Africa Live: Kenya Airways protests over staff held in DR Congo

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Severe flooding has displaced hundreds of thousands of people across East Africa - and in Kenya rescue workers and authorities are "bracing" themselves for even more devastation.

"The situation continues to be very worrying. As of last night we were reporting over 60 people died across the country," Senator Edwin Sifuna, who represents the particularly hard-hit Nairobi County, told BBC Newsday.

The flooding has been caused by torrential rains linked to the El Niño weather phenomenon.

"Even just looking outside my window the clouds are already gathering. The weatherman tells us to expect even heavier rains over the next 72 hours," Mr Sifuna said, adding that rescue teams on the ground estimate that roughly 100,000 have been forced to flee their homes

Michael Aiyabei, head of disaster risk management, is also concerned.

"We are bracing for an even harder moment," he said.

At least 155 people in neighbouring Tanzania have died in the floods. In Burundi, nearly 100,000 people have been displaced.

Read more:

• Tanzania floods and landslides kill more than 150
• Four ways climate change affects extreme weather

• Dramatic rescue after bus swept away in Kenyan floods

Two men have been charged with immigration offences after an investigation into the deaths of five migrants, including a child, in the English Channel.

Three men, a woman and a seven-year-old girl died in a crush on board a boat carrying 112 people on Tuesday.

Tajdeen Abdulaziz Juma, from Sudan, and Yien Both, from South Sudan, have both been remanded in custody.

They are due to appear at Folkestone Magistrates' Court later.

The charged men are both aged 22 and accused of attempting to arrive in the UK without valid entry clearance.

Mr Both has also been charged with assisting unlawful immigration.

A third man, 18, from Sudan, was arrested earlier this week and has been bailed pending further inquiries.

The vessel got into trouble early on Tuesday morning after leaving Wimereux in northern France, and police witnessed people entering the water from the overcrowded boat.

It was one of several small boats which left France at about 03:00 local time.

Some 49 people were rescued but 58 others opted to remain in the boat and continue towards the UK, the coastguard said in a statement.

South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir has sacked his foreign affairs minister who had been in office for less than a year.

James Pitia Morgan, who was appointed last August, was dismissed in a presidential decree read out on state television on Thursday night.

Before becoming foreign affairs minister, Mr Morgan was South Sudan’s ambassador to Ethiopia.

He has now been replaced by his former deputy, Ramadan Abdallah Goch.

President Kiir appointed Mr Morgan as his envoy for the Great Lakes region.

Mr Kiir also dismissed Mayen Wol Dut, the long-serving undersecretary for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and appointed him as South Sudan’s new ambassador to China.

There were no reasons given for the latest reshuffle.

Observers say it could be a political tactic for Mr Kiir ahead of elections, scheduled for December.

Mr Goch is the first Muslim to head the foreign ministry.

Burkina Faso’s media regulator has suspended broadcasts from BBC Africa and Voice of America (VOA) over their coverage of a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report accusing the Burkinabè army of abuses against civilians.

Access to the websites and digital platforms of the BBC, VOA and Human Rights Watch have also been suspended within Burkina Faso.

HRW published a report on Thursday accusing the Burkina Faso military of executing at least 223 civilians on 25 February in the north of the country.

“Accordingly, the BBC and VOA, through their correspondents in Burkina Faso, were instructed by telephone to immediately stop rebroadcasting the offending programme on all their platforms," state-owned news agency Agence d’Information du Burkina (AIB) reported on Thursday.

The two outlets will be suspended for two weeks.

The Superior Council for Communication (CSC) further warned all local media outlets against covering the Human Rights Watch report, threatening sanctions against those who do so.

VOA said in an article published on Friday that it "stands by its reporting about Burkina Faso and intends to continue to fully and fairly cover activities in the country".

In December 2023, the West African nation suspended French daily Le Monde, accusing it of biased reporting.

It also suspended three other international media outlets at varying times last year, including French-language magazine Jeune Afrique, French TV channel La Chaîne Info (LCI) and French state-owned media organisation France24.

Kenya Airways (KQ) has accused the Democratic Republic of Congo's military of holding two of its employees since last week, despite a court ruling to release them.

The two were arrested by the DR Congo's military intelligence unit last Friday over alleged missing custom documentation on "valuable" cargo, KQ said in a statement.

The airline said its staff were detained despite not having accepted the goods in question.

"The logistic handler was still completing documentation before handing it over to KQ," Allan Kilavuka, the airline's CEO wrote.

"All efforts to explain to the military officers that KQ had not accepted the cargo because of incomplete documentation proved futile."

On Tuesday, Kenyan embassy officials and a team from the airline were allowed to briefly visit the detainees.

KQ said that on Thursday a Congolose military court granted the airline's request to have the employees released as investigations continued.

The employees' phones were seized during the arrest and they have no means of communicating with the outside world, according to KQ.

"Despite the court orders, the military intelligence unit is still holding them incommunicado, yet these are civilians being held in a military intelligence facility," Mr Kilavuka said.

"We are perturbed by this action targeting innocent staff and consider it harassment targeting Kenya Airways' business."

It is unclear what the cargo in question comprised and authorities in DR Congo are yet to comment on the matter.

