Africa News Tonight - VOA Africa Voice of America (VOA)

A year into Sudan’s conflict, the country’s healthcare system is wrecked, but one volunteer at an Omdurman hospital says he can’t leave his patients. A company is offering to help people fleeing the war in Gaza to enter Egypt – for thousands of dollars per person. The Cameroon Medical Council, an association of doctors, says the state of health care is a growing concern in the country, which faces a doctor shortage, and newly trained physicians increasingly leave for better pay.

Africa News Tonight is a lively news magazine show featuring VOA correspondent reports, interviews with African officials, opposition leaders, NGOs and human rights activists. News feature stories look at science and technology, environmental issues, humanitarian topics, and the African diaspora.

In Washington, Sudanese community members and human rights groups demonstrated in a call for U.S. action to end the year-long conflict in Sudan. Today, former U.S. President Donald Trump goes on trial on criminal charges in New York. More than 80 girls have not returned home, 10 years after the extremist Boko Haram group kidnapped hundreds from a school in Chibok, Nigeria, and since then, hundreds more school children have been snatched, leaving activists weary in their fight to return the victims.

United Nations and international agencies warn the lives of millions of people in Sudan are at risk, saying the world is turning a blind eye to the enormous humanitarian needs facing this war-torn country. Kenyan doctors continue their strike calling for better pay and working conditions, but President William Ruto says the country has no money to meet their demands. More than 250 humanitarian and human rights groups are calling on all United Nations member states to immediately halt arms transfers to Israel and Palestinian armed groups.

160 groups are urging the Biden administration to approve an 18-month Temporary Protected Status, or “TPS,” for Congolese citizens, saying clashes involving militant groups over territory and natural resources, extrajudicial killings by security forces and rising tensions with Rwanda have led to chaos. Claude Kamana, the President of the Congolese Community of Washington Metropolitan (CCWM), tells VOA’s Carol Van Dam more than six million people in the DRC are internally displaced.

Opposition candidates are accusing Chad’s military ruler General Mahamat Idriss Deby of flouting election rules and launching his campaign before the official starting date on Sunday. More than 150 organizations delivered a letter to President Joe Biden and top cabinet officials, urging approval of an initial, 18-month Temporary Protected Status, and Special Student Relief designation for citizens of the Democratic Republic of Congo. As Russia aims to expand its influence in Africa, it plans to create an expeditionary force of 20,000 mercenaries, but one expert says the war in Ukraine might delay that goal.