming the region’s literary landscape from within and opening up possibilities unimaginable to previous generations of writers. It all started more than two […]

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Mozambique at a Crossroads as New President is Sworn In

Decades ago, Mozambique’s liberation party, Frelimo, easily attracted adoring crowds. The promise of salvation from Portuguese colonizers, and a life with jobs and housing for all, was an easy sell in a southern African nation that was suffering under racist rule. But when Daniel Chapo of Frelimo becomes president on Wednesday, he will confront a […]

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Venâncio Mondlane Returns to Mozambique, Declaring Himself President

He stepped off a gray jumbo jet to the excited but subdued applause of a few airport employees in neon vests. At least one fellow passenger giddily approached him for a selfie. Nearly three months after fleeing Mozambique, saying he feared for his life, opposition leader Venâncio Mondlane made a grand return on Thursday to […]

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In Africa, Danger Slithers Through Homes and Fields

The snake struck 11-year-old Beatrice Ndanu Munyoki as she sat on a small stone, which lay atop a larger one, watching the family’s eight goats. She was idly running her fingers through the dirt when she saw a red head dart from between the stones and felt a sharp sting on her right index finger. […]

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The Shame That Keeps Millions of Girls Out of School

Every year I choose a university student to accompany me on my win-a-trip journey, which is meant to highlight issues that deserve more attention. My 2024 winner was Trisha Mukherjee, a recent Columbia graduate and budding journalist — and with that, I’m handing the rest of the column over to her. By Trisha Mukherjee, reporting […]

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Turning adversity into opportunity

Sujood Eldouma always knew she loved math; she just didn’t know how to use it for good in the world.  But after a personal and educational journey that took her from Sudan to Cairo to London, all while leveraging MIT Open Learning’s online educational resources, she finally knows the answer: data science. An early love […]

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MIT K. Lisa Yang Center for Bionics celebrates Sierra Leone’s inaugural class of orthotic and prosthetic clinicians

The MIT K. Lisa Yang Center for Bionics and Sierra Leone’s Ministry of Health (MOH) have launched the first fully accredited educational program for prosthetists and orthotists in Sierra Leone.  Tens of thousands of people in Sierra Leone need orthotic braces and artificial limbs, but access to such specialized medical care in this African nation […]

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3 Questions: Community policing in the Global South

The concept of community policing gained wide acclaim in the U.S. when crime dropped drastically during the 1990s. In Chicago, Boston, and elsewhere, police departments established programs to build more local relationships, to better enhance community security. But how well does community policing work in other places? A new multicountry experiment co-led by MIT political […]

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From refugee to MIT graduate student

Mlen-Too Wesley has faded memories of his early childhood in Liberia, but the sharpest one has shaped his life. Wesley was 4 years old when he and his family boarded a military airplane to flee the West African nation. At the time, the country was embroiled in a 14-year civil war that killed approximately 200,000 people, displaced about […]

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Decades After a Philadelphia Bombing, A Recent Discovery Shocked The City

More than 40 years after one of the most horrific tragedies in Pennsylvania history, one family might finally get the closure they’ve been looking for. The 1985 Philadelphia bombings claimed the lives of at least 11 men, women, and children. Suggested Reading What Is Kwanzaa? Actress Holly Robinson Peete Talks About Her Tradition Off English […]

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Decades After the 1985 Philadelphia Bombing, A Recent Discovery Shocked The City

More than 40 years after one of the most horrific tragedies in Pennsylvania history, one family might finally get the closure they’ve been looking for. The 1985 Philadelphia bombings claimed the lives of at least 11 men, women, and children. Suggested Reading What Is Kwanzaa? Actress Holly Robinson Peete Talks About Her Tradition Off English […]

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After Philly Police Bombed the Headquarters of Black Revolutionaries in 1980s, They Swore the Remains of the Dead Were Returned To Families. But A Recent Discovery Proved That to be Untrue

More than 40 years after one of the most horrific tragedies in Pennsylvania history, one family might finally get the closure they’ve been looking for. The 1985 Philadelphia bombings claimed the lives of at least 11 men, women, and children. Suggested Reading What Is Kwanzaa? Actress Holly Robinson Peete Talks About Her Tradition Off English […]

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Philly Police Bombed the Headquarters of Black Revolutionaries in the 1980s. Decades Later, a 12-Year-Old Black Girl’s Remains Are Finally Discovered.

More than 40 years after one of the most horrific tragedies in Pennsylvania history, one family might finally get the closure they’ve been looking for. The 1985 Philadelphia bombings claimed the lives of at least 11 men, women, and children. Suggested Reading What Is Kwanzaa? Actress Holly Robinson Peete Talks About Her Tradition Off English […]

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MTG Names First Targets for DOGE Subcommittee in Deranged Interview

“America will decline and die. A national divorce will ensue. Outnumbered freedom lovers will fight back,” Hegseth writes. “The military and police, both bastions of freedom-loving patriots, will be forced to make a choice. It will not be good. Yes, there will be some form of civil war.” In another section, Hegseth writes that “our […]

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