Quote Message: You don't use your teeth to share what you don't eat." from Sent by A Charles, C Okeke and K Obiakor - all from Nigeria, T Ayeni in Canada and M Sow in South Korea
You don't use your teeth to share what you don't eat."
Elegant grasshoppers are a problem during the rainy seasonImage caption: Elegant grasshoppers are a problem during the rainy season
Grasshoppers have devastated crops in
many districts of the southern Mozambique over the last two months.
The plague of elegant grasshoppers
had destroyed 10 hectares - about 30
tonnes of crops, Elias Mula, an official from the agricultural ministry, said.
This included maize, sweet potatoes and beans, he added.
"Farmers know the kind of grasshoppers I am
taking about. They eat all leaves or perforate them, reducing any harvests.”
He said insecticide and experts had been sent to Marracuene, Manhica and
Boane districts
to help fight the insects.
Malawians loot foreigners' shops amid tension
Samba Cyuzuzo
BBC Great Lakes
A Rwandan woman has told the BBC that her shop was looted in
the Malawian capital, Lilongwe, in xenophobic violence that flared up amid
political tension in the country.
She said that she and other Rwandans and Burundians had fled to
Dzaleka camp outside Lilongwe for safety.
The violence follows the Constitutional Court’s cancellation
on Monday of last May’s election results.
“We were expecting xenophobic attacks on Monday but we
thought it wasn’t going to be this bad,” the Rwandan shop owner said.
She said the looters came in a mob and had taken advantage
of the political uncertainty to attack foreigners and take their
belongings.
Vice-President Saulos Chilima condemned the attacks, saying
they were “unacceptable” and had to stop
immediately”.
AFPCopyright: AFP
There was tight security around the court on the day of the ruling on MondayImage caption: There was tight security around the court on the day of the ruling on Monday
Chinese nationals quarantined in Mozambique hotel
Jose Tembe
BBC News, Maputo
Four Chinese nationals have been
quarantined at a hotel in Mozambique’s capital, Maputo, as part of measures to
prevent the spread of the new coronavirus.
They were taken to the
Chinese-owned hotel after arriving last Thursday at the international airport
from China, where the outbreak has killed more than 560 people.
The news became public after one of the hotel’s staff members told state broadcaster Radio Mozambique that there was a great deal of alarm amongst his colleagues.
But the Maputo health authorities
say those under quarantine do not show any symptoms of the virus – and it is solely a preventative measure.
People are infectious even before their symptoms appear: the time between infection and symptoms - known as the incubation period - lasts up to 14 days.
Hand-washing is a good way to stop the spread of the virusImage caption: Hand-washing is a good way to stop the spread of the virus
Anger over Tunisia-Israel tennis matches
Rana Jawad
BBC North Africa correspondent, Tunis
Getty ImagesCopyright: Getty Images
Ons Jabeur has been winning praise after recent victoriesImage caption: Ons Jabeur has been winning praise after recent victories
Tunisia’s foreign ministry
has hit out at the national women’s tennis team for playing matches against
members of the Israeli squad at the Fed Cup in Finland on Wednesday.
It said the games violated
the North African country’s “historic commitment” to the Palestinian cause,
adding that it “rejected” any relationship with “Zionist
entities”.
The statement comes as Tunisian tennis player Ons Jabeur has
been making headlines - getting to the quarter finals of the Australian Open last
month.
She has been the talk of the town in cafés and on social media -
even earning praise from state officials.
Jabeur was one of those who played on Wednesday in Helsinki,
beating Israel’s Vlada Katic in two sets.
Some have objected to the foreign ministry’s statement.
One person commented on the ministry’s Facebook page that
the greatest betrayal was “killing the dreams of the youth of this country”.
A news outlet said the problem was that the
authorities had not clarified what their athletes should do in international
competitions if faced with Israeli teams.
Ethiopian in lockdown city: I'm scared when I sneeze
Tibebeselassie Tigabu
BBC News, Amharic
Soliana AregawiCopyright: Soliana Aregawi
Soliana Aregawi has lived in Wuhan for four yearsImage caption: Soliana Aregawi has lived in Wuhan for four years
An Ethiopian graduate who is stuck
in Wuhan, the epicentre of the new coronavirus outbreak in China, says it is scary living in a city in lockdown.
