African leaders gathered Saturday ahead of extravagant celebrations for the 50th jubilee of the continental bloc, with Africa's myriad problems set aside for a day to mark the progress that has been made.
An international donor conference to drum up funds and troops to help the military operation against Islamist militants in Mali opened on Tuesday at the African Union headquarters in Ethiopia's capital.
Three-quarters of African countries and several "Arab Spring" nations are at high or extreme risk of a food crisis, according to an analysis published on Wednesday.
The leaders of Sudan and South Sudan met late Sunday as international pressure grew to end long-running disputes that have brought the former civil war foes to the brink of renewed conflict.
Ethiopia will bury its longtime powerful prime minister Meles Zenawi on Sunday in the first state funeral staged for a leader of the Horn of Africa nation in more than 80 years.
Standing in front of the rag-covered tent that has been her family's home for 18 months, grandmother Halbo Maow says that while the men with the guns might have changed, life still remains tough.