Quote Message: Even if you eat the vegetable sauce little by little, it will still run out eventually." from A Luganda proverb sent by Jane Semaula in Bugema, Uganda
Even if you eat the vegetable sauce little by little, it will still run out eventually."
These children, sitting with their grandmother, do not have birth certificates as their mother was declared statelessImage caption: These children, sitting with their grandmother, do not have birth certificates as their mother was declared stateless
Thousands of Zimbabweans are struggling to access education, healthcare and
housing because they have been classed as stateless, Amnesty
International says.
The rights group’s report - We Are Like “Stray Animals” - details how Zimbabwean nationality laws have left
generations of migrant workers and their families marginalised in the only
country they have ever called home.
Survivors of the
Gukurahundi massacres of the 1980s - one of the bloodiest episodes of former
President Robert Mugabe’s rule - are also locked out of citizenship, it
says.
This is because they
cannot provide the death certificates for relatives, which are required to
prove Zimbabwean nationality.
Parents are denied birth certificates for their children
if they cannot present their own, leaving their children facing precarious
futures.
“Without
the necessary identity documents, many stateless children are unable to access
education. Those who do attend school are often forced to drop-out, or
prevented from sitting their final exams,” the report said.
Amnesty
International is calling on the Zimbabwean government to ensure the
registration and restoration of Zimbabwean nationality to all those entitled to
it, as provided for under the constitution, including all those born and raised
in Zimbabwe to foreign parent.
Approximately
300,000 Zimbabweans are currently at risk of statelessness, according to the
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
Lack of official data
means that the exact number is unknown.
Dynamq has gone from child refugee to reggae starImage caption: Dynamq has gone from child refugee to reggae star
It’s hard enough to forge a successful
career as a musician anywhere, but how much more so when you’re from Africa’s
newest nation, South Sudan? Kennedy O Lorya, better known as Dynamq, is
getting there.
After a dramatic escape from the civil
war as a child, he fell in love with Jamaican reggae and dancehall music in a
Kenyan refugee camp, and is now sharing a stage with the likes of Damian
Marley, Beenie Man and Busy Signal.
He’s also intent upon supporting his
fellow artists in South Sudan and creating a distinct contemporary sound for
the country.
The country has very little
infrastructure of any kind, and as Dynamq told me, when it comes to music it’s
pretty much virgin territory:
Quote Message: Different parts of South Sudan have different sounds but one of the problems we face is that we never recorded anything, we never took down notes of all this stuff, so we don’t have a history like that.
Different parts of South Sudan have different sounds but one of the problems we face is that we never recorded anything, we never took down notes of all this stuff, so we don’t have a history like that.
Quote Message: We just have to go to the villages and hear what they’re singing and that’s what we’re trying to build from. Basically there’s like a blank paper right now for the South Sudan music."
We just have to go to the villages and hear what they’re singing and that’s what we’re trying to build from. Basically there’s like a blank paper right now for the South Sudan music."
Dynamq has invented something he calls ruka music.
Quote Message: Ruka means your own style and it’s really picking up back home, everybody’s like, ‘Ruka music, ruka music!'
Ruka means your own style and it’s really picking up back home, everybody’s like, ‘Ruka music, ruka music!'
Quote Message: So ruka music is the genre we’re trying to build, but we’re still in the beginning stages.
So ruka music is the genre we’re trying to build, but we’re still in the beginning stages.
Quote Message: It’s like a mixture of everything I’ve been through musically from Kenyan influence, my American influence, the Caribbean influence, and of course growing up in Africa you know Congolese music is like our backbone.
It’s like a mixture of everything I’ve been through musically from Kenyan influence, my American influence, the Caribbean influence, and of course growing up in Africa you know Congolese music is like our backbone.
Quote Message: I’m trying to take all those elements and put it together with a South Sudan feel to it."
I’m trying to take all those elements and put it together with a South Sudan feel to it."
You can hear my interview with Dynamq on This is Africa this weekend, on BBC World Service radio and partner stations across Africa and online.
Rwandan woman deported from US over genocide role
Samba Cyuzuzo
BBC Great Lakes
US ICECopyright: US ICE
Béatrice Munyenyezi lived in the US for over a decade before her arrest and trialImage caption: Béatrice Munyenyezi lived in the US for over a decade before her arrest and trial
A woman who won political
asylum in the US after hiding her and
her family's role in the 1994 Rwanda genocide has been deported to Rwanda after
serving a 10-year jail sentence for lying.