Soliana Aregawi has told the BBC that
she orders food and groceries online and that her family call frequently as they are worried.
"They call me everyday, sometimes twice, and I keep telling them that I'm fine," she said.
Ms Soliana said she had had flu-like symptoms, which are similar to those of the new virus, but after a while they disappeared.
"I was sneezing one time and
I got really scared - sometimes
one can get paranoid," she said.
The weather in Wuhan has been cold
and so people have been getting seasonal colds.
Ms Soliana, who has lived in Wuhan for
four years, graduated with a degree in economics last year and stayed on for
six more months to study Mandarin.
She had just finished her language
classes when the lockdown began, meaning she now tends to stay indoors and is unable to travel back home to Ethiopia.
"Everywhere it’s closed. Wuhan looks like a dead city.
Movement is not restricted but we have been advised to stay indoors and even if
I was to go outside, where would I go?"
There are no plans as yet to evacuate Ethiopians from Wuhan.
Soliana AregawiCopyright: Soliana Aregawi
Soliana Aregawi plans to travel back to Ethiopia once the lockdown endsImage caption: Soliana Aregawi plans to travel back to Ethiopia once the lockdown ends
Zimbabwe gold miners killed after shaft collapses
Two gold miners have died
and about 20 others are trapped underground in Zimbabwe after a shaft collapsed on Wednesday
night, the state-run Herald newspaper reports.
They were working illegally at
the Globe
and Phoenix gold mine in the central town of Kwekwe, around 200km (120 miles)
west of the capital, Harare,.
The
mine was closed in 2007 on the advice of the Environmental
Management Authority (EMA).
“We were working underground at around 10pm
when we suddenly heard a noise coming from the other side of the mining shaft.
When we went to investigate, we realised it was a boulder which had fallen on
our colleagues,” one of the miners told the New Zimbabwe news.
“Although we managed to rescue one person alive, two of our colleagues had already died. We tried to remove them to no avail as the boulder was very big we couldn’t move it. About 20 more miners are still trapped underground,” he said.
The rescued miner was rushed to
Kwekwe General Hospital in a critical condition, the news site says.
Getty ImagesCopyright: Getty Images
Rescue efforts are yet to officially startImage caption: Rescue efforts are yet to officially start
Twenty-two miners were killed nearby a year ago. Zimbabwean police have recently arrested hundreds of illegal miners involved in violent turf wars.
Jihadist attacks force Mozambique schools to close
Jose Tembe
BBC News, Maputo
Five schools in northern Mozambique
are not opening for the new academic year because of frequent attacks by Islamist militants in the
area.
It will affect about 3,000 mainly junior school pupils and
more than 40 teachers in the gas-rich region of Cabo Delgado.
The first lessons of the academic
year began in Mozambique on Tuesday.
“Currently we
relocated the teachers to some schools in relatively safer places. Some pupils
have also been relocated,” said Ostlia Lucas, an
education official in Cabo Delgado's Muidumbe
District, where the schools are closing.
It is the first time schools in the region have closed because of the jihadist
violence which began in October 2017.
Getty ImagesCopyright: Getty Images
Classes for the new academic year began on TuesdayImage caption: Classes for the new academic year began on Tuesday
Raising a glass to Nigeria's booming alcohol industry
Business is booming for bar owners in Nigeria's megacity of Lagos.
The legal drinking age population in Nigeria is expected to grow by an average 2.9% per year for the next five years, with the expected arrival of 12.2 million drinkers, according to drinks market analysts IWSR.
Culture and lifestyle are also contributing to market growth, according to Maria Martinez, the owner of Luxeria - an importer and distributors of fine wine and spirits.
"Wine is the new champagne. There is a lot of in-home consumption here," she said.
The two cases of suspected coronavirus in Ghana have
tested negative, medical officials say.
Two men - an Argentine and a Chinese national - were quarantined after displaying symptoms of the virus
after going to the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital in the capital, Accra, for
treatment.
Franklin Asiedu-Bekoe, the head of disease surveillance
at the Ghana Health Service, has told BBC Pidgin that the negative results should allay the public's fears.
Ghanaian health officials say they will continue to
maintain preventive measures to ensure the new virus does not enter the
country.
