Troupes, dignitaries grace African drums festival Abeokuta

When she was only a teenager, Valerie Ka graced catwalks across the African continent as a model and muse. As her political consciousness grew, she became a flagbearer for contemporary African fashion around the world. Today, in a boutique hotel in Paris’s 8th arrondissement, she is overseeing the very first edition of her latest project: Share Africa.

The Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa, is set to become the first state hospital in Africa to perform robotic-assisted surgery, following the launch of the state-of-the-art Da Vinci X-I surgical robot.⁣⁣ The four-armed robot will aid surgeons in carrying out complex surgeries on patients in a less invasive and shorter period of time.⁣⁣

The African Union has secured more than 100 million vaccine doses with partial help from the United States. Meanwhile, China will begin vaccinating children as young as 3 years old. Follow DW for more.

Lazarus Chakwera, the president of Malawi, who is also currently chair of the Southern African Development Community, gave an interview to FRANCE 24 from Dubai. He hailed Malawi and Zambia as "examples of what democracy is about". Chakwera insisted that overall, "democracy is getting consolidated" on the continent, in spite of "erratic events", referring to the recent coups in Mali, Guinea and now Sudan. He described such coups as being "not the African way".

The African Union has suspended Sudan's participation in activities until the restoration of a civilian-led authority. Earlier, the EU had condemned the army for toppling Prime Minister Abdullah Hamdok's government.

The global minimum tax is supposed to bring tax justice. But not even half of Africa's countries are on board. Kenya and Nigeria have backed out amid uncertainty over how much the measures would benefit poor countries.

At Thoiry park, in the Yvelines region outside Paris, there are many surprises in store. Thoiry is not a typical zoo, since the animals live in semi-freedom. The safari is the main attraction. Visitors get around in their own cars or on board a so-called bush truck to discover 180 different species of animals up close, including lions and elephants. FRANCE 24 takes you behind the scenes of the park, which attracts half a million visitors a year.

Military leaders in Mali and Guinea are under pressure to follow a roadmap for elections after coups in recent years. The sanctions consist of travel bans and asset freezes.

Rich nations pledged more than a decade ago to pay $100 billion a year by 2020 to help developing countries cut their own emissions and reduce the already-felt impacts of climate change.

Saudi Arabia is offering residents and tourists a unique safari experience in the desert of its capital Riyadh, at a site now home to 700 animals native to Africa. Lions and tigers are just a few of the animals that were flown in from outside the kingdom to the 175,000 square metres stretch of land that is now a safari park, where visitors seated in a vehicle can see them, some for the very first time.

The African Union is forging ahead with mediation talks in Ethiopia as the US warns of the potential far-reaching consequences of the conflict. But productive negotiations are still far from assured.

On his first visit to Africa, US top envoy Antony Blinken has addressed Ethiopia's raging Tigray conflict, the terrorism threat in Africa and human rights concerns in Nigeria.