Béatrice Munyenyezi was stripped of her US citizenship after
she was convicted in 2013 - she had already spent nearly two years in custody.
She had settled in the US in 1998 with her three daughters,
saying she had been persecuted in Rwanda.
About
800,000 people, mainly ethnic Tutsis and
moderate Hutus, were slaughtered in Rwanda in 100 days in 1994 by
Hutu extremists, many of whom later fled the country.
Prosecution witnesses had told of how Munyenyezi had inspected identity cards at a notorious roadblock where ethnic Tutsis were singled out for slaughter.
She had also denied affiliation with any political
party when she applied for asylum, despite her husband being a leader of the
Interahamwe militia - the youth wing of the then-governing MRND.
The 51-year-old is expected to be arrested on her arrival home
and charged over her role in the genocide.
Her husband, Arsène Shalom Ntahobali, and her mother-in-law, Pauline Nyiramasuhuko, who was a
government minister, were both found guilty in 2011 by the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda
for their role in the genocide and are serving long prison sentences.
US imposes visa restrictions over Ugandan election
Will Ross
Africa editor, BBC World Service
BBCCopyright: BBC
Some people have been unable to trace their relatives seized in raids ahead of the electionImage caption: Some people have been unable to trace their relatives seized in raids ahead of the election
The United States is imposing visa
restrictions on Ugandan officials who it accuses of undermining democracy.
The announcement from US Secretary of
State Antony Blinken follows the arrests of hundreds of opposition supporters
in Uganda.
"There are consequences for interfering in the democratic process," he tweeted.
South Sudan has weapons surplus, not shortage - US
Nichola Mandil
Juba
AFPCopyright: AFP
An arms embargo was imposed on South Sudan's military by the UN in 2018Image caption: An arms embargo was imposed on South Sudan's military by the UN in 2018
South Sudan does not lack weapons despite its complaints that an
arms embargo is making it difficult to train new soldiers, the US envoy to the
country says.
President Salva Kiir and his rival Riek Machar - who is now first vice-president - formed a unity government in February last year, ending a six-year brutal civil war.
A key part of the agreement ending the conflict was to form a unified 83,000-strong
national army, which is yet to be done.
The government says that cadets at various training centres are ready to
graduate, but lack weapons to do so because of an embargo imposed on the military by the
UN Security Council in 2018.
“The country has a persistent food shortage, but there is no
weapons shortage - there is a weapons surplus,” US Ambassador Larry André said.
“So this idea that the UN Security Council must lift the arms
embargo in order for the peace agreement to be fully implemented because there's not enough guns in your country, that is not what I have seen, I have seen a
lot of guns,” he said.
UN human rights experts say there are still staggering levels of violence continuing in South Sudan where armed militias are divided along ethnic lines.
Nigerian raids 'force 80% of residents to flee town'
Will Ross
Africa editor, BBC World Service
Getty ImagesCopyright: Getty Images
Damasak town has been attacked several times by Islamist militantsImage caption: Damasak town has been attacked several times by Islamist militants
Around 65,000 people have fled a town in north-east
Nigeria that has been attacked several times in recent days by suspected
Islamist militants, aid groups say.
All aid
operations have been suspended in Damasak - a town near Nigeria's border with
Niger.
"Following
the latest attack on Wednesday 14 April, the third in just seven days, up to 80%
of the town’s population - which includes the local community and internally displaced
people - were forced to flee," the Reuters news agency quotes Babar Baloch
of the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) telling a briefing in Geneva.
Local officials said 18 people had been killed
in the latest raid.
The attacks were targeted on humanitarian compounds and stocks, non-governmental
organisations (NGOs) Norwegian Refugee Council and Action Against Hunger said in
a joint press release.
“NGO staff managed to hide
and escape the town, but their private houses were set ablaze after
house-to-house searches, demonstrating an unprecedented level of targeting of
humanitarian workers,” their statement said.
Thousands of vulnerable families
and elderly people were now fleeing across the Yobe River towards Niger for safety, they said.
