Johannesburg — On most mornings, dozens of people line up and wait for appointments outside the U.S. Consulate in Johannesburg, South Africa, many seeking applications for visas to travel to the U.S. It can take up to five or six months just to get one of the appointments. On Thursday, a …
In her previous works, the photographer Hazel Mphande would focus the camera on herself to shoot discomforting black-and-white self-portraits. But after a recent trip to the Karoo, a semi-arid region in South Africa’s Western Cape where she took photographs of the desolate terrain, Mphande pondered if those works could be …
The Cold War-era airstrip, its asphalt gleaming in the sunlight, stretched toward the coastline on the Horn of Africa. A few miles away, dock workers unloaded cargo at a port on the Gulf of Aden, a vital global shipping route frequently under attack by Houthi rebels from Yemen. These two …
“How old do you think these chickens are?” Levy Phiri asked the crowd, after scooping four multicolored birds out of a crate and setting them down in the courtyard outside the primary school in Kambvumbe, a village in Zambia’s rural Eastern Province. The roughly 200 people who came out in …
Rare-earth minerals critical for smartphone manufacturing. Lucrative trafficking routes and dizzying stockpiles of weapons. The lives of millions of people. All are now under the control of the M23 militia and its powerful backer, Rwanda. M23 reigns over a vast territory in eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo, …
Dalvin Modore walked as if there was broken glass beneath his feet, stepping gingerly, his frail shoulders hunched against the anticipation of pain. His trousers had become so loose that he had to hold them up as he inched around his small farm in western Kenya. Mr. Modore has tuberculosis. …
The United States is cutting almost all its spending on aid. The biggest loser will be Africa. For years, sub-Saharan Africa has received more U.S. aid money than any other region — except for 2022 and 2023, when the United States came to Ukraine’s aid after the Russian invasion. In …
Dangerous pathogens left unsecured at labs across Africa. Halted inspections for mpox, Ebola and other infections at airports and other checkpoints. Millions of unscreened animals shipped across borders. The Trump administration’s pause on foreign aid has hobbled programs that prevent and snuff out outbreaks around the world, scientists say, leaving …
Its soldiers are underpaid and underarmed. Its ranks are riddled with factions pursing their own interests. And successive presidents are said to have kept it weak for fear of a coup. The Democratic Republic of Congo’s army has appeared too weak and dysfunctional to stop a militia that has swept …
As the reality sets in that the United States is drastically diminishing its foreign assistance to developing countries, an urgent conversation is starting among governments, philanthropists, and global health and development organizations. It is centered on one crucial question: Who will fill this gap? Last year, the United States contributed …