Ethiopia will run out of emergency food aid for 7.8 million people hit by severe drought by the end of this month, the government and humanitarian groups said.

Somalia's militant Islamist group al-Shabab says it has carried out a major assault on a military base in the semi-autonomous region of Puntland. Its fighters killed 61 government troops and seized 16 vehicles in the dawn raid, the group said. A Puntland government minister has denied the high death toll, but did not give separate casualty figures. The al-Qaeda-linked group has carried out several big attacks on military bases in Somalia.

Fifteen children died and dozens more fell ill after vaccination workers ignored basic hygiene procedures during South Sudan’s national measles vaccination campaign last month. A government inquiry found that the needles were dirty, used repeatedly to inject different children, and the vaccines were not refrigerated, with unqualified workers administering the vaccinations.

Fifteen young children have died in a botched measles vaccination campaign that saw people as young as 12 years old administering the vaccines, South Sudan's government announced Friday. The United Nations said the children died of

When war came to 15-year-old Rebecca Riak Chol’s small town in rural South Sudan in early April, she and 27 other villagers fled into nearby marshlands to hide. They spent two grueling weeks slowly making their way to the relative safety of a region controlled by rebels from her same tribe. They were constantly hungry, constantly thirsty, and constantly in danger of being killed by the troops trying to hunt them down. Chol’s sister died along the way, but it wasn’t because she was found and shot. Instead, she — like growing numbers of South Sudanese — died from starvation.

Four countries in an arc across central Africa and the Middle East—Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen—are at risk of mass starvation due to conflict and drought, with two parts of South Sudan already declared officially 'under famine' by the United Nations. Another region is edging towards the worst-case classification, according to U.N. officials.

It is a unique evolutionary hotspot home to thousands of plants found nowhere else on Earth. However, Madagascar’s special trees, palms and orchids – which provide habitats and food for dozens of species of rare lemur and other animals – are now facing catastrophic destruction caused by land clearances, climate change and spreading agriculture, scientists will warn this week. Thousands of plant species could be lost to humanity in the near future according to a report...

By converting a defunct communications dish, astronomers are breaking ground on Earth and beyond.

What does it mean to be strong? Chinelo Okparanta looks at six West African books that each take a unique look at relationships.

Scientists have discovered the origins of a short, ancient species nicknamed 'hobbits' due to their small stature, putting to rest several other hotly debated theories about the species.

The World Food Program said Friday it is "horrified" to learn that three of its South Sudan workers were killed this week in violence in the western town of Wau, as the country's civil war continues under warnings of possible genocide. A statement from the U.N. agency said the three men had been contracted to work as porters and appear to have been killed Monday on their way to a WFP warehouse.

UN migration agency says selling of people is rife in African nation that has slid into violent chaos since overthrow of Gaddafi

Times journalists spent weeks documenting the stories of people living along a desert highway in Niger, interviewing more than 100 residents scattered by Boko Haram.

The world is facing its largest humanitarian crisis since 1945, the United Nations says, issuing a plea for help to avoid "a catastrophe". UN humanitarian chief Stephen O'Brien said that more than 20 million people faced the threat of starvation and famine in Yemen, Somalia, South Sudan and Nigeria. Unicef has already warned 1.4m children could starve to death this year. Mr O'Brien said $4.4bn (£3.6bn) was needed by July to avert disaster.

Somaliland seceded from the failed state of Somalia 25 years ago and has shown exemplary stability ever since. International recognition is the next step.

‘Man-made’ food crisis threatens 100,000 people after war and a collapsing economy devastate agriculture in the country

Five years after its viral video broke the internet, Invisible Children is on the front line of a covert war against the Lord’s Resistance Army.

Poachers have killed two rhinos during a vicious attack on an animal orphanage in South Africa. Rhinos Impi and Gugu had their horns taken after a gang of poachers took staff hostage at the Fundimvelo Thula Thula Rhino Orphanage in KwaZulu-Natal on Monday night. Gugu was killed instantly but Impi survived, only to have to be put down the next morning due to his injuries. Staff members are understood to have been assaulted during the attack.

South Sudan just declared a famine. But it’s been years in the making and it could have been stopped.