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John Dramani Mahama has been Ghana’s president once before – and now he is back for another punt at the top job. The 65-year-old led Ghana from 2012 to 2017 and is one of the West African country’s most experienced politicians. He has served at all levels of office, as an MP, deputy minister, minister, […]

The wife of Ugandan opposition figure Kizza Besigye says he has been kidnapped and is now being held in a military jail. In a post on X, Winnie Byanyima wrote that her husband had been seized in Kenya’s capital Nairobi last Saturday during a book launch event. “I am now reliably informed that he is […]

If it hadn’t been for the squirrels, George Matthew’s attempt to become a cocoa bean producer might have failed. His farming career began in the 1970s when he inherited a rubber plantation in the the southern Indian state of Kerala , which he managed alongside his career as a doctor. It was a bad time […]

Turkish air strikes in drought-struck north-east Syria have cut off access to electricity and water for more than a million people, in what experts say may be a violation of international law. Turkey carried out more than 100 attacks between October 2019 and January 2024 on oil fields, gas facilities and power stations in the […]

A man in Tanzania’s biggest city, Dar es Salaam, has told the BBC he is waiting to hear news of his mother, who remains trapped two days after a building collapsed. Rescuers have so far pulled 86 people from the rubble alive but 16 are known to have died, Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa said. Emmanuel […]

A 21-year-old has become the latest Ugandan TikToker to be sent to prison after creating a video that was said to insult President Yoweri Museveni. Emmanuel Nabugodi appeared for the sentencing on Monday after pleading guilty last week to four charges, including hate speech and spreading malicious information about the president. He was sentenced to […]

Mahamudu Bawumia soared from being a political outsider to become Ghana’s second-in-command – and in December he could make history as the country’s first Muslim president. Bawumia, currently Ghana’s vice-president, was chosen by the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) as their candidate for the forthcoming general election. The 61-year-old Tottenham Hotspur supporter has quite the […]

South African police say they will continue to arrest any illegal miners who emerge from a disused gold mine where hundreds, possibly thousands, of people are in hiding. This follows a court order which said the mine-shaft in Stilfontein, around 90 miles (145km) south-west of Johannesburg, should not be blocked. Emergency services have been at […]

Miss Nigeria, Chidimma Adetshina, has spoken of her pride at coming second in the Miss Universe competition, as well as being named Miss Africa and Oceania. “I’m so proud of myself and I just made history,” she said, shortly after losing out to Miss Denmark, Victoria Kjær Theilvig. Adetshina originally competed in the Miss South […]

Rescue teams in Tanzania say they have managed to establish contact with people who are still trapped a day after a four-storey building collapsed in the biggest city, Dar es Salaam. They are managing to send them supplies of water, glucose and oxygen through small gaps in the debris. Tapping sounds have been heard from […]