The United Nations' food agency says months of drought in southern Africa triggered by the El Niño weather phenomenon have had a devastating impact on more than 27 million people and caused the region’s worst hunger crisis in decades.

Zambia’s worst electricity blackouts in memory have been caused by a severe drought in the region that has left the critical Kariba dam with insufficient water to run its hydroelectric turbines.

The remains of 49 freedom fighters who died while exiled in Zimbabwe and Zambia during the struggle against white minority rule in South Africa have been returned to the country.

Zimbabwe and Namibia plan to slaughter hundreds of wild elephants and other animals to feed hunger-stricken residents amid severe drought conditions in the southern African countries.

The Malawian government has received an insurance payout of $11.2 million for an El Nino-linked drought that led to a disaster declaration in the southern African nation.

Zimbabwe police have used batons to break up a protest by opposition supporters outside a courthouse in the capital Harare.

The World Health Organization has approved a new version of a widely used cholera vaccine that could help address a surge in cases that has depleted the global vaccine stockpile.

Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa has granted clemency to more than 4,000 prisoners in an independence day amnesty.

A new drought has left millions facing hunger in southern Africa as they experience the effects of extreme weather that scientists say is becoming more frequent and more damaging.

Zimbabwe has started an emergency campaign to inoculate more than 4 million children against polio after health authorities detected three cases caused by a rare mutation of the weakened virus used in oral vaccines.

A new United Nations report says nearly half of the world's migratory species are in decline.

Zimbabwe’s Cabinet has agreed to back a move in Parliament to abolish the death penalty.

Pope Francis’ authorization for Catholic priests to offer blessings to same-sex couples is in many ways a recognition of what has been going on in some European parishes for years.

In Zimbabwe, rains are finally bringing relief to its second-largest national park.

A cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe is suspected of killing more than 150 people and infecting more than 8,000.

Zimbabwe has recorded 100 suspected deaths from cholera and more than 5,000 possible cases since late last month.

Zimbabwe police have arrested 41 workers for poll monitoring groups and accused them of attempting to distort the results of the country's widely delayed presidential election to favor the opposition.

Delays of up to 10 hours in mostly opposition strongholds have forced electoral officials to extend voting till Thursday in Zimbabwe as President Emmerson Mnangagwa seeks a second and final term.

Ahead of national elections next week, some people in Zimbabwe's rural areas say they are facing intimidation from supporters of the long-ruling ZANU-PF party and a biased state-run media that restricts their options.

Shoppers in Zimbabwe are increasingly turning to street traders to buy what they need as the local currency plunges in value against the U.S. dollar.

Zimbabwe has begun releasing more than 4,000 prisoners under a presidential amnesty.

A self-portrait shows a 26-year-old artist covering her face with a yellow miner's helmet while money spills over the edge of a traditional African reed basket she holds in her lap.

The electricity shortages that plague many of Africa’s 54 countries are a serious drain on the continent’s economic growth.

Zimbabwe’s rainy season brings a bonanza of wild mushrooms, which many rural families feast upon and sell to boost their incomes.

Zimbabwe has brought in a law that bans health workers such as nurses and doctors from prolonged strikes, imposing punishments of up to six months in jail for defiant workers or union leaders.

President Joe Biden is set to play host to dozens of African leaders in Washington this week as the White House looks to narrow a gaping trust gap with Africa.

Church members in Zimbabwe are getting their children vaccinated against measles in secret amid a deadly outbreak.

American authors Elizabeth Strout and Percival Everett are up against writers from Britain, Ireland, Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka as finalists for the prestigious Booker Prize for fiction.

Zimbabwe has begun moving more than 2,500 wild animals from a southern reserve to one in the country’s north to rescue them from drought, as the ravages of climate change replace poaching as the biggest threat to wildlife.

Serena and Venus Williams were drawn to face the Czech pair of Lucie Hradecka and Linda Noskova in the first round of doubles at the U.S. Open.

Serena and Venus Williams have been given a wild-card entry for women’s doubles at the U.S. Open.

South Africans are feeling the bite of fuel price increases that are blamed on Russia’s war in Ukraine and the rise in the Brent crude oil price.

Zimbabwe has launched a new COVID-19 vaccination campaign that includes jabbing children aged 12 and above to rescue a drive faltering due to vaccine hesitancy and complacency.

Police say one person has died and several others were injured at an opposition party rally in Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe’s leading opposition figure Nelson Chamisa drew thousands of cheering supporters on Sunday to his first political rally since forming a new party weeks ago, as the country gears for elections that have been postponed due to COVID-19.

