标签： Africa

Across the bustling thoroughfares of Kampala, Uganda’s bustling capital, a quiet but transformative shift is reshaping the city’s daily transit landscape: sleek, domestically manufactured electric buses are now a regular part of urban mobility, pushing the East African nation’s ambitious push for low-carbon, sustainable public transportation forward.

The 40-seater electric buses, finished in a distinctive green-and-gray design, have captured public curiosity since their launch. Fitted with on-board WiFi, they let passengers stream content and share their travel experiences to social media in real time, turning ordinary commutes into shareable moments that have boosted the vehicles’ popularity among local residents.

Uganda’s foray into electric mobility is not a recent development. The country first marked its entry into the sector in 2016, when it unveiled the Kayoola electric bus – Africa’s first solar-powered electric vehicle, whose name translates loosely to “mass carrier” in local languages. Today, that early prototype has evolved into a full-fledged national initiative, led by domestic automotive manufacturer Kiira Motors Corporation (KMC) and its subsidiary E-Bus Xpress Kiira Ltd, which are spearheading efforts to scale electric mobility across the country.

During a recent media tour of KMC’s Kiira Vehicle Plant in Jinja, eastern Uganda, KMC managing director Ian Kyeyune announced that the fleet of electric buses operating on Kampala’s urban routes will expand from 16 to 45 within just one month. Looking ahead, the company has set a target to manufacture more than 1,500 electric buses over the coming 12 months, a milestone that aligns with Uganda’s national e-mobility strategy, which aims to put 15,000 electric vehicles on the country’s roads by 2030.

To clear the way for this green transition, Kampala’s municipal authorities have already begun overhauling urban traffic management. The city has eliminated curbside parking in dense downtown districts and introduced dedicated bus lanes, measures designed to cut through chronic congestion and prioritize public transit in a city where gasoline and diesel-powered private vehicles have long dominated road space. The national government is also encouraging growth in the sector by opening it up to private investment: under a new franchise framework, independent transport operators can own full fleets, while outside investors can purchase stakes in individual buses over fixed contract periods.

Beyond their environmental benefits, KMC technical leaders highlight that the electric buses deliver substantial economic advantages over traditional diesel-powered alternatives, from lower upfront procurement costs to reduced ongoing service and maintenance expenses. “We save over 60 percent of energy costs,” Kyeyune explained. “While an ordinary diesel taxi would spend 1,800 Ugandan shillings ($0.48) per kilometer, we only spend 800 shillings on energy.” Kyeyune added that lower operating costs mean private operators can recoup their initial investment in approximately three years, and the buses’ batteries can be repurposed for grid energy storage paired with solar power systems once they reach the end of their automotive lifespan.

The 12-year lifespan batteries currently used in the buses are sourced from Chinese suppliers, and KMC has built a close collaborative partnership with Chinese automotive firms to build domestic technical capacity in electric vehicle manufacturing. “We are working with a partner from China because their auto industry, in terms of electric vehicles, is the best in the world. We want to learn from the best,” said Richard Madanda, KMC’s director of production.

Uganda is already looking to expand its electric mobility footprint beyond its national borders. In late 2025, the country completed a pan-African demonstration expedition, where a single domestically built electric bus traveled 13,000 kilometers across five Southern and East African nations: Tanzania, Zambia, Botswana, Eswatini, and South Africa, showcasing the viability of Ugandan-built electric transit for markets across the continent.

Three years into Sudan’s brutal civil conflict, more than 8,000 people remain unaccounted for, leaving their relatives trapped in a torturous limbo of not knowing whether their loved ones are alive or dead. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) confirms these missing persons numbers, a devastating byproduct of a war that has ripped apart countless households across the nation. People have disappeared while fleeing violence, fallen victim to unrecorded combat deaths, or been secretly detained, leaving their families in perpetual psychological agony.

For Azaher Abdallah, that agony has stretched for more than a year. Her husband, 38-year-old Fahmy al-Fateh — a farmer and merchant who joined Sudan’s national army when the war broke out — left their home before sunrise in January last year. He called her on his way out, saying he would stop at the market before returning home after completing his assignment for the day. Al-Fateh was last seen riding a motorcycle away from a Khartoum military base, and he never came back. Today, the couple’s 3-year-old son runs screaming after every passing motorcycle, convinced his father has finally come home.

“He was the most precious thing in my life,” Abdallah said through sobs, hiding her face in her hands. “I would feel more at peace if I knew anything. It is better than this endless uncertainty, never knowing if he is alive or dead.” Abdallah has searched every hospital morgue across Khartoum, pleaded with army officials for information, and still keeps scrolling through old photos of her husband in uniform, refusing to abandon hope. “That is what my heart tells me — he will come home one day,” she said.

Psychological experts warn that this ambiguous loss inflicts long-term, profound harm on surviving family members. “Families of missing persons experience additional layers of vulnerabilities due to hostilities, displacement and the unresolvable grief of ambiguous loss,” explained Nathalie Nyamukeba, a psychologist working with the ICRC. The organization has managed to resolve just over 1,000 missing person cases to date, but has declined to share how many of those cases ended with confirmation of life or death.

Across Khartoum state, authorities believe many missing people now lie in unmarked graves scattered across the capital. When the army retook full control of Khartoum from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group last year, tens of thousands of hastily buried bodies were discovered across the city. During the height of combat, it was too dangerous to transport bodies to formal cemeteries, so residents buried their dead wherever they could: in neighborhood soccer fields, along road sides, beside abandoned gas stations, and even in front of family homes. During a recent reporting trip through Khartoum, Associated Press journalists encountered overflowing formal cemeteries and unmarked dirt mounds scattered across public spaces, many with no identifying information at all.

