Hundreds of illegal miners trapped in an abandoned gold mine in Stilfontein, in South Africa’s North West province, will spend Christmas day underground. Chad's electoral commission has asked the central African state’s military to help protect election officials and candidates, amid a spike in attacks on campaign teams ahead of the December 29 elections. In 2024, lobby groups from Africa's coal sector regularly made a case for the continent to continue using it to generate electricity, but new data show that Africa’s continued coal dependency will threaten efforts to limit carbon emissions.