Africa highlights: Monday 5 October 2015

A cheetah called Legolas, which at 68kg was one of the biggest ever tagged by researchers in Botswana, has been shot dead, sparking renewed concern about the decline of the species.

The Cheetah Conservation Bureau (CCB) said in a Facebook post that Legolas was a beloved research cat, who was shot on public land in an area devoid of livestock.

It said data taken from Legolas' collar had "revolutionised the study of cheetahs' collaborative hunting techniques, which until now, had been largely unknown".

The group said the killing qualified as "a poaching case" because the animal's body had been left on the side of the road and not delivered to wildlife authorities.

Cheetah Conservation BotswanaCopyright: Cheetah Conservation Botswana

But its statement hinted at what it thought might be behind Legolas' death:

"We at CCB have always sympathised with the farmers who have problems with predators, but this unprovoked attack is really unnecessary."

Researchers said they were in mourning for a magnificent animal after the "needless" attack. Three of the seven cheetahs collared for the project last July have been shot.

A court in London has approved the seizure of cash from Nigeria's former oil minister Alison Diezani-Madueke, reports BBC Africa's Sam Piranty.

The amount seized from the former minister is about $41,000 (£27,000), following an application brought by the UK's National Crime Agency under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

The court ruled that the money can be held for six months.

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Earlier, we were told that Ms Diezani-Madueke (pictured above) had appeared in court. However, this has turned to be incorrect, and she did not attend.

She has not yet been charged with any offence.

Ms Diezani-Madueke was freed on bail on Friday following her arrest, as part of an investigation into suspected bribery and money laundering.

She has previously denied any wrongdoing when it was alleged that $20bn of oil money had gone missing when she was in office between 2010 and 2015.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has withdrawn all its staff from a humanitarian compound in South Sudan's Leer County after its compound was looted and its aid workers threatened, it says in a statement on its website. 

It told the BBC that it had been hoping to provide food distribution for around 50,000 people, who have fled the fighting, and that its withdrawal now means there are no aid agencies left in Leer. 

More than 40% of South Sudan's population is in need of food aid  

Unity State, of which Leer County is a part, has been the scene of some of the worst atrocities alleged to have taken place in the conflict, which started in December 2013. 

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Today's decision sends the parole process back to the body which had decided to release athlete Oscar Pistorius in August.

Justice minister Michael Masutha blocked that release at the last minute, saying it was premature.

Now the parole board will have to reconvene to consider Pistorius' request that he should be allowed to serve the rest of his prison sentence under house arrest.

This is unlikely to happen before the Supreme Court hears the prosecution's appeal against his murder acquittal on 3 November.

A lower court ruled last year that Pistorius was guilty of culpable homicide, or manslaughter, over the killing of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

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Opinion has been divided by South Africans on Twitter over the decision not to grant Oscar Pistorius early release from prison:

Here is some more background on the decision to keep Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius behind bars - at least for the moment.

He was sentenced to five years in prison last year for the culpable homicide, or manslaughter, of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

Pistorius was due to be released in August following a decision by the parole board.

However, Justice Minister Michael Masutha said the decision was premature, as it had been taken before the athlete had served a sixth of his prison sentence, something that was required under the law.

The case was then sent to a review panel, which has now ordered the parole board to reconsider its decision to release him into house arrest.

ReutersCopyright: Reuters

Ivory Coast and Zimbabwe have been named as the most improved countries in the annual Mo Ibrahim Index of African Governance.

South Sudan, where there is an ongoing civil war, deteriorated the most, with Somalia coming bottom of the rankings.   

Thirty-three of the continent's 54 countries have improved over the past four years. 

The index's founder is the billionaire British-Sudanese businessman Mo Ibrahim. The foundation has been tweeting key findings of the report:

Millions of children across Kenya have been returning to school today after a five-week teachers' strike, the longest in the country's history.

BBC producer Charlotte Atwood snapped these students enjoying break-time at a Nairobi primary school.

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The children were also keen to make sure they made it into Anne Soy's TV piece for later, crowding around the cameraman.

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Read the full BBC story

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Ethiopia's parliament has unanimously chosen Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn for another five-year term, at its first session following elections in May.

The decision did not come as a surprise - the ruling coalition and its allies won all 547 parliamentary seats in a poll denounced by some opposition parties as a sham.

A South African journalist has been tweeting on athlete Oscar Pistorius' bid to be released from prison (see 09:01 post). His application is being heard by a judge-led panel:

South Africans are sharply divided over whether the double-amputee should be freed after serving a sixth of his five-year jail sentence. 

