Lily Kuo

Cape Town, South Africa

Cape Town, South Africa

Cape Town, South Africa

A war is brewing between local taxi drivers and Uber in Nairobi, with cabbies protesting against the ride hailing app’s presence in the city. They say its cheap fares are threatening to put them out of business and are demanding the government shut Uber down. Two suspects were arrested this week for allegedly attacking an Uber driver in the city.

Kenyans are calling on US attorney general Loretta Lynch to help solve the mystery of almost $1 billion that is allegedly missing from the country’s debut on the international bond market.

When Denis Galava was asked to write an end-of-year editorial for his newspaper, the Daily Nation, Kenya’s most sold daily, the journalist spent six hours at the library reading news clippings for every month of 2015— reports of a faltering economy, terrorist attacks, and worker strikes. “It was a year of pain,” he tells Quartz.

Netflix’s introduction to East Africa’s largest economy isn’t going so well. The Kenya Film Classification Board (KFCB), the government body that regulates all visual media in the country, called the streaming service a threat to the country’s “moral values and national security” and said it would seek to block the service if inappropriate content was not dealt with.

Electronics companies and car makers may be buying cobalt sourced from child miners in the Democratic Republic of Congo and sold by a Chinese company with links to the Chinese and DRC governments, according to a report from Amnesty International and Africa Resources Watch.

The only brewery in the world’s youngest country is being closed. Drinks maker SABMiller announced last week that its brewery outside of Juba will be shuttered as early as mid-February because of a shortage of foreign currency needed to buy raw materials.

The world’s poorest families are more likely to have access to a mobile phone than a toilet, and that’s not necessarily a good thing. 

When Kenya issued its first sovereign bond two years ago, raising $2.75 billion, it was the biggest debut of any African country on the international bond market and further proof that East Africa’s largest economy was on its way up.

Two Yemenis who were held for over a decade at the controversial US naval base in Cuba’s Guantanamo Bay have arrived in Ghana to restart their lives.

African startups may prove the exception to a slowdown in funding for tech companies around the world.

Food staples sold in open-air markets and supermarket chains in Kenya may be laced with toxins, according to a report by local media group the Nation.

God’s blessings came in the form of private jets for Malawian pastor Shepherd Bushiri.

Direct flights between Kenya and the United States could begin as early as May, according to Kenyan officials.

Gambia has banned the female genital mutilation (FGM) and set penalties of up to life in prison for offenders of the new law. The country’s parliament passed a bill criminalizing FGM, which usually involves the removal of a young girl’s labia and clitoris, on Dec. 28th, a month after president Yahya Jammeh promised to end the practice, which causes lifelong health complications.

Zimbabwe plans to capture and send more wild elephants to zoos and safari parks in China, a country not known for strong animal-rights protections.

Kenya’s Garissa University reopened today, nine months after an attack by the Islamist militant group al-Shabaab killed 147 people, including 142 students. Staff, families, and government officials attended the ceremony to mark the occasion, lauded as a triumph over the fear that terrorism aims to create. Most staff came back to the campus last week and students returned today.

Comic Republic, a Nigerian comics startup based in Lagos, is creating a universe of superheroes for Africans and black readers around the world. The cast of characters—”Africa’s Avengers” according to some fans—ranges from Guardian Prime, a 25-year old Nigerian fashion designer by day who uses his extraordinary strength to fight for a better Nigeria, to Hilda Avonomemi Moses, a woman from a remote village in Edo state who can see spirits, and Marcus Chigozie, a privileged but angry teenager who can move at supersonic speeds.

The Chinese yuan may soon be used as legal tender in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe’s finance minister has said China and the southern African country are negotiating plans to increase local usage of the yuan. The two countries are also discussing the cancellation of $40 million worth of debt that Zimbabwe owes to China, its largest investor.

For the past year, African economies have been emotionally preparing for the US Federal Reserve’s rate hike. Now that it’s happened—an increase by a quarter point of the benchmark short-term interest rate—the effect has been largely anti-climactic.

The Central Bank of Kenya took out local newspaper ads this week to warn citizens of the dangers of crypto-currencies like Bitcoin.

As many as 100 people have been killed in Burundi’s capital city Bujumbura over the past four days, after opposition groups attacked government military bases on Friday. Security forces have reportedly raided neighborhoods killing both opposition activists and civilians, leaving their bodies in the streets, in what is the worst spate of violence since April when president Pierre Nkurunziza ignored widespread protests and sought a third term.