As 2021 comes to a close, many people in richer parts of the globe are fretting over the risk of contracting COVID-19 and how rising infections are upending their holiday plans.

When the coronavirus first emerged last year, health officials feared the pandemic would sweep across Africa, killing millions and destroying the continent’s fragile health systems.

Zimbabwe is allowing bars to reopen for the first time in more than a year, but only fully vaccinated people will be allowed to take a swig from inside the premises.

Zimbabwe has told all government employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19 or they will not be allowed to come to work.

Zimbabwe has returned to strict lockdown measures to combat a resurgence of COVID-19 amid vaccine shortages.

Driven by the delta variant, a new wave of COVID-19 is sweeping across the African continent where new cases, hospital admissions, and deaths are increasing.

A new surge of the coronavirus is finally penetrating Africa’s rural areas, where most people on the continent live, spreading to areas that once had been seen as safe havens from infections that hit cities particularly hard.

Some of the most desperately poor countries in the world are seeing a two-headed crisis: a surge in COVID-19 cases and a critical shortage of vaccine.

Zimbabwe has begun releasing about 3,000 prisoners under a presidential amnesty aimed at easing congestion to reduce the threat of COVID-19 in the country’s overcrowded jails.

But COVAX has been facing delays related to the limited global supply of vaccine doses as well as logistical issues. That’s why some countries such as South Africa, the hardest-hit African nation, are also pursuing COVID-19 vaccines via bilateral deals and through the African Union’s bulk-purchasing program. There are ongoing discussions between WHO, the global vaccine alliance GAVI and Indian authorities aimed at ensuring COVAX shipments continue to be prioritized, the official said. That amounts to about 1.5 billion vaccine doses. This is a global pandemic, and we need to solve it through global vaccination, global public health methods," said Anthony Costello, a professor of global health and sustainable development at University College London.

This 2018 photo provided by the Maryknoll Sisters shows Sister Janice McLaughlin with children in Zimbabwe. McLaughlin, a nun who was jailed and later deported by white minority-ruled Rhodesia, later Zimbabwe, for exposing human rights abuses, died on March 7, 2021, in Maryknoll, N.Y. She was 79. (Maryknoll Sisters via AP)JOHANNESBURG – Sister Janice McLaughlin, a Maryknoll Sisters nun who was jailed and later deported by white minority-ruled Rhodesia for exposing human rights abuses, has died. Many more people saw my exposes as a result.”AdFollowing her deportation McLaughlin worked for the Washington Office on Africa, a church-based lobby group, educating the U.S. public and Congress about African affairs. After Zimbabwe’s independence in 1980, McLaughlin worked with the government to establish nine schools for former refugees and war veterans.

The packaging and a container of veterinary ivermectin is seen in Johannesburg, South Africa, Friday Jan. 29, 2021. South Africa is allowing the limited use of a medicine to treat COVID-19 even though regulators acknowledge theres not enough evidence that it works or is safe for this purpose. The South African Health Products Regulatory Authority this week announced the drug ivermectin could be used in exceptional circumstances. The South African Health Products Regulatory Authority this week announced the drug ivermectin could be used in exceptional circumstances. In South Africa, the drug is only registered for use in animals to fight lice and worms.

Pallbearers stand next to coffins of three top government officials at their burial at the National Heroes acre in Harare, Wednesday, Jan, 27, 2021. Pallbearers in full COVID-19 protective gear wheeled the coffins of the two Cabinet ministers and a former head of Zimbabwe's prisons on a red carpet for burial with military honors. Zimbabwe has now lost four cabinet ministers to COVID-19. President Emmerson Mnangagwa said the coronavirus is reaping a “grim harvest” in the country while presiding last week at the burial of one of the ministers who died from COVID-19 at the same shrine. Several other prominent political and business leaders have died from the virus in recent weeks, leaving the country scratching for answers.

FILE In this Jan, 12, 2020 file photo, Zimbabwe's Foreign Minister Sibusiso Moyo in Harare, Zimbabwe. (AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi/File)HARARE – Zimbabwe’s Foreign Minister Sibusiso Moyo, who gained prominence in 2017 as the military general who announced the coup against then-president Robert Mugabe on television, has died from COVID-19, the government announced Wednesday. Moyo was appointed foreign affairs minister after President Emerson Mnangagwa took power with military backing. Zimbabwe is experiencing a resurgence of the disease, with record numbers of daily confirmed cases and deaths. Mnangagwa is on Thursday set to bury another Cabinet minister, Ellen Gwaradzimba, who died from COVID-19 last week.

