Editor's note

Less than a year ago the world’s largest refugee camp, Dadaab in Kenya, was threatened with closure by the country’s government. Cristiano D'Orsi interviewed the UN Refugee Agency Ambassador Mohamed Abdi Affey, to find out what’s next for the camp and its inhabitants.

The Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) has relied on agreements and announcements to meet its integration goals to operate beyond just words on paper. Karen Jackson, David Potts and Essa Bah explain why leaders should look to history for lessons on how to deepen unity.

For some background reading, find our special edition for the day on Africa’s fossils. Fossils add to our understanding of Earth’s ancient species and can help scientists make predictions about evolution and climate change, among other things. In our special edition, Lara Sciscio reveals how ancient footprints introduced researchers to a massive meat-eating dinosaur that once roamed Lesotho. Anne Austin traces the arduous commute of ancient Egyptian builders, showing how the journey was preserved in their bones, while Sandra Jasinoski and Fernando Abdala explain that fossil evidence shows how our pre-mammalian ancestors nurtured their young.

Moina Spooner

Commissioning Editor: East Africa

Top story

People move around the outskirts of Dagahaley settlement at Kenya’s Dadaab Refugee Camp. Reuters/Jonathan Ernst

The world's largest refugee camp: what the future holds for Dadaab

Cristiano D'Orsi, University of Johannesburg

UN Refugee Agency special envoy Ambassador Mohamed Abdi Affey, explains what caused the reversal of the decision to close Dadaab, and what the future holds for Kenya's Somali refugees.

Politics + Society

Business + Economy

Environment + Energy

  • Cape Town's water crisis: driven by politics more than drought

    David W. Olivier, University of the Witwatersrand

    The water crisis in South Africa's Cape Town teaches us there's more at okay than just rainfall. Disasters like droughts involves seeing the issue from many different perspectives, including politics.

Big African fossil finds

Kayentapus ambrokholohali footprints belong to an animal of about 26 feet long, dwarfing all the life around it. Theropod image adapted by Lara Sciscio, with permission, from an illustration by Scott Hartman

Meet the giant dinosaur that roamed southern Africa 200 million years ago

Lara Sciscio, University of Cape Town

Until this discovery, theropod dinosaurs were thought to be considerably smaller, at three to five metres in body length, during the Early Jurassic.

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