Pollsters and analysts say these could be the most pivotal elections since the country's first democratic vote 30 years ago, in 1994. Here's what's at stake.

The ZiG is Zimbabwe's latest currency — yet another attempt to unravel the economic catastrophes of the past decades. (Story aired on All Things Considered on May 21, 2024.)

The ZiG is Zimbabwe's latest currency — yet another attempt to unravel the economic catastrophes of the past decades. According to many there, it's every bit as baffling as its predecessors.

Three decades since the first democratic election in South Africa, will the generation that has never known apartheid turn out to vote, or has politics left many of them too disillusioned?

The brutal decades-long conflict in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo is moving into a new phase, and the city of Goma is in the crosshairs of the violence.

South Africa's ruling African National Congress faces its most competitive electoral challenge since the end of apartheid in 1994.

South Africa's apartheid history and affinity to the Palestinian cause has helped shape its case of genocide against Israel, as lawyers on both sides prepare for the International Court of Justice.

It's been 10 years since South Africa's first democratically elected president died. Nelson Mandela's former chef describes how how the anti-apartheid icon liked to spend Christmas Day.

A decade after the death of Nelson Mandela, many South Africans are asking what the anti-apartheid icon would have thought of the current state of the country and the direction it's heading in.

In South Africa, former Paralympic champion Oscar Pistorius is to be freed from jail on parole, nearly 11 years on after murdering his former girlfriend.

An estimated 9,000 people have been killed and another 5.6 million forced to flee their homes. NPR has spoken to Sudanese from different walks of life to hear how they're coping.

People desperate for housing in a country with sky-high unemployment have taken to squatting in squalid conditions in former office buildings that are rented out by criminal gangs.

A deadly fire in an apartment block in Johannesburg, South Africa, has raised questions about the grip of gangs who illegally occupy and sell off space in empty buildings with squalid conditions.

The fire in Johannesburg has killed more than 70 people. Authorities say many of the victims were people without homes, who found shelter in the run-down five-story building.

The group invited six new members to join — expanding their reach to cover over a third of the world's population in an attempt to reshape the global world order.

The BRICS group of emerging economies have invited six new members to join — expanding their reach to cover over a third of the world's population in an attempt to reshape the global world order.

As South Africa prepares to welcome a number of world leaders for the summit of the group of emerging markets known as BRICS, many new countries are vying to gain membership.

South Africa says Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend the BRICS summit it's hosting in August, putting an end to questions over whether it would act on an arrest warrant for Putin.

As fighting in Sudan's capital continues to rage, experts say it's spilling over into the Darfur region and risks fully reigniting a conflict from the early 2000s that left hundreds of thousands dead.

As Canada and parts of the U.S. confront declines in air quality due to smoke from Canadian wildfires, NPR reporters in Asia, Latin America and Africa share their experiences.