Africa highlights: Sudan summons US diplomat over travel ban, Tanzania ministries face power cuts

Kenya's National Olympic Committee has angered the International Olympic Committee (IOC) when it failed to vote through key changes to the constitution on Wednesday.

And it hasn't taken long for the IOC to respond. 

Today, it cut its funding to Kenya.

In a statement, the IOC said it was:

Quote Message: Extremely disappointed by the outcome of the meeting which did not address governance issues in the right way."

Extremely disappointed by the outcome of the meeting which did not address governance issues in the right way."

It added:

Quote Message: This goes against the roadmap and discussions with the National Olympic Committee [of Kenya] over the last few months... The IOC is now putting on hold all payments of subsidies to Kenya until a decision of the IOC Executive Board is taken next week."

This goes against the roadmap and discussions with the National Olympic Committee [of Kenya] over the last few months... The IOC is now putting on hold all payments of subsidies to Kenya until a decision of the IOC Executive Board is taken next week."

There are now genuine fears that Kenya will be suspended from the IOC following next week's meeting in South Korea. 

Kenyan athletics has been mired in a series of drugs and corruption scandals  recently .

Madagascar has been battered by Cyclone Enawo in recent days. 

Five people are now known to have died since the cyclone made landfall on Tuesday. 

Whilst the storm slowly eases over the next 24 hours there is still the risk of further flooding and disruption. 

Phil Avery has the latest forecast.

KUMBIRAI MAFUNDACopyright: KUMBIRAI MAFUNDA

Supporters of prominent Zimbabwean activist Itai Dzamara have been marking exactly two years since his disappearance.

Witnesses say he was abducted by five men, who dragged him out of a barber shop in the capital, Harare, and bundled him into a car.

Some have been using the hashtag  #WhereisItai  on Twitter to raise awareness of Mr Dzamara's case, who was one of 93-year-old President Robert Mugabe's most vocal critics.

Officials have denied any state agents were involved in his abduction.

A statement from the US embassy in Zimbabwe criticised the authorities for not doing more to solve the case:

Quote Message: The United States remains deeply concerned about Mr Dzamara's whereabouts and well-being... The lack of progress in this case raises doubts about the intention of the authorities responsible for the investigation."

The United States remains deeply concerned about Mr Dzamara's whereabouts and well-being... The lack of progress in this case raises doubts about the intention of the authorities responsible for the investigation."

The EU also voiced its concern over the activist, whose case has become a cause celebre for critics of Mr Mugabe, who accuse him of abusing human rights in order to retain his grip on power.

Nigeria's rice producing industry is bucking the country's economic fortunes, the Financial Times reports .

The country's economy contracted in 2016 - the first time negative growth has been recorded in a calendar year in a quarter of a century.

But journalist Maggie Flick travelled to the north-west of the country and found a booming rice industry.

This comes off the back of import restrictions and a programme to support rice farmers in the region.

“Life is getting better around here,” one farmer Labara Hassan is quoted as saying.

NDUDU BY FAFACopyright: NDUDU BY FAFA

The United States' chief diplomat in Sudan has been summoned to the country's foreign ministry in protest over the 90-day travel ban imposed on Sudanese travelling to the US, Reuters news agency reports.

Sudan is among six majority Muslim countries to be included in the revised list issued earlier this week. Somalia and Libya are also on the list. 

An earlier effort by President Donald Trump to impose travel restrictions was halted by the courts.

The new ban is due to come into force next week.

Reuters quotes a Sudanese government statement saying that the deputy foreign minister "once again expressed Sudan's disappointment at the order".

AFPCopyright: AFP

Since the imposition of the state of emergency in Ethiopia last October designed to quell protests in the restive Oromia region, little has been reported from the region.

But journalist William Davison managed to gain access to the area and in today's Guardian newspaper he has written about the water problems in the town of Sululta, near the capital, Addis Ababa.

