BBC News Africa

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People living in Cameroon's capital city could be without tap water for up to four days, the state-owned water company Camwater has warned.

Camwater says the potential interruption to Yaoundé's supply from Friday to Monday is a result of essential maintenance works, local media report.

It is not yet clear which neighbourhoods stand to be affected.

Some reports say water treatment malfunctions at Akomnyada, the main plant supplying the city, are to blame for shortages that began months ago.

AFPCopyright: AFP

Sierra Leone is to drop its current voting system and return to proportional representation, the president has decreed.

But the main opposition All People’s Congress (APC) party is considering mounting a legal challenge, according to representative Sidi Yahya Tunis, who called the president's decision "ill-advised".

In 1996, when multiparty democracy was reintroduced and with the civil war raging at the time, the country conducted its parliamentary elections under a proportional representation system.

MPs got elected based on the percentage of the popular vote their parties received nationwide - as long as they received at least more than 5%.

In 2002, Sierra Leone introduced single-member constituencies with MPs elected on a -first-past-the-post basis.

Making the announcement on Friday, top electoral commissioner Mohamed Konneh said the decision to go back to the earlier PR system followed a presidential directive in accordance with the country’s constitution.

He said because the country’s constituency boundaries had expired and could not be re-drawn within the constitutionally stated period ahead of the next election “the boundary delimitation exercise which had commenced is halted with immediate effect”.

AFPCopyright: AFP

At least three civilians were shot dead in protests against Guinea's military leaders on Thursday, an opposition coalition and the country's justice minister said on Friday.

Guinea's top prosecutor has called for a crackdown on protest organisers and participants, according to the AFP new agency.

Thursday's rally was called by the outlawed opposition National Front for the Defence of the Constitution (FNDC), which calls Guinea's military rulers "dictatorial" and is demanding the return of civilian rule and the release of political prisoners.

Since the elected but unpopular government was overthrown in a coup last September, Guinea has been suspended by West African regional grouping Ecowas, who want military leaders to shorten the 39-month transition period they've announced.

Ecowas has warned that it will mete out "more severe sanctions" than those already in place if Guinea does not comply.

Related stories:

• Who is Guinean leader Col Mamady Doumbouya?
• Ex-Guinea leader on trial over stadium massacre
• All the latest news from Guinea-Conakry

Getty ImagesCopyright: Getty Images

A 19-year-old Zambian woman has been arrested on charges of faking her own abduction.

The woman, whose identity has been withheld by police, is alleged to have told her uncle that she had been abducted by unknown people as she was going to church.

Zambia police spokesperson Rae Hamoonga says the woman left home on the pretext that she was going to church, but instead went to her boyfriend’s house where she allegedly falsely claimed to have been abducted.

Her uncle was called by the "abductors" who claimed that she had been injected with an unknown substance and was being held captive at a secret place. The "abductors" further demanded a ransom of 50,000 Zambian kwacha ($3,100; £2,800) otherwise they would harm her.

Police then investigated the claim which they say turned out to be false, and were able to retrieve the woman from her boyfriend’s house.

She has since been charged and arrested for the offence of cheating, which is against Zambian law. If found guilty, she could be fined and sentenced to prison for up to three years.

She hasn’t been able to comment on the allegations, but is set to appear in court soon.

Abductions are not common in Zambia, but recently, police arrested two suspects responsible for the abduction of 13 women and girls who had been held captive for varying periods up to six months.

Somalia has finalised a controversial $7m (£6.2m) oil-production-sharing deal with the US firm Coastline Exploration, after several amendments to the original agreement.

The Horn of Africa nation says the deal covers seven oil blocs and it will now proceed with an exploration program.

"The federal government will do all it can to support this project and we want the first exploration well to start as soon as possible," President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has said in a statement.

Coastline will drill an exploration well and hopes to find multiple offshore oilfields.

The deal with Coastline created a political firestorm in February when it was denounced as illegal by the previous Somali president and prime minister.

At the time Villa Somalia, the presidential palace in Mogadishu, declared the agreement null and void, citing a presidential decree that barred government agencies from entering into international contracts during the election period.

BBCCopyright: BBC

The UN says more than 2.5 million people in Nigeria are in need of humanitarian assistance following the worst flooding in a decade.

Some 60% of them are children.

The UN's children's agency, Unicef, added that people were at increased risk of waterborne diseases, drowning and malnutrition. Urgent shelter, food and water supplies are needed, as well as health and sanitation support, the body says.

Aid groups say nearly 8,000 cases of cholera have been recorded so far.

More than 300 people have died from the disease.

As it stands, 34 out of Nigeria's 36 states have been affected by flooding.

Related stories:

• Canoes and caring neighbours brave floods
• Why does Nigeria keep flooding?
• Nigeria boat accident kills dozens fleeing floods

RTBCopyright: RTB

The young army officer who seized power in Burkina Faso's latest coup has been sworn in as interim president.

