Africa

With the vice-president under arrest there are concerns a political rift could spiral into conflict.

3 days agoShareSaveAlfred LasteckBBC News, Dar es SalaamShareSaveTundu Lissu appeared a magistrate's court in the commercial capital, Dar es Salaam, to hear the charges on ThursdayTanzania's opposition leader Tundu Lissu has been charged with treason a day after he was arrested following a rally he held in the south of the country.
The charge is connected to his nationwide campaign pushing for electoral reform under the slogan “No Reforms, No Election”.
The country is due to go to the polls in October when Lissu is expected to challenge President Samia Suluhu Hassan.
When Samia first came to power in 2021, after the death of her predecessor John Magufuli, she was praised for reversing some of his more authoritarian tendencies. But she has since been criticised after some opposition members have been targeted with arrests and abductions.
In a series of public appearances, Lissu has been saying that there is no chance of a free-and-fair election in six months unless there are r..

Mohamed Salah is excited Liverpool “have a chance to win other trophies” as he signs a fresh two-year contract.

2 days agoShareSavePaul NjieBBC News, LibrevilleShareSaveGen Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema led the republican guard before overthrowing the man he was supposed to protect, Ali BongoEvery day, 40-year-old Landry Obame-Mezui drives a taxi in Gabon's capital Libreville.
But it's not just any taxi. It's a sparkling, brand-new white car with the inscription “Taxi Gab+”.
For Mr Obame-Mezui, it is a shining symbol of a promise to Gabon's youth from coup mastermind-turned-transitional leader Gen Brice Oligui Nguema, who has ruled since August 2023.
With 40% of young people out of work, Oligui Nguema has offered more than 800 new vehicles to young people through a hire purchase scheme.
Mr Obame-Mezui used to drive a taxi owned by someone else. He says, thanks to the interim leader, he now has a better chance of becoming an entrepreneur.
“Before August 30 [2023], things weren't going as I wished, but today I have something stable on which I can set objectives and go far,”..

2 days agoShareSaveMansur AbubakarBBC NewsShareSaveArtist Eedris Abdulkareem has long been a critic of government policiesThe Nigerian authorities have banned broadcasters from playing the song Tell Your Papa, which criticises the country's leader.
Artist Eedris Abdulkareem's lyrics slam President Bola Tinubu and urge his influential son, Seyi, to let his father know “people are dying” through hardship and insecurity and there is “hunger” in the country.
In a letter to TV and radio stations, the National Broadcast Commission (NBC), which issues licenses and regulates the industry, ordered the track not to be played, saying it violates the country's broadcast code.
The NBC said it considered Tell Your Papa's content to be “inappropriate” and “objectionable” adding that it falls short of public decency standards.
Released earlier in the week, the song has gained a lot of attention on social media in Nigeria and has sparked debate regarding the economic and security si..

2 days agoShareSaveDanai Nesta KupembaBBC NewsShareSaveJosh Sullivan moved to South Africa in 2018 An American pastor has been kidnapped by armed men after they stormed his church service in South Africa, local authorities say.
Josh Sullivan had been conducting a service at Fellowship Baptist Church in Motherwell, a township in Gqeberra in the Eastern Cape, on Thursday evening when “four armed and masked male suspects entered”, police spokesman Captain Andre Beetge told the BBC.
The men stole two phones before fleeing the church in the 45-year-old pastor's silver Toyota Fortuner. Police later found the vehicle abandoned, but there was no trace of Mr Sullivan.
A spokesperson from the US State Department told the BBC that they were aware of the kidnapping of a US citizen in South Africa.
They said there was no “greater priority than the safety and security of US citizens abroad”.
Capt Beetge told the BBC the case had been handed to South Africa's elite police unit, known as th..

Intense rivalries between supporters of Arsenal, and other English football clubs, has led to deaths in the East African nation.

1 day agoShareSavePaul Njie & Natasha BootyBBC News, Libreville & LondonShareSaveAbout one million people are expected to votePeople are heading to the polls to pick the next president of Gabon, where for the first time in decades a Bongo family member is not on the ballot.
Former President Ali Bongo was forced from power 19 months ago by coup mastermind Gen Brice Oligui Nguema, who in turn has changed the constitution to allow him to run in Saturday's election.
A total of eight candidates are in the running to become president, with only one woman in the race – Gninga Chaning Zenaba.
Other presidential challengers include former Prime Minister Alain Claude Bilie-by-Nze, who served under the Bongo regime, as well as two stalwarts of the former ruling PDG party, Stéphane Germain Iloko and Alain Simplice Boungouères.
Election results could start being announced on Sunday, but officials can continue the count into next week.
Close to one million people are expected to v..

2 days agoShareSaveThomas NaadiBBC NewsShareSaveFile photo of Nigerian soldiersA notorious bandit kingpin and 100 of his suspected followers have been killed in a joint military operation in north-west Nigeria, authorities say.
Gwaska Dankarami was said to have been a high-value target who reportedly served as second-in-command to an Islamic State-linked leader.
The alleged gang leader had been hiding in the Munumu Forest, with authorities reporting that several other criminal hideouts were also destroyed across the state on Friday.
His apparent death comes after bandits kidnapped 43 villagers and killed four others in a deadly attack on a village called Maigora in the northern Katsina State earlier this week.
The police had said that it deployed security forces in pursuit of the kidnappers.
However, this is not the first time Dankarami's death has been reported.
In 2022, the Nigerian Airforce claimed to have killed him in a similar operation.
The Katsina State commissioner for ..