El Bcheraoui C, Mimche H, Miangotar Y, et al. - In this study, researchers applied outcomes from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2017 to evaluate the burden of disease in francophone Africa and inform health professionals and their partners in the region. The burden of disease was evaluated in the 21 francophone African countries and compared the outcomes with those for their non-francophone counterparts in three economic communities: the Economic Community of West African States, the Economic Community of Central African States, and the Southern African Development Community. The results showed that 779 deaths (95% UI 750–809) per 100 000 population occurred in francophone Africa in 2017, a reduction of 45·3% since 1990. It was indicated that francophone Africa still carries a high burden of communicable and neonatal diseases, probably due to the weakness of health-care systems and services, as evidenced by the almost complete attribution of DALYs to YLLs. To cope with this burden of disease, francophone Africa should determine its priorities and invest more resources in health-system strengthening and in the quality and quantity of health-care services, particularly in rural and remote areas. The outcomes demonstrated that the region could also be prioritized in terms of technical and financial assistance concentrated on reaching these objects, as much as on demographic investments including education and family planning.