The recent outbreak has killed 565 people and infected 28,018 - all but one of the deaths have been in China.
ReutersCopyright: Reuters
Travellers are being screened at Ghana's main airport as pat of preventative measuresImage caption: Travellers are being screened at Ghana's main airport as pat of preventative measures
SA leader eyes German investments to boost economy
Pumza Fihlani
BBC News, Johannesburg
AFPCopyright: AFP
South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa is hosting German
Chancellor Angela Merkel in the capital, Pretoria, for a business summit.
Ms Merkel is accompanied by officials and members of the
private sector looking to identify investment opportunities in the country.
South Africa is Germany’s largest trading partner on the African continent,
with approximately 600 companies already in the country.
The
country’s exports to Germany - mainly of machinery and equipment parts - exceeded 100bn rand ($6.7bn; £5.2bn) for
the first time last year.
Mr Ramaphosa, an astute businessman, campaigned last year on a ticket
of “jobs and economic growth” and he is under pressure to deliver on those
election promises.
It’s a tall order as the country’s economy is struggling to
meet growth targets.
With a return of power cuts in the last couple of
months, some major companies have announced job cuts in a bid to
remain profitable.
And in a country where nearly 30% of the population is unemployed,
many will be hoping these talks will lead to tangible results.
Daniel Moi became Kenya's second president in 1978Image caption: Daniel Moi became Kenya's second president in 1978
The authorities in Kenya have declared that Tuesday 11 February will be a national holiday for people to attend the state funeral of former President Daniel arap Moi.
He was Kenya's longest-serving president after spending 24 years in power.
President Uhuru Kenyatta, while announcing the death, said the former president would have a state funeral with full civilian and military ceremonial honours.
On Thursday, Interior Minister Fred Matiangi announced that the holiday would "accord all Kenyans the opportunity to attend the national memorial service in honour" of the former president.
Mr Moi's body will lie in state for three days from Saturday at parliament before a memorial service on Tuesday at Nyayo stadium in the capital.
He will be buried the next day at his home in Kabarak, located 270km (167 miles) north-west of Nairobi.
Nigeria homosexuality case delayed again
A Nigerian judge has again adjourned the case against 47 Nigerian men accused of “public displays of same-sex affection” after the lead witness for the prosecution failed to appear in court.
In Wednesday's proceedings, Justice Rilwan Aikawa appeared annoyed that the prosecution was again unable to proceed, the BBC's Mayeni Jones reports from Nigeria.
The case has been adjourned at least three times because of procedural issues, Reuters news agency reports.
The judge warned the prosecution that at the next sitting he would dismiss the case if it was not able to proceed.
The suspects were arrested in an August 2018 police raid on a Lagos hotel. They face a 10-year jail term if convicted, Reuters reports.
Lt Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan has said the meeting was in "Sudan's supreme interest"Image caption: Lt Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan has said the meeting was in "Sudan's supreme interest"
A senior Sudanese official has resigned over the surprise meeting in Uganda between the leader of the Sudan's ruling council, Lt Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Sudan's privately owned Al-Intibaha newspaper reports.
Afterwards Mr Netanyahu said they had agreed to co-operate towards normalising ties marred by Sudan's decades-long boycott of Israel over its treatment of the Palestinians.
But this was a step too far for the director of the Foreign Relations Department on Sudan's Sovereign Council, Ambassador Rashad Faraj al-Tayib,
In a statement, Mr Tayib described Mr Netanyahu as the leader of "the entity that occupies the al-Aqsa Mosque" in East Jerusalem.
Al-Aqsa is one of Islam's holiest sites and is in the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif site also revered by Jews. The compound is a source of religious and political tension between Israel and the Palestinians.
Gen Burhan's meeting with Mr Netanyahu has created a storm in Sudan, with the information minister and former ruling party criticising it, saying it was a deviation from the position of many Sudanese.
However, Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok stressed that Sudan's position on the Palestinian issue remained unchanged, despite the meeting.
It features a honeycomb pattern, but the design
has been faulted for not having the correct shades of red, green and black - the colours
of the country's national flag.
However, officials and athletes have expressed their liking for the kit.
Olympic marathon champion Eliud Kipchoge told the BBC that the new kit was "special" and "different".