For Sulafa Mustafa, the search for her 18-year-old son Suleiman Abdalsid has stretched across two years. The shy teen left home to visit a friend on the outskirts of Khartoum and never returned. Even when artillery shelling echoed through city neighborhoods, Mustafa walked door to door, showed Suleiman’s photo to strangers, visited every hospital and prison, and even rented a public address microphone to call out his name through the streets. Like Abdallah, she has not given up. “I haven’t lost faith in finding you,” she said.

Locating and identifying missing people remains an enormous challenge amid the ongoing conflict. Most forensic DNA testing laboratories in Khartoum have been destroyed in fighting, and few specialist forensic personnel remain in the country. So far, Khartoum state authorities have relocated nearly 30,000 of the roughly 50,000 hastily buried bodies scattered across the capital to formal burial sites. Roughly 10% of these remains remain unidentified, according to Hisham Zienalabdien, director general of Khartoum’s forensic medicine department. His team is currently storing DNA samples from all unidentified bodies, in the hope that future technology and access will allow them to match remains to grieving relatives.

Even for families who have recovered their loved ones’ remains, the trauma of the conflict leaves permanent scars. Abubakar Alswai waited more than a year to move his 73-year-old brother Mohamed’s remains from a hasty grave in front of their family home to a formal public cemetery. Mohamed was killed by RSF fighters, who waited three weeks before allowing neighbors to bury his bullet-ridden, decomposing body. Under majority-Islamic Sudanese tradition, funerals are held as soon as possible, ideally within 24 hours of death. As gravediggers exhumed Mohamed’s remains to move him, Alswai wiped tears from his cheeks. At least now, he said, his brother will receive the dignified burial he deserves, and his family can find a small measure of peace. “What happened has left a permanent mark on my heart,” he said.

A wave of violent public unrest has broken out at the epicenter of an expanding Ebola outbreak in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), exposing deep rifts between public health authorities and local communities over the response to the deadly virus. The unrest erupted after an angry crowd set fire to a section of Rwampara General Hospital in Ituri province, where nearly all current Ebola cases have been recorded. The confrontation was sparked when medical teams blocked family members from retrieving the body of a 28-year-old local footballer for a traditional burial, after medics recorded his death as a confirmed Ebola fatality.

Witnesses and local officials report that protesters threw projectiles at hospital staff and set ablaze temporary tents that served as Ebola isolation wards. One healthcare worker was hit and injured by flying stones before law enforcement intervened to restore order, firing warning shots to disperse the crowd. Local politician Luc Malembe Malembe, who witnessed the chaos, confirmed that two isolation tents were completely destroyed, along with the young man’s body that had been held for safe burial. Initial reports that six Ebola patients being treated in the tents escaped during the unrest were later refuted by medical charity Alima, which operates the isolation site, confirming all patients are accounted for and continue to receive care at the hospital.

Misinformation and deep public distrust have been cited as core drivers of the violence. The victim’s mother publicly stated she believes her son died of typhoid fever, not Ebola, a sentiment shared by many in the local community. Jean Claude Mukendi, security coordinator for the Ebola response in Ituri, noted that the young man was a well-liked local figure, and many upset residents failed to understand the contagious nature of the virus. Malembe added that widespread lack of public education has fueled dangerous conspiracy theories across parts of eastern DRC: many people, particularly in remote, underserved areas, believe Ebola is a fabrication invented by outside non-governmental organizations and hospitals to profit from donor funding. As of the latest official reports, the outbreak has killed more than 130 people across the country, with official death tolls varying between 139 reported by the World Health Organization (WHO) and 159 counted by Congolese health authorities, out of over 600 suspected total cases.

The unrest unfolded as the cross-border and regional spread of the virus accelerates, prompting growing international concern. The WHO has already designated the outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, though it has not yet characterized the situation as a global pandemic. Two confirmed cases have already been detected in Uganda, DRC’s northern neighbor, prompting Ugandan authorities to shut down all cross-border public transport, including passenger ferries on the shared Semliki River border crossing, to slow transmission.

Compounding risks, the outbreak is caused by the rare Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, for which no licensed vaccine is currently available. WHO officials estimate it could take up to nine months to develop and deploy a targeted vaccine for this specific strain. Just days after the hospital violence, M23 rebel forces that control large swathes of eastern DRC confirmed the first Ebola case in South Kivu province, hundreds of kilometers south of the current epicenter in Ituri. The infected patient, who had traveled to South Kivu from the unimpacted city of Kisangani in Tshopo province, died before a formal diagnosis could be confirmed. International observers warn that the spread of the virus into territory controlled by non-state actors creates major new challenges for outbreak response, as aid groups face barriers accessing at-risk communities in these regions. M23 has stated it is willing to collaborate with international health partners to contain the virus, but the group has never previously managed a large-scale public health emergency like an Ebola outbreak.

The crisis has already had ripple effects beyond the affected regions: DRC’s national men’s football team announced it would cancel its planned pre-World Cup training camp in Kinshasa directly due to the outbreak. Global health officials continue to stress the urgent need for expanded public outreach and education to counter misinformation that is undermining outbreak control efforts, particularly around critical safety measures such as the WHO-recommended safe and dignified burial protocol for Ebola victims, which requires trained teams to handle remains with full protective equipment to prevent new infections.