Editor's note

The Aedes aegypti is a black mosquito with white spots that only bites during the day. Females of this species transmit two related diseases, the chikungunya and dengue viruses, which have become more common in Kenya in recent years. Now scientists have discovered what's attracting disease-bearing mosquitoes to specific people. The secret, writes Eunice Anyango Owino, lies in body odour.

Many believe that an ongoing and often bloody conflict between nomadic herdsmen and indigenous farmers in Nigeria is motivated by religion and ethnicity. The farmers are mostly Christian, the herdsmen are largely Fulanis, a primarily Muslim people scattered throughout West Africa. But, says Olalekan Adekola, there's an environmental perspective that gets lost in these narratives: the groups are competing for increasingly scarce resources like water and pasture for their cattle.

Candice Bailey

Health + Medicine Editor

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How we pinned down what attracts mosquitos that carry dengue fever

Eunice Anyango Owino, University of Nairobi

In the future, traps for mosquito that spread the dengue and chikungunya virus could be made from the carbon dioxide in human breathe as well as body odour.

roseshutterstock25 / shutterstock

Nigeria's conflict is a result of environmental devastation across West Africa

Olalekan Adekola, York St John University

Talk of ethnic and religious conflict between Muslim Fulani herders and local Christian farmers misses the full picture – this is about resources.

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