Inside Africa

In Phalombe district, southern Malawi, 27-year-old farmer Stanley Banda hears a lot about “rare earth minerals” and “millions of dollars” on the radio. What he has not heard is how any of it will reach his village. Banda lives above the Songwe Hill Rare Earth Project, a 20-square-kilometer deposit being developed by UK-listed Mkango Resources. With global demand for rare earths projected to triple by 2035, the mine is being billed as one of Malawi’s most promising investments. The government projects 1,200 direct jobs, 10,000 indirect jobs, and $120.6 million annually in taxes and royalties for one of the world’s poorest countries. Yet three years after the Environmental Impact Assessment was approved, many in Phalombe say they still do not understand the project. Key documents are in English, consultations were limited, and questions about land, compensation, and health risks remain unanswered. As the world races to secure minerals for electric vehicles and wind turbines, Songwe Hill has become a test case: can Malawi’s green transition deliver development to the people who live on top of the minerals, or will it repeat the extractive patterns of the past?

60-Word Intro: Fourteen days after Zambia’s presidential election, Tonse Alliance leaders Brian Mundubile and Makebi Zulu are in police custody. The Zambia Police Service confirmed on August 27, 2026, that warn and caution statements were recorded over alleged treason under Section 43(1) of the Penal Code. No details of the allegations have been released as investigations continue

In 2026, Luanda’s suburbs still see water trucks queue at dawn. In Huambo and Moxico, women walk kilometers with jerry cans. Yet in Talatona and parts of Benguela, taps now run daily. Angola’s government has spent billions of dollars since 2017 to change this story. New dams, treatment plants and rural boreholes are part of a push to meet SDG 6: clean water for all by 2030. The progress is real, but so are the gaps: broken pipes, unpaid bills, climate droughts, and millions still without safe water. This is how far Angola has come, how well services work today, and what must happen next.