In response to to rising infections the country has reintroduced a night curfew, banned public gatherings, and indefinitely suspended the opening of schools. (AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi)HARARE – Zimbabwe, battling a spike in new COVID-19 cases, has banned families from transporting their dead relatives between cities, as part of new measures to stop traditional funeral rites that are believed to be increasing the spread of the disease. The announcement stops the custom where families take the dead to their areas of birth for ceremonies and burial. Zimbabwe, like many other African countries, initially recorded low numbers of COVID-19 but has recently experienced a spike in cases. South Africa is currently battling a resurgence of the disease that is rapidly overwhelming its hospitals, health officials there report.

Thousands of people attend a music concert to celebrate New Year's in the Mbare suburb of Harare, Zimbabwe, early Friday, Jan 1, 2021. (AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi)MUTARE – In response to rising COVID-19 numbers, Zimbabwe has reintroduced a night curfew, banned public gatherings, and indefinitely suspended the opening of schools. “We are being overwhelmed and overrun,” Information Minister Nick Mangwana warned, saying the country's hospitals are rapidly reaching capacity with COVID-19 patients. Zimbabwe recorded 1,342 cases and 29 deaths in the past week, “the highest number recorded so far,” Vice President Constantino Chiwenga said, announcing the strict measures. Funerals are now limited to 30 people while other gatherings such as weddings and church services are banned for 30 days.

Zimbabwe investigative journalist Hopwell Chin'ono, appears at the magistrates courts in handcuffs in Harare, Thursday, Nov, 5, 2020. Chin'ono who is one of Zimbabwe's most prominent critics of President Emmerson Mnangagwas administration, faces contempt of court and "obstructing the course of justice" charges. In the meantime, the journalist will spend the night in prison. In court on Thursday, he questioned why the police were taking him to an anti-corruption court when he was not being charged with committing corruption. Chin’ono is one of Zimbabwe’s most prominent critics of President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s administration, accusing it of corruption and human rights abuses.

HARARE – Zimbabwe police have arrested investigative journalist, Hopewell Chin’ono on contempt of court charges, his lawyer said Tuesday. Chin’ono is being held at a police station in the capital, Harare, said Roselyn Hanzi of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, an organization representing the outspoken journalist. If convicted Chin'ono faces a fine or up to one year in prison, according to the charge, she said. Chin'ono is one of Zimbabwe's most prominent critics of President Emmerson Mnangagwa's administration, accusing it of corruption and human rights abuses. Journalists’ organizations, western embassies and human rights groups at that time said Chin’ono is being punished for exposing government corruption.

Wildlife vets take samples from dead elephants found in Hwange National park, Zimbabwe, Saturday, Aug. 29, 2020. (AP Photo)HARARE – Parks authorities in Zimbabwe said Monday that the recent deaths of elephants have been caused by a bacterial disease that has previously affected elephants in Asia and other animals in southern Africa, although more tests will still be carried out. In recent years poachers in Zimbabwe have poisoned dozens of elephants with cyanide and then have taken their ivory tusks to sell them to illegal traders. Not enough information is known about the disease’s effect on local elephants to predict a long-term outcome, he said. “Yes they die, but honestly this is just nothing, a drop in the ocean because we have over 84,000 elephants in Zimbabwe, which is overpopulation already,” he said.

Zimbabwe schools have reopened in phases, but with smaller number of pupils, more teachers and other related measures to enable children to resume their education without the risk of a spike in COVID-19 infections. (AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi)HARARE – Zimbabwe’s schools Monday reopened for pupils in two grades as part of a gradual process that will see all pupils return to class by early November. Teachers in Zimbabwe's government schools earn less than $50 a month and are demanding that they be paid at least $500 a month, he said. Primary and secondary school pupils wore masks and applied sanitizer before entering classrooms on Monday. The students in grades 7 and the final year of secondary school are to write local public examinations in order to graduate from primary and secondary school, respectively.

HARARE The number of elephants dying in western Zimbabwe from a suspected bacterial infection, possibly from eating poisonous plants, has risen to 22, and more deaths are expected, a spokesman for the countrys parks agency said Wednesday. Most of the elephants dying in the Pandamasue Forest, located between the vast Hwange National Park and Victoria Falls, were young or weak, said Tinashe Farawo, spokesman for the Zimbabwe National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority. Animal welfare groups such as the African Wildlife Foundation, have expressed concern at the mysterious deaths of elephants in Botswana and Zimbabwe. Last year about 200 elephants in Zimbabwe died of starvation as a result of the countrys drought. More than 50 people have been killed in such conflicts countrywide so far this year, the deadliest in a decade, said the parks spokesman.