As he took the oath of office, Capt Ibrahim Traoré, 34, promised to win back territory from Islamist militants, and to hold elections in July 2024.

The ceremony was streamed live on the national broadcaster RTB, and you can watch it here:

September's coup was the second in Burkina Faso in the past eight months.

Thousands have been killed and two million people forced from their homes during the country's seven-year insurgency.

Related stories:

• Profile: Who is Burkina Faso's new leader?
• Coups that promised - and failed - to bring safety
• Why Russia is cheering on the Burkina Faso coup

LELVY CRUZCopyright: LELVY CRUZ

Gelson Patrick Oliveira, better known as MC Acondize, is a rising star from Cape Verde's capital Praia.

He's conquered the local market but also played to packed venues in Europe and the US with his Afro House sound.

He started out as an events promoter and dancer, hosting parties for young people, but moved on to making his own music and winning fans in a country where people have strong ties to more traditional musical genres.

His energetic live performances often see him stripping off his clothes and jumping around the stage in just his shorts! And the audiences jump around too.

"MC Acondize, my name, means 'match', fit, always fresh, always stylish, with attitude. I started my career with a young audience of my age group, and then I conquered a more adult audience, more mature, and even children as well. Now my music covers all these age groups", he said.

His most popular single E Pa Pila, received millions of views on YouTube and Spotify last year, and several singles have grown his audiences sharply since then.

"Achieving this success took a lot of work. It was a path that I planned, and today all this is happening, thank God.

"At a national level, I have conquered the market, and internationally I have done top shows, like in the United States, Belgium, Italy, France, Luxembourg and more. I've done 500 or so shows in Cape Verde over the last three years, and in 2018 alone I ended up doing 100 shows," he told me.

After his first year in the industry, the coronavirus pandemic hit but he remained in touch with his fans by launching a Facebook channel called Criol Vibes.

MC Acondize says he always plays to full houses when he's on tour and that his music has been well-received in the diaspora.

"Once I went to perform in Belgium, and 10% of the audience were Cape Verdeans and 90% were foreigners - there was a moment when I raised our flag and they were all ecstatic shouting: 'Cabo Verde, Cabo Verde!' Clearly, they felt represented by my songs and by me. When that is the case, I feel grateful and they encourage me to continue on this path", he said.

To hear the full interview with MC Acondize, listen to This is Africa on BBC World Service radio and partner stations across Africa, and online here: bbcworldservice.com/thisisafrica

AFPCopyright: AFP

There’s been international condemnation of the recent violence in Chad, where at least 50 protesters were killed and 300 others wounded in pro-democracy protests.

The UN, the EU, and the United States have called for all parties to de-escalate, but members of the opposition have vowed to keep protesting.

In an unusual move, the US embassy in Chad not only issued a statement condemning Thursday’s violence, but also posted a photo on its social media channels, showing the ambassador kneeling next to bloodied clothes on the street.

This came after people dressed as civilians cleared checkpoints and killed four people outside the embassy gates.

It’s not clear why the US embassy was targeted. A curfew is in place in the capital Ndjamena and three other towns where protests took place.

Opposition members say demonstrations will continue until their demands are met.

They want elections to be held as soon as possible. Interim President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno, who came into power after his father, Idriss Déby died in April 2021, had promised to hold elections within 18 months. He’s now pushed them back to 2024.

In its statement, the US embassy said it was concerned that the transitional military government had disregarded the African Union’s directive that its members shouldn’t stand in future elections.

BBCCopyright: BBC

Aisha Buhari, the wife of Nigeria's president, has said "we must apologise to Nigerians" as her time as first lady draws to an end.

Speaking to BBC News Pidgin, she said:

Quote Message: People expected so much from us. And maybe, after seven years, we haven't done to their expectation. Only God knows what is in somebody's mind...

People expected so much from us. And maybe, after seven years, we haven't done to their expectation. Only God knows what is in somebody's mind...

Quote Message: So the government... they have really tried. They have done their best, but maybe it is still not the best to others.

So the government... they have really tried. They have done their best, but maybe it is still not the best to others.

Quote Message: To them, they have done their best... only God knows. So we must apologise to Nigerians. Whether we have met with their expectation or not."

To them, they have done their best... only God knows. So we must apologise to Nigerians. Whether we have met with their expectation or not."

Mrs Buhari did not clarify in which areas she thinks the Nigerian government could have done a better job.

But President Muhammadu Buhari's administration has faced criticism for failing to bring Islamist violence and armed gangs under control, failing to end corruption and deliver more jobs, as well carrying out brutal crackdowns on citizen protest movements such as #EndSARS two years ago.

"I'm not into government activities. My own is to support them, either on health or education. I don't go into details of what they do," the first lady told the BBC.

"My office, I run it like an NGO - just to receive people."

As President Buhari prepares to step down after two terms in office, Nigerians are guaranteed a new president when they go to the polls in February next year.

Watch the full video with the first lady here