West Africa

An empty room is pictured in a concrete house in Matam, Senegal. Many families don't have electricity nor the means to own a fan or air conditioning to help quell the intense heat at night, temperatures can stay around 35 degree Celsius throughout the night.

Lethal heat in West Africa is driven by human-caused climate change

11:57am April 18, 2024

by Emmanuel Akinwotu

The recent deadly heat in West Africa is driven by human activities, including the burning of fossil fuels, particularly in the wealthy Northern Hemisphere, according to an international report.

A shattered father recounts his kidnapping and the struggle to negotiate with the kidnappers for the release of his children.

World News

For one Nigerian family, freedom after a kidnapping hasn't ended their terror

5:00am April 09, 2024

by Emmanuel Akinwotu

Ten years after the mass abduction of 276 Chibok schoolgirls, kidnapping in Nigeria continues to rise. Nearly 1,000 people were kidnapped in the first three months of 2024. Here is one family's story.

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Bassirou Diomaye Faye delivers his inaugural speech after being sworn in as Senegal's president in Dakar, Senegal, Tuesday, April 2, 2024.

Weeks ago, Bassirou Diomaye Faye was in prison. Now, he is Senegal's president

11:01am April 03, 2024

by Emmanuel Akinwotu

Senegal's youngest ever president has been sworn-in after a dramatic prison to presidential palace rise to power.

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Supporters celebrate the release of Senegal's top opposition leader Ousmane Sonko and his key ally Bassirou Diomaye Faye outside Sonko's home in Dakar, Senegal, Thursday, March 14, 2024.

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Senegal heads to the polls after delayed elections - here's what you need to know

8:22am March 22, 2024

Senegal will finally go to the polls this weekend, in a vote that was delayed, then reinstated. A beacon of relative stability in a restless region, its democratic resilience has been sorely tested.

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Curfew declared in Sierra Leone after gunmen attacked its main military barracks

7:30pm November 26, 2023

by The Associated Press

The attack on the barracks and detention centers raised fears of a breakdown of order amid a surge of coups in the region.

Col. Major Amadou Abdramane, center, is shown speaking during a televised statement. Soldiers claimed on July 26, 2023, to have overthrown the government of Niger President Mohamed Bazoum in a statement read out on national television.

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Niger's military announces a coup on national television

10:50pm July 26, 2023

by Michele Kelemen

The U.S. is calling for the president of Niger to be released after soldiers say they have seized power in a coup in the West African country.

Diakine Sambou, queen of the sacred forest of Kaoupoto, on Feb. 23, 2021, in Mlomp, Senegal.

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Meet the people safeguarding the sacred forests and lagoons of West Africa

6:13am February 05, 2023

by Ricci Shryock

In parts of West Africa, communities have designated biodiversity hotspots sacred and measure their value by the peace of mind they provide, rather than in dollars and cents.

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Dr. Benjamin Black in front of the Gondama Referral Center in Sierra Leone, where he worked during the Ebola outbreak of 2014-2016. The center treated children and women in urgent need of obstetric and gynecological care. As the outbreak exploded, the center decided to stop admitting pregnant women, a decision that still weighs on Black.

A doctor's Ebola memoir is all too timely with a new outbreak in Uganda

6:29pm October 28, 2022

by Susan Brink

Dr. Benjamin Black talks about Belly Woman: Birth, Blood and Ebola — the inside story of what it was like to face a terrifying epidemic in West Africa.

Beninese chef and cookbook author Valerie Vinakpon, center, is coming up with novel ways to present her country's fare, hoping to get people excited about Beninese cooking. Above, she talks to High On The Hog co-hosts Jessica B. Harris, left, and Stephen

'High On The Hog' Chefs Bring Bold New Flavors To Benin's Cuisine

7:40am August 08, 2021

We talk to two of the chefs featured on the hit Netflix show. They're reimagining traditional dishes — a boon for local diners and local farmers as well.

Children of about 6,000 ethnic Fulanis who have been displaced by attacks gather in a makeshift camp in Youba, Burkina Faso, in April 2020. The West African nation continues to be racked by violence linked to Islamic extremists and local defense militias.

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Unknown Militants Attacked A Burkina Faso Village And Killed More Than 160 People

12:58pm June 07, 2021

by Jason Beaubien

The assault is the latest in a part of West Africa known as the Sahel, which has seen years of instability brought on by political coups and Islamist assaults on security forces and civilians.