United Methodist News Service reports that a religious schism has turned deadly in Nigeria, with a church member fatally shot and two young children killed as homes were set ablaze.

Nigeria is the latest African country to give a new malaria vaccine to young childen.

Twenty-nine minors in Nigeria could be facing the death penalty.

More than 140 people, including children, are dead in Nigeria after an overturned gasoline tanker truck exploded in flames while they tried to scoop up fuel.

Extreme weather is again striking multiple places around the world, including wildfires in California, a hurricane that threatens Louisiana, drought and wildfires in the Amazon and flooding in Nigeria.

Africa's public health body is seeing a rapid increase in mpox cases, with almost 4,000 reported on the continent in the last week.

A leading African scientist says the growing mpox outbreaks in Africa that triggered the World Health Organization’s emergency declaration are largely the result of decades of neglect and the global community’s inability to stop sporadic epidemics among a population with little immunity against the smallpox-related disease.

As the population grows and development extends to rural areas where herders live and graze their cattle, they are now forced to move into the city center in search of pasture.

The Nigeria women’s basketball team wasn’t allowed to board the delegation’s boat for the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics, according to a person familiar with the situation.

Due to warmer temperatures and increasing urbanization, the market for cooling systems is expanding in Africa.

Police say a two-story school collapsed during morning classes in north-central Nigeria, killing 22 students and sending rescuers on a frantic search for more than 100 people trapped in the rubble.

West Africa’s divided regional bloc has asked Senegal’s President Basirou Diomaye Faye to have a dialogue with the three military junta-led member states to try to reunite the region whose stability has been under threat following their decision to leave the group in January.

Nigeria’s government is cracking down on illegal mining, making dozens of arrests of unlicensed miners since April for allegedly stealing the country’s lithium, a critical mineral used in batteries for electric vehicles, smartphones and power systems.

While many of the migrants who reach Europe are escaping war, conflict and poverty, an increasing number are fleeing possible prison terms and death sentences because they are gay.

Police in Nigeria say armed men have broken into a school in northwestern Nigeria and abducted 15 children.

A school headteacher in northwestern Nigeria says gunmen who attacked the school abducted 287 students as they were about to start classes.

There’s no doubt which wins in the club vs.

Nigerian authorities say two people have died and 77 others have been injured in a massive blast that rocked more than a dozen buildings in one of the country's largest cities.

On Oct. 22, the books arrived in Nigeria, much to the delight of people in the community of Ogoni.

Most of the population in conflict-affected countries like Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad and northern Nigeria depends on climate-vulnerable agriculture.

At the U.N. General Assembly meeting in New York, African leaders are relaying a unanimous message, that their continent of more than 1.3 billion people is done being a “victim” of a post-world war order and must be recognized and partnered with as a global power in itself.

Thousands are marching across Nigeria over the mysterious death of an Afrobeat star whose body has been exhumed for an autopsy as authorities investigate the cause of his demise.

Rescue crews are searching for survivors after a building collapse in Nigeria's capital left two people dead while many others are feared trapped.

Omo Forest Reserve, a tropical rainforest in southern Nigeria, faces threats from excessive logging, uncontrolled farming and poaching.

One week after a deadline passed for mutinous soldiers in Niger to reinstate the country’s ousted president or face military intervention, the junta has not acquiesced.

England held firm despite a red card for Lauren James to beat Nigeria on penalty kicks and advance to the quarterfinals at the Women’s World Cup.

Christine Sinclair hopes her sixth appearance at the Women's World Cup will finally land Canada the elusive title.

Authorities in Nigeria say they have activated a national response plan ahead of what's expected to be another round of deadly floods blamed mainly on climate change and infrastructure problems.

A United Nations committee is meeting in Paris to work on what is intended to be a landmark treaty to bring an end to global plastic pollution, but there is little agreement on what the outcome should be.

Aviation workers in Nigeria have embarked on a two-day strike, leaving thousands of travelers stranded as airlines canceled or rescheduled flights in the country's major cities.

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

In Nigeria’s teeming city of Lagos, children in the Makoko area swim and play in filthy water surrounded by garbage.

Governments gave their blessing Sunday to a major new U.N. report on climate change, after approval was held up by a battle between rich and developing countries over emissions targets and financial aid to vulnerable nations.

Health officials in Burundi have declared an outbreak of polio linked to the vaccine, the first time the paralytic disease has been detected in the east African country for more than three decades.

Six states in Nigeria have withdrawn a suit asking the country’s Supreme Court to void the result of the just-concluded presidential election.

The Nigeria Police Force says at least 12 people have died in an explosion and fire near an illegal oil refinery site in the country's oil-rich Niger Delta region.

Nigeria's opposition demanded a revote Tuesday for the country’s presidential election, where partial results show an early lead for the ruling party.

A new report by the U.N.’s international development agency says that sub-Saharan Africa is the new global epicenter of violent Islamic extremism and that people are increasingly joining as a result of economic factors and less by religious ones.

Droughts, flooding and a shrinking Lake Chad caused in part by climate change is fueling conflict and migration in the region and needs to be better addressed, a report said Thursday.