"This kit will steal the eyes of Kenyans especially now [that] people love sports," he said.
The national Olympics president and athletics great Paul Tergat said "the uniqueness of the design reflects the vibrant culture of Kenya".
The Olympic games will be held this year from 24 July to 9 August.
US officials 'deliberately damaged irreplaceable kora’
A renowned musician from Mali says US customs officials have damaged his one-of-kind instrument beyond repair.
Ballaké Sissoko boarded a flight from New York to Paris on 4 February, after a two-week tour of the US.
After landing in the French capital, he said he had opened up the hard case containing his kora only to find the instrument broken into pieces.
Inside was a note, seemingly written by US officials, which read in Spanish: "Intelligent security saves time".
Luso Mnthali, a writer based in southern Africa, shared a photo of the dismantled instrument and a statement from BBC radio presenter and African music specialist Lucy Duran about the incident:
"These kinds of custom-made koras are simply impossible to replace," Durán said, noting that the neck, strings, bridge and amplification system "had been taken apart".
"Would customs have dared to dismantle a Stradivarius [violin]?" she added.
US customs officials have yet to reply to the BBC’s request for comment.
South Africa's telecom firms Vodacom and MTN have warned their subscribers of network problems due to vandalism on their mobile phone towers, the News24 website reports.
Vandals have been targeting the expensive batteries and diesel fuel used to power the mobile phone network infrastructure during blackouts, the website reports.
South Africa's ailing power firm Eskom has been carrying out scheduled power cuts as it battles to meet demand. The batteries on phone towers keep mobile phone networks operational during the blackouts.
"On average 553 incidents per month are recorded where sites have been affected by theft or damage. We are also seeing cases where the site has been damaged beyond economical repair," a Vodacom spokesman told News24, saying the situation was getting worse.
MTN has shut down 53 phone towers because of vandalism, the news site reports.
In 2018, the firm had spent 300m rand ($20m, £15.6m) on batteries and added 1,800 generators to existing sites to cope with the blackouts.
Live Reporting
All times stated are UK
Get involved
Scroll down for Thursday's stories
We'll be back on Friday
That's all from the BBC Africa Live team for now. There'll be an automated feed until Friday morning.
You can 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 quick reminder of our wise words:
Click here to send in your African proverbs.
And we leave you with this photo of tobacco harvesting posted by Ralph Kuda Chikambi on Instagram:
Greedy grasshoppers destroy Mozambique crops
Jose Tembe
BBC News, Maputo
Grasshoppers have devastated crops in many districts of the southern Mozambique over the last two months.
The plague of elegant grasshoppers had destroyed 10 hectares - about 30 tonnes of crops, Elias Mula, an official from the agricultural ministry, said.
This included maize, sweet potatoes and beans, he added.
"Farmers know the kind of grasshoppers I am taking about. They eat all leaves or perforate them, reducing any harvests.”
He said insecticide and experts had been sent to Marracuene, Manhica and Boane districts to help fight the insects.
Malawians loot foreigners' shops amid tension
Samba Cyuzuzo
BBC Great Lakes
A Rwandan woman has told the BBC that her shop was looted in the Malawian capital, Lilongwe, in xenophobic violence that flared up amid political tension in the country.
She said that she and other Rwandans and Burundians had fled to Dzaleka camp outside Lilongwe for safety.
The violence follows the Constitutional Court’s cancellation on Monday of last May’s election results.
“We were expecting xenophobic attacks on Monday but we thought it wasn’t going to be this bad,” the Rwandan shop owner said.
She said the looters came in a mob and had taken advantage of the political uncertainty to attack foreigners and take their belongings.
Vice-President Saulos Chilima condemned the attacks, saying they were “unacceptable” and had to stop immediately”.
Chinese nationals quarantined in Mozambique hotel
Jose Tembe
BBC News, Maputo
Four Chinese nationals have been quarantined at a hotel in Mozambique’s capital, Maputo, as part of measures to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus.
They were taken to the Chinese-owned hotel after arriving last Thursday at the international airport from China, where the outbreak has killed more than 560 people.
The news became public after one of the hotel’s staff members told state broadcaster Radio Mozambique that there was a great deal of alarm amongst his colleagues.