He found that despite the town's booming economy - it has attracted a lot of investment in industrial plants - people do not have reliable access to water.

Ironically, the town is home to water bottling plants.

"There is no one to care about us," one woman told Davison. 

ReutersCopyright: Reuters

AFPCopyright: AFP

Nearly 20 human rights groups are urging the United Nations Security Council to impose targeted sanctions against officials accused of gross human rights violations in Burundi. 

The 19 organisations include Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the International Federation of Human Rights. 

In a letter sent to the UN Security Council on Wednesday, they say:

Quote Message: Some intelligence, army and police agents... had been killing, torturing, beating innocent people including those fleeing to the neighbouring countries in all impunity.''

Some intelligence, army and police agents... had been killing, torturing, beating innocent people including those fleeing to the neighbouring countries in all impunity.''

The letter says they were aided by members of the youth wing of the ruling party.  

You can see the full letter below, which has been shared on Twitter by an HRW press officer:

Read more about Burundi

Ranch owners affected by clashes with migrant cattle herders in central Kenya are calling on the government to conduct a disarmament exercise.

Local farmers held a meeting today to discuss the numerous attacks on private farms and ranches by cattle herders said to be looking for pasture.

Managing cattle grazing in the Laikipia region has been a source of conflict for many years, but ranch owners at today’s meeting said the situation has reached crisis point. 

The farmers say the most recent attacks are being perpetrated by pastoralists coming from outside Laikipia county, who are increasingly well armed.

Traditional grazing deals between surrounding communities and the ranchers had sustained a relative level of peace for decades, but a large influx of pastoralists has rendered them largely ineffective. 

Earlier this week ranch owner Tristan Voorspuy was killed in the region by pastoral herders in the latest sign of tension.

BBCCopyright: BBC

Read more:  Are Kenya ranch invasions driven by drought or politics?

The latest tweet from Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari during his stay in London on extended medical leave shows him meeting the Archbishop of Canterbury:

Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo is currently acting as president while Mr Buhari is away.

His absence - now in its seventh week - has led to some anxiety in Nigeria with people wondering what is the matter with the president.

The reason for Mr Buhari's medical leave has not been disclosed.

South African anti-apartheid struggle hero Winnie Madikizela-Mandela has been admitted to hospital for observation. 

Her family said she had gone to Johannesburg's Milpark hospital for a check-up. 

In December last year Mrs Madikizela-Mandela was admitted to the same hospital but the diagnosis of her ailment was never made public.

Her spokesman Victor Dlamini told the BBC that “she had gone in for a regular check-up but the doctors, as a precautionary measure, decided to admit her”.

“It will probably be just like last year when she was here, it lasted just for a day or two,” he added.

Mrs Madikizela-Mandela was married to Nelson Mandela and was the first black woman to be registered as a social worker in the country.

AFPCopyright: AFP

The treason trial in Ghana against three people accused of campaigning for separatism for Ghana's eastern Volta ground to a halt today as the magistrate said his court had no authority to hear the case. 

The three facing the treason charges are alleged to belong to a group that wants the Volta region and parts of northern Ghana to break away to form a new country to be called Western Togoland. 

The area did not fall within the administrative borders of the Gold Coast, which became known as Ghana at independence 60 years ago.

What was then Trans Volta Togoland territory was incorporated into Ghana. 

The three were arrested after one of them was found distributing shirts backing a separate state.

The Volta regional police commander Nana Asomah told the BBC that the police are yet to decide what to do after the magistrate declined to hear the case.

EPACopyright: EPA

Two former Nigerian policemen have been sentenced to death in connection with the murder of six civilians in 2005.

The killing of the Apo Six became notorious as the police initially tried to cover up the deaths, saying that the victims were armed robbers who had opened fire first.

But a judicial panel of inquiry set up by former President Olusegun Obasanjo rejected the police's story and the government apologised on behalf of the police for their killings.  