Experts raised concerns over a new policy announced by the Central Bank of Nigeria that heavily limits withdrawals of money in a push for a cashless economy.

Rail service has resumed between Nigeria's capital and neighboring Kaduna state eight months after a deadly attack.

In a story published November 23, 2022, about new Nigerian currency notes, The Associated Press erroneously reported that 200 Nigerian naira amount to 5 U.S. cents.

Teenage climate activists in Nigeria’s largest city are recycling trash into runway outfits for a “Trashion Show.”.

The defending champion United States will face Netherlands in the group stage of the women’s soccer World Cup next summer, setting up an early rematch of the 2019 World Cup final.

West and Central African countries are battling deadly floods that have upended lives and livelihoods, raising fears of further disruption of food supplies in many areas battling armed conflict.

The U.S. Soccer Federation has received three new reports of misconduct in women's soccer.

The outbreak of monkeypox is subsiding in Europe and parts of North America.

The White House says Vice President Kamala Harris will lead the U.S. delegation to the state funeral of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe later this month.

Representatives for the men’s and women’s U.S. national teams signed their historic collective bargaining agreements with U.S. Soccer, formally closing a long and acrimonious fight over equal pay.

Sophia Smith scored a pair of first-half goals and the U.S. women’s national team defeated Nigeria 4-0 on Saturday as both teams prepare for next summer’s World Cup.

Access to more and cleaner energy while continuing to grow economically will be a top priority for African nations in the upcoming United Nations climate conference in November, top officials and climate experts on the continent said.

The Osun River flows through a forest designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Business leaders and officials from eight developing nations meeting in Bangladesh say more cooperation is needed among them to overcome dwindling foreign currency reserves, a growing energy crisis and supply chain disruptions.

Nigeria is grappling with child malnutrition in its troubled northwest region where armed groups have been targeting rural communities.

Thirty-eight persons have been confirmed dead after the attack on a church in southwestern Nigeria, according to the Catholic church in Ondo state where the incident happened.

Nigeria has recorded its first death from monkeypox in 2022 while Congo has confirmed nine deaths and 465 cases this year.

Police say a stampede at a church charity event in southern Nigeria has left 31 people dead and seven injured.

A three-story residential building has collapsed in Lagos, Nigeria’s largest city, killing at least five people with many feared trapped.

Days after more than 100 people died in an explosion at an illegal oil refinery in southeast Nigeria, authorities and gravediggers returned to the site in a forest to bury about 50 unclaimed bodies that were burned beyond recognition.

Nigeria has had to destroy more than 1 million doses of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine that were too close to their expiry date to be used.

Across Africa, faith is a central part of social and political life.

Omicron cases have been confirmed in at least nine African countries, with some officials reporting that initial cases appear to be mild.

South Korea has broken its daily record for coronavirus infections for a second straight day with more than 5,200 new cases, as pressure mounts on a health care system grappling with rising hospitalizations and deaths.

Nigeria has detected its first case of the omicron coronavirus variant in travelers that arrived from South Africa in the past week, the country’s national public health institute said Wednesday, correcting its earlier statement that it found the variant in samples taken in October.

South Korea has confirmed its first five cases of the new omicron coronavirus variant in people linked to arrivals from Nigeria.

The Biden administration has formally revoked the terrorist designation of Colombia’s former FARC guerrilla army.

Emergency service officials in Nigeria say that a gas explosion in Lagos has killed at least five people, including a child.

Local Niger government officials say at least 18 people were killed and 7 injured when a gold mine collapsed in the Maradi region.

A Nigerian Red Cross official says seven more bodies have been recovered from a high-rise apartment building that collapsed while under construction in Lagos, bringing the death toll to 43.

The number of bodies recovered from a collapsed high-rise apartment building in Nigeria’s most populous city has risen to 36, an emergency official told The Associated Press.

The death toll from the collapse of a high-rise apartment building under construction in Nigeria’s most populous city has risen to 21, the Lagos state governor says, as rescue crews continue to seek surviving workers in the rubble.

Authorities in Nigeria's largest city say the owner of a high-rise apartment building that collapsed suddenly has been arrested.

Witnesses and officials say at least three people were killed and dozens more remain missing after the collapse of a 21-story apartment building being built in an upscale area of Nigeria’s largest city.

A Cambridge University college says it will return a looted bronze cockerel to Nigeria later this month.

Nigeria is seeing one of its worst cholera outbreaks in years, with more than 2,300 people dying from suspected cases as Africa’s most populous country struggles to deal with multiple disease outbreaks.

Authorities in northern Nigeria have announced three separate groups of kidnapped students being freed within a 24-hour period.

A school official in northern Nigeria says gunmen have released some of the more than 100 children who had been abducted back in May.

The Africa director of the World Health Organization says the continent was able to triple its COVID-19 vaccination rate over the past week, helped by growing numbers of donations of doses from developed countries.

Nigerian police say gunmen have abducted nine students on their way home from an Islamic school in the country’s northwest, two days after a mass school abduction took place in a neighboring state.

Thousands of new coronavirus cases have been reported in West Africa in recent weeks amid low vaccination rates and the spread of the delta variant.