HARARE Zimbabwe's parks authorities in Zimbabwe are investigating the death of 11 elephants in a forest in the west of the country, a parks spokesman said Sunday. In recent years poachers in Zimbabwe have poisoned dozens of elephants and then have taken their ivory tusks to sell them to illegal traders. We are also ruling out poachers because the tusks were intact.The mysterious deaths of the elephants in Zimbabwe appears similar to the deaths last month of more than 275 elephants in neighboring Botswana. Scientists are still investigating the deaths of the elephants in Botswana's Okavango Delta area and poaching, poisoning and anthrax have been ruled out. Last year about 200 elephants in Zimbabwe died of starvation as a result of the country's drought.

Zimbabwe journalist Hopewell Chin'ono appears at the magistrates courts while handcuffed in Harare, Wednesday, July, 22, 2020. Chin'ono known for exposing alleged government corruption is now accused of plotting against the government. (AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi)HARARE Zimbabwe is embroiled in an economic and political crisis marked by human rights abuses, said the country's Roman Catholic bishops, who were then criticized by the government as evil and trying to promote genocide. Fear runs down the spines of many of our people today," said the bishops' statement. Mtetwa said Chinono is surviving on biscuits and water because prison food does not fit his medical requirements.

(AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi)HARARE Scores of people were arrested Friday in Zimbabwe as hundreds of military troops as well as police attempted to thwart an anti-government protest, with streets empty and many people hiding indoors. Organizers said demonstrators originally planned to protest alleged government corruption but instead targeted the ruling political party, using the hashtag #ZANUPFmustgo.Tensions are rising in Zimbabwe as the economy implodes. Police arrested scores of people who tried to hold low-key protests, Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights said. The normally teeming downtown capital, Harare, was deserted as soldiers and police patrolled and manned checkpoints. I have never seen these security people so effective, and the people so compliant, even during those days of the complete lockdown."

In Zimbabwe, clean water is often saved for daily tasks like doing dishes and flushing toilets. (AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi)HARARE Violet Manuel hastily abandoned her uncles funeral and grabbed two empty containers when she heard a boy running down the dirt road shouting, Water, water, water!The 72-year-old joined dozens of people seeking their daily ration in Zimbabwe's densely populated town of Chitungwiza. And yet her plans for the water did not include hand-washing but more important tasks such as cleaning dishes and flushing the toilet. Such choices underscore the challenges of preventing the spread of the coronavirus in slums, camps and other crowded settlements around the world where clean water is scarce and survival is a daily struggle. To encourage hand-washing in some parts of Africa, aid groups are using measures such as placing mirrors and soap at makeshift taps.

In this Oct, 27, 2019, photo, a bird stands on a sun-baked pool that used to be a perennial water supply in Mana Pools National Park, Zimbabwe. (AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi)JOHANNESBURG An estimated 45 million people are threatened with hunger due to a severe drought that is strangling wide stretches of southern Africa. International aid agencies said they are planning emergency food deliveries for parts of South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe and other countries hard hit by a combination of low rainfall and high temperatures as summer approaches in the southern hemisphere. The U.N. World Food Program said southern Africa has received normal rainfall in just one of the past five growing seasons, which particularly hits small-scale farmers who depend on rain for their crops. The U.N. food agencies plan to distribute emergency food aid to 11 million people in the coming months.

HARARE, Zimbabwe - Robert Mugabe, the controversial founding father of Zimbabwe, has died at 95, sparking wildly different reactions around the world. After news broke of his death, some world leaders and political groups reflected the early, hopeful image of Mugabe and focused on his fight to free his country from white minority rule. The South African government tweeted its condolences, describing Mugabe as a "fearless pan-Africanist liberation fighter." The US Embassy in Zimbabwe's capital, Harare, also tweeted condolences to the Mugabe family. "We join the world in reflecting on his legacy in securing Zimbabwe's independence," the tweet said.

Cameron Spencer/Getty Images(CNN) - Zimbabwe is doubling down on selling its wild elephants as it tries to reduce its high population of the animals, President Emmerson Mnangagwa says. "We are willing to sell, in some cases to donate these wildlife animals." So we are now cooperating with Angola to raise funds to demine, and we will give Angola lions, elephants, buffaloes so that we decongest our own areas. In May, Zimbabwe made $2.7 million from the sale of more than 90 elephants to China and Dubai. But Zimbabwe and neighboring Botswana, Namibia and Zambia, with the support of South Africa, are making a fresh appeal to lift restrictions.