Kim Harrisberg

In packed camps in the Democratic Republic of Congo, people displaced by war have little to eat, nowhere to wash and little privacy, leaving them critically exposed to mpox, according to a Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders) official.

The eastern DRC, where conflict has upended lives for decades, offers a clear case study of how mpox preys upon the most vulnerable, according to the relief agency.

When Friedel Dausab tested positive for HIV in 1999, treatment was both scarce and expensive in his home country of Namibia. He found medical care a decade later, when he was armed with the language, confidence and contacts being an activist brought him.

Many others in Namibia still struggle to get the care they need as shame about the disease persists, even as the country has made major advances in reducing new infections and expanding treatment.

Mpox is nothing new to Africa yet there is no vaccine available on the continent, exposing rank inequity in global distribution as tens of richer nations inoculate people facing far less risk.

Experts say that inequality - alongside competing health problems and slow regulation - is putting millions of Africans in jeopardy, after scientists found the virus was now mutating fast, leaping from person to person and stealing over borders.

For a week, the green hills around Tanzania's famous Ngorongoro crater have been chequered with the blood red shuka cloths of tens of thousands of Maasai herdsman protesting their eviction from their land - all in the name of conservation.

It is not the first time the Maasai have been forced to move on so tourists can see the pristine wilderness teeming with wildlife promised in so many films and documentaries.

Growing up in rural Nigeria, Adaeze Akpagbula spent her school years baby-sitting her family's chicks through the night, adjusting the coal heater, food and water needed to keep the poultry, and the family income, alive.

Despite her best efforts, unpredictable temperatures, humidity and air quality changes led to the deaths of thousands of chicks, a lesson that would propel her to commit her life to making African farms more climate-resilient.

The #EndSARS protests in Nigeria, #FeesMustFall protests in South Africa and the #RejectFinanceBill2024 protests in Kenya all have one thing in common - the organising, chanting and marching were led by young people.

In Uganda, youth protesters are staging rallies outside parliament against alleged corruption and human rights abuses by leaders, inspired by similar high-profile protests in Kenya against an unpopular finance bill.

When Shireen Gouws heard about a new hotline advertised in the community centre where she works in the small town of Laingsburg in South Africa, she was quick to spread the word.

Finally, she thought, people could have their say about renewable projects in their area and make sure they were reaping the benefits of the transition to green energy.

When the Nigerian government announced plans in April to develop a multilingual AI tool to boost digital inclusion across the West African nation, 28-year-old computer science student Lwasinam Lenham Dilli was thrilled.

Dilli had struggled to scrape datasets from the internet to build a large language model (LLM), used to power AI chatbots, in his native Hausa language as part of his final-year project at university.

From deepfake Donald Trumps endorsing key contenders, to claims the vote was rigged, South Africa is awash with online disinformation as political players thrash out a coalition deal after an historic election.

Digital activists want to monitor who is behind all the post-vote propaganda, but say they are hampered by high costs and high-walled platforms: the sort of challenges their Western counterparts rarely face.

Growing up surrounded by the towering smokestacks of coal-fired power stations, 22-year-old Siya Mokoena's life is inextricably linked to the coal industry that dominates his hometown of Emalahleni in South Africa's eastern province of Mpumalanga.

Like many in Emalahleni, generations of Mokoena's family have worked in the coal sector. His father, a miner, was laid off in March when his mine was shut down.