Environment & Science

South Africa is confronting two converging crises that expose the limits of its public health infrastructure in different but equally troubling ways. While the country draws two-thirds of its irrigation water from underground sources that scientists warn are being depleted faster than they can replenish, another health emergency rooted in addiction and poverty refuses to […]

A Kenyan High Court has temporarily halted the opening of a United States-sponsored Ebola quarantine facility in the country, delivering a sharp rebuke to plans that had drawn criticism from rights groups and sparked a broader debate over biomedical sovereignty across Africa. The facility, intended to house American nationals who may have been exposed to

Angola is racing to contain a growing mpox outbreak after health authorities confirmed 13 positive cases across several provinces, sparking concerns about the country readiness to manage a concurrent health emergency alongside ongoing regional crises. The confirmation comes as the Democratic Republic of Congo continues to battle the world largest active Ebola outbreak, and as

When the World Health Organization declared the latest Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo a public health emergency of continental concern, something remarkable happened. African leaders did not wait. Within days, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention had mobilised a 500 million-dollar response package — the largest purely African health mobilisation

Africa’s Most Unexamined Health Crisis Is Getting New Attention — and New Funding Neglected Tropical Diseases — a family of parasitic and bacterial infections that blight the lives of over 600,000 people every year, most of them in Africa — have long occupied the bottom rung of the global health priority ladder. But a new

In the eastern reaches of the Democratic Republic of Congo, two catastrophes are colliding with lethal force. Armed groups control vast tracts of territory where Ebola is spreading undetected. Health workers cannot reach villages that have been burned out and depopulated by fighting. The virus finds perfect shelter in the chaos that man made. WHO

Uganda has sealed its border with the Democratic Republic of Congo following the confirmation of three new Ebola cases within its territory — the latest sign that the outbreak centred in eastern DRC is beginning to produce regional knock-on effects that go well beyond public health. The closure, announced by Uganda Ministry of Health on

When the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention declared the ongoing Ebola outbreak a Public Health Emergency of Continental Security, it marked one of the highest alert levels the continental body has ever invoked. The declaration, confirmed by Africa CDC director Dr. Jean Kaseya in a press briefing from Addis Ababa, signals a fundamental

When large development finance institutions invest in African technology, the usual dynamic is one of external capital entering the continent on terms largely set elsewhere. The playbook typically involves international VC firms leading rounds, foreign advisory teams managing the exit strategy, and intellectual property and governance structures domiciled far from the markets they serve. A

Introduction Nairobi’s ride-hailing drivers have been caught between a rock and a hard place for months. Soaring fuel prices — themselves a downstream effect of the broader Middle East conflict that has disrupted global oil markets — pushed operating costs to levels that minimum fares could not cover. Then, on the back of a national

In the hills above Lusaka, a project is underway that its backers believe will reshape how Africa participates in the global artificial intelligence economy. Cassava Technologies, the pan-African technology group, has begun construction on what it describes as the continent’s first network of data centres purpose-built to serve AI workloads—not just traditional cloud computing, but

When Abdul Samad Rabiu—one of Africa’s wealthiest individuals and the founder of the pan-continental conglomerate BUA Group—attempted to enter South Africa on business recently, he was turned away. Not at gunpoint, not by hostile border guards, but by a visa technicality that exposed a gap between the rhetoric surrounding Africa’s flagship trade agreement and the