Eyder Peralta

Paul Kagame will almost surely be re-elected on Friday. But the towering figure who brought order to the country also has instilled fear in those who might speak out against him.

Rwanda is not exactly the kind of set you might imagine for a romantic comedy. But one filmmaker is dreaming of laughing and falling in love in a country still living in the shadow of genocide.

Nomadic herders in Kenya's northwest are having to move farther afield as sustained drought fundamentally changes the landscape. The result: no grasses for their herds.

For two decades the U.S. imposed trade and financial sanctions on Sudan, saying it was responsible for carrying out a genocide. The move to lift sanctions was initiated by the Obama administration.

It's a national holiday commemorating the day in 1994 when the killing stopped, marking the end of a 100-day genocide that left nearly a million Rwandans dead.

There's another country that marks July 4: the African nation of Rwanda. July 4 was named the day the killing stopped in 1994, marking an end to a 100-day genocide that killed nearly 1 million people.

NPR's East Africa correspondent Eyder Peralta was seized by armed men and imprisoned without charge just after he'd been given permission to report in South Sudan, ravaged by civil war since 2013.

Fighting in South Sudan has led to violence and famine throughout the country and has spawned the fastest-growing refugee crisis in the world.

NPR's Eyder Peralta was recently jailed in South Sudan as he tried to report on the war-torn country. He talks about his experience, and the country's ongoing civil war.

Kenya is the latest African country to combat the environmental problems caused by plastic bags. They litter the landscape, but many Kenyans find them indispensable for daily life.

Both Latin American and homegrown telenovelas are booming in East Africa. It's a trend that reveals kinship between long-suffering countries an ocean apart.

Food prices are soaring in Kenya and now a beloved staple, ugali, is out of reach for many working-class people. The government blames the high prices on drought, while some blame corruption.

The line was financed with more than $3 billion borrowed from the Chinese government. A Chinese company built it, and a Chinese company will operate it for the first five years.

A police shooting caught on video and played repeatedly on social media sparked a familiar debate. Some praise police, others say police should stop killing young men in the poor neighborhood.

A top United Nations official said a video depicting the chants was part of a "campaign of fear and terror." The government says "influences outside the party" are responsible.

Stella Nyanzi's latest run-in with the regime of President Museveni began with a fight for free sanitary pads for school-age girls. Then she wrote about the president and his wife on social media.

Somalia's President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo has said the country is at war with al-Shabab, a jihadi group. He has given the group 60 days to surrender in return for education and jobs.

People fleeing South Sudan's brutal civil war have streamed across the border to Uganda, where the Bidi Bidi camp now hosts more than 270,000 people. It's become the biggest refugee camp in the world.

In the recesses of Nairobi's sprawling Kenyatta market waft the sounds of rumba. Between merchants selling roasted meat, sits a man who has been selling vinyl albums from the spot for nearly 30 years.

Nomadic herders are invading wildlife conservancies in the Rift Valley in search of pasture for their cattle, resulting in violence as police move in. But some local farmers say it's more complicated.