The death toll in a high-rise collapse in Lagos, Nigeria, has risen to 42 while the number of survivors increased to 15, state authorities have announced. The cause of Monday’s disaster is still unknown, but building collapses are common in Africa’s most populous country, where millions live in dilapidated properties and construction standards are routinely ignored. “We have a total

At least 91 people were killed in the capital of Sierra Leone on Friday when a fuel tanker exploded following a collision, the central morgue and local authorities said. The government has not yet confirmed the death toll, but the manager of the central state morgue in Freetown said it had received 91 bodies following the explosion. Victims included people

Rescue workers in Lagos, Nigeria, continued efforts Tuesday to extricate survivors and recover bodies after the Monday collapse of a 21-story apartment building that was under construction. “We have recovered more bodies. The death toll now stands at 15, while nine were pulled out alive,” Ibrahim Farinloye of the National Emergency Management Agency told the French news agency, AFP. President

The World Food Program reports successive years of extreme weather events have plunged thousands of people in Madagascar into what WFP officials say is the world’s first climate-induced famine. Five years of consecutive drought compounded by sandstorms, as well as cyclones, an invasion of locusts and growing insecurity have created what World Food Program officials call the perfect storm. The

The World Health Organization has written an open letter to the heads of state gathered in Rome for the G-20 meeting, urging them to increase vaccine supplies for the world’s poorest, ensure access to vaccines for all people on the move and support low- and middle-income countries in combating COVID-19 with all available means. “The current vaccine equity gap between

Three people were shot dead by security forces during Saturday demonstrations against a military coup in Sudan. The Sudan Doctors Committee had initially reported two protesters were shot and killed, but confirmed that a third person died when security forces fired into crowds in Omdurman, Khartoum’s sister city. Twelve people have been killed in demonstrations since the military seized power

The World Health Organization’s (WHO) Africa region chief says only five African countries – less than 10 percent of the continent’s nations – are on track to meet the goal of vaccinating 40 percent of their populations by the end of the year. WHO Africa says Seychelles, Mauritius, and Morocco have already met the 40-percent – goal established during the

At least six people were killed and 21 injured in an Ethiopian army airstrike Thursday on the Tigray regional capital, Mekelle, hospital sources told VOA. The attack brings the total number of casualties reported by medical personnel from a series of government bomb strikes since last week to at least 12 dead and 55 wounded. The Ethiopian National Defense Forces

The U.N. refugee agency reports it has restarted a voluntary repatriation operation for thousands of refugees from the Central African Republic who were living in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Over the past two years, the U.N. refugee agency has helped more than 5,000 refugees return from Congo to the Central African Republic. The voluntary operation, which has been interrupted

The Missing Voices coalition, consisting of 16 civil rights groups whose mission is to end disappearances and killings in Kenya, met Sunday with mothers of victims and other survivors of police abuse in Nairobi. The coalition also launched “They Were Us,” a book on the subject. The coalition said it documented 119 police killings and 23 enforced disappearances between January