Africa 54 - October 18, 2021 | Drought in Kenya, Airstrikes in Tigray, & deadly Attack in Nigeria You are watching Africa 54, your daily news and feature magazine-style program, from the Voice of America. Managing editor Vincent Makori and a team of correspondents zero in on the big stories making news on the continent and around the world with context and analysis. Top Stories The United Nations warns that 2.4 million people in Northern Kenya will struggle to find enough to eat by November after a second consecutive season in which rains have failed. For some in northern Kenya, their wealth is held in livestock. But under a blazing sun, the work of a lifetime is evaporating. Consecutive droughts are pushing millions of people towards hunger. Airstrikes hit the capital of northern Ethiopia's Tigray region on Monday and injured several civilians, according to television controlled by the area's Tigrayan People's Liberation Front (TPLF). Tigrai TV said the attack on the city of Mekelle was carried out by "Abiy Ahmed," referring to Ethiopia's prime minister and the government forces he leads. The military and the prime minister's spokesperson did not immediately respond to requests for comment. An aid worker in Tigray said there had been air strikes in Mekelle. Reuters was unable to verify the reports in an area that is off-limits for journalists. In Ethiopia, thousands of Amhara families are fleeing to the town of Dessie from fighting further north of the country. Officials warn the already overcrowded makeshift camps, where displaced people sleep in rows in school classrooms, will fill further after renewed clashes. Gunmen killed at least 30 people in an attack in northern Nigeria's Sokoto state, the governor's office said on Monday.The assault began at a weekly market in Goronyo on Sunday and continued into Monday morning, Sokoto Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal said in a statement.Iliyasu Abba, a local resident and trader, told Reuters that there were 60 bodies at Goronyo General Hospital mortuary, while others sustained injuries while escaping.The men were "shooting sporadically on us after they surrounded the market firing at every direction killing people."Abba said the gunmen had at least initially overpowered police who tried to intervene. A police spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A Spanish coast guard vessel rescued 44 migrants in the Atlantic Ocean on Sunday (October 17) and took them to the port of Arguineguin in Gran Canaria. The coast guard also brought the body of a dead migrant ashore with the group.The Red Cross said all migrants were men from the Maghreb area, without giving more information about nationalities.Coast guards wearing full protective suits unloaded the dead body in a stretcher and assisted injured migrants off the vessel.Data from Spain's interior ministry showed more than 13,100 migrants had arrived by sea to the Canaries archipelago up to September 30, more than double the number in the equivalent period in 2020. Spotify is targeting Africa for growth in music streaming, but the Swedish giant is dependent on mobile phone firms to make payments work. In Kenya, Spotify has teamed up with mobile payments app M-Pesa, owned by local network Safaricom.African rivals such as Nigeria's Boomplay are making similar moves. HAITI MISSIONARIES KIDNAPPED: A group of 17 U.S. missionaries, including children, has been kidnapped by a gang in Haiti, according to a voice message sent by a religious group aware of the incident. The effects of climate change are expected to push more than 200 million people from their homes by 2050, according to the World Bank. The impacts are already being felt in the southern U.S. state of Louisiana, where four major weather disasters struck in a nine month period. Recently, a U.S. advisory panel unanimously endorsed booster shots of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine for adults over the age of 18. The move comes as vaccines and public health protocols in the United States remain politically charged issues. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi reports. Afghan businesswomen say that they have been forced to close their businesses as the Taliban have imposed a ban on women working outside. Yalda Baktash has the story