BBC News Africa

Getty ImagesCopyright: Getty Images

Nigerian tech company, Klasha, has brought in a new policy which will allow its employees to take time off when they are on their period.

It is reported that they are the first tech company in Nigeria to introduce a menstrual leave policy of this kind. Klasha has said the policy will initially provide five days off a year but that could be subject to change as they evaluate its effectiveness once implemented.

CEO, Jess Anuna, said in a statement: “At Klasha, we understand that we must make room for women’s biological needs as a part of everyday business. Rather than leave the subject as an unspoken taboo, we want to build a culture of trust, truth, and acceptance.“

On their website, they state that 60% of their employees are female.

The move has been applauded by some on social media, but it has also sparked debate about how the policy will work in practice.

Zambia is currently the only country in Africa that grants menstrual leave - allowing a day off per month. Other counties that offer flexible working for periods include Japan, Indonesia and South Korea.

A study in 2019 found that period pain was linked to nearly nine days of lost productivity for a woman in a year.

Founded in 2018, Klasha is a Nigerian e-commerce company which operates in six African countries. They currently have offices in San Francisco and Lagos.

AFPCopyright: AFP

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has rejected an appeal against the conviction and 25-year sentence for a Ugandan former child soldier who became a feared rebel commander.

Dominic Ongwen was found guilty last year of crimes against humanity and war crimes committed by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in Northern Uganda between 2002 and 2005.

He was abducted by the LRA at the age of nine and was forced to fight as a child soldier.

One judge wanted the length of sentence to be reconsidered due to fact that Ongwen was a victim as well as a perpetrator of the conflict.

However the majority of judges upheld the sentence. The leader of the LRA rebel group, Joseph Kony, is still at large.

Getty ImagesCopyright: Getty Images

A large drop in the water levels at Lake Kariba, the key supply for Zambia's hydro-electric power plants, has forced the country to begin rationing power supply.

Last week Zimbabwe, which shares the lake with Zambia, began implementing 18-hour outages.

Lake Kariba is the biggest source of power for both countries but Zimbabwe has already used up its annual water allocation to produce power and was eating into Zambia’s share.

Zambia is now restricted to producing 800MW of power and Zimbabwe 300MW daily.

Water levels have dropped to critical levels at Kariba due to successive droughts with low rainfall and excessive use of water for power generation.

Domestic consumers have begun experiencing power outages of up to six hours every day and Zambian authorities say the rationing is to avoid a completed shutdown of its power stations.

Zambia has said it will continue to export power despite the rationing.

The power allocations will be reviewed in January, as seasonal rainfall is expected to start filling up the lake.

Read more: Zimbabwe power outages hit businesses and families

BBCCopyright: BBC

A cholera outbreak has been declared in Goma, capital of the North Kivu province in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

North Kivu's governor, Lt-Gen Constant Ndima says most of the cases have been reported in temporary camps sheltering internally displaced people affected by the on-going war.

“A lot of patients who are suffering from diarrhoea, loss of fluids and some of them are vomiting.” Lt Ndima told journalists on Wednesday evening.

The governor says more than 600 cases and four deaths have been reported. However, non–governmental organisations offering support to the victims say the numbers are higher than official figures.

Those living in the camps have complained about the lack of food, shelter, latrines, and showers – optimal conditions for cholera to spread.

Cholera is usually caught by eating or drinking contaminated food or water and is closely linked to poor sanitation. The disease often causes acute diarrhoea and can kill within hours, if untreated.

Since the end of October, tens of thousands of people fleeing fighting with the M23 group have joined those already settled for months in sites for displaced people in Nyiragongo territory, a few kilometres north of Goma.

Without proper sanitation and access to clean safe water, cases could rise.

In October this year, the World Health Organization suspended the two-dose cholera vaccine in favour of a single one, due to a supply shortage. This type of protection is however limited.

BBCCopyright: BBC

A Sharia court in the northern Nigerian state of Kano has sentenced a prominent Islamic cleric to death by hanging, after finding him guilty of blasphemy against the Prophet Muhammad as well as incitement in some of his preaching, although he denies the charges.

Sheikh Abduljabar Nasir Kabara has been detained by the authorities since July last year after being accused of spreading lies against the Prophet - charges which he denied.

The trial has been closely followed by Nigerians. Kano is among a dozen states in northern Nigeria where Sharia is practised alongside the country’s secular law.

The 52-year-old scholar is from the Qadiriyya sect. He has a sizeable number of followers mainly in Kano state.

His father was the leader of the sect in West Africa until his death in 1996.

Sheikh Abduljabar has the right to appeal against the judgement.

Death sentences in Nigeria are rarely carried out. Instead, convicted people are usually kept in prisons indefinitely.

