Africa

A new megafarm in Western Ethiopia, for palm-oil trees, sugar cane, rice and sesame.  All through the Rift Valley region, there are new fence posts signifying the recent rush for Ethiopian land. In the old days, farmers rarely bothered with such formal lines of demarcation, but now the country’s earth is in demand. One fence stretched on for a mile or more, very possibly belonging to Sheik Mohammed Al Amoudi, a Saudi Arabia-based oil-and-construction billionaire who was born in Ethiopia and maintains a close relationship with the Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s autocratic regime.  Photo: Simon Norfolk/New York Times

The Ogiek are traditionally forest dwellers, hunting antelope with homemade bows and harvesting honey. In the past 15 years, because of ill-planned settlement schemes (the government essentially handed out chunks of forest to cronies), 25 percent of the trees in the Mau forest have been wiped out. Photo: Tim Freccia/New York Times

Kenya Wildlife Service rangers inspect the carcass of a baby elephant that died from the prolonged drought. Photo: Thomas Mukoya/Reuters

Health clinics may be free, but they are also very popular. The implementation of the much-acclaimed scheme has been dogged by lack of preparation – both in medical facilities and personnel. Photo: BBC

Rosaria Chimwaza, a health survey assistant, weighs a baby girl in a Malawi village as her 18-year-old mother looks on. The rate of decline in child mortality for Malawi and six other countries with the highest rates has been much steeper than the global average, according to an analysis by demographers. Perhaps Malawi’s most powerful weapon against child mortality has been its ranks of more than 10,000 high-school-educated village health workers.  Photo: Moises Saman/New York Times

An elderly woman is given water in the Turkana region of Kenya. Many of the elderly are too weak and sick to feed themselves or drink. Photo: Jehad Nga/New York Times More Photos