West Africa

An attempted coup was thwarted in the west African coastal nation of Guinea-Bissau last week, the latest in a string of attempted overthrows of governments in the region.

West Africa is grappling with a wave of military coups over the past 18 months that has some wondering which country could be next.

Some cocoa farmers in Africa are set to lose almost 20% of their incomes, prompting accusations that global chocolate makers are “turning a blind eye” to serious problems.

The Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan and withdrawal of Western troops was closely watched by Islamist insurgent groups on the continent. 

Mutinous soldiers in the West African nation of Guinea have detained President Alpha Conde in an apparent coup d’etat

Sierra Leone has agreed to sell 250 acres of pristine beach and rainforest to China in a $55 million deal that would see an industrial fishing harbor built on the site.

Cardi B’s announcement that she wants to seek Nigerian citizenship has set off a Twitter feud between her West African fans in friendly rivals Nigeria and Ghana. The Grammy-winning rapper visited both countries last month on her African tour. Her announcement in a tweet on Friday criticized the U.S. airstrike in Iraq that killed Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani and...

With the deadly Ebola outbreak in Congo now an international emergency , neighboring South Sudan and its war-weakened health system is a major concern, especially after one case was confirmed near its border. Health experts say there is an urgent need to increase prevention efforts. The World Health Organization on Wednesday made the emergency declaration for the year-old outbreak, a...

Four hostages were rescued in West Africa overnight, including an American woman, French authorities said Friday. NBC News reported that two French nationals and a South Korean were also rescued in an operation in Burkina Faso that left two French commandos dead. The rescued French citizens had vanished on May 1. It wasn’t immediately clear when or where the American...

Health workers battling Ebola in eastern Congo are facing “a climate of deepening community mistrust” nearly seven months after the outbreak began, Doctors Without Borders warned Thursday. The medical aid group has temporarily suspended its operations at two treatment centers located in the epidemic’s epicenter after both were set ablaze by unknown attackers. There have been some “30 different incidents...

The World Health Organization says Congo’s deadly Ebola outbreak is now the second largest in history, behind the devastating West Africa outbreak that killed thousands a few years ago. WHO emergencies chief Dr. Peter Salama late Thursday called it “a sad toll” as Congo’s health ministry announced the number of cases has reached 426. That includes 379 confirmed cases and...

Congo’s latest Ebola outbreak now has 14 confirmed cases as health officials rush to contain the often deadly virus in a city of more than 1 million. The World Health Organization was holding an experts’ meeting Friday to determine whether the epidemic warrants being declared a global health emergency. WHO now calls the risk to the public in Congo “very...

Diamond prospectors in Namibia nearly a decade ago stumbled upon remnants of a shipwrecked Portuguese vessel whose trading journey to India was cut violently short by a storm in 1533. Today the artifacts from the doomed ship, described by archaeologists as one of that era’s most important finds, remain a hidden treasure. Relics stored in a dimly lit warehouse at...

Hours after suspected Islamic extremists opened fire as patrons dined at the popular restaurant where she worked as a waitress, Amy Sawadogo was still wandering around barefoot at a crisis center asking about her colleagues. “I just want to go to the hospital and see who is still alive,” the distraught young woman, who was still dressed in her uniform,...

A contagious bacterial infection appears to be the cause of at least some cases in a mysterious outbreak in Liberia, U.S. health officials said Monday. The bacteria can cause meningitis, a dangerous brain infection, as well as blood infections. The country has reported 31 illnesses, including 13 deaths. The germ is spread through close contact with someone who’s infected, so...

A woman came back from a trip to the Uganda jungle with Marburg virus, a cousin of Ebola that’s even deadlier, NBC News reported....
Now, Michelle Barnes’ blood has a provided a potential cure for the infection....
Researchers at Vanderbilt University and Mapp Biopharmaceutical Inc. isolated an especially potent immune system protein called a monoclonal antibody from Barnes and have used it...

A 10-month-old baby born with four legs and two spines is recovering well after a complex and risky medical procedure in Chicago, doctors say.

Former Spokane, Washington, NAACP leader Rachel Dolezal, who resigned amid criticism that she was passing herself off as black, has changed her name to Nkechi Amare Diallo. Court documents show a judge granted her request on Oct. 7, 2016. Her new name has origins in West Africa. Nkechi is short for Nkechinyere in the Igbo language, and means “gift of...

A South Florida youth pastor was one among more than two dozen killed by Al-Qaeda linked militants in an attack in the capital of Burkina Faso, West Africa.

One of two Dallas nurses who contracted Ebola last year is donating blood to a biotech firm.