Ezekiel Achejene and Emmanuel Baba were convicted but three other policemen, Danjuma Ibrahim, Nicholas Zakaria and Sadiq Salami were freed, the Punch newspaper reports .

Achejene and Baba were found guilty of murdering two of the six, the paper adds.

BBCCopyright: BBC

The former president of The Gambia, Yahya Jammeh, has disclosed plans to take up farming full time, the Jeune Afrique newspaper reports .

Mr Jammeh flew out to Equatorial Guinea last month after coming under pressure from Gambia's neighbours, who threatened to use force against him out if he did not accept defeat in December presidential polls. 

Jeune Afrique quotes an unnamed diplomat in Equatorial Guinea as the source of the story.

After his initial acceptance, later reversed, that he had lost the elections to current leader Adama Barrow, Mr Jammeh had said he would return to his home village in The Gambia to take up farming there. 

AFPCopyright: AFP

SAIFEE HOSPITALCopyright: SAIFEE HOSPITAL

An Egyptian woman, believed to be the world's heaviest at 500kg (1,102lb), has undergone weight reduction surgery.

A spokesperson at Mumbai's Saifee Hospital said Eman Ahmed Abd El Aty, 36, had lost 100kg since arriving in India in January.

"We are trying to get her fit enough to fly back to Egypt as soon as possible," the hospital said in a statement.

Her family said she had not left her house for 25 years until she came to Mumbai on a chartered plane.

Read more: Obesity boom 'fuels malnutrition rise'

European fuel traders have been selling fuel to Africa that has toxin levels up to 300 times the European limit. 

Until now that was legal in many African countries. But in Nigeria they’re trying to change that – by banning these toxic fuels. 

This video is part of the the BBC ‘s So I Can Breathe season.  

Read more: Can Nigeria clean up its dirty air?

As the search continues for those responsible for the audacious cash theft at South Africa's main airport, OR Tambo in Johannesburg, cartoonists have been having fun with the story.

As we reported earlier , the police say they have found two fake police cars which they say were used in the heist. 

A three-day dusk to dawn curfew has been imposed in Ile-Ife city in Nigeria’s south-western Osun state following ethnic violence in which several people were reportedly killed.

Violence broke out on Wednesday between the Hausa community – who are mainly economic migrants from the north - and the local Yoruba community.

State Governor Rauf Aregbesola said in a statement that the violence had led “to avoidable destruction of lives and properties” but gave no further details.

Some residents told BBC Hausa that at lest 20 people were killed but the police have not given any figures.

Mr Aregbesola said the decision to limit the movement was taken over a breach of peace in the area.

The curfew, between 6pm to 7am local time, will stay in place until Friday.

Violence like this has a history of degenerating into more ethnic clashes nationwide, with reprisal attacks being carried out in other areas.

BBCCopyright: BBC

Tunisia's national airline has announced that it is cancelling all flights over what it describes as social tensions. 

Local media say that Tunisair has grounded its planes as a result of a battle between pilots and technicians over uniforms. 

This is reported to have escalated into violent confrontations between the two, the latest being reported on board a plane between a co-pilot and a mechanic. 

The dispute is reportedly over uniforms that technicians have been given, which some pilots believe do not make an adequate distinction between them and mechanics.

TunisairCopyright: Tunisair

A new study says road accidents are on the rise in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, with pedestrians accounting for 80% of deaths.

City authorities have announced stiffer penalties for drivers violating traffic regulations among other measures, in a bid to address the alarming figures.

At least 5,000 people died across Ethiopia last year due to road accidents.  

Earlier this week four nuns became the latest victims after they died in a road accident in the east of the country. 

The report by the Addis Ababa authorities blames the rising cases of accidents on poor roads, speeding and drink driving. 

Use of seatbelts was also reported to be low, while only one in three motorcyclists wore helmets correctly. 

In January, Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn termed the rise in accidents as an epidemic and called for a complete overhaul of traffic regulations and the issuing of driving licenses.

AFPCopyright: AFP