WHO Regional Office for Africa/XCopyright: WHO Regional Office for Africa/X

Benin, Liberia and Sierra Leone have become the latest African countries to join the world's first routine vaccine programme against malaria.

The three nations will administer the RTS,S vaccine to children aged five months or older in four scheduled doses.

Benin received 215,900 doses of the vaccine, while Liberia received 112,000 and Sierra Leone 550,000.

The World Health Organisation (WHO), Unicef and the global vaccine alliance (Gavi) are coordinating the programme.

They said in a joint statement that the rollout was "a significant step forward for malaria prevention in Africa", which is the continent most impacted by the disease.

In 2022, 94% of all malaria cases and 95% of global malaria deaths happened in Africa, according to WHO.

The vaccine has already been successfully rolled out in Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Kenya and Malawi.

Pilots in three of those countries caused a 13% drop in the deaths of children eligible to receive the jab.

Several more African countries are expected to join the rollout of the RTS,S vaccine in the coming months, amid an anticipated rollout of R21, the second WHO-approved jab.

Fik Gaza/XCopyright: Fik Gaza/X

Ugandan dancehall artist Shafic Dangote, known as Fik Gaza, has been released after spending three days in a Saudi Arabia cell.

Gaza was reportedly arrested on Tuesday by Saudi authorities shortly after landing in the Gulf country.

It is unclear why he was arrested but some reports said he was detained over alleged visa irregularities and dress code violations.

Fellow musicians in Uganda condemned the arrest and called for his immediate release.

"Am Free. Thanks to everyone who worked so hard to get me out of jail," Gaza posted on social media platform X.

Authorities in both Saudi Arabia and Uganda have not commented on the matter.

Gaza, who started his music career in 2018, gained popularity with hits like Digida, Wanika Ebango and Omwana Oyo.

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The US will temporarily withdraw some of its troops from Chad, days after agreeing to remove all its soldiers from the neighbouring Niger.

US Pentagon Press Secretary Maj Gen Pat Ryder said on Thursday that the US plans to "reposition" some of its military forces from Chad, but did not say how many would be affected or where they would be moved to.

"This is a temporary step as part of a ongoing review of our security cooperation, which will resume after Chad's 6 May presidential election," he said.

The announcement follows Chad's air force chief ordering the US to halt activities at an airbase near the capital, N'Djamena, earlier this month, Reuters news agency reported.

Gen Ryder also said that talks with Niger's ruling military junta, the National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland (CNSP), began on Wednesday and are aimed at ensuring "an orderly and responsible withdrawal of US forces" from the country.

The US has relied on Niger as its primary base for monitoring regional jihadist activity.

But the ruling junta, in power since last July, ended a military agreement that allowed US personnel to be deployed in the country and kicked out French troops.

The moves are the latest in Niger's efforts to cut links with the West.

EPACopyright: EPA

A court in Kenya's coastal city of Mombasa has allowed cult leader Paul Mackenzie to meet his wife, Rhodah Mumbua, in prison under strict supervision from the authorities.

Mackenzie pleaded with the court to order the authorities at Shimo La Tewa Prisons to arrange a meeting between him, his wife and their children to discuss family matters.

Mackenzie had also requested to be transferred to a different cell.

But a magistrate summoned the officer in charge of the prison to guide the court on Mackenzie's plea to be relocated to a different cell.

Mackenzie has been charged with murder after more than 400 bodies were found buried in shallow graves in a remote forest in the coastal Kilifi county.

Survivors and victims' families have said Mackenzie urged followers to fast in order to "go see Jesus".

He and 29 others pleaded not guilty and have been behind bars for more than a year.

Mackenzie has already been charged with committing acts of terror, child cruelty and torture, all of which he has denied.

AFPCopyright: AFP

Nigeria's state-owned oil company has warned against the panic buying of petrol, saying the prices of fuel are not changing.

On Thursday, long queues returned at petrol stations in the capital, Abuja, and the neighbouring Nasarawa and Niger states over fuel scarcity.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) in a statement said the limited availability of petrol was a result of logistical problems.

However, the company said the challenge had been fixed.

It urged Nigerians to avoid panic buying as "there is a sufficiency of [fuel] products in the country”.

Nigeria, Africa's biggest economy and oil producer, had subsidised fuel for decades to keep pump prices affordable.

But President Bola Tinubu removed the subsidies as part of wider reforms to stabilise the economy, pushing prices to triple.

ReutersCopyright: Reuters

Fishmongers in Egypt say they have been forced to slash their prices by up to 50% because of a boycott that has swept the country.

A campaign against high prices, which began in the major cities of Port Said and Alexandria, has spread elsewhere under the slogan "let it rot".

The protest began online weeks ago, sparked by the ongoing price hikes of almost all goods.

President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi has previously advised consumers to boycott products that become unaffordable as the Egyptian currency plunged in value.

Seafood is traditionally eaten during celebrations of the Sham Ennessim national festival, which falls on 6 May.

The festival will coincide with the Easter Monday celebrations of the Egyptian Coptic Orthodox Church.

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Quote Message: Fire and gunpowder do not sleep together." from An Ashanti proverb sent by Frank Osei Kwabena Asamoah in Obuasi, Ghana

Fire and gunpowder do not sleep together."

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