Getty ImagesCopyright: Getty Images

Rwandan President Paul Kagame has said nobody is going “to bully us" when it comes to internal Rwandan affairs, in response to the US request to release government critic Paul Rusesabagina.

During a discussion on African issues on the sidelines of the US-Africa Summit in Washington, Mr Kagame was asked if the US’s Antony Blinken advocacy on Mr Rusesabagina was "helping or hurting" his case.

Mr Kagame said that “somebody in America” wanted the case to be “nullified” because “this person is a celebrity”.

Last year, Mr Rusesabagina and 20 other people were found guilty on terrorism charges.

“If we let him free, how about these other 20 who pointed him as even being their leader?” President Kagame asked.

“We have made it clear, there isn’t anybody going to come from anywhere to bully us into something to do with our lives - you can maybe make an invasion and overrun the country,” he added sarcastically.

Mr Rusesabagina, 68, was depicted as a hero in a Hollywood movie on the Rwandan genocide.

He was sentenced to 25 years in jail after being tricked into boarding a private jet from Dubai to Rwanda's capital Kigali, thinking he was heading to Bujumbura in Burundi.

Mr Rusesabagina's family has called the trial a sham, saying he was taken to Rwanda, from exile, by force.

The US has stated that Mr Rusesabagina is being “wrongfully detained” in Rwanda.

You can read more about Paul Rusesabagina here.

BBCCopyright: BBC

Rescue workers have found 11 more bodies of people killed following floods on Tuesday night in the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kinshasa.

The bodies were found in the northern Mont-Ngafula district of the city where many houses are built on hillside areas that suffered landslides.

The floods have been termed the worst in years witnessed in the city.

Nearly 30,000 households have been affected, with 280 homes swept away by the landslides.

President Félix Tshisekedi is due to return to the country on Thursday from Washington after shortening his participation at the USA-Africa Summit.

The official death toll is 120 but non-governmental groups say more than 140 people died.

The damage to infrastructure is significant, with the majority of residents in the capital experiencing water and electricity outages.

Officials on Tuesday ordered the demolition of buildings standing on unstable locations and those putting pressures on the drainage system.

Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni has come under online criticism after his official Twitter account posted a misleading image of Rwenzori Mountains in an attempt to show the beauty of the mountain.

The Rwenzori are a range of mountains which includes Africa's third highest peak Mt Margherita. It is among Unesco's world heritage sites.

Instead of showing the Ugandan mountains, the image President Museveni shared shows Mt Sefton - which is found in the Aoraki Mount Cook National Park in New Zealand.

In the post accompanying the image, Mr Museveni said he had “continued to highlight the unique beauty of Uganda, the marvel of Rwenzori and the good high-altitude climate” during his visit to the UK and the US.

“That is why you find permanent snow on the Equator,” he said.

Online users were quick to call him out with some urging him to delete the post.

There were others who insisted that was a correct picture of Mt Rwenzori, claiming it was turning up when they searched for the image online.

“To prove this is Mt Rwenzori, I consulted uncle Google. Plus remember I’m a neighbour to this Mt. Yes it snows & I grew up seeing this. Thx for marketing Ug Excellency,” one posted.

But the reason why this was happening was because other sites have previously erroneously used the image to show Mt Rwenzori.

Some online users made light of the post saying perhaps it was Mr Museveni’s “announcement of an impending colonization of the [New Zealand] mountain and henceforth it shall be called Rwenzori V.2”.

More on this topic:

• Rwenzori Mountains: Africa’s surreal ‘Mountains of the Moon’

DR Congo presidency/TwitterCopyright: DR Congo presidency/Twitter

The Democratic Republic of Congo's President Felix Tshisekedi has asked US President Joe Biden to “put pressure on Rwanda in order to stop its support to the M23 rebels".

The two presidents spoke at a bilateral meeting during the ongoing US-Africa summit in Washington.

The US has previously called on Rwanda to stop its support to the M23 - while Kigali has continuously denied links with the rebels.

Speaking at an African exchange forum on the side-lines of the summit, Rwanda's President Kagame said "there isn’t anybody, who is going to come from anywhere to bully us into something to do with our lives".

In the US, the presidents of Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Angola met to discuss the eastern DR Congo security situation - which Mr Tshisekedi didn’t attend.

The presidents met “to review” the implementation of Luanda and Nairobi agreements – meetings that have taken resolutions on the conflict, the Rwandan presidency reports.

It came as the M23 rebels held their first press conference in Bunagana town in eastern DR Congo which they have controlled since June

They denied killings in Kishishe and Bambo. The UN forces in DR Congo has said more than 130 people were killed by the rebels in the two areas on 29 and 30 November.

In the Wednesday evening presser, the rebels criticised the UN forces' statement as “lacking facts”.