AFPCopyright: AFP
Thousands of desperate people are heading towards the Yobe River to cross over to Niger for safetyImage caption: Thousands of desperate people are heading towards the Yobe River to cross over to Niger for safety
A video attributed to the Islamic State West Africa Province (Iswap), a Boko Haram splinter group, shows gunmen wearing military uniforms shooting from the back of pick-up trucks.
Jihadist fighters stroll casually through the town - behind them buildings are on fire.
During the same week the Nigerian military has published videos of soldiers in the town.
The army says it is in control and has told people to stay calm.
An extraordinary message at a time when the UNHCR says the majority of Damasak's population has fled.
“Although humanitarian organisations in north-east Nigeria have faced continuous threats and attacks for years, the worsening security situation has now reached a climax,” Jean-François Riffaud, head of Action Against Hunger, said.
Aid groups estimate that more than eight million people in the north-east are in urgent of humanitarian assistance as a result of the 10-year Islamist insurgency.
Congo's long-time leader sworn in for another term
The president of Congo-Brazzaville,
Denis Sassou-Nguesso, has been sworn in for a fourth consecutive term.
He says he wants the highly indebted country to curb its reliance on revenue from oil and to grow more food.
Boat sinks off Tunisia killing 20 migrants
Alan Johnston
Middle East editor, BBC World Service
Getty ImagesCopyright: Getty Images
Thousands of migrants attempt to cross the Mediterranean from North African countries to Europe every year (file photo)Image caption: Thousands of migrants attempt to cross the Mediterranean from North African countries to Europe every year (file photo)
Tunisian coastguards say at least 20 African migrants died when their boat sank off the country's east coast.
Others are missing, but a search has been called off because of bad weather.
Only three survivors were rescued.
The vessel had set off from the Tunisian city of Sfax.
It's frequently used as a departure point by migrants trying to reach Europe.
Nearly 40 people drowned in a similar accident in the same waters last month.
Akuapem Poloo kept her head bowed as she was led away by policeImage caption: Akuapem Poloo kept her head bowed as she was led away by police
Ghanaian actress
Rosemond Brown, popularly known as Akuapem Poloo, has been sentenced to three
months in prison for posting a naked photo of herself on social media beside
her son.
She broke down in
tears after the judge read out the sentence in the court in the capital, Accra.
In the photo,
posted last July to celebrate her son’s seventh birthday, she is crouching,
facing the boy and holding his hands. He is wearing underpants. Her breasts are
hidden by her long hair.
The image when
viral and there was a huge backlash online.
The actress, who often posts photos of herself with her son on social media, apologised, but was invited for questioning by the police.
Then Child Rights International, a non-governmental organisation, pushed for her prosecution.
On Wednesday, she was found guilty of publishing obscene materials, engaging in domestic violence and undermining the privacy and integrity of another person - and was taken into custody.
The announcement of her sentence was postponed until Friday as the court was waiting for the result of a pregnancy test, which came back negative.
Both Akuapem
Poloo’s lawyers and the prosecutor had asked for a non-custodial sentence.
But presiding judge Christiana Cann said the jail sentence would serve as a deterrent to the general public given increasing levels of moral decadence in the country.
Some agree with the judge's remarks, though social media users have been calling for the actress's release since she was taken into custody using the hashtag #FreeAkuapemPoloo.
Celebrities like Ghanaian rapper Sarkodie said it was harsh to separate a child from his mother:
Akuapem Poloo’s main lawyer, Andy Vortia, told BBC Pidgin that the actress's legal team would appeal the sentence on the grounds that she is a single parent.
“The court
did not make any provision for the upkeep of the seven-year-old boy whose
mother they have sentenced, who will take care of him now that she has to serve
time in jail?" he said.
Nigerians arrested for breaking Ramadan rules
AFPCopyright: AFP
Muslim people abstain from eating and drinking between sunrise and sunset during RamadanImage caption: Muslim people abstain from eating and drinking between sunrise and sunset during Ramadan
Eight people have been arrested by Islamic police in Nigeria’s
northern state of Kano for allegedly refusing to fast during the Muslim holy
month of Ramadan.
The Hisbah police enforce Islamic law in Kano - one of 12
mainly Muslim states in northern Nigeria practising the Sharia
legal system alongside the country's secular laws.