But the Maputo health authorities say those under quarantine do not show any symptoms of the virus – and it is solely a preventative measure.
People are infectious even before their symptoms appear: the time between infection and symptoms - known as the incubation period - lasts up to 14 days.
Anger over Tunisia-Israel tennis matches
Rana Jawad
BBC North Africa correspondent, Tunis
Tunisia’s foreign ministry has hit out at the national women’s tennis team for playing matches against members of the Israeli squad at the Fed Cup in Finland on Wednesday.
It said the games violated the North African country’s “historic commitment” to the Palestinian cause, adding that it “rejected” any relationship with “Zionist entities”.
The statement comes as Tunisian tennis player Ons Jabeur has been making headlines - getting to the quarter finals of the Australian Open last month.
She has been the talk of the town in cafés and on social media - even earning praise from state officials.
Jabeur was one of those who played on Wednesday in Helsinki, beating Israel’s Vlada Katic in two sets.
Some have objected to the foreign ministry’s statement.
One person commented on the ministry’s Facebook page that the greatest betrayal was “killing the dreams of the youth of this country”.
A news outlet said the problem was that the authorities had not clarified what their athletes should do in international competitions if faced with Israeli teams.
Ethiopian in lockdown city: I'm scared when I sneeze
Tibebeselassie Tigabu
BBC News, Amharic
An Ethiopian graduate who is stuck in Wuhan, the epicentre of the new coronavirus outbreak in China, says it is scary living in a city in lockdown.
Soliana Aregawi has told the BBC that she orders food and groceries online and that her family call frequently as they are worried.
"They call me everyday, sometimes twice, and I keep telling them that I'm fine," she said.
Ms Soliana said she had had flu-like symptoms, which are similar to those of the new virus, but after a while they disappeared.
"I was sneezing one time and I got really scared - sometimes one can get paranoid," she said.
The weather in Wuhan has been cold and so people have been getting seasonal colds.
Ms Soliana, who has lived in Wuhan for four years, graduated with a degree in economics last year and stayed on for six more months to study Mandarin.
She had just finished her language classes when the lockdown began, meaning she now tends to stay indoors and is unable to travel back home to Ethiopia.
"Everywhere it’s closed. Wuhan looks like a dead city. Movement is not restricted but we have been advised to stay indoors and even if I was to go outside, where would I go?"
There are no plans as yet to evacuate Ethiopians from Wuhan.
Zimbabwe gold miners killed after shaft collapses
Two gold miners have died and about 20 others are trapped underground in Zimbabwe after a shaft collapsed on Wednesday night, the state-run Herald newspaper reports.
They were working illegally at the Globe and Phoenix gold mine in the central town of Kwekwe, around 200km (120 miles) west of the capital, Harare,.
The mine was closed in 2007 on the advice of the Environmental Management Authority (EMA).
“We were working underground at around 10pm when we suddenly heard a noise coming from the other side of the mining shaft. When we went to investigate, we realised it was a boulder which had fallen on our colleagues,” one of the miners told the New Zimbabwe news.
“Although we managed to rescue one person alive, two of our colleagues had already died. We tried to remove them to no avail as the boulder was very big we couldn’t move it. About 20 more miners are still trapped underground,” he said.
The rescued miner was rushed to Kwekwe General Hospital in a critical condition, the news site says.
Twenty-two miners were killed nearby a year ago. Zimbabwean police have recently arrested hundreds of illegal miners involved in violent turf wars.
Embattled Jacob Zuma takes aim in rifle photo
By Andrew Harding
Africa correspondent
South Africa's ex-president causes a row after posting a photo of himself taking aim with a rifle.
Read moreJihadist attacks force Mozambique schools to close
Jose Tembe
BBC News, Maputo
Five schools in northern Mozambique are not opening for the new academic year because of frequent attacks by Islamist militants in the area.
It will affect about 3,000 mainly junior school pupils and more than 40 teachers in the gas-rich region of Cabo Delgado.
The first lessons of the academic year began in Mozambique on Tuesday.
“Currently we relocated the teachers to some schools in relatively safer places. Some pupils have also been relocated,” said Ostlia Lucas, an education official in Cabo Delgado's Muidumbe District, where the schools are closing.
