BBC News World

AFPCopyright: AFP

Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has linked food aid from abroad with diplomatic pressure on the country, in a statement reported by state-owned Ethiopia Television (ETV).

He said Ethiopia needs to stop receiving the assistance to avoid that pressure, ETV reported.

"If we make sure that this thing called wheat [food aid] does not enter Ethiopia, 70% of Ethiopia's problems will be solved.

"Ethiopia's problem is wheat aid. With wheat aid comes diseases. With wheat aid come many things, many consequences. If we stop it, many of the problems will be solved," Mr Abiy said.

The prime minister was speaking during a visit to a wheat farm in Oromia region.

Ethiopia, which is among major aid recipient countries, is facing increasing pressure from some Western governments over the conflict in its northern Tigray region, where millions are at risk of starvation.

AFPCopyright: AFP

Provisional results from Cape Verde indicate that the main opposition candidate, José Maria Neves, has won the first round of the presidential election.

Seven candidates are bidding to replace President Jorge Carlo Fonseca, who is not allowed to serve more than two consecutive terms.

With the results from most polling stations declared, Mr Neves has about 51% compared with about 43% for the governing party's choice, Carlos Veiga.

If confirmed, that would be enough for the opposition candidate to win without the need for a run-off vote.

Mr Veiga has already acknowledged defeat on television and congratulated Mr Neves, the AFP news agency reports.

The turnout for the election was 48.3%.

Getty ImagesCopyright: Getty Images

The environmental campaign group Greenpeace has welcomed a decision by the president of the Democratic Republic of Congo to audit all forestry concessions in the country and suspend some already seen as questionable or illegal.

The world's second largest rain forest retains vast amounts of carbon.

With the aim of helping prevent climate change some of the world's largest carbon emitters are set to pay DR Congo hundreds of millions of dollars to protect the forest.

But due to corruption and poor governance there are fears it is vulnerable to expanding agriculture and illegal logging.

The forest of the Congo basin is known as the lungs of Africa. And more than half of it lies within the Democratic Republic of Congo's borders.

Following pressure from environmental groups, including Greenpeace, President Félix Tshisekedi has ordered an audit of some potentially corrupt concessions - including one for an area of more than 1.4 million hectares.

This decision has been widely welcomed. But in July, DR Congo's environment minister announced plans to lift a ban on any new industrial logging concessions.

In a country plagued by corruption, this could pave the way for the destruction of vast areas of a forest that plays an important role in preventing climate change.

Read more:

• The bold plan to save Africa's largest forest

AFPCopyright: AFP

Egypt will bar unvaccinated public service workers from entering government buildings from mid-next month.

A cabinet notice on Sunday said workers would have to be vaccinated or take a weekly Covid test to be allowed into government buildings from 15 November.

The cabinet also allowed the opening up of bathrooms in mosques from Wednesday. The bathrooms were closed in March last year as part of measures to contain the spread of coronavirus.

The government has also allocated a billion Egyptian pounds ($64m; £47m) to address the pandemic.

Egypt has administered more than 30 million vaccine doses out of a population of over 100 million people, according to data from its health ministry.