“The culprits were five females and three males, eating in the
afternoon in the month of Ramadan,” Aliyu Kibiya, the executive director of the
Kano State Hisbah Board is quoted as saying.
During Ramadan, Muslims should abstain from eating and drinking
between sunrise and sunset.
Fasting is obligatory for all adult followers of the faith who
are able to safely go without food and drink.
Those who are sick or ill and
whose health will be affected by fasting, including children, pregnant and
breastfeeding women and travellers are exempt.
The BBC's Khalifa Shehu Dokaji is in Kano says the
women told the Hisbah that they were exempt as they were menstruating, but the police were of
the view that should not have been eating in public.
If the group is charged in court, they could be fined
or sent to a correctional institution, our reporter says.
Mr Kibiya’s statement warned that more raids would be conducted
across the state to ensure people adhere to their religious obligation.
Mozambique bans SA poultry after bird flu outbreak
Jose Tembe
BBC News, Maputo
Getty ImagesCopyright: Getty Images
Mozambique heavily relies on poultry imports from South AfricaImage caption: Mozambique heavily relies on poultry imports from South Africa
The Mozambican
government has banned the import of poultry products from South Africa because of an outbreak of bird flu.
As well as live birds, the ban also includes feathers, eggs and poultry products used in agricultural animal feed.
It does not cover processed chicken, which is away of preserving meat through heat treatment.
It is feared the ban will increase the price of poultry products in Mozambique, which heavily relies on South African imports.
On Tuesday, South Africa's veterinary authorities said avian influenza had broken out
in the province of Gauteng, causing the death of about
300 birds at a farm in Ekurhuleni, east of Johannesburg.
Samples from the farm tested positive for the H5 strain and all birds there have since been destroyed.
The same farm
was also affected by the 2017 outbreak of the highly pathogenic H5N8 strain.
This forced farmers to slaughter millions of birds and led
neighbouring countries, including Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Namibia and Botswana, to
ban the import of poultry from South Africa.
YouTube blocks TB Joshua over 'gay cure' claim
AFPCopyright: AFP
TB Joshua is one of Africa's most influential evangelists, with top politicians among his followersImage caption: TB Joshua is one of Africa's most influential evangelists, with top politicians among his followers
YouTube has suspended the account of influential Nigerian TV evangelist TB Joshua over allegations of hate speech.
A rights body filed a complaint after reviewing at least seven videos showing the preacher conducting prayers to "cure" gay people.
Facebook has also removed at least one of the offending posts showing a woman being hit while TB Joshua says he is casting out a "demonic spirit".
The preacher said he was appealing against YouTube's decision.
His YouTube account had 1.8 million subscribers.
TB Joshua is one of Africa's most influential evangelists, with top politicians among his followers.
More than 500,000 people have had the AstraZeneca jab so far in KenyaImage caption: More than 500,000 people have had the AstraZeneca jab so far in Kenya
Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta has ordered all teachers to have a Covid-19 vaccine irrespective of their age.
The country has been vaccinating school managers and those aged above 50, elderly citizens and front-line workers.
More than 500,000 people have had the AstraZeneca jab out of the more than one million doses delivered to the country.
All teachers and non-teaching staff in schools should have the jab before schools reopen on 10 May, the president said.
According to the head of Kenya's Teachers Service Commission, Nancy Macharia, 15 primary teachers, three deputy headteachers and eight headteachers have died of Covid-19 during the pandemic.
