Rapid urbanisation thought to be damaging adolescent health, as researchers say need for medication and diagnostic tests is urgent

Millions of teenagers in Africa are suffering from asthma with no formal diagnosis as the continent undergoes rapid urbanisation, researchers have found.

The study, published in the Lancet Child and Adolescent Health, involved 27,000 pupils from urban areas in Malawi, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Ghana and Nigeria. It found more than 3,000 reported asthma symptoms, but only about 600 had a formal diagnosis.

Warning of ‘lost generation’ in Adré and Farchana camps as Sudan’s civil war drives huge numbers across border

• What caused the civil war in Sudan and how has it become one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises?

Refugees and aid agencies have warned of deteriorating conditions in overcrowded and severely underfunded camps in Chad, as intensifying violence and a hunger crisis in Sudan drive huge numbers across the border.

About 25,000 people – the vast majority women and children – crossed into eastern Chad in the first week of October, a record number for a single week in 2024. Chad, one of the world’s poorest countries, hosts 681,944 Sudanese refugees – the highest number globally.

Greater bamboo lemur births in captivity are extremely rare and park is only UK collection to have bred it this year

Cotswold wildlife park has successfully bred one of Madagascar’s most endangered lemurs.

The as yet unnamed youngster was born to a breeding male, Raphael, and female, Bijou, at the wildlife park.

Lawyer Elvino Dias and official Paulo Guambe shot as their party plans a national strike over disputed election

Attackers killed a Mozambique opposition lawyer and a party official after firing rounds at a car in which they were travelling, ratcheting up tensions before protests against a disputed election result, the EU and rights groups have said.

Mozambique’s new opposition Podemos party and its presidential candidate, Venâncio Mondlane, have rejected provisional results showing a probable win for Frelimo, the party that has ruled Mozambique for half a century. They have called for a nationwide strike on Monday.

Abduqadir Mohamed Nur’s reported abduction from home and detention is latest attack on press freedom for critical writing on regime, media union says

A Somali journalist was abducted from his home by intelligence agents early on Friday, according to press freedom campaigners.

The journalists’ union Somali Journalists Syndicate (SJS) said the detention of Abduqadir Mohamed Nur was a “brazen attack” on the reporter and his news outlet, Risaala Media Corporation, for critical reporting of state security forces.

Nurse says she has lost ‘my name, my integrity’ after being accused of using proxy to sit tests to work in Britain

• Nigerian nurses urge UK minister to intervene over test cheating claims

When I was a little girl in my village in Nigeria going to school was something I could not even dream of because we did not have money. Then my mother sold everything we owned to pay for me to go to school.

I knew this was my only ticket to make something worthwhile out of my life and my family’s life.