It is the first time schools in the region have closed because of the jihadist violence which began in October 2017.
Raising a glass to Nigeria's booming alcohol industry
Business is booming for bar owners in Nigeria's megacity of Lagos.
The legal drinking age population in Nigeria is expected to grow by an average 2.9% per year for the next five years, with the expected arrival of 12.2 million drinkers, according to drinks market analysts IWSR.
Culture and lifestyle are also contributing to market growth, according to Maria Martinez, the owner of Luxeria - an importer and distributors of fine wine and spirits.
"Wine is the new champagne. There is a lot of in-home consumption here," she said.
Watch the full story here.
Video content
Two men test negative for coronavirus in Ghana
Favour Nunoo
BBC Pidgin, Accra
The two cases of suspected coronavirus in Ghana have tested negative, medical officials say.
Two men - an Argentine and a Chinese national - were quarantined after displaying symptoms of the virus after going to the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital in the capital, Accra, for treatment.
Franklin Asiedu-Bekoe, the head of disease surveillance at the Ghana Health Service, has told BBC Pidgin that the negative results should allay the public's fears.
Ghanaian health officials say they will continue to maintain preventive measures to ensure the new virus does not enter the country.
The recent outbreak has killed 565 people and infected 28,018 - all but one of the deaths have been in China.
SA leader eyes German investments to boost economy
Pumza Fihlani
BBC News, Johannesburg
South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa is hosting German Chancellor Angela Merkel in the capital, Pretoria, for a business summit.
Ms Merkel is accompanied by officials and members of the private sector looking to identify investment opportunities in the country.
South Africa is Germany’s largest trading partner on the African continent, with approximately 600 companies already in the country.
The country’s exports to Germany - mainly of machinery and equipment parts - exceeded 100bn rand ($6.7bn; £5.2bn) for the first time last year.
Mr Ramaphosa, an astute businessman, campaigned last year on a ticket of “jobs and economic growth” and he is under pressure to deliver on those election promises.
It’s a tall order as the country’s economy is struggling to meet growth targets.
With a return of power cuts in the last couple of months, some major companies have announced job cuts in a bid to remain profitable.
And in a country where nearly 30% of the population is unemployed, many will be hoping these talks will lead to tangible results.
Uefa outlines plans to help women's football in Cameroon
By Njie Enow
Football Writer, Cameroon
Former Netherlands international Hesterine De Reus explains what needs to be done to develop women's football in Cameroon and how Uefa is helping.
Read moreKenya declares national holiday for Moi's funeral
The authorities in Kenya have declared that Tuesday 11 February will be a national holiday for people to attend the state funeral of former President Daniel arap Moi.
Mr Moi died on 4 February at a private hospital in the capital, Nairobi, of an unspecified illness. He was 95 years old.
He was Kenya's longest-serving president after spending 24 years in power.
President Uhuru Kenyatta, while announcing the death, said the former president would have a state funeral with full civilian and military ceremonial honours.
On Thursday, Interior Minister Fred Matiangi announced that the holiday would "accord all Kenyans the opportunity to attend the national memorial service in honour" of the former president.
Mr Moi's body will lie in state for three days from Saturday at parliament before a memorial service on Tuesday at Nyayo stadium in the capital.
He will be buried the next day at his home in Kabarak, located 270km (167 miles) north-west of Nairobi.
Nigeria homosexuality case delayed again
A Nigerian judge has again adjourned the case against 47 Nigerian men accused of “public displays of same-sex affection” after the lead witness for the prosecution failed to appear in court.
In Wednesday's proceedings, Justice Rilwan Aikawa appeared annoyed that the prosecution was again unable to proceed, the BBC's Mayeni Jones reports from Nigeria.
The case has been adjourned at least three times because of procedural issues, Reuters news agency reports.
The judge warned the prosecution that at the next sitting he would dismiss the case if it was not able to proceed.
The suspects were arrested in an August 2018 police raid on a Lagos hotel. They face a 10-year jail term if convicted, Reuters reports.
Malian musician claims US customs broke instrument
Ballake Sissoko says his kora, a traditional harp-like instrument, arrived in Paris in pieces.