The rebels presented "government army soldiers, and Rwandan FDLR rebels" who they said were captured on the battlefield.

The UN says that more than 400,000 people have fled their homes since fighting between M23 and the army resumed in March.

A relative calm has been observed since the end of last week.

Jonathan Paye-LaylehCopyright: Jonathan Paye-Layleh

Liberia's largest prison, the Monrovia Central Prison, has begun turning away new inmates due to overcrowding and fears of disease outbreak, the justice ministry and prison officials have said.

Justice Minister Frank Musa Dean told the BBC that those being denied admission at the facility were inmates accused of minor offences.

“Where no damage was done or nobody was wounded, people arrested on minor charges are to instead be returned to communities and kept under the watch of community leaders," Mr Dean said.

It follows local media reports that prison guards were refusing to admit new inmates as part of an ongoing strike over a delay of salaries. Prison officials have denied the claim.

The prison was built to hold around 300 inmates when the population of Monrovia was about 300,000. It now holds over 1,600 inmates in a city of about 1.5 million people.

Inmates at the facility include convicted murderers and armed robbers.

“Of course when there is an increase in population, correspondingly there’s an increase in crime rate,” Mr Dean said. “And there’s a challenge.”

Engineers from the ministry of public works are working on a blueprint to construct additional wings of the prison that will take up to 1,000 inmates, according to the justice minister.

More on this story:

• Liberia prisons: Where inmates are short of food, space and uniforms

ReutersCopyright: Reuters

Nigeria will on Thursday introduce into circulation its new currency in the first such redesign in 20 years.

The authorities say the measure is meant to address insecurity, tackle counterfeiting and force excess cash back into the banking system.

Nigeria’s central bank had said more than 80% of the money in circulation was being hoarded by individuals.

It has urged people to take their old naira notes to commercial banks for replacement.

A 31 January deadline has been set by which Nigerians have to trade-in the old banknotes.

Many Nigerians say the government should have focused more on other measures to tackle soaring inflation in Africa’s largest economy instead of redesigning the banknotes.

The policy is likely to hit politicians who might be planning to use cash to bribe voters in Nigeria’s elections - a common campaign strategy in the country. The elections are due in February.

The release of the new notes comes barely three weeks before another change comes into effect - the limiting of cash withdrawals from banks to $225 (£182) a week for individuals and $1,200 (£970) for corporate bodies.

ReutersCopyright: Reuters

Moroccan fans have heaped praise on their football team's performance despite Wednesday night's World Cup semi-final 2-0 loss to France.

The team made history by becoming the first African and Arab nation to reach this stage of the competition.

Morocco's King Mohammed VI led fans in showing support to their team after the game with a thank you tweet:

French President Emmanuel Macron also praised the Moroccan team for their history-making run at the World Cup.

"To our Moroccan friends: congratulations on this beautiful journey. You are making football history," he tweeted.

US President Joe Biden said "it was remarkable to watch how much this team has been able to achieve".

French striker Kylian Mbappe told Moroccan defender Achraf Hakimi, who is also his teammate at French club PSG, that "everybody is proud of what you did, you made history".

The BBC's Mayeni Jones watched the match from Morocco's western city of Casablanca and says the team has galvanised support across age groups and in the wider region.

She spoke to fans who were full of pride of the team's performance.

Mohamed Berrada, a local sports reporter, said: "Very proud of my country, very proud of the team. Unfortunately we lost our captain in the first 20 minutes. I’m disappointed but proud."

Adil, a French-Moroccan who supports the African side because he was born there said: "Always Morocco, we never give up, never. We had the best team, best played. They played better than the French."

The Morocco team will play their last match on Saturday against Croatia in the third-fourth place play-off.

AFPCopyright: AFP

Ghana’s annual inflation rate increased to 50.3% in November, up from 40.4% in the previous month, according to the latest figures by the Ghana Statistical Service.

This is the highest inflation recorded in more than two decades.

It is attributed to a sharp rise in the cost of housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels, which recorded an inflation rate of 79%.

On Tuesday, Ghana reached an initial agreement with the IMF for a $3bn (£2.4bn) bailout subject to approval by the fund's board if the country meets all the requirements.

The deal is expected to help restore Ghana’s economic stability and ensure debt sustainability. However the government has to restructure the country's debt to sustainable levels to qualify for the loan.

Domestic bond holders have rejected the government’s decision to exchange $10.5bn in domestic bonds for new ones as they disagree with the new terms.

Since last week, the local currency, the cedi, has been making significant gains against the US dollar after losing half of its value this year.

But it has not reflected in the prices of imported essential commodities.

The cocoa and gold-producing West African country has been struggling to deal with the worst economic crisis in a generation which has resulted in street protests in the capital.