Africa

Sudanese protesters lift national flags as they rally on 60th Street in the capital Khartoum, to denounce overnight detentions by the army of government members, on Oct. 25, 2021.

World News

The coup in Sudan could threaten U.S. influence in a strategically important region

12:00am October 26, 2021

by Becky Sullivan

After overthrowing dictator Omar al-Bashir in 2019, Sudan's joint civilian-military transitional government seemed to be stabilizing the nation. Monday's coup took American officials by surprise.

Containers of Moderna COVID-19 vaccine doses, donated by the United States, arrive in Bogota, Colombia, in July. The U.S. plans to send more than a billion vaccines abroad by September 2022.

What the U.S. can — and cannot — do for vaccine equity per the State Department

6:18pm October 25, 2021

by NPR Staff

The U.S. has pledged to deliver 1.1 billion doses of COVID vaccines to countries in need. Billions more are needed. NPR interviewed the State Department's global vaccine coordinator to learn more.

Sudan's military has staged a coup, detaining the prime minister

4:59pm October 25, 2021

by Eyder Peralta

There's been an apparent coup in Sudan. The military has seized power, dissolved the government and arrested the prime minister. Two years ago, a revolution ousted longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir.

There apparently has been a military coup in Sudan

5:46am October 25, 2021

Officials in Khartoum say soldiers arrested the prime minister and other leaders. The U.S. special envoy for the Horn of Africa says Washington is "deeply alarmed" by reports of a military takeover.

News brief: Sudan coup reports, COVID vaccines for kids, Charlottesville rally

5:42am October 25, 2021

Sudan's prime minister is detained in an apparent coup. FDA advisers review vaccine data for children ages 5 to 11. Some organizers of the deadly rally in Charlottesville, Va., are going on trial.

World News

Poachers killed African elephants for their tusks. So elephants stopped growing them

6:18pm October 22, 2021

During the Mozambican civil war, both sides financed their efforts by poaching elephants for ivory. Now, scientists say that drove some elephants to evolve tusklessness.

World News

The civil war in Ethiopia is intensifying

4:54pm October 20, 2021

by Eyder Peralta

Fighting between government forces and Tigrayan rebels is escalating in Ethiopia's north. The government is bombing targets in the rebel capital and there's a bloody battle over two strategic towns.

Members of a team at the Afrigen Biologics and Vaccines lab in Cape Town, South Africa. The World Health Organization has enlisted the company to replicate Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine.

Moderna won't share its vaccine recipe. WHO has hired an African startup to crack it

1:53pm October 20, 2021

by Nurith Aizenman

It's the first step in an audacious plan to solve vaccine inequity by setting up the manufacturing of mRNA vaccines across low-resource countries,

Scientists in South Africa are working to reverse engineer the Moderna COVID vaccine

4:43pm October 19, 2021

by Nurith Aizenman

A consortium in South Africa wants to teach manufacturers in poor countries to make Moderna's COVID vaccine. But Moderna won't share its process. So the scientists are trying to reverse engineer it.

President Biden told Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta that the U.S. would donate 17 million COVID vaccine doses to the African Union. The U.S. is also working to boost production on the continent.

The world needs more COVID vaccines, so the U.S. is helping finance overseas plants

5:07pm October 18, 2021

by Franco Ordoñez

The Biden administration has been criticized for hoarding COVID vaccines when millions of people around the world are unvaccinated. Now they're looking at how to help finance plants overseas.