Read more'Sudan resignation' over Burhan-Netanyahu meeting
BBC Monitoring
The world through its media
A senior Sudanese official has resigned over the surprise meeting in Uganda between the leader of the Sudan's ruling council, Lt Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Sudan's privately owned Al-Intibaha newspaper reports.
Afterwards Mr Netanyahu said they had agreed to co-operate towards normalising ties marred by Sudan's decades-long boycott of Israel over its treatment of the Palestinians.
But this was a step too far for the director of the Foreign Relations Department on Sudan's Sovereign Council, Ambassador Rashad Faraj al-Tayib,
In a statement, Mr Tayib described Mr Netanyahu as the leader of "the entity that occupies the al-Aqsa Mosque" in East Jerusalem.
Al-Aqsa is one of Islam's holiest sites and is in the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif site also revered by Jews. The compound is a source of religious and political tension between Israel and the Palestinians.
Gen Burhan's meeting with Mr Netanyahu has created a storm in Sudan, with the information minister and former ruling party criticising it, saying it was a deviation from the position of many Sudanese.
However, Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok stressed that Sudan's position on the Palestinian issue remained unchanged, despite the meeting.
Kenyan uproar over 2020 Olympic kit
Mildred Wanyonyi
BBC News, Nairobi
Kenya's official kit for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, has sparked an uproar on social media moments after it was unveiled.
The National Olympics Committee of Kenya (NOC-K) and Nike unveiled the kit in New York on Thursday.
It features a honeycomb pattern, but the design has been faulted for not having the correct shades of red, green and black - the colours of the country's national flag.
However, officials and athletes have expressed their liking for the kit.
Olympic marathon champion Eliud Kipchoge told the BBC that the new kit was "special" and "different".
"This kit will steal the eyes of Kenyans especially now [that] people love sports," he said.
The national Olympics president and athletics great Paul Tergat said "the uniqueness of the design reflects the vibrant culture of Kenya".
But many Kenyans on social media are far from convinced.They expressed their displeasure using the hashtags #TeamKenya and #Tokyo2020.
Another tweeter said there was no public participation in designing the kit and wanted the inclusion of the national flag colours.
Some said that NOC-K was given a raw deal compared to the US.
NOC-K tweeted that the official launch for the kit would take place in April in the capital, Nairobi.
The Olympic games will be held this year from 24 July to 9 August.
US officials 'deliberately damaged irreplaceable kora’
A renowned musician from Mali says US customs officials have damaged his one-of-kind instrument beyond repair.
Ballaké Sissoko boarded a flight from New York to Paris on 4 February, after a two-week tour of the US.
After landing in the French capital, he said he had opened up the hard case containing his kora only to find the instrument broken into pieces.
Inside was a note, seemingly written by US officials, which read in Spanish: "Intelligent security saves time".
Luso Mnthali, a writer based in southern Africa, shared a photo of the dismantled instrument and a statement from BBC radio presenter and African music specialist Lucy Duran about the incident:
"These kinds of custom-made koras are simply impossible to replace," Durán said, noting that the neck, strings, bridge and amplification system "had been taken apart".
"Would customs have dared to dismantle a Stradivarius [violin]?" she added.
US customs officials have yet to reply to the BBC’s request for comment.
Last year, British Airways apologised to Guinean musician N'Faly Kouyate for damaging his kora by placing it in the plane’s hold, despite it being specially designed to meet hand luggage requirements.
SA telecom giants 'warn of network outages'
South Africa's telecom firms Vodacom and MTN have warned their subscribers of network problems due to vandalism on their mobile phone towers, the News24 website reports.
Vandals have been targeting the expensive batteries and diesel fuel used to power the mobile phone network infrastructure during blackouts, the website reports.
South Africa's ailing power firm Eskom has been carrying out scheduled power cuts as it battles to meet demand. The batteries on phone towers keep mobile phone networks operational during the blackouts.
"On average 553 incidents per month are recorded where sites have been affected by theft or damage. We are also seeing cases where the site has been damaged beyond economical repair," a Vodacom spokesman told News24, saying the situation was getting worse.
MTN has shut down 53 phone towers because of vandalism, the news site reports.
In 2018, the firm had spent 300m rand ($20m, £15.6m) on batteries and added 1,800 generators to existing sites to cope with the blackouts.