AFRICA PULSE

More African nations focus on HPV vaccination against cervical cancer, but hesitancy remains

African countries have some of the world’s highest rates of cervical cancer. Growing efforts to vaccinate more young girls for the human papillomavirus are challenged by the kind of vaccine hesitancy seen for some other diseases.

It was meant to be a Christian utopia. Now this Nigerian community is helpless against rising seas

Ivory Coast sets up mobile enrollment for a health coverage program criticized over glitches

It’s hard to find treatment for snakebites in Kenya. Thousands of people are dying every year

In Burundi, shortages and power cuts slow a return from international isolation

Mothers rely on breast milk donors for the survival of sick newborns

A community of breast milk donors has formed in Uganda after women struggled with finding ways to keep their babies with health issues alive. The nonprofit is the only group outside a hospital setting in the East African country that conserves breast milk in substantial amounts. (AP video by Patrick Onen)

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Kush, a cheap synthetic drug, is ravaging Sierra Leone’s youth

Ghana firm tackles missed business with mobile internet

One patient gives hope in hot spot for sickle cell disease in rural Uganda

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In South Africa, traditional healers join the fight against HIV. Stigma remains high in rural areas

More than 300 traditional leaders in South Africa will be trained to do HIV tests and educate their largely rural patients about the disease.

Cooking and coughing: Respiratory diseases plague Kenya as more people burn wood to save money

In Kenya’s capital, a woman cooking with firewood engulfs herself in smoke as she heats herself some tea.

Cameroon or Canada? Poorly paid doctors and nurses are choosing to leave. That’s common in Africa

Cameroon has one of the world’s lowest number of health workers per capita. About a third of trained doctors who graduated from medical school last year left the West African country.

The UN says a quarter of the world’s children under 5 have severe food poverty. Many are in Africa

A report by the U.N. children’s agency says 181 million children younger than 5 live in severe food poverty. That’s more than a quarter of the world’s youngest children.

In Burkina Faso, a growing number of children are traumatized by war

About 2 million people have been displaced in Burkina Faso by growing violence between Islamic extremists and security forces trying to counter them.

A growing community of breast milk donors in Uganda gives mothers hope

A community of breast milk donors has formed in Uganda after women struggled with finding ways to keep their babies with health issues alive.

Uganda tackles yellow fever with new travel requirement, vaccination campaign for millions

Uganda has rolled out a nationwide yellow fever vaccination campaign to help safeguard its population against the mosquito-borne disease that has long posed a threat.

Extreme weather. A lack of lifesaving vaccines. Africa’s cholera crisis is worse than ever

Extreme weather events have hit parts of Africa relentlessly in the last three years, with tropical storms, floods and drought causing crises of hunger and displacement.

Companies are trying to attract more smartphone users across Africa. But there are risks

Internet-enabled phones can play a unique role in sub-Saharan Africa, where infrastructure and public services are among the world’s least developed.

Thousands replaster Mali’s Great Mosque of Djenne, which is threatened by conflict

Thousands of Malians joined the replastering of the world’s largest mud-brick building this weekend, a key ritual that maintains the integrity of the Great Mosque of Djenne in central Mali.

A rural Ugandan community is a hot spot for sickle cell disease. But one patient gives hope

There can be lifelong challenges for people with sickle cell disease in rural Uganda, where it remains poorly understood.

They study next to one of Africa’s largest trash dumps. They’re planting bamboo to try to cope

Students at a school next to Kenya’s largest dumpsite are on a mission to try to purify the air with bamboo.

African farmers look to the past and the future to address climate change

From ancient fertilizer methods in Zimbabwe to new greenhouse technology in Somalia, farmers across the heavily agriculture-reliant African continent are looking both to the past and future to respond to climate change.

Climate change is bringing malaria to new areas. In Africa, it never left

When cases of locally transmitted malaria were found in the United States last year, it was a reminder that climate change is reviving or migrating the threat of some diseases.

Homes are demolished in Ivory Coast’s main city over alleged health concerns. Thousands are homeless

Authorities in Ivory Coast’s largest city are demolishing homes in low-income areas over what they say are public health concerns, leaving thousands without shelter and with nowhere to go.

Sexual assaults rise in Central African Republic. Wagner, bandits and even peacekeepers are blamed

Sexual assaults and other cases of gender-based violence are rising in Central African Republic. The alleged attackers include everyone from Wagner mercenaries to bandits to United Nations peacekeepers.

10 years after Chibok, Nigerian families cope with the trauma of more school kidnappings

The mass abduction of 276 schoolgirls a decade ago in Nigeria marked a new era of fear in Africa’s most populous country.

In some classrooms in Senegal, deaf and hard-of-hearing students now study alongside everyone else

A new approach in Senegal is mixing a small number of hard-of-hearing students into public classrooms.

Former rebels in Central African Republic disarm but face few options. Wagner is one of them

Nearly 5,000 fighters have put down their arms in Central African Republic since a disarmament program launched nearly a decade ago.

Extreme drought in southern Africa leaves millions hungry

A new drought has left millions facing hunger in southern Africa as they experience the effects of extreme weather that scientists say is becoming more frequent and more damaging.

‘Women farmers are invisible': A West African project helps them claim their rights — and land

Women play a crucial but underappreciated role in West African farming. One project in Senegal is inspiring them to overcome gender traditions that prevent them access to land.

Taps have run dry across South Africa’s largest city in an unprecedented water crisis

Thousands of South Africans are lining up for water as the country’s largest city, Johannesburg, confronts an unprecedented collapse of its water system affecting millions of people.

Ethiopia’s Tigray region is now peaceful, but extreme hunger afflicts its children

Once-lush fields lie barren. Mothers, faces etched with worry, watch helplessly as their children weaken from malnutrition. Hundreds of people have died.

Kenyan activists are on a mission to end gender-based violence as attacks on women surge

Njeri Migwi is the co-founder of a community-based organization called Usikimye, which means “Don’t be silent” in Swahili.