Here's a sample of the views expressed on Twitter, as the Olympic star's name trends on the micro-blogging site in South Africa: 

The contents of this post about Nigeria's former oil minister Alison Diezani-Madueke have been deleted, as we were misinformed that she had appeared in court. For the latest, see entry at 17.44

The percentage of people in sub-Saharan Africa living in extreme poverty will fall to 35% by the end of 2015, according to new research by the World Bank.

That's down from 56% in 1990.

Sounds like good news, doesn't it? The only problem is when you compare that reduction with Asia, where poverty levels have been reduced far more quickly.

In 1990, extreme poverty among populations in South Asia was 51%, close to levels in sub-Saharan Africa. By the end of 2015, the World Bank estimates the figure for South Asia is expected to plummet to 14%.

Highlighting the huge disparity in the speed of poverty reduction in sub-Saharan Africa compared to other global regions, the World Bank notes that the "growing concentration of global poverty in sub-Saharan Africa is of great concern".

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Tell us how you view the situation where you are. Can you notice levels of poverty reducing? Email africalive@bbc.co.uk

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He's a superstar in Ghana, sometimes referred to by his fans as the "James Bond of journalism", whose recent expose of alleged corruption in the judiciary has grown into one of the country's biggest scandals in recent years.

Anas Aremeyaw Anas inspired many Ghanaians to post photos of themselves on social media imitating his disguise:

Henry Brownny Duff / Abdel Sarkcess / Joy FMCopyright: Henry Brownny Duff / Abdel Sarkcess / Joy FM

But 24-year-old art student Godwin Addo has taken it a step further, making a sculpture of the reporter for his final project:

JoyFmCopyright: JoyFm

Sudanese and Egyptian football took a battering this weekend - there were two from each nation in the semi-finals of the Champions League and Confederation Cup respectively and none of them made it through to the finals.

Instead, Algeria's USM Alger will meet TP Mazembe of the Democratic Republic of Congo in the Champions League final and Orlando Pirates of South Africa will play Tunisia's Etoile du Sahel to decide the destination of the Confederation Cup.

EPACopyright: EPA

USMA will look to make it back-to-back wins for Algeria in the Champions League after they drew 0-0 at home with Al Hilal of Sudan to record a 2-1 win overall.

In the other semi-final, big-spending TP Mazembe overturned a 2-1 first leg loss with a 3-0 win over other Sudanese side Al Merreikh to win 4-2 on aggregate.

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In the Confederation Cup, many had predicted an all Egypt final but Orlando Pirates pulled off a shock 4-3 win in Suez over eight-time African Champions Al Ahly to complete a 5-3 overall win.

Egyptian double-winners Zamalek staged a remarkable fight back to beat visitors Etoile 3-0 in Cairo but it was not enough as they lost 5-4 on aggregate. The comeback was even more unexpected as the Egyptians played 85 minutes with 10 men - Etoile also played the last quarter of an hour with 10 players.

For years many Somalis have fled the instability and fighting in their homeland, crossing the Gulf of Aden to Yemen.

But since the start of the Yemeni conflict in March, some of them have been fleeing once more - and returning home in crowded boats that dock at the northern port of Bossasso.

WFP/Karel PrinslooCopyright: WFP/Karel Prinsloo

For centuries, there have been close ties between the countries, and Yemen has recently been host to more than 238,000 Somalis refugees. But the destruction of infrastructure and air strikes has led to a humanitarian crisis in the country. More than 40% of returnees from Yemen are children.

WFP/Laila AliCopyright: WFP/Laila Ali

Returnees first stay at a transit centre in Bossasso that used to be a warehouse for the UN's World Food Programme (WFP). After a few days many go to their regions of origin across Somalia.

WFP/Laila AliCopyright: WFP/Laila Ali

See the full picture gallery here

The Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine has been awarded to two teams for their groundbreaking work on parasitic diseases.

William C Campbell and Satoshi Omura developed a new drug against infections caused by roundworm parasites.

Youyou Tu shares the prize for her discovery of a therapy against malaria.

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The Nobel committee said the work had changed the lives of the hundreds of millions of people affected by these diseases.

Read the full BBC story here.

Nigeria's militant Islamist group Boko Haram says it carried out the multiple bombings which killed 18 people on the outskirts of the capital, Abuja, on Friday night.