Live Reporting
All times stated are UK
Get involved
ReutersCopyright: Reuters 
Amnesty International/Tsvangirai MukwazhiCopyright: Amnesty International/Tsvangirai Mukwazhi These children, sitting with their grandmother, do not have birth certificates as their mother was declared statelessImage caption: These children, sitting with their grandmother, do not have birth certificates as their mother was declared stateless - Read: The bones that haunt Zimbabwe
DynamqCopyright: Dynamq Dynamq has gone from child refugee to reggae starImage caption: Dynamq has gone from child refugee to reggae star 
US ICECopyright: US ICE Béatrice Munyenyezi lived in the US for over a decade before her arrest and trialImage caption: Béatrice Munyenyezi lived in the US for over a decade before her arrest and trial 
BBCCopyright: BBC Some people have been unable to trace their relatives seized in raids ahead of the electionImage caption: Some people have been unable to trace their relatives seized in raids ahead of the election View more on twitterView more on twitter - Read: How ex-rebel Yoweri Museveni has stayed in power for 35 years
AFPCopyright: AFP An arms embargo was imposed on South Sudan's military by the UN in 2018Image caption: An arms embargo was imposed on South Sudan's military by the UN in 2018 
Getty ImagesCopyright: Getty Images Damasak town has been attacked several times by Islamist militantsImage caption: Damasak town has been attacked several times by Islamist militants 
AFPCopyright: AFP Thousands of desperate people are heading towards the Yobe River to cross over to Niger for safetyImage caption: Thousands of desperate people are heading towards the Yobe River to cross over to Niger for safety View more on twitterView more on twitter 
Getty ImagesCopyright: Getty Images Thousands of migrants attempt to cross the Mediterranean from North African countries to Europe every year (file photo)Image caption: Thousands of migrants attempt to cross the Mediterranean from North African countries to Europe every year (file photo) 
BBCCopyright: BBC 
Favour Nunoo/BBC PidginCopyright: Favour Nunoo/BBC Pidgin Akuapem Poloo kept her head bowed as she was led away by policeImage caption: Akuapem Poloo kept her head bowed as she was led away by police View more on instagramView more on instagram View more on twitterView more on twitter View more on twitterView more on twitter 
AFPCopyright: AFP Muslim people abstain from eating and drinking between sunrise and sunset during RamadanImage caption: Muslim people abstain from eating and drinking between sunrise and sunset during Ramadan 
Getty ImagesCopyright: Getty Images Mozambique heavily relies on poultry imports from South AfricaImage caption: Mozambique heavily relies on poultry imports from South Africa 
AFPCopyright: AFP TB Joshua is one of Africa's most influential evangelists, with top politicians among his followersImage caption: TB Joshua is one of Africa's most influential evangelists, with top politicians among his followers 
ReutersCopyright: Reuters More than 500,000 people have had the AstraZeneca jab so far in KenyaImage caption: More than 500,000 people have had the AstraZeneca jab so far in Kenya
Latest PostWhy Islamic State involvement in Mozambique is exaggerated
The militants claiming of a recent attack got publicity but they may not have actually been behind it.
Read moreScroll down for this week's stories
We'll be back on Monday morning
That's all from the BBC Africa Live team for now - there will be an automated news feed until Monday morning.
Keep up-to-date with what's happening across the continent by listening to the Africa Today podcast, or checking the BBC News website.
A reminder of our wise words of the day:
Click here to send us your African proverbs.
And we leave you with our favourite shot from this week's gallery of the best pictures from around Africa of a boy with his face plastered with sand as he plays on Mogadishu's Lido beach in Somalia:
Thousands of Zimbabweans 'deemed stateless'
Shingai Nyoka
BBC News, Harare
Thousands of Zimbabweans are struggling to access education, healthcare and housing because they have been classed as stateless, Amnesty International says.
The rights group’s report - We Are Like “Stray Animals” - details how Zimbabwean nationality laws have left generations of migrant workers and their families marginalised in the only country they have ever called home.
Survivors of the Gukurahundi massacres of the 1980s - one of the bloodiest episodes of former President Robert Mugabe’s rule - are also locked out of citizenship, it says.
This is because they cannot provide the death certificates for relatives, which are required to prove Zimbabwean nationality.
Parents are denied birth certificates for their children if they cannot present their own, leaving their children facing precarious futures.
“Without the necessary identity documents, many stateless children are unable to access education. Those who do attend school are often forced to drop-out, or prevented from sitting their final exams,” the report said.
Amnesty International is calling on the Zimbabwean government to ensure the registration and restoration of Zimbabwean nationality to all those entitled to it, as provided for under the constitution, including all those born and raised in Zimbabwe to foreign parent.
Approximately 300,000 Zimbabweans are currently at risk of statelessness, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
Lack of official data means that the exact number is unknown.
UN to set up ceasefire team for Libya
Alan Johnston
Middle East editor, BBC World Service
The UN Security Council has adopted a resolution on Libya that envisages the setting up of a team of ceasefire monitors.
Up to 60 observers would operate from within the existing UN mission in the country.
The resolution praised the progress that has recently been made in Libya, after years of conflict.
