As the popularity of French wanes, RobotsMali is using AI to create books in Bambara.

Russian military trainers arrived this week in Niger to reinforce the country’s air defenses as the west African nation pulls away from close cooperation with the U.S. in counterterrorism efforts, turning instead to Russia for help as it fights Islamic insurgents.

The mass abduction of 276 schoolgirls a decade ago in Nigeria marked a new era of fear in Africa’s most populous country. Since the Chibok abductions in April 2014, at least 1,500 students have been kidnapped, as armed groups increasingly find in them a lucrative way to fund other crimes.

Zimbabwe, in its latest bid to end the serial collapse of the local dollar, has replaced it with a new unit called ZiG, which will be backed by a basket of foreign currencies, gold and other precious metals.

It has been nearly a year since fighting broke out between the military, headed by Lt. Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), headed by Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.

Civilian deaths from drone and air strikes soared in Africa to 1,418 in 2023 from 149 in 2020. “We’re seeing a pattern of them being used in ways they are causing an awful lot of harm to civilians,” said Nathan Allen, associate professor at the US defense department’s Africa Center for Strategic Studies.

The sheer availability of Starlink on the black market suggests that its misuse is a systemic global problem, raising questions about the company’s control of a system with clear national security dimensions.

American forces are not yet being kicked out of Niger, a top Pentagon policymaker told House lawmakers Thursday just days after the country’s military junta announced it was severing ties with the U.S. military.

The strike just outside the Somali capital killed at least 22 people and wounded 21, including many children, a witness and a relative of the victims said.

The lives of millions of people were upended by natural disasters made worse by climate change, with countries everywhere struggling to cope with billions of dollars in economic losses, according to the WMO’s annual State of the Global Climate report for 2023.

Russia is leading a surge of disinformation campaigns in Africa, using paid social media influencers and other tactics to promote and validate coups in places like Niger, according to new research.

About 1,000 U.S. military personnel remain in Niger two days after the ruling junta announced that it wanted those forces out of the country in connection with an ongoing diplomatic dispute.

Russia is making aggressive moves in Africa in a bid to dominate regions spanning from NATO’s southern doorstep in Libya to resource-rich parts of central Africa, a top U.S. general told Congress.

A new international effort is under way to reverse Haiti’s rapid descent into lawlessness, but disagreements, tepid contributions and delays in deploying police forces have raised concerns that yet another mission to rescue the Caribbean nation is doomed to fail.

Kenya and Haiti signed a pact that will enable the East African nation to send 1,000 police officers to the island as part of a bid by donors to stop the country’s slide deeper into lawlessness.

Massachusetts National Guard soldiers with the 772nd Military Police Company conducted lethal and less-lethal weapons training Wednesday during the annual Justified Accord exercise in Kenya.

The U.S. Army on Monday launched a series of military drills in Kenya, where an elite contingent of Somali soldiers will join a multinational exercise in their first mission abroad, U.S. Africa Command said in a statement.

Officials detailed their efforts to partner with the military governments in a region where Islamic extremism is surging, and Russian influence expanding.

Russia is distributing free grain to countries facing food shortages, and in return it’s getting some valuable political support.