South Sudanese refugees in Uganda receive generous welcome →

When fighting broke out in December 2013 in South Sudan’s capital, Juba, it spread rapidly toward the country’s northeast – directly towards John Aleu’s home. He wanted no part of the conflict and hoped the remoteness of his village in northern Jonglei state would insulate him.

But in September last year, a group of fighters came to steal his cattle. As he tried to spur the animals to flee, he was shot in the foot. It took his neighbors three days to carry him to the nearest hospital. His foot was saved, but he will never be able to walk without crutches again.

By April he was well enough to travel, so together with his family he journeyed across the border to Uganda. “If I’m going back, I can’t feed my family,” he said. “I’m in need of something that can promote my life and my family’s life.”

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Can the world's newest nation survive its complex humanitarian crisis? →

There is little to celebrate as South Sudan marks its fourth independence anniversary today. Even if peace arrives soon, humanitarian agencies warn, it would take the country decades to recover from the effects of the ongoing violence. Read more.

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Students flee U.S. embassy camp in Burundi, claiming police harassment →

University students in troubled Burundi have claimed they are being targeted for harassment, including death threats, by security forces and the police – especially the hundreds who took refuge near the American embassy after the government closed the University of Burundi. Read more.

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Burundi votes, and violence looms →

Residents are scrambling to leave Burundi as voting in parliamentary and local elections threatens to turn ugly fast. Read more.

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Uganda's Museveni succeeds where others fail in eluding term limits →

Burundi’s Pierre Nkurunziza and other presidents trying to subvert term limits could all take a lesson from their neighbor, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni. Having disposed of term limits a decade ago, Museveni is set to run for his fifth term next year, in a campaign that seems as much a coronation as a contest. Read more.

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Uganda's NGO law: Most repressive in East Africa? →

Uganda is poised to pass a law granting a government-appointed board nearly incontestable power to reject or dissolve nongovernmental and community-based organizations. Read more.

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South Sudan food crisis deepens amid tanking economy →

Through 17 months of conflict, tens of thousands of people have been killed in South Sudan and two million more displaced. Schools, health centers and markets have been looted and destroyed. It took a $1.8 billion humanitarian response last year for the country to avoid a famine. Read more.

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The swift unraveling of fragile peace in Burundi →

A failed coup and ongoing political conflict in Burundi have sparked a regional refugee crisis and stalled much-needed development projects in one of the world’s poorest countries. Read more.

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Entrepreneurship mentors help graduates to create jobs →

As universities scramble to adapt curricula to economic realities, a new initiative has sprung up to teach recent graduates and current students the entrepreneurial skills they need to survive in Uganda. Read more.

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A fight over Uganda's health workers →

The months-long tug of war between Ugandan officials and health activists over a government agreement to export health workers continues, despite a court’s recent refusal to block the move. Read more.

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Uganda to expand successful Kampala scheme in battle against tuberculosis →

Dr. Kasauli Mahmoud Zinda felt he was failing his community each time a probable TB patient walked out of his clinic without being tested, in all likelihood to spread the disease. So when representatives from the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease approached him in 2011 to join a new initiative that would equip his clinic, Pillars Medical Center, to test for and treat TB, “it looked like it was a dream,” he said.

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Tackling childhood tuberculosis in Uganda →

Alongside scores of pregnant women and new mothers, Elizabeth Namubiru estimates that she and her team treat 200 children every month at her small Kiganda Maternity Clinic in Uganda. Children that are treated at the clinic come from the neighborhood surrounding the centre—a poor, transient community in Uganda's capital, Kampala. People live in conditions ideal for spreading tuberculosis and, each month, several of Namubiru's child patients show up with symptoms of the disease. But she says that parents almost never ask her to check for it.

Even when her staff suspect tuberculosis, they do not have the medical background or the equipment they need to diagnose it. Therefore, Namubiru refers children to the better-equipped government hospital nearby. However, many patients are unwilling to brave the long waits at the underfunded and understaffed national hospital. As a result, an unknown number of children with tuberculosis simply go untreated, often until it is too late.

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South Sudan's delayed peace means no justice for war crime victims →

Regional negotiators had warned that yesterday was the "last chance" for South Sudan's warring parties to reach a resolution, but even a renewed threat of sanctions from the international community was not enough to bring the two sides to an agreement. Read more.

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To forgive a warlord →

The wheels of justice are turning for Joseph Kony's top deputies. But could rehashing the worst days of the Lord’s Resistance Army at The Hague tear Uganda apart? Read more.

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Cows and conflict: South Sudan's 'slow motion' livestock crisis →

At 11 million head, cattle outnumber people in South Sudan and are central to the country’s economy and society. Now, 13 months of civil war have disrupted traditional migration routes and disease patterns in a way that has sparked fresh cycles of violence and jeopardized the country's broader social cohesion. Read more.

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