A UN-brokered process has installed a new government that's been tasked with uniting the country, and preparing for elections in December.
Dynamq's mission to give South Sudan its own beat
DJ Edu
This Is Africa
It’s hard enough to forge a successful career as a musician anywhere, but how much more so when you’re from Africa’s newest nation, South Sudan? Kennedy O Lorya, better known as Dynamq, is getting there.
After a dramatic escape from the civil war as a child, he fell in love with Jamaican reggae and dancehall music in a Kenyan refugee camp, and is now sharing a stage with the likes of Damian Marley, Beenie Man and Busy Signal.
He’s also intent upon supporting his fellow artists in South Sudan and creating a distinct contemporary sound for the country.
The country has very little infrastructure of any kind, and as Dynamq told me, when it comes to music it’s pretty much virgin territory:
Dynamq has invented something he calls ruka music.
You can hear my interview with Dynamq on This is Africa this weekend, on BBC World Service radio and partner stations across Africa and online.
Rwandan woman deported from US over genocide role
Samba Cyuzuzo
BBC Great Lakes
A woman who won political asylum in the US after hiding her and her family's role in the 1994 Rwanda genocide has been deported to Rwanda after serving a 10-year jail sentence for lying.
Béatrice Munyenyezi was stripped of her US citizenship after she was convicted in 2013 - she had already spent nearly two years in custody.
She had settled in the US in 1998 with her three daughters, saying she had been persecuted in Rwanda.
About 800,000 people, mainly ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus, were slaughtered in Rwanda in 100 days in 1994 by Hutu extremists, many of whom later fled the country.
Prosecution witnesses had told of how Munyenyezi had inspected identity cards at a notorious roadblock where ethnic Tutsis were singled out for slaughter.
She had also denied affiliation with any political party when she applied for asylum, despite her husband being a leader of the Interahamwe militia - the youth wing of the then-governing MRND.
The 51-year-old is expected to be arrested on her arrival home and charged over her role in the genocide.
Her husband, Arsène Shalom Ntahobali, and her mother-in-law, Pauline Nyiramasuhuko, who was a government minister, were both found guilty in 2011 by the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda for their role in the genocide and are serving long prison sentences.
'Surreal' to be home after Ugandan adoption battle
Emilie Larter, who spent five years trying to adopt Adam, said they will now be "together forever".
Read moreUS imposes visa restrictions over Ugandan election
Will Ross
Africa editor, BBC World Service
The United States is imposing visa restrictions on Ugandan officials who it accuses of undermining democracy.
The announcement from US Secretary of State Antony Blinken follows the arrests of hundreds of opposition supporters in Uganda.
"There are consequences for interfering in the democratic process," he tweeted.
The opposition says more than 400 people are missing after being seized by the security forces before January's elections.
Earlier this week, UN human rights experts called on the Ugandan authorities to stop suppressing their political opponents.
On Thursday, the Ugandan government admitted to having held more than 1,000 who were detained in connection with the elections.
But it gave little clarity on why they were being held and where.
For some the arrests under Yoweri Museveni's presidency are echoes of Idi Amin's rule in the 1970s.
South Sudan has weapons surplus, not shortage - US
Nichola Mandil
Juba
South Sudan does not lack weapons despite its complaints that an arms embargo is making it difficult to train new soldiers, the US envoy to the country says.
President Salva Kiir and his rival Riek Machar - who is now first vice-president - formed a unity government in February last year, ending a six-year brutal civil war.
A key part of the agreement ending the conflict was to form a unified 83,000-strong national army, which is yet to be done.
The government says that cadets at various training centres are ready to graduate, but lack weapons to do so because of an embargo imposed on the military by the UN Security Council in 2018.
“The country has a persistent food shortage, but there is no weapons shortage - there is a weapons surplus,” US Ambassador Larry André said.
“So this idea that the UN Security Council must lift the arms embargo in order for the peace agreement to be fully implemented because there's not enough guns in your country, that is not what I have seen, I have seen a lot of guns,” he said.
UN human rights experts say there are still staggering levels of violence continuing in South Sudan where armed militias are divided along ethnic lines.
Nigerian raids 'force 80% of residents to flee town'
Will Ross
Africa editor, BBC World Service
Around 65,000 people have fled a town in north-east Nigeria that has been attacked several times in recent days by suspected Islamist militants, aid groups say.
