A call to Action has emerged from a High-Level Ministerial Conference on Triple Elimination of HIV, Syphilis, and Hepatitis B, held in Kampala, Uganda. African Ministers of Health, development partners, and civil society organisations committed to a united front to end vertical transmission of the three infections by the year 2030. At the heart of…
Malawi has been ranked among the top 50 most food self-sufficient countries in the world, according to a groundbreaking study published in the journal Nature Food in May 2025. The study, which assessed 186 countries based on their ability to feed their populations across seven major food groups, placed Malawi alongside seven other African nations…
Mnangagwa Declares Manyame Bridge Crash a National Disaster President Emmerson Mnangagwa declared the accident at Manyame Bridge on Chitungwiza Highway a national disaster, demanding urgent and sweeping reforms to end the “bloody traffic jungle” that plagues the country. Mnangagwa said the accident, which involved a truck and an omnibus, reminded Zimbabweans that they continue to…
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has issued a global health alert over a fast-moving outbreak of chikungunya, a mosquito-borne viral disease, that is sweeping across the Indian Ocean islands and making inroads into mainland Africa and South East Asia. Speaking at a media briefing in Geneva on Tuesday, Dr Diana Rojas Alvarez, WHO’s lead on…
On 17 July Boukari Ouba, Vice President of the ABJ, and Luc Pagbelguem, a journalist with the independent TV station BF1, were also released. All four journalists have now been reunited with their families. The IFJ and the FAJ had been campaigning for the release of these journalists since their abduction. IFJ General Secretary Anthony…
Three Southern African countries now have Event-Based Surveillance (EBS) Guidelines–a critical tool for detecting and responding to emerging health risks. Event-based surveillance systems collect and analyse information from diverse sources, including communities, the media, and healthcare workers, to detect unusual health events in real time. They complement traditional indicator-based surveillance and are designed to support…
A year on, the ongoing mpox outbreak now affects 26 countries across Africa, up from seven initially. Containing the outbreak remains a challenge, complicated by the disease’s four clades and several sub-strains, the latest of which was only identified earlier this year. For example, Clade I is typically associated with higher mortality rates and more…
Rapid growth in venture capitalist investments in Southern African – with early stage tech start-ups taking the lion’s share of the VC pot – is a sign of the region’s growth potential. This is especially true given the slowdown in venture capital funding commitments globally. This is according to Nicola Gubb, interim executive director of…
The Africa Centre for Disease Control (Africa CDC) is set to kick off action towards strengthening and harmonising the framework of policies, procedures, and practices that ensure healthcare data is managed, protected, and used responsibly throughout its lifecycle — health data governance — across the continent. The landmark commitment on health data governance was made…
Results from a newly published study highlight the growing spread of drug resistance across 14 African countries, underscoring the urgent need to strengthen laboratory testing, data systems, and health planning to tackle hard-to-treat infections. The study, known as the Mapping Antimicrobial Resistance and Antimicrobial Use Partnership (MAAP), is the largest of its kind ever conducted…
