NEWS

Today in Africa — October 23, 2026: Hundreds of Ethiopians Flee Into Kenya, El Niño Drought Threatens New Famine in Sudan

OkayAfrica has scoured the Internet for today’s major news stories, so you don't have to. On Oct. 23, coverage includes: stray bullets wounding a woman and a police officer in Ethiopia-Kenya's Moyale border city; the WFP’s warning that falling aid and failed harvests in Sudan are a “recipe for disaster”; and more.

Okay avatar
Lihle Z. Mtshali Today in Africa & Newsletters Editor
A large crowd of Ethiopian refugees gathers at Somare camp in Moyale, with a relief worker standing among them.
A 2018 file photo of Ethiopian refugees at a refugee camp in Moyale, Kenya's border town with Ethiopia. This same area this week saw an influx of refugees crossing into Kenya after fighting broke out.

Every day, OkayAfrica shares a roundup of news we’re following but haven’t published as full articles. These short updates cover what’s happening across the continent — in culture, politics, and beyond. For more stories like these, check out our News page for updates from across the regions.

RELATED

Hundreds of Ethiopians Flee Into Kenya as Gunfire Erupts in Border Town of Moyale

Hundreds of Ethiopians, mostly women, children, and young people, crossed into Kenya through several entry points in Moyale after fighting broke out in the Ethiopian border town of Moyale on Wednesday, Kenyan police and the Kenya Red Cross said. Kenyan police say the arrivals are fleeing tensions between leaders of Ethiopia's Oromia and Somali regional states. Gunfire was heard on the Ethiopian side from about 5:50 a.m. on Thursday and continued afterward. Stray bullets reached the Kenyan side, where a woman was shot in the neck, and a police officer was struck on the head when a bullet hit a metal bar supporting a tent at the Moyale police station's football ground. Police did not identify the source of the bullets, and Kenya's Moyale town remained calm, with police on high alert.

Injuries and Humanitarian Response

  • The woman shot in the neck had the bullet removed at a private hospital in Moyale and is in stable condition. The officer was not injured, and another bullet shattered a window at La-Tahsan Hotel.

  • The Kenya Red Cross is setting up a temporary shelter and handing out tents, blankets, sleeping mats, jerrycans, kitchen sets, cereal, and fortified porridge flour. Its response will first reach 1,000 households.

  • The Red Cross said many arrivals have very few belongings and urgently need shelter, food, water, and health care.

  • Crossings came through the Sessi, Kore, Biashara, Foundation, and Miti areas of Moyale.

  • Local government officials on the Kenyan side are set to meet Friday to coordinate humanitarian help for displaced households.

El Niño Drought Threatens New Famine in Sudan, With Rainfall at Its Lowest in Decades

El Niño has brought damaging drought to Sudan just as a lull in fighting had raised hopes that a good harvest would ease hunger. Rainfall in the July to September peak season was the lowest in more than three decades nationwide, according to U.S. Geological Survey data, and in North Darfur it was the lowest since 1984, the year a famine devastated Sudan and Ethiopia. The United Nations-backed hunger monitor, the IPC, warned in an October 12 alert that the risk of famine is growing in many conflict-affected areas, with drought compounding dire conditions. The IPC said in June that 5.1 million people faced severe hunger, and it is updating the numbers, which had been expected to fall once harvesting began in November and December. The World Food Programme (WFP) forecasts 350,000 more people will face severe hunger by the end of 2026 and 1.2 million more by August 2027, with Darfur and Kordofan hit hardest. Sudan's government has played down the threat, with Agriculture Minister Esmat Qureshi saying this year's harvest would be lower but "not significantly less than last year's."

Failed Harvests and Shrinking Aid

  • Farmers interviewed by Reuters describe steep losses. Emad Kabsoor, who runs farms covering 14,700 hectares in Gedaref state, expects about 25% of last year's crop; Mohamed Abdelrahman estimates that about 40% of the land around Um Ruwaba in North Kordofan will produce no harvest. Cattle at El Obeid's livestock market have turned skinny, and Gedaref temperatures were 7 to 9 degrees above the historic average for October 20.

  • The WFP had $276 million for its Sudan operation as of October 17, less than half of last year's budget, and says it needs another $134 million to tackle drought-related hunger. It has cut rations to stretch resources, and acting executive director Carl Skau called falling aid and harvests together a "recipe for disaster."

  • Rations were halved in Tawila, a Darfur camp of about 700,000 displaced people, even as 9,000 more people arrived between early September and mid-October. A camp coordination group's spokesman, Adam Rojal, said hunger rather than war is now driving people from their homes: "It's no longer just about bullets."

  • The IPC declared pockets of famine in 2024 and 2025, including in El Fasher. Famine expert Alex De Waal said the situation is in most respects much worse than in the 1980s because of the conflict and because international aid budgets have been cut.

  • The head of the Rapid Support Forces' humanitarian aid authority, Abdelrahman Ismail, said the group could do more if given resources and capacity. Humanitarian agencies have accused both the army and the RSF of blocking aid, which both deny.

