2000 – Present
Contemporary Africa
The African Union era, economic growth and challenges, technology and culture booms, and the political and social stories still unfolding today.
Researched Articles
On This Day
- British paratroopers launched Operation Barras in Sierra Leone, freeing six captured British soldiers and h… (2000)
- Laurent Gbagbo was sworn in as president of Cote d'Ivoire in the evening, a day after Gen. Robert Guei fled… (2000)
- Kenya Airways Flight 431, an Airbus A310, crashed into the Atlantic shortly after a night take-off from Abi… (2000)
- Khaby Lame, Senegalese-Italian social media personality who became one of the most-followed people online,… (2000)
- Hundreds of members of a Ugandan religious cult died in a fire and related killings in one of the deadliest… (2000)
- Habib Bourguiba died at Monastir at 96. He had led Tunisia to independence from France and governed it from… (2000)
- Rema, Nigerian Afrobeats singer-songwriter and rapper, was born. (2000)
- Ugandan and Rwandan forces fought each other in the streets of Kisangani, Democratic Republic of the Congo,… (2000)
- Nelson Mandela mediated a Burundi peace summit in Arusha, Tanzania, bringing together the country's warring… (2001)
- Otema Allimadi, who served as Uganda's prime minister from 1980 to 1985 after an earlier term as foreign mi… (2001)
- A passenger train on the scheduled Luanda to Dondo service struck an anti-tank mine near Zenza do Itombe in… (2001)
- Donald Woods, the South African journalist and anti-apartheid activist who exposed the killing of his frien… (2001)
- Mongo Beti, Cameroonian novelist and outspoken critic of colonial and post-colonial governance, died in Dou… (2001)
- Léopold Sédar Senghor, the first President of Senegal and a founding figure of the Négritude literary movem… (2001)
- Rwanda adopted a new national flag and anthem, replacing symbols associated with the era of the 1994 genocide. (2001)
- Democratic Republic of the Congo President Laurent-Désiré Kabila was shot by one of his own bodyguards in K… (2001)
- A Scottish court sitting in the Netherlands convicted Libyan agent Abdelbaset al-Megrahi for the 1988 bombi… (2001)
- Police fired tear gas into a packed stand at Accra Sports Stadium after Asante Kotoko fans threw seats onto… (2001)
- The Constitutive Act of the African Union entered into force, formally replacing the Organisation of Africa… (2001)
- Soad Hosny, one of the most celebrated actresses and singers in Egyptian cinema history, known to fans as t… (2001)
- A Boeing 707 crashed near Bangui M'Poko International Airport in the Central African Republic, killing 28 p… (2002)
- The African Union was formally launched at a summit in Durban, South Africa, replacing the Organisation of… (2002)
- The Pretoria Accord was signed between the DRC and Rwanda in an effort to end the Second Congo War. (2002)
- Robert Guéï, former military ruler and the third president of Côte d'Ivoire, was killed during the outbreak… (2002)
- The Senegalese ferry MV Le Joola capsized in a storm off the Gambian coast on its way from Ziguinchor to Da… (2002)
- Congolese parties in the Second Congo War signed a peace accord providing for transitional governance and f… (2002)
- Mount Nyiragongo erupted in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, sending lava through the city of Goma and… (2002)
- President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah declared Sierra Leone's civil war over at a ceremony at Lungi, where about 3,0… (2002)
- A fire at a street market beside the Ikeja Cantonment in Lagos spread to the army's main munitions store, s… (2002)
- Tyla, South African singer-songwriter who blends amapiano with pop and R&B, was born. (2002)
- A gas cylinder ignited in a crowded third-class carriage on the Cairo to Luxor night train, and fire spread… (2002)
- Angolan rebel leader Jonas Savimbi, founder of UNITA, was killed in a military ambush, effectively ending t… (2002)
- Angola's MPLA government and UNITA rebels signed a peace treaty, formally ending the 27-year Angolan Civil… (2002)
- An al-Qaeda suicide truck bombing struck the ancient El Ghriba synagogue on the Tunisian island of Djerba,… (2002)
- An EgyptAir Boeing 737 crashed on approach to Tunis-Carthage International Airport, killing 14 people. (2002)
- Mamo Wolde, the Ethiopian runner who won the marathon at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, died. (2002)
- A passenger train carrying more than 1,200 people rolled backwards down the Igandu hill in central Tanzania… (2002)
- Sudan Airways Flight 139 crashed on takeoff in Port Sudan, killing all but one of the 117 people aboard. (2003)
- US President George W. Bush met Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo to discuss relocating former Liberian… (2003)
- Foday Sankoh, the Sierra Leonean rebel leader who founded the Revolutionary United Front and led forces dur… (2003)
- Liberian President Charles Taylor resigned and went into exile in Nigeria amid civil war and international… (2003)
- Idi Amin died in exile in Jeddah, never having answered for his rule. The International Commission of Juris… (2003)
- Wilfred Thesiger, the Ethiopian-born British explorer renowned for his journeys across the Horn of Africa a… (2003)
- Guinea-Bissau President Kumba Ialá was ousted in a bloodless military coup led by General Veríssimo Correia… (2003)
- Simon Muzenda died at 80. He had been deputy prime minister of Zimbabwe from independence in 1980 until the… (2003)
- UTA Flight 141 crashed at Cotonou Airport in Benin shortly after takeoff, killing 141 people. (2003)
- Benyoucef Benkhedda, Algerian politician who led the exile government during the Algerian War of Independen… (2003)
- Air Algérie Flight 6289 crashed at Tamanrasset Airport in Algeria, killing 102 of the 103 people aboard. (2003)
- Samson Kitur, Kenyan sprinter and 1992 Olympic bronze medalist in the 400 metres, died. (2003)
- Walter Sisulu, South African anti-apartheid leader and longtime ANC secretary-general, died. (2003)
- Twelve men from the Sidi Moumen shanty towns blew themselves up at five places across Casablanca on the sam… (2003)
- A powerful earthquake struck Boumerdes in northern Algeria, killing more than 2,200 people. (2003)
- Cameroonian footballer Marc-Vivien Foé collapsed and died on the pitch during a Confederations Cup match in… (2003)
- Attackers, many of them from the Hutu rebel Forces for National Liberation, overran the Gatumba refugee cam… (2004)
- Three bombs went off at Israeli-frequented resorts in Sinai, the largest a truck driven into the lobby of t… (2004)
- Wangari Maathai of Kenya was announced winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, becoming the first African woman to… (2004)
- Jacques Derrida, Algerian-born French philosopher who founded the school of deconstruction, died in Paris. (2004)
- Deyda Hydara, a Gambian journalist and press-freedom advocate who co-founded the newspaper The Point, was s… (2004)
- Flash Airlines Flight 604 crashed into the Red Sea shortly after takeoff from Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, killi… (2004)
- The Al Hoceima earthquake struck northern Morocco, killing at least 628 people and displacing thousands. (2004)