Africa Live this week: 19-24 April 2022

Getty ImagesCopyright: Getty Images

The Kinshasa home of Congolese rumba legend Papa Wemba has been officially opened as a museum on the sixth anniversary of his death.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Culture Minster Catherine Kathungu said that people could come and listen to the music and see the photos and videos of the Congolese star as they toured the property.

The museum contains a variety of memorabilia like gold discs and ostentatious attire including top hats that the man known as the King of Rumba wore on stage.

The house - which is now owned by the government - will also host exhibitions and conferences and be home to a new recording studio, she added, according to a tweet from her ministry.

In 2016, Papa Wemba died at the age of 66 after collapsing during a concert in Ivory Coast.

Video from the performance showed him slumped on stage behind a group of dancers, before they rushed to his aid.

Born in 1949, Wemba, whose real name was Shungu Wembadio Pene Kikumba, began his singing career in religious choirs.

He helped modernise Congolese rumba music, with the genre that emerged - soukous - influencing music across Africa.

Last year, the UN's cultural organisation put rumba on its list of items of intangible cultural heritage.

Uganda JudiciaryCopyright: Uganda Judiciary

A Ugandan judge has survived a gun attack after his convoy was shot at on Saturday night, the authorities have said.

In a statement on Sunday, the judiciary said Judge Flavian Zeija and his team were not hurt during the shooting that took place at about 19:00 local time.

Judiciary spokesperson Jameson Karemani described the incident as an act of cowardice and said that the perpetrators would be brought to book.

The authorities have began an investigation into the shooting.

A number high profile individuals in Uganda have been targeted in recent years. Many of the cases remain unsolved.

In June last year, a minister survived an assassination attempt by gunmen on motorcycles in a Kampala suburb. His daughter and bodyguard were killed.

Others who have been shot dead under similar circumstances include a senior police officer, a chief prosecutor and an MP.

Rwanda's President Paul Kagame has travelled to neighbouring Uganda to take part in the birthday celebrations of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni's son, Muhoozi Kainerugaba.

This trip to Uganda, Mr Kagame's first in four years, is being seen as a sign of a cooling of tensions between the two countries.

Rwanda's national broadcaster said that Mr Kagame would also sit down with his Ugandan counterpart.

Lt Gen Kainerugaba, who is in charge of Uganda's land forces, has been seen as instrumental in easing relations between Rwanda and Uganda.

His intervention was believed to be a key factor in the reopening of the countries' common border earlier this year. It had been shut since 2019.

Both countries had traded accusations of interference in each other's affairs.

In a tweet earlier this week, Lt Gen Kainerugaba referred to the Rwandan president as his uncle.

The military in Mali says it has restored control at three bases in the central Mopti region after they were simultaneously attacked by jihadists.

A statement says six soldiers died and 20 were injured at the Sévaré base, which was hit by a suicide car bombing at dawn.

Eleven enemy fighters were said to have been killed.

Jihadists have also struck a military base in neighbouring Burkina Faso killing at least 12 people, including five soldiers.

Earlier this month Lieutenant Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba - who seized power in a coup in January - announced the setting up of local committees to seek dialogue with the jihadists in an attempt to curb the violence.

BBCCopyright: BBC

Suspected jihadists have carried out simultaneous attacks on three military bases in central Mali.

There are reports of the army fighting back after an explosion and gunfire were heard at the Sévaré base in the Mopti region.

The UN military force in Mali was asked to assist the army.

The number of casualties is not yet clear.

Mali has been in turmoil since 2012 when jihadists seized large parts of the north of the country.

France led an international operation to take back the territory.

But it's due to withdraw its soldiers over the next few months because of strained relations with the military leaders who carried out a coup a year ago.

AFPCopyright: AFP

Photographer Eduardo Soteras has been spending the weekend in the ancient Ethiopian town of Lalibela, where people have been marking the Orthodox Christian Easter.

He caught the ceremonies on the eve of Easter Sunday.

AFPCopyright: AFP

AFPCopyright: AFP

Lalibela is a UN World Heritage Site known for its churches which have been carved out of the rock.

The town was caught up in the Ethiopian civil war and was for a time occupied by forces from Tigray. It is now in the hands of the federal authorities.

AFPCopyright: AFP

AFPCopyright: AFP

Hundreds of UN peacekeepers from Ethiopia's Tigray region are refusing to return home from Sudan because of fears for their safety.

They had been deployed in Abyei - a disputed border region between Sudan and South Sudan.

When ties between Addis Ababa and Khartoum deteriorated, over a territorial dispute and as a result of Ethiopia building a dam on the River Nile, the peacekeepers were replaced last year by a multi-national force.

A UN spokesperson confirmed that some of them were seeking international protection in Sudan.

One of the Tigrayan peacekeepers said more than 500 of his colleagues were seeking asylum.

He said they would not be safe back home as a result of the 18-month long war in Tigray.

Last year another group of Ethiopian peacekeepers who had been deployed in Sudan's Darfur region also refused to return home citing fears of persecution.

A Mauritanian man who was held at Guantanamo Bay for 14 years without trial is suing Canada over its alleged role in his detention.

Mohamedou Ould Slahi was suspected of being involved in a failed terrorism plot in the US in 1999.

The 51 year old alleges the Canadian authorities provided false information about his activities, which led to his arrest and subsequent torture at the US prison in Cuba.

Mr Slahi says he faced physical beatings, sleep deprivation and sexual assault.

He is seeking nearly $30m (£23m) in damages.

Officials at Guantanamo Bay which was opened in the wake of the 9/11 attacks have repeatedly been accused of unlawful detention, torture and abuse.

During his detention, Mr Slahi wrote several books, including a memoir that formed the basis for the 2021 film, The Mauritanian.

EPACopyright: EPA

The World Health Organization (WHO) is reporting a new Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Although only one case has been confirmed so far, there are concerns the outbreak could spread, as the patient was not diagnosed and isolated quickly.

An Ebola outbreak in West Africa between 2013 and 2015 caused at least 11,000 deaths – the haemorrhagic disease has a mortality rate of around 50%.

This latest Ebola outbreak started in Mbandaka, a densely populated city with road and air links to the capital, Kinshasa.

The patient was ill for more than a week before he sought treatment, and he died the day he was admitted to hospital.

The WHO's Africa emergencies manager, Fiona Braka, said the delay in medical care is a concern.

"It’s very important that we quickly identify all the contacts and that the necessary isolation and monitoring is done to ensure that all those that are potentially infected are identified quickly and that we curb the spread of the disease," she added.

This is DR Congo's sixth Ebola outbreak since 2018 – its health workers have experience, and it has a stockpile of vaccines.

A massive contact tracing operation is now under way – and a vaccination campaign.

The country’s last outbreak was limited, it recorded just 11 cases, and six deaths. The hope is, this outbreak, despite the delay, can be controlled in the same way.

BBCCopyright: BBC

That's all for now from the BBC Africa Live team this week. There will be an automated news feed until we're back on Monday morning at bbc.com/africalive.

You can also keep up to date on the BBC News website, or by listening to the Africa Today podcast.

A reminder of our wise words of the day:

Quote Message: The end cannot be postponed." from A Luo proverb sent by David Gabriel in Nairobi, Kenya

The end cannot be postponed."

Click here to send us your African proverbs.

And we leave you with this picture of a whirling Egyptian dance troupe - our favourite from our gallery of the week's best photos:

AFPCopyright: AFP