Africa News Tonight - VOA Africa

Africa News Tonight is a lively news magazine show featuring VOA correspondent reports, interviews with African officials, opposition leaders, NGOs and human rights activists. News feature stories look at science and technology, environmental issues, humanitarian topics, and the African diaspora.

Africa News Tonight is a lively news magazine show featuring VOA correspondent reports, interviews with African officials, opposition leaders, NGOs and human rights activists. News feature stories look at science and technology, environmental issues, humanitarian topics, and the African diaspora.

Africa News Tonight is a lively news magazine show featuring VOA correspondent reports, interviews with African officials, opposition leaders, NGOs and human rights activists. News feature stories look at science and technology, environmental issues, humanitarian topics, and the African diaspora.

Africa News Tonight is a lively news magazine show featuring VOA correspondent reports, interviews with African officials, opposition leaders, NGOs and human rights activists. News feature stories look at science and technology, environmental issues, humanitarian topics, and the African diaspora.

Namibians returned to vote today in 36 re-opened polling stations, two days after the country’s election was marred by technical problems. U.S. President Joe Biden visits Angola next week, after his administration has forged close economic ties with the oil-rich southern African country. Celebrations are under way to mark the 25th anniversary of the East African Community in Arusha, Tanzania, as partner states work to eliminate barriers to cross-border trade and enhance regional economic growth.

Six weeks after the M23 captured Goma, in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, banks still aren’t functioning, there is a threat of violence, and hunger is rising. President Donald Trump's administration is considering downsizing the U.S. Africa Command, known as AFRICOM, as part of its broader efforts to reduce the size of the Pentagon. Tropical Cyclone Jude slammed into parts of southern Africa this week, causing no deaths but widespread damage, especially in Malawi and Mozambique.

Angola has announced it plans to act as a mediator in the conflict between Congo and the Rwandan-backed rebel group M23. Felix Tshisekedi, the president of Congo, was in Angola to discuss a potential peace process. Angola will begin to establish contacts with both the Congolese government and M23 rebels with direct negotiations to be carried out in the coming days. David Monda Professor of Political Science at the City University of New York tells VOA’s Yeheyes Wuhib the peace overture is a win for all sides. He starts out by explaining why Angola assumed the role of mediator.

Angola will begin to establish contacts with both the Democratic Republic of Congo government and M23 rebels with direct peace negotiations to be carried out in the coming days. Forty prominent Tunisian opposition figures remain in detention, after a judge postponed their court proceedings until next month. In Prince George’s County, Maryland, Fire Station 802 in Capitol Heights is donating essential firefighting gear and equipment to the west African nation of Liberia.

The Democratic Republic of Congo is talking to the United States in its bid to find an ally in the government’s battle against the M23 rebels. There are warnings that South Sudan risks sliding back to civil war after recent clashes and the arrests of some opposition leaders. Talk of tariffs combined with fears of inflation sent the U.S. stock market tumbling Monday and again on Tuesday, a day of give and take between the United States and Canada, with President Donald Trump defending his use of tariffs.

At a summit in Cairo this week, an alternative plan was launched to reconstruct Gaza without moving Palestinians. US National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes said the Arab plan “does not address the reality that Gaza is uninhabitable and residents cannot humanely live in a territory covered in debris.” Ambassador Ayman Zaineldin, former director of media at the Egyptian Foreign Ministry discussed the options for Gaza with VOA senior analyst Mohamed Elshinnawi.

Some medical scientists and pharmaceutical companies say the United States’ decision to halt most aid to Africa means the continent won’t be able to make its own vaccines for quite some time. Darren Taylor reports.

The former governor of Kasai Province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo says dialogue, not bounties on rebels, is needed to halt fighting in the country’s east. Uganda has deployed special forces in South Sudan's capital Juba to maintain security as tensions rise between the government and opposition leadership. Officials from the United States and Ukraine are in Saudi Arabia for talks on ending Ukraine’s war with Russia, with Kyiv’s negotiators expected to present a partial ceasefire plan.

Doctors Without Borders says repeated attacks in Sudan’s White Nile state has led to a deadly cholera outbreak. Since February 20, the French medical charity known as MSF says more than 2700 patients have been admitted to the Ministry of Health’s cholera treatment center at Kosti Teaching Hospital. MSF Sudan Coordinator Marta Cazarola tells VOA’s Carol Van Dam the hospital many patients had to be treated on the floor.

The M23 armed group has pushed deeper into the Democratic Republic of Congo’s mineral-rich eastern region after capturing the key cities of Goma and Bukavu in recent weeks. Some people sheltering in displacement camps in Sudan’s Gedaref state say they need food and medical care. In Morocco, the faithful observe Ramadan with some special traditions and some common rituals shared with other Muslims around the world.

United States officials, African ministers, institutional investors, private financiers, and service and technology providers have gathered in Washington, D.C., for the 10th annual Powering Africa Summit. The United Nations World Food Program continues to warn of food shortages across southern Africa, with good rains arriving too late for farmers to plant crops. In Sudan, UNICEF says armed men are raping and sexually assaulting children, including infants as young as one, amid the nationwide conflict.

Repeated attacks in Sudan’s White Nile state have led to a deadly wave of cholera in the region. Since February 20, the French medical charity Doctors Without Borders or MSF says more than 27-hundred patients have been admitted to the Ministry of Health’s cholera treatment center at Kosti Teaching Hospital. Sudan Coordinator Marta Cazarola tells VOA’s Carol Van Dam the hospital is supported by MSF.

U.S. President Donald Trump brought up familiar arguments in his 100-minute speech to Congress - waste and fraud in the government and the dangers of illegal immigration. In turn, some Democrats protested over federal worker layoffs and foreign officials bristled at the President's remark about a small African nation. VOA's Carol Van Dam has more.

An emergency Arab summit this week has produced a plan for Gaza - one that would reconstruct Gaza while keeping Palestinians on their land. In South Africa, police are investigating charges of high treason against some Afrikaner organizations that met with officials from President Donald Trump’s administration last week. Despite supply shortages, health workers displaced by the conflict in Sudan are offering their services at mobile health centers sponsored by the Sudanese American Physicians Association, a non-profit founded by Sudan doctors in the United States.

Africa News Tonight is a lively news magazine show featuring VOA correspondent reports, interviews with African officials, opposition leaders, NGOs and human rights activists. News feature stories look at science and technology, environmental issues, humanitarian topics, and the African diaspora.

The President of the Democratic Republic of Congo Felix Tshisekedi has rejected calls for direct dialogue with the M23 rebels. President Donald Trump will address a joint session of Congress at the U.S. Capitol building; such speeches historically focus on domestic issues, not foreign policy. The United States plans to impose a 25 percent tariff on imported vehicles and in Nigeria, which relies on used cars from the U.S., there are fears the tariffs could drive up car prices.