More than 200 people are now feared to have been killed in a series of bomb attacks and shooting sprees in northern Nigeria. The attacks are believed to be the work of the Islamist group Boko Haram. According to Human Rights Watch, the group has killed nearly 1,000 people over the past three years. Andrew Harding is a reporter with our partner the BBC. He visited the northern cities of Jos and Kano, which have both suffered heavy losses, and sent this report.

The United Nations says that by the end of October, the world's population will surpass seven billion. The world population is now growing by roughly 80 million people per year. The tiny African nation of Zambia is among many nations around the world experiencing a population boom. Thirteen million people now live in Zambia, compared to just 3 million in 1964 — and the U.N. expects that number to triple by 2050, with perhaps over 100 million people living there by the end of the century. Fergus Walsh, correspondent for the BBC, reports on Zambia's population boom.

Malaria kills about 780,000 people a year, and most of them are children in Africa. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has made eradication of the disease a top priority. On Tuesday, the organization touted the results of a study that showed a vaccine developed by GlaxoSmithKline protected nearly 50 percent children from severe malaria. As far a success rates for vaccines go, those are not the best odds, but even that amount of protection would save millions of lives over a even just a decade of use. And the news does indicate that scientists are on the right path toward eventually preventing malaria.

Four million people are starving in Somalia, as the Horn of Africa continues to be ravaged by a combination of low rainfall, political instability, and high food prices. Roughly 750,000 of them are expected to perish if they do not get help soon. All together, there are  13 million people suffering from hunger in the Horn of Africa. The UN says it needs an additional $700 million to get food to them. This news comes as lawmakers in the U.S. are discussing slashing foreign aid from the State Department's budget.

A study released on Monday shows that women using two popular hormonal contraceptives put themselves — and their partners — at greater risk for HIV. While this is a problem for all users of these drugs, it is particularly worrying to people in southern and eastern Africa, where these affordable and easily available contraceptives are used in a very high risk environment.

Musician and poet K'Naan recently returned to his native Somalia, which is in the grip of a devastating famine and violent civil war. His last memories of the country were twenty years ago, when he fled with other members of his family for safety in Canada.

Sam Childers was once drug dealer, who dabbled in violent crime. But in the summer of 1992, he attended a church revival and decided to abandon his life of crime, and travel to war-torn Sudan to find a way to aid children there. With his wife, Childers founded an orphanage in South Sudan, where they have now housed and educated over 1,000 youths. A new film, "Machine Gun Preacher," starring Gerard Butler depicts Childer's story.

Libyan rebel leaders have rejected the prospect of having United Nations peacekeepers aid in the transition to a new government, according to top UN officials. The rebels also continue to search for Moammar Gadhafi, as Gadhafi's wife and three children fled to Algeria yesterday. The rebels are also facing growing pressure to provide basic services to the Libyan people, like water and electricity, in advance of actually organizing a transitional government.

The crisis in Somalia continues, with drought and famine plaguing the country and millions of refugees fighting for survival. The U.S. has approved $565 million in humanitarian aid so far this year. But our involvement in Somalia is does not stop there. According to an article in The New York Times yesterday, the U.S. has quietly been stepping up clandestine operations inside Somalia, training Somali intelligence operatives, interrogating suspects, and sending $45 million in arms to African soldiers and private security companies, to fight against the Shabaab, an al-Qaida aligned militant group.

One of the biggest obstacles to providing aid to those affected by the drought and famine crisis in Somalia has been the militant group al-Shabab, which controls large parts of southern Somalia. The al-Qaida-linked group is refusing to allow many Western aid organizations into the country, and at the same time is blocking people who attempt to flee. As a result, the lives of 500,000 children are at risk as they suffer from malnutrition. Al-Shabab is viewed as a dangerous and extremist force in Somalia today, but that was not always the case.

The five countries of the Horn of Africa are experiencing the worst declared drought in 60 years. What was a serious problem with the weather has become a humanitarian crisis in Somalia where over 60 percent of the country is controlled by militias who have been hampering the access of aid groups. 

John Hockenberry went to Somalia in 1992. Hunger, armed Islamists, and drought were taking a heavy toll on the country — just like they are now. In his latest video, Hockenberry talks about the experience, and how news of famine and difficult challenges to delivery of aid in recent weeks sounds far too familiar in a country still desperate for help, and plagued by those who undermine it. 

The drought in the Horn of Africa has sent tens of thousands of Somalians to refugee camps in search of necessary resources. In Minneapolis, a large community of Somali-Americans are doing their best to send aid overseas. But their efforts are fraught with difficulty because of the dangerous climate in Somalia, where Islamist militants aligned with al-Qaida have control.

Nearly 12 million people in Africa are facing the worst drought the continent has seen in 60 years. Along with water shortages, come food shortages — and as people desperate for food become refugees, aid groups are calling for a wide-ranging effort to tackle the problem. New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof joins the show to talk about the challenges facing the region most severely impacted, and the aid groups trying to provide relief.

Twelve million people need food aid after rains failed for the second consecutive year across the Horn of Africa region, which encompasses Somalia, Ethiopia, Djibouti, and Eritrea. Somalia has already been battling famine for two decades. The World Food Program says that more than 110,000 people are in camps in Southeastern Ethiopia, with more than 1,600 are arriving every day, showing signs of severe malnutrition.

First lady Michelle Obama continues her trip in South Africa today, after visiting former President Nelson Mandela. She headed to Soweto to give a keynote speech to the Young African Women Leaders Forum today. Tomorrow she will visit the prison cell Mandela lived for decades; and then addresses young people at the University of Cape Town. 

Somali officials confirmed Saturday that they shot and killed Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, the head of al-Qaida in East Africa, and one of the FBI's most wanted terrorists, at a checkpoint on Tuesday. Mohammed had a $5 million bounty on his head for his connections to bombings of embassies in Africa that lead to the deaths of more than 200 people. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called the killing a "significant blow to al-Qaida." 

Coca-Cola is available nearly everywhere in the world, including many remote places in Africa, such as throughout the landlocked country of Zambia. What if medications for HIV and malaria were as cheap, widely available and heavily distributed as Coke? That's the thinking behind ColaLife, a project founded by Simon Berry, who has been an aid worker in Africa for years. Berry speaks with us about his organization.

American hedge funds are buying massive amounts of land—larger in size than the state of California—in Africa, often without proper contracts, according to the Oakland Institute, an independent policy think tank. The hedge funds say that it's an effort to uplift the economies of African nations, but some critics say it's a "land grab;" an opportunity to buy cheap land to grow food crops that will be exported to richer countries, ultimately depleting Africa's natural resources and raising global food prices. 

Orchestras everywhere are struggling to stay afloat, but the challenges for the only symphony orchestra in Central Africa were different than those faced by Western musical groups. A new documentary film "Kinshasa Symphony" depicting the genesis and survival of the Kinshasa Symphony Orchestra, which was set up during the 1998-2003 Congolese war, is playing this week at the New York African Film Festival. The Takeaway's Special Correspondent Femi Oke talks about the film and brings us details from some of its founders.