Another piece of the puzzle about how our ancestors evolved has fallen into place. A new find of a drawing made with an ochre crayon in the Blombos Cave in South Africa’s southern Cape region suggests that our ancestors were drawing earlier than we thought. Christopher Henshilwood and Karen Loise van Niekerk explain its significance.

In the Horn of Africa Ethiopia’s Prime Minister has set off a dramatic series of events to bring peace to the region. But will his interventions have a lasting impact? Abiy Ahmed has indeed achieved a great deal in just a few months. But internal reforms need to be pursued in both Ethiopia and Eritrea for long-term peace and security, argues Martin Plaut.

Emergency healthcare in most African countries is abysmal. One of the reasons for this is that many countries don’t have a database of their health facilities that would show where they are located and which communities they serve. Paul Ouma and Emelda Okiro addressed this by creating the first ever database of hospitals in sub-Saharan Africa.

And without help from aid agencies, the impact of both man-made and natural disasters would be more devastating. But aid workers - particularly those working in their home countries - face increasing risks. Alexander N Hasenstab writes that their protection needs to be dealt with as a matter of urgency.