Officials Race to Find How Nigeria's First Ebola Patient Was Infected as Swiss Government Says She Did Not Travel to DR Congo

Health officials across Africa are trying to determine how Nigeria's first Ebola patient in more than a decade became infected. The Swiss government said today, Friday, October 23, that the patient, the Ugandan-born wife of a Swiss diplomat based in Abuja, did not travel to the Democratic Republic of Congo, and she is believed to have contracted Ebola while traveling with her husband in Uganda. Uganda was declared Ebola-free by the World Health Organization (WHO) in August, so the possibility has fueled concerns about undetected transmission there. Ugandan authorities say the woman had been in eastern Congo before transiting through Uganda, but the WHO and Africa's top health body say that has yet to be confirmed. The outbreak, first detected in DR Congo in mid-May, has now been reported in four countries across eastern, central, and western Africa, its widest geographic spread on the continent to date. Nigerian authorities tested the woman 13 days after she fell ill in Abuja.

Theories and Uncertainty

  • One theory under investigation is that she caught the virus from Kenya's first confirmed Ebola patient, who also flew out of Uganda's Entebbe airport on October 3. That patient died two days later in a Nairobi hospital.

  • Dutch virologist Marion Koopmans, a member of the WHO's Ebola emergency committee, called the theory "very speculative," with no evidence of shared space. She said random presence in a large airport is not a supported epidemiological link.

  • The WHO's Kenya representative, Neema Rusibamayila Kimambo, said the shared departure date could be coincidental. She said no infections have been found among contacts in Kenya, including everyone on the Kenyan patient's plane and airport staff.

  • Uganda reported 20 Ebola cases in May and June, mostly imported from DR Congo, and has not detected a case since June. Government spokesperson Alan Kasujja said on Thursday that Uganda has no cases and would make any such information public.

  • Ebola has infected nearly 10,000 people and killed more than 4,600 in DR Congo. Only people with symptoms can transmit the virus, and the strain behind this outbreak has no approved treatment or vaccine.

In Brief: More Stories Today

Tunisian Police Fire Tear Gas at Protesters After Death of Detained Man

Tunisian police fired tear gas to disperse protesters in Ettadhamen, a suburb of the capital, after a man detained on suspicion of drug dealing died. His family says he died from police violence after his arrest, while local media report he died after swallowing drugs, and the interior ministry was not immediately available for comment. Protesters blocked roads, burned tires, and threw stones, and clashes also broke out on Thursday in the southern towns of Jebeniana and Agareb after a man died during a security chase. In Sfax, students protested over the death of a female student who had a cardiac problem, saying ambulances took too long to arrive, and they called for a strike at the city's faculties today, Friday, October 23.

Egypt Sends Mada Masr Editor Lina Attalah to Trial for Running a Website Without a License

Egypt's Supreme State Prosecution referred Mada Masr editor-in-chief Lina Attalah to trial on Thursday on a charge of establishing and managing a website without a license, after questioning her for more than six hours. Prosecutors also questioned her on a charge of publishing false news, but it was not part of the referral. Attalah was released on Wednesday on bail of 100,000 Egyptian pounds ($1,800), and if convicted, she faces a fine of one to three million pounds; the court may also order the outlet closed. Her next court date is October 27, and it is the sixth case against Mada Masr and its journalists in six years.

Malawi's Opposition Demands Answers on President Mutharika's Prolonged Stay in South Africa

Malawi's opposition Malawi Congress Party is demanding an explanation for President Peter Mutharika's stay in South Africa, which began on October 6 and officials describe as a private visit. It is his fifth trip this year, and the party wants Vice-President Jane Ansah to address the nation as Malawi faces fuel shortages, power cuts, and medicine shortages. Information Minister Shadric Namalomba denied there is a leadership vacuum, saying "a private trip is private." Officials earlier dismissed social media reports that Mutharika, 86, traveled to India for medical treatment, and he has called health speculation "silly and laughable."

BBC Investigation Finds RSF Systematically Destroyed El-Fasher's Healthcare System

A BBC investigation found evidence that Sudan's Rapid Support Forces (RSF) systematically destroyed healthcare in El Fasher during a long siege and takeover of the city a year ago. The BBC documented at least 43 attacks on hospitals and health sites from May 2024 to October 2025, and from April 2023 to October 2025, 120 medical workers were injured, 55 killed, and 10 abducted or forcibly disappeared. UN rights chief Volker Türk called the findings "deeply disturbing" and said the attacks may amount to war crimes, while the RSF rejected them and its health minister called them propaganda. The BBC found no independent evidence for his claim that hospitals were used as military bases.

IOM Warns Nearly 874,000 People in Somalia Could Be Displaced by Floods

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) warns that nearly 874,000 people in Somalia could be forced from their homes over the next three months by flooding. The Danish Refugee Council and IOM project that floods will account for 92% of displacement as a rainy season expected to bring above-normal rainfall arrives amid strengthening El Niño conditions. IOM has secured only about 14.4% of the $16.62 million needed to prepare for and respond to El Niño-related events, and is calling for urgent international support.

latest kenya home ethiopia el niño ebola african news today in africa sudan news

MORE LIKE THIS