All aid operations have been suspended in Damasak - a town near Nigeria's border with Niger.
"Following the latest attack on Wednesday 14 April, the third in just seven days, up to 80% of the town’s population - which includes the local community and internally displaced people - were forced to flee," the Reuters news agency quotes Babar Baloch of the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) telling a briefing in Geneva.
Local officials said 18 people had been killed in the latest raid.
The attacks were targeted on humanitarian compounds and stocks, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) Norwegian Refugee Council and Action Against Hunger said in a joint press release.
“NGO staff managed to hide and escape the town, but their private houses were set ablaze after house-to-house searches, demonstrating an unprecedented level of targeting of humanitarian workers,” their statement said.
Thousands of vulnerable families and elderly people were now fleeing across the Yobe River towards Niger for safety, they said.
A video attributed to the Islamic State West Africa Province (Iswap), a Boko Haram splinter group, shows gunmen wearing military uniforms shooting from the back of pick-up trucks.
Jihadist fighters stroll casually through the town - behind them buildings are on fire.
During the same week the Nigerian military has published videos of soldiers in the town.
The army says it is in control and has told people to stay calm.
An extraordinary message at a time when the UNHCR says the majority of Damasak's population has fled.
“Although humanitarian organisations in north-east Nigeria have faced continuous threats and attacks for years, the worsening security situation has now reached a climax,” Jean-François Riffaud, head of Action Against Hunger, said.
Aid groups estimate that more than eight million people in the north-east are in urgent of humanitarian assistance as a result of the 10-year Islamist insurgency.
Congo's long-time leader sworn in for another term
The president of Congo-Brazzaville, Denis Sassou-Nguesso, has been sworn in for a fourth consecutive term.
He won last month's election - which was boycotted by some opposition parties - with 89% of the vote.
The main opposition candidate, Guy-Brice Parfait Kolélas, died on polling day after suddenly being admitted to hospital with coronavirus.
Mr Sassou-Nguesso, 77, has been president for a total of 37 years. Apart from a five-year period, he's been in power since 1979.
"As far as I'm concerned, the work won't stop," the presidential Twitter feed quotes him as saying during his speech at the inauguration ceremony in the capital, Brazzaville.
He says he wants the highly indebted country to curb its reliance on revenue from oil and to grow more food.
Boat sinks off Tunisia killing 20 migrants
Alan Johnston
Middle East editor, BBC World Service
Tunisian coastguards say at least 20 African migrants died when their boat sank off the country's east coast.
Others are missing, but a search has been called off because of bad weather.
Only three survivors were rescued.
The vessel had set off from the Tunisian city of Sfax.
It's frequently used as a departure point by migrants trying to reach Europe.
Nearly 40 people drowned in a similar accident in the same waters last month.
F1 in Africa: The fast and the fragile
By Ben Sutherland
BBC Sport Africa
The story of the first South African Grand Prix, and the nail-biting title showdown between Graham Hill and Jim Clark.
Read moreGhanaian Atanga insists MLS was 'best choice'
By Ibrahim Ridwan Asante
Football Writer, Toronto
Ghanaian Isaac Atanga says despite being linked to European clubs he has made the right choice in joining MLS side Cincinnati FC.
Read moreYouTube blocks preacher over gay cure claim
TB Joshua is one of Africa's most influential evangelists, with top politicians among his followers.
Read moreGhanaian actress jailed for posting nude photo
Favour Nunoo
BBC Pidgin, Accra
Ghanaian actress Rosemond Brown, popularly known as Akuapem Poloo, has been sentenced to three months in prison for posting a naked photo of herself on social media beside her son.
She broke down in tears after the judge read out the sentence in the court in the capital, Accra.
In the photo, posted last July to celebrate her son’s seventh birthday, she is crouching, facing the boy and holding his hands. He is wearing underpants. Her breasts are hidden by her long hair.
The image when viral and there was a huge backlash online.
The actress, who often posts photos of herself with her son on social media, apologised, but was invited for questioning by the police.
Then Child Rights International, a non-governmental organisation, pushed for her prosecution.
On Wednesday, she was found guilty of publishing obscene materials, engaging in domestic violence and undermining the privacy and integrity of another person - and was taken into custody.
