Tag - africa

 
 

AFRICA

A massive landslide in Sudan's western Darfur region has flattened an entire mountain village and killed more than 1,000 people, the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army group said, leaving only one survivor.
WORLD
Sep 3, 2025
Landslide wipes out Sudan village, killing hundreds
Heavy rain triggered the disaster, flattening the village of Tarasin in the remote Jebel Marra range, with the death toll estimated at anywhere from 300 to over 1,000.
Reni Folawiyo, founder of the Alara concept store, inside Alara in Lagos on Aug. 20
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 2, 2025
Nigerian designer pushes 'Afro-lux' onto the global fashion scene
West African design is having a moment, the founder of a fashion and design concept store in Lagos said, but it's not enough.
First Lady Yoshiko Ishiba (center, in white and blue dress) hosts an event on Japanese culture with the first ladies of African leaders on the sidelines of the Tokyo International Conference on African Development in Yokohama on Aug. 21.
JAPAN / FOCUS
Aug 27, 2025
Confusion over Japan’s ‘hometown’ plan overshadows African development event
Social media and news have focused more on the misinformation that Japan is accepting a large number of immigrants from Africa.
Containers at a dock at the Port of Cape Town in Cape Town in 2024. China’s exports to Africa so far in 2025 are more than in the whole of 2020 and on track to exceed $200 billion for the first time.
BUSINESS / Markets
Aug 27, 2025
China is pouring exports into Africa faster than anywhere else
China’s exports to Africa so far in 2025 are more than in the whole of 2020 and on track to exceed $200 billion for the first time.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba arrives at a photo session for the Tokyo International Conference on African Development as South African President Cyril Ramaphosa reacts, in Yokohama, last week.
JAPAN / Society
Aug 26, 2025
Misinformation over JICA’s Africa ‘hometown’ initiative sparks controversy
Media reports claiming the initiative would include a special visa category for skilled Africans who want to come to Japan exacerbated the confusion.
Japanese companies showcase products and services at a business event held on the sidelines of the Ninth Tokyo International Conference on African Development in Yokohama on Friday.
BUSINESS / Companies / FOCUS
Aug 25, 2025
Risk reduction key to boosting Japanese investment in Africa
At TICAD 9, Japan promised to help African states develop 300,000 workers in cooperation with Japanese firms.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba delivers a speech at the closing ceremony of the Japan-led Ninth Tokyo International Conference on African Development, or TICAD 9, on Friday in Yokohama.
JAPAN
Aug 22, 2025
TICAD adopts Yokohama Declaration to strengthen multilateral trade
The communique emphasized proposals to solve problems facing African states, apparently reflecting Japan's wish to highlight a different approach to that of China.
Cindy McCain, the executive director of the U.N. World Food Programme, speaks during an interview in Yokohama on Wednesday.
JAPAN
Aug 21, 2025
WFP chief wants world to pay attention to Africa
The continent, whose countries suffer from famine, refugee and other humanitarian crises, is sometimes forgotten, Cindy McCain, the executive director of the U.N. body, says.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba meets with Central African Republic President Faustin-Archange Touadera on the sidelines of the TICAD meeting in Yokohama on Thursday.
JAPAN
Aug 21, 2025
Japan calls for private investments in Africa at TICAD
Tokyo is offering itself as an alternative to China as African nations reel from a debt crisis made worse by Western aid cuts, conflict and climate change.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba (center) and African leaders prior to the opening of the Ninth Tokyo International Conference on African Development in Yokohama on Wednesday
JAPAN / Politics
Aug 20, 2025
Ishiba unveils new regional economic initiative as TICAD 9 conference begins
The initiative is designed to enhance economic ties between the African continent and regions linking it with India.
Muddied prospectors pan for gold in Manica province, Mozambique, near the Zimbabwe border, in 2010.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Aug 20, 2025
Mozambique's illegal miners reap risky rewards but land suffers
Rivers around mining sites are polluted, and mercury has seeped into the soil, creating a nightmare for farmers.
The Japanese flag (left) with the flag of the African Union
JAPAN / Society
Aug 18, 2025
JICA to designate four Japanese cities as 'hometowns' for African nations
Officially connecting municipalities that already have existing ties with African countries will allow Japan to strengthen exchanges.
South African Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana (right) and the country’s reserve bank governor, Lesetja Kganyago, attend the Group of 20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting in Cape Town on Feb. 27. 
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 18, 2025
A new trade agenda for climate-resilient development
Policymakers must be prepared to introduce new trade rules that support low-carbon transitions in Africa and across the Global South.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba holds a news conference in Tokyo last month.
JAPAN / Politics
Aug 16, 2025
Japan to accelerate development of logistics network in Africa
The planned corridor, which will link the inland African country of Zambia and a port in Mozambique, is aimed at enhancing supply chains for mineral resources.
A miner holds a sack of ore as it comes out a the mine shaft at the Rubaya coltan mine, near the town of Rubaya, which is controlled by M23 rebels, in eastern Congo on March 24.
WORLD
Aug 14, 2025
Inside the mine that feeds the tech world — and funds Congo’s rebels
The Congolese town of Rubaya produces around 15% of the world’s coltan, which is shipped thousands of kilometers away to Asia where it’s processed into tantalum.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba enters the Prime Minister's Office on Tuesday. Ishiba plans to launch a new economic initiative to strengthen ties with India, the Middle East and Africa at an event near Tokyo next week.
JAPAN / Politics
Aug 14, 2025
Ishiba to launch new regional economic initiative
The initiative is aimed at helping Japanese companies expand operations in India, the Middle East and Africa.
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group is looking to expand its presence in the market for debt swaps as a way for emerging countries to alleviate their debt burdens and put savings toward sustainable goals.
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 13, 2025
MUFG in talks to arrange new debt swaps after $465 million deal
Japan’s biggest bank is looking to expand its presence in the market for debt swaps after helping to wrap up a deal for Cote d'Ivoire in December.
Houda Ali Mohammed, 32, a displaced Sudanese mother of four, prepares food at a camp shelter amid the ongoing conflict between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese army, in Tawila, North Darfur, Sudan, on July 30.
WORLD
Aug 5, 2025
Hunger mounts and cemeteries grow in Sudan's besieged al-Fashir
The capital of North Darfur state is the biggest remaining frontline in the region and is under fire at a pivotal point in a civil war now well into its third year.
Women working in a field in Monguno, Borno state, Nigeria, on July 5.
WORLD / Society
Jul 28, 2025
Over 600 malnourished children die in six months in Nigeria, says MSF
Northern Nigeria, which already is struggling with insurgency and banditry, is "currently facing an alarming malnutrition crisis."
Beneficiaries line up to receive support at a WFP distribution center in Damboa, Borno State, Nigeria, on Sunday.
WORLD
Jul 24, 2025
Millions go hungry in Nigeria as aid dries up and jihadists surge
The limited food will soon run out by the end of July as Western aid cuts — including the dismantling of USAID — send humanitarian programs into a tailspin.

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past