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At 10am in Karen, Nairobi, on the last Saturday of the month, three dozen people hand over their phones. It’s the first rule of the Serenity Social Club’s Disconnect event – a whole day of no screens or digital notifications. In their place are yoga, pottery, crocheting, conversations with strangers – or even just sleeping on the grass.

Airplane mode for scattered souls

The Serenity Social Club has nailed the blueprint for connecting by disconnecting in a bespoke little world free from WiFi.

Two years ago, negotiators at COP28 in Dubai agreed to “transition away from fossil fuels”. Now, that language has been dropped from the final proposal emerging from the COP30 summit in Belém, Brazil, underscoring deep divisions over the future of global energy.

Hope percolates despite fossil foolishness

Oil bullies force COP30 to walk back plans for a roadmap that would phase out fossil fuel. But justice is back on the agenda.

Mali’s capital Bamako isn’t yet spiralling into chaos, and the militants are not quite at the gates, but the fuel crisis has cracked the image of control the junta has worked hard to project

Bamako is grinding towards a halt

As the country’s fuel crisis continues, the military government is facing pressures of its own.

Just us: A dog and his companion share a moment of almost sacred stillness and solitude on the shores of Lake Abaya, Ethiopia, in an image that was recognised at the recent Uganda Press Photo Awards. Photo: Lucas Oyugi

The high court in Johannesburg has ordered an anti-migrant vigilante group to stop blocking foreigners from entering government health facilities and schools, actions it said were unconstitutional.

Judge eviscerates xenophobic vigilantes

In the ruling against Operation Dudula, the court also required police to stop asking people for their papers without cause.

Samia Suluhu Hassan ran all but unopposed in Tanzania’s presidential elections on 29 October. The only surprise came from the streets when protests broke out. Under the cover of an internet blockade, security forces met the protesters with force. Official statements now claim it was all nothing but a few skirmishes with “foreign” rioters. Our readers recount what they saw.

Beneath Suluhu’s blackout, a blanket of violence

Tanzania’s Election Day erupted into protest, an internet blackout, and bloodshed. When the internet was restored, 37 readers told us what really...

Nearly a million people across six states in South Sudan are battling floods, the UN Office for the Co‑ordination of Humanitarian Affairs warns. About 335,000 people have also been displaced – many are crammed onto shrinking patches of higher ground in Jonglei and Unity states, two of the hardest‑hit.

Water, water everywhere but not a bite to eat

About 7.7-million people in South Sudan already faced hunger. Recent floods have submerged farmlands.

The Rapid Support Forces seized El Fasher this week after besieging the city for more than 500 days. It was the last Darfuri city not under the paramilitary group’s control. The 6th Infantry Division of the Sudanese Armed Forces and allied groups withdrew on Monday. This brought El Fasher’s long resistance to an end and gave the RSF control of all five states in the Darfur region.

Sudan’s split in two (again) is now more concrete

‘Hemedti’ now controls all of Darfur, continuing the genocide that began with the Janjaweed.

After a brief pause, young Moroccans returned to the streets of Rabat on Saturday. Rallying outside Parliament, they demanded better healthcare, education reforms, and action on corruption and rising prices.

Moroccan youth protesters stay on the streets

Half of the country is younger than 35. They’re protesting for better schools and hospitals, as the kingdom spends big on football stadiums for t...

In 2024, the IOM tracked 446,000 people leaving the Horn of Africa via the “Eastern route”, crossing into Yemen to reach the Arabian Gulf. Ninety-six percent were Ethiopian, and a third of those were Tigrayan – although Tigrayans make up only 6% of Ethiopia’s population.

The exodus out of Tigray

Young people are leaving en masse – and don’t know if they’ll ever come back.