East Africa

11 Stories

First US Case of New Form of Mpox Surfaces in California

Patient is receiving treatment after returning from eastern Africa

(Newser) - Health officials said Saturday they have confirmed the first US case of a new form of mpox that was first seen in eastern Congo. The person had traveled to eastern Africa and was treated in Northern California upon return, according to the state Department of Public Health. Symptoms are improving,...

Moderator of Facebook Content: I 'Stood Up and Screamed'

As employees sue, CEO of Sama laments harmful content, wishes she'd never signed a contract

(Newser) - Online content moderation is a stressful job, but someone's got to do it—though now an East African firm is saying it wishes its workers weren't those someones. Per the Guardian , employees are now bringing lawsuits against both outsourcing company Sama and Meta, Facebook's parent, after they...

Smugglers Throw Migrants Overboard, Killing at Least 20

UN agency says 80 migrants were tossed into sea during passage to Yemen

(Newser) - Smugglers threw some 80 migrants off a boat that was crossing from East Africa to the Arabian Peninsula on Wednesday, resulting in at least 20 drowning deaths, according to a UN agency. Yvonne Ndege of the UN's International Organization for Migration said at least five bodies were taken from...

UN Pleads for Help Amid 'Devastating' Locust Invasion

Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya all overtaken; UN says locust numbers could grow 500 times by June

(Newser) - Last month, the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization reported on the plague of locusts that had overtaken Somalia and Ethiopia, and now a new East African nation is being beleaguered by the bugs. The FAO says Kenya is also dealing with an "unprecedented" and "devastating" number of...

New Fossils Reveal More Human Species

Early human evolution was more crowded than we thought: Leakeys

(Newser) - The discovery of three new fossils, unveiled today, illuminate and confirm a line of human evolution that is more complicated than scientists once thought. The groundbreaking bones, about 2 million years old and unearthed in Kenya, prove that there were at least two Homo species—in addition to Homo erectus—...

Drug Resistance Threatens HIV Fight in Africa

Eastern areas see 29% increase in resistance per year

(Newser) - HIV is developing a growing resistance to drugs in sub-Saharan Africa, and that has researchers worried, the BBC reports. Scientists found a 29% increase in drug resistance per year in East Africa, while Southern Africa saw a 14% increase, they say (compared to zero change in resistance levels in the...

Nodding Disease Strikes Uganda, Confounds World

No answers to affliction that causes retardation, stunts growth

(Newser) - It's called the "nodding disease," a mysterious ailment in East Africa that attacks only children, striking the brain and nervous system, stunting growth, causing seizures and mental retardation, reports the New York Times . It first appeared in the 1960s, but was often misdiagnosed until recently. Found from...

Ship Accidents Knock Countries Offline

Anchors cut undersea cables

(Newser) - At least nine countries have suffered telecom outages this month, following a pair of accidents in which ships severed essential undersea cables, the Wall Street Journal reports. In the most recent incident this weekend, a ship dragging its anchor off the coast of Kenya caught on and destroyed a fiber-optic...

Pirates Hijack Relief Ship Off of Somalia

Attack is third within weeks off the coast long plagued by pirates

(Newser) - Pirates hijacked a Jordanian relief ship off the Somalia coast early yesterday, reports the BBC, and its 12-member international crew are now traveling north with its cargo of 4,000 tons of sugar. Jordan is reportedly working with the Danish embassy in Mogadishu, near where the boat was seized, to...

Riots Flare as Kenya Talks Stall

Government and opposition deal falters

(Newser) - Riots erupted again in Kenya yesterday as opposition leaders suspended talks with the government over a stalled power-sharing pact, reports the New York Times. Dozens of men in a Nairobi slum lit bonfires and hurled rocks at police, chanting, "No cabinet, no peace!" The violence marked the first...

Don't Think Pink: Factory Threatens Flamingo Species

Endangered lesser flamingos breed in only one lake in eastern Africa

(Newser) - An Indian company's plans to build a plant to harvest soda ash, or sodium carbonate, from Lake Natron in northern Tanzania could spell the end for the endangered lesser flamingo, the smallest of the six flamingo species. The lake is the only major breeding site, and half a million of...

11 Stories