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Nigerian President Bola Tinubu has declared a nationwide security emergency after a surge in kidnappings and armed attacks on schools and places of worship.

U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened military action over what he says is the persecution of Christians.

Across Africa, home-grown tech solutions are being designed to protect nature and people, from using artificial intelligence to monitor illegal logging or predict against floods, to building solar projects that power irrigation.

Tech experts say the surge of innovations faces challenges including shortages of funding and frequent power cuts, but this can also such as greater use of solar power.

In one week in mid-November, militia groups in Nigeria snatched from a Catholic school, took 25 girls from their hostels and , killing three worshippers and kidnapping dozens of others.  

The wave of attacks has on the Nigerian government from U.S. President Donald Trump, who has threatened military action over the purported persecution of Christians.

In a sprawling factory in Nigeria's southern state of Cross River, dozens of young technicians swarm around a production line, picking out solar-powered batteries, fans and lamps to test for quality.

Clad in pink overalls, they package the tested products for shipment from the Salpha Energy's solar assembly plant on the outskirts of Calabar to customers throughout the West African country.

As the United Nations' COP30 summit begins in Belém, Brazil, African leaders and negotiators want the continent to capitalise on its vast mineral reserves to transform their economies.

Africa holds about 30% of the world's critical mineral reserves that include cobalt, lithium and manganese, the backbone of clean energy technologies, like solar panels and electric vehicles.

A short-term renewal of the Africa-U.S. AGOA trade deal would deepen uncertainty for African exporters and instead the pact should be reformed to spur investment in strategic sectors, like critical minerals, a Nigerian business leader said.

The African Growth and Opportunity Act was signed under President Bill Clinton's administration in 2000 to boost economic ties with African countries, but it expired at the end of September with no clarity on its future.

Nigerian director Sarah Kwaji was always unsettled by how mental health issues were ignored by Nollywood, Nigeria's prolific movie industry.

So when she got the opportunity to produce her first film in 2023, Kwaji decided to document a Nigerian mother's struggles with depression.

Be it AI pest detectors in Kenya or Nigerian soil-free farming, climate change is pushing farmers to innovate and show the sort of can-do spirit that experts say is vital if Africa is to overcome its twin scourge of high heat and hunger.

The experts - drawn from government, farming and the lab - are meeting in Senegal to brainstorm new ways to deal with old threats as farmers across whole swathes of Africa face , conflict, a debt crisis and ever-worsening climate shocks.

As funds dwindled, the World Food Programme last month issued an urgent SOS to donors: it could to 1.3 million people displaced by conflict and extreme weather in Nigeria's northeast and its operations were about to collapse.

The U.N. agency, the largest provider of global food aid, said it had already distributed its last grain reserves and that without new funding, it would have to shut down 150 nutrition centres treating 300,000 malnourished children.

Africa's biggest gold producer Ghana is deploying to crack down on illegal gold mining that has poisoned its rivers and destroyed its forests.

In June, the government launched the , a multi-agency initiative that is using technology to detect and track illegal sites.

Nearly 40% of Ghana's gold is extracted by small-scale miners who like mercury and cyanide to process it.