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Under the banner of Islamic State in West Africa, the militants published pictures of three men whom it said launched the attacks, contradicting a police statement that a male and female suicide bomber were behind the blasts.

Boko Haram has been calling itself the Islamic State in West Africa since pledging allegiance to the Islamic State group, which is fighting for a global caliphate.

International pressure is growing on Somalia to free two prominent journalists arrested in Mogadishu on Friday by the intelligence agency, and to reopen the offices of their UK-based television station.

UN Somalia envoy Nicholas Kay said the detention of Awil Dahir Salad and its Abdullahi Hersi was a threat to a free and independent media.

"Freedom of expression is a fundamental right and is essential to create an environment that fosters debate and public participation in the 2016 electoral process and Somalia's ongoing state-building and peace-building process," he added.

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Mr Hersi is the director of UK-based Universal TV, which broadcasts in Somali, while Mr Salad is a popular presenter.

The Somali Intelligence Agency has not given reasons for their arrest, and the closure of the station's Mogadishu offices.

However, there is strong suspicion that their action is linked to a debate Mr Salad hosted about the presence of African Union (AU) troops in Somalia to fight militant Islamists, and moves to impeach President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud.

You can survive for months without food. But when it comes to water, you only have days.

Lack of access to safe, clean water is a life-threatening reality for hundreds of millions of people, and charitable solutions are often short-term.

Now one company is using technology designed for the US military and disaster rescue teams to provide communities across developing countries with a different way tackle the problem.

Watch here Hannah McNeish's video report from a trial area in Yatta, central Kenya.

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Coal miners in South Africa have begun a nationwide strike over wage demands, which has the potential to exacerbate the country's ongoing power crisis, IOL news reports.

The strike could disrupt the coal supply for the state-owned Eskom power plants, it adds.

About 30,000 miners are expected to take part in the action, which began yesterday evening, according to the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM).

The union, the largest in the mining sector, is demanding wage increases of up to 14% for its workers.

The South African economy has been hit by a global fall in commodity prices.

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Kenya's schools have reopened after the longest teachers' strike in the country's history ended.

Union representatives of the 280,000 striking teachers said at the weekend that they would obey a court order to return to work.

Kenya National Union of Teachers official Wilson Sossion warned that they would resume their strike after 90 days if the government failed to give them a pay rise of up to 50%.

Some 12 million children were without an education for more than a month because of the strike.

A dusk to dawn curfew has been imposed in Guinea's second city Nzerekore after deadly clashes between between supporters of President Alpha Conde and opposition leader Cellou Dalein Diallo ahead of Sunday's election.

One person was killed and dozens injured in clashes during the weekend after Mr Conde visited the city, local media reports.

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Nzerekore is the stronghold of former junta leader Moussa Dadis Camara who recently attempted to return to Guinea from Burkina Faso where he has been living since 2010.

His party has entered an alliance with Mr Diallo's party, but Mr Camara has said he will not interfere in his supporters' choice.

Last week, the seven opposition candidates running against Mr Conde called for the election to be postponed by a week, saying the West African state was not ready for the poll.

However, the electoral commission rejected their demand.

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The World Bank has said that for the first time less than 10% of the world's population will be living in extreme poverty by the end of 2015.

The bank said it was using a new income figure of $1.90 per day to define extreme poverty, up from $1.25.

It forecasts the proportion of the world's population in this category to fall from 12.8% in 2012 to 9.6%.

However, it said the "growing concentration of global poverty in sub-Saharan Africa is of great concern".

Read the full BBC story here.

ReutersCopyright: Reuters

A judge-led panel in South Africa is expected to consider today whether Paralympian athlete Oscar Pistorius should be freed early from prison for killing his girlfriend.

"The hearing will go ahead on Monday," prisons spokesman Manelisi Wolela told the AFP news agency.

Justice Minister Michael Masutha blocked his release in August, saying the parole board had made a mistake when approving the 28-year-old double-amputee's release before he had served a sixth of his five-year sentence.

Pistorius wants to serve the rest of his sentence under house arrest.

The athlete was sentenced to five years in prison last year for killing model Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine's Day 2013, following a trial which attracted global headlines.

He was convicted of culpable homicide, or manslaughter, after saying during his murder trial that he shot her at his home after mistaking her for an intruder.

Today's African proverb: Inside a black pot white pap is made. A Yoruba proverb sent by Aina Ayodeji Kazeem, Ibadan, Nigeria.

Click here to send your African proverbs.

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