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.

UNICEF is warning of multiple disease outbreaks in Africa. UNICEF Child Protection Specialist Yann Grandin in Nairobi tells VOA’s Carol Van Dam that this year, 17 out of 21 countries in Eastern and Southern Africa are facing public health emergencies including outbreaks of cholera, mpox and viral haemorrhagic fever, which are threatening the safety of children.

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.

Some experts say China’s scaling back of financial support for infrastructure construction in Africa opens the door for the United States and Western Europe to fill the void, if they want. The Rapid Support Forces, the paramilitary group battling for power in Sudan’s civil war, took a step toward forming a breakaway government on Tuesday when it hosted a lavish political event in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. Fourteen-year-old Gesma fled Sudan's Darfur region after armed militias killed her parents and brother, leaving her to care for her younger siblings in a Chad refugee camp.

Some regional analysts say the African Union summit in Addis Ababa merely served to strengthen the group’s reputation for failing resolve conflicts. Conflicts are raging across Africa, from Sudan to the Sahel, from Mozambique to eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, with the AU not playing a meaningful role in ending any of them. Darren Taylor has more.

The head of Uganda’s People's Defense Forces recently said he will attack the town of Bunia in neighboring eastern Democratic Republic of Congo unless “all forces” there surrender their arms. Meanwhile, the United Nations has decried what it calls “summary executions” of children by the rebel group M23 in eastern DRC. Our reporter in Goma, Sabiti Djaffar Al Katanty, fills us in on the latest and begins by telling VOA's Carol Van Dam Uganda has sent additional UPDF troops to eastern DRC over the past few days.

The United Nations has decried what it calls “summary executions” of children by the rebel group M23 in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Human rights activists, lawyers and medical practitioners in East Africa are calling on the Ugandan government to release opposition leader Kizza Besigye, who has spent the past three months in military detention. European leaders held a crisis meeting in Paris to discuss Ukrainian and European security after recent diplomatic steps by Washington have raised doubts over the U.S. commitment to the transatlantic defense alliance.

Namibians returned to vote today in 36 re-opened polling stations, two days after the country’s election was marred by technical problems. U.S. President Joe Biden visits Angola next week, after his administration has forged close economic ties with the oil-rich southern African country. Celebrations are under way to mark the 25th anniversary of the East African Community in Arusha, Tanzania, as partner states work to eliminate barriers to cross-border trade and enhance regional economic growth.

The African Union summit is getting started in Addis Ababa with the organization facing multiple challenges, including the conflict in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The United States is moving quickly with mass deportation plans by sending some migrants to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and rapidly deporting others. Today is Valentine’s Day, when people in many countries celebrate love, and in Nigeria, people are adjusting their celebrations because of the rising cost of living.

A delegation from the National Episcopal Conference of Congo and the Church of Christ in Congo, two of the largest church organizations in the country, went to Goma to talk to the M23 rebels controlling the city. Cervical cancer is one of highly preventable and doctors in Namibia are advocating greater access to health care and the HPV vaccine to reduce the prevalence of the disease. U.S. Democratic lawmakers are concerned President Donald Trump’s freeze of foreign assistance might damage national security, but Republicans say a review of U.S. Agency for International Development programs is necessary to combat waste and fraud.