The U.S. has five of the best post players in the world.

When the Dream Team era started in 1992, most of the NBA players in the Olympics represented the United States.

Nneka Ogwumike and Elizabeth Williams have been notified by FIBA that their petitions to play for Nigeria in the upcoming Olympics were denied because they played for the U.S. for too long, says two people familiar with the situation.

A United Nations report says last year saw a “dramatic worsening” of world hunger, much of that likely linked to the pandemic.

With the Olympics right around the corner, the final rosters and teams are shaping up, and that includes the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team.

The last stop for USA Basketball before the Tokyo Olympics will be Las Vegas.

VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis on Sunday decried the kidnapping of 317 students from their boarding school in northwest Nigeria and prayed for the girls' quick release. Police on Friday in Nigeria said gunmen had abducted the students from their boarding school. “I pray for these girls, so that they may return home soon,'' the pope said. A resident of the area said the gunmen also attacked a nearby military camp and checkpoint, preventing soldiers from interfering with the mass abduction. On Saturday, authorities in Nigeria announced that nearly 40 students, teachers and relatives abducted on Feb. 17 from a school in northern Nigeria have been freed.

“It’s a separate lineage from the U.K. and South Africa,” the head of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, John Nkengasong, told reporters. He said the Nigeria CDC and the African Center of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases would analyze more samples. The new virus variant in South Africa is now the predominant one there, Nkengasong said, as confirmed infections in the country approach 1 million. “We believe this mutation will not have an effect” on the deployment of COVID-19 vaccines to the continent, he said of the South Africa variant. Infections across the continent have risen 10.9% over the past four weeks, the Africa CDC director said, including a 52% increase in Nigeria and 40% increase in South Africa.

(AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)BEIJING — Authorities in China’s northeastern port city of Dalian are testing millions of residents after seven new coronavirus cases were reported there in the last 24 hours. It has a deal to secure up to 100 million doses of the potential vaccine produced by AstraZeneca. Koca said the first shipment of three million doses of CoronaVac would be shipped to Turkey on Sunday and arrive Monday. He said Turkey could get 4.5 million doses until the end of March and would have the option buy up to 30 million doses. Indonesia has reported nearly 700,000 COVID-19 cases, the largest caseload in Southeast Asia and second in Asia only to India’s 10.1 million confirmed cases.

WASHINGTON – An American citizen kidnapped in the West African nation of Niger this past week has been rescued in a U.S. military operation in neighboring Nigeria, U.S. officials said Saturday. The man was taken from his farm in Massalata in southern Niger early Tuesday morning by armed kidnappers who demanded a ransom from the man’s father. “This American citizen is safe and is now in the care of the U.S. Department of State. No U.S military personnel were injured during the operation,” the department said in a statement. The officials were not authorized to publicly discuss the operation and spoke on condition of anonymity to provide details .

People hold banners as they demonstrate on the street to protest against police brutality, in Lagos, Nigeria, Tuesday Oct. 20, 2020. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)LAGOS – Amnesty International said late Tuesday there was “credible but disturbing evidence” that security forces in the megacity of Lagos had fatally shot protesters who were demonstrating against police brutality despite a new curfew going into effect. The development came just hours after Lagos state Gov. The governor of Lagos state said the new curfew would cover the entire city of some 14 million people and surrounding areas. The announcement came after a police station was burned down in the city and two people were shot dead by police.

Middle income-countries are expected to have 82% of the new extreme poor, including India, Nigeria and Indonesia. Most of the new extreme poor, more than 110 million even by the World Bank's baseline estimate, will be in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Roughly a third of the newly extreme poor are expected to be in sub-Saharan Africa, between 26 million and 40 million. The World Bank estimates between 88 million and 115 million people could slip into extreme poverty this year, with another 23 million to 35 million in 2021. The report "offers no simple answers to these major challenges currently confronting the world, because there are not any,” the World Bank authors write.

The announcement by the African Regional Certification Commission for Polio Eradication comes after no cases have been reported for four years. But sometimes patchy surveillance across the vast continent of 1.3 billion people raises the possibility that scattered cases of the wild poliovirus still remain, undetected. The final push to combat the wild poliovirus focused largely on northern Nigeria, where the Boko Haram Islamic extremist group has carried out a deadly insurgency for more than a decade. Africa's last reported case of the wild poliovirus was in Nigeria in 2016. Cases remain of the so-called vaccine-derived polio virus, which is a rare mutated form of the weakened but live virus contained in the oral polio vaccine.

South Africa will began a phased easing of its strict lockdown measures on May 1, although its confirmed cases of coronavirus continue to increase. In South Africa, which has the continent's highest number of reported cases at 5,350, community health workers continued testing in Johannesburg. The Ghana Health Service reported 403 new cases, bringing the total to 2,074. The spike was announced 10 days after President Nana Akufo-Addo eased a three-week lockdown in the capital of Accra and in the city of Kumasi. Adwoa Nyarku said she used to earn about $100 a week cleaning houses in the capital of Accra, where 89% of the country's confirmed cases have been reported.