The announcement of her sentence was postponed until Friday as the court was waiting for the result of a pregnancy test, which came back negative.
Both Akuapem Poloo’s lawyers and the prosecutor had asked for a non-custodial sentence.
But presiding judge Christiana Cann said the jail sentence would serve as a deterrent to the general public given increasing levels of moral decadence in the country.
Some agree with the judge's remarks, though social media users have been calling for the actress's release since she was taken into custody using the hashtag #FreeAkuapemPoloo.
Celebrities like Ghanaian rapper Sarkodie said it was harsh to separate a child from his mother:
Singer Stonebwoy said the actress's son would suffer more if she was jailed. His tweet included a video of the actress asking for forgiveness.
Akuapem Poloo’s main lawyer, Andy Vortia, told BBC Pidgin that the actress's legal team would appeal the sentence on the grounds that she is a single parent.
“The court did not make any provision for the upkeep of the seven-year-old boy whose mother they have sentenced, who will take care of him now that she has to serve time in jail?" he said.
Nigerians arrested for breaking Ramadan rules
Eight people have been arrested by Islamic police in Nigeria’s northern state of Kano for allegedly refusing to fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
The Hisbah police enforce Islamic law in Kano - one of 12 mainly Muslim states in northern Nigeria practising the Sharia legal system alongside the country's secular laws.
“The culprits were five females and three males, eating in the afternoon in the month of Ramadan,” Aliyu Kibiya, the executive director of the Kano State Hisbah Board is quoted as saying.
During Ramadan, Muslims should abstain from eating and drinking between sunrise and sunset.
Fasting is obligatory for all adult followers of the faith who are able to safely go without food and drink.
Those who are sick or ill and whose health will be affected by fasting, including children, pregnant and breastfeeding women and travellers are exempt.
The BBC's Khalifa Shehu Dokaji is in Kano says the women told the Hisbah that they were exempt as they were menstruating, but the police were of the view that should not have been eating in public.
If the group is charged in court, they could be fined or sent to a correctional institution, our reporter says.
Mr Kibiya’s statement warned that more raids would be conducted across the state to ensure people adhere to their religious obligation.
Mozambique bans SA poultry after bird flu outbreak
Jose Tembe
BBC News, Maputo
The Mozambican government has banned the import of poultry products from South Africa because of an outbreak of bird flu.
As well as live birds, the ban also includes feathers, eggs and poultry products used in agricultural animal feed.
It does not cover processed chicken, which is away of preserving meat through heat treatment.
It is feared the ban will increase the price of poultry products in Mozambique, which heavily relies on South African imports.
On Tuesday, South Africa's veterinary authorities said avian influenza had broken out in the province of Gauteng, causing the death of about 300 birds at a farm in Ekurhuleni, east of Johannesburg.
Samples from the farm tested positive for the H5 strain and all birds there have since been destroyed.
The same farm was also affected by the 2017 outbreak of the highly pathogenic H5N8 strain.
This forced farmers to slaughter millions of birds and led neighbouring countries, including Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Namibia and Botswana, to ban the import of poultry from South Africa.
YouTube blocks TB Joshua over 'gay cure' claim
YouTube has suspended the account of influential Nigerian TV evangelist TB Joshua over allegations of hate speech.
A rights body filed a complaint after reviewing at least seven videos showing the preacher conducting prayers to "cure" gay people.
Facebook has also removed at least one of the offending posts showing a woman being hit while TB Joshua says he is casting out a "demonic spirit".
The preacher said he was appealing against YouTube's decision.
His YouTube account had 1.8 million subscribers.
TB Joshua is one of Africa's most influential evangelists, with top politicians among his followers.
Read the BBC News story for more.
Kenyan teachers ordered to get Covid vaccine
Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta has ordered all teachers to have a Covid-19 vaccine irrespective of their age.
The country has been vaccinating school managers and those aged above 50, elderly citizens and front-line workers.
More than 500,000 people have had the AstraZeneca jab out of the more than one million doses delivered to the country.
All teachers and non-teaching staff in schools should have the jab before schools reopen on 10 May, the president said.
According to the head of Kenya's Teachers Service Commission, Nancy Macharia, 15 primary teachers, three deputy headteachers and eight headteachers have died of Covid-19 during the pandemic.