Africa Daily

Bola Tinubu was officially sworn in as President of Nigeria just over 100 days ago. Since then, opposition candidates Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi have alleged widespread fraud in the election. But last week, Nigeria’s Appeal Court rejected challenges to his narrow victory. The problems President Tinubu inherited are huge. There’s widespread insecurity, the cost of living crisis, high unemployment...

This week the first ever Africa Climate Summit took place in Nairobi, to discuss ways the continent can respond to the threat of climate change . At least 23 African heads of state and government joined thousands of delegates at the summit, with a goal to influence climate commitments, pledges and outcomes. At the close of the summit on Wednesday, the African leaders adopted a joint declaration ou...

As the World Cup is set to start in Paris, President of Rugby Africa says investment is needed for more countries to replicate the Springbok’s success

“What I saw was really traumatizing. It was traumatic to see people jumping out of a building” On the 31st of August, a fire destroyed a block of flats in the Johannesburg inner city, in South Africa. A total of 77 people died while dozens of others remain in hospital. The police are still investigating how the fire started. The authorities say those who died in the catastrophe were living in the...

The leader of Gabon's military junta has vowed to return power to civilians after "free, transparent" elections. However, in a speech after being sworn in as interim president, he did not give a date for military rule to end. The coup, that ended more than 50 years of rule by the Bongo family in Gabon, was welcomed by crowds of cheering civilians that turned up at the inauguration. However, some q...

Young people in Zanzibar are able to pursue boxing for the first time in nearly six decades, now that a ban on the sport has been lifted. Zanzibar’s first president Abeid Karume banned boxing in 1965, saying it was inhumane and against the culture of Zanzibaris. In the years since, some aspiring boxers had to travel to mainland Tanzania to pursue their ambitions. It means that people on the island...

We speak hundreds of languages across the African continent. But only a small number are represented on the internet. So what future do the languages we speak at home and with our families have, if we cannot use them in a digital world? This is where machine learning comes in, Artificial Intelligence. Because there are translation tools out there, built through Natural Language Processing (NLP), w...

When South African Motswedi Modiba made her first appearance on Sing China, one of the world’s biggest TV shows, the video went viral. It wasn’t just because she sang the song beautifully or because she belted out the words in perfect Mandarin. People were also excited because she became the first black African to appear on the show. The show has more than 150 million viewers and since her auditio...

On Sunday, Russian officials confirmed that Yevgeny Prighozin was among those killed in a plane crash last week. Prighozin was chief of the Wagner mercenary group, which has carried out operations in a number of African countries. Over the last year, many countries in the Sahel region have moved away from their former security partners in the west. And Mali, which is struggling to contain secessio...

“It is not cast in stone that a military junta is always bad. What if it’s the only thing that we have?” On the 26th of July 2023, a group of soldiers in Niger ousted president Mohamed Bazoum from power. His presidential guard commander general Abdourahamane Tchiani proclaimed himself the leader of a new military junta. Niger joined Sahel nations like Sudan, Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali and Guinea who...

It’s been 135 days since the start of the conflict in Sudan. Four million people have been displaced since the Sudanese armed forces and the Rapid Support Forces turned their guns on each other, according to the UN Refugee Agency. More than 700,000 people have left the country, crossing the border to neighbours like, Egypt, South Sudan and Chad. Around 3.2 million are displaced within the country,...

On Monday, the government in Somalia announced that TikTok, Telegram and an online betting platform would be banned. They said the move would help limit the spread of indecent content and terrorist propaganda. The Minister of Communications ordered the internet companies to block the apps by Thursday night. For many people, TikTok is a light hearted escape. But creators have sometimes spent years...

We all grow up with an identity shaped by history – where we were born, how our parents and grandparents lived, what happened in our country, all these things shape us. But we also have agency, we have the ability to look at our history and the sources that shaped it, and interpret it for ourselves. The same historical event can mean many things to many people. Nigeria is a country where many comm...

As the majority of African countries work towards a tobacco free world, Tanzania - the third largest producer on the continent - is still hanging onto the crop as part of its revenue. The country’s health ministry has been discouraging smoking, with data showing 17 thousand Tanzanians are killed by tobacco related diseases each year. But the ministry of agriculture has been supporting tobacco farm...

For the next two days, South Africa will host world leaders including Xi Jinping of China, Brazil’s Lula da Silva and Narendra Modi of India. Russia’s Vladimir Putin was initially invited, but couldn’t travel to Johannesburg due to a warrant of arrest issued by the ICC. It relates to alleged war crimes in Ukraine. Those gathered for this week’s BRICS summit, will discuss an alternative currency to...

“What a lot of Zimbabweans are really concerned about at the moment is the level of joblessness. This has been a historical problem and so has been the high cost of living” - Shingai Nyoka On Wednesday, millions of Zimbabweans are expected to vote in this year’s national election. A total of eleven presidential candidates appear on the ballot paper. But Emmerson Mnangagwa’s Zanu PF and the Citizen...

This week marked a painful anniversary for Egyptians - 10 years since the violence at Rabaa Square and Nahda Square. In August 2013, supporters of the ousted President Mohammed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood had been staging protests and sit ins for almost 50 days. Hundreds of people, mostly civilians, were killed within just a few hours when Egyptian forces violently dispersed the crowds. And m...

The phrase ‘sanctions have been imposed’ frequently features when countries are at the centre of a big news story. Recently we’ve mentioned that some of Niger’s neighbours brought in sanctions after the military takeover. And the warring parties in Sudan have faced sanctions from the UK since the conflict started there. They are seen by some countries as a way of leveraging their influence to get...

When a firework blew up in Ubokobong Amanam’s hand, he was left with life changing injuries. He needed a prosthesis to replace the fingers he lost, but none of those on the market matched his complexion. The accident inspired his brother John to work on making something better for him. But they didn’t stop there…they now run a company making prostheses (artificial body parts) for the African marke...

From buying goods to communicating with friends, mobile internet has completely changed how we live our lives. In the continents biggest cities, speedy 4G makes transactions quick and reliable. But in rural areas and poorer countries, data can be slower, temperamental and much more expensive. It means that many people are priced out of getting on line and are missing out on all the benefits that c...

“If that path is clogged with trees or it’s difficult to get through but it’s the only path you have to a better circumstance, you will go a lot further through that path and you will trek a lot further before giving up than someone who has, perhaps, six or seven paths at their disposal” As the Women’s World Cup draws to a close, Alan Kasujja looks at whether or not poverty plays any part in prope...

“It’s becoming a luxury now to purchase a pad.” Women in Ghana protested outside the parliament building in Accra in June chanting for ‘tax free periods’. It followed a rise in taxes on sanitary pads. And now, a BBC survey has found that of all women on the continent, Ghanaian women on low incomes have to spend the biggest proportion of their wages on even the cheapest sanitary protection – a stag...

Finding a place to live can be challenging in a growing, expensive city like Lagos. But single women might find it particularly difficult. They report being turned down by landlords even when they can afford an apartment and have the funds to pay rent in advance. So, why is it so hard to find a place to stay?

“If I take one step to my right I will be in Kenya and if I take one step to my left, I will be in Somalia." A phased reopening of the border between Kenya and Somalia was meant to be happening last month. But that reopening was then postponed by Kenya's interior minister – citing security concerns. So what has the response been on both sides of the border? GUESTS: Abdikafi Adan Mohamed, Mohamed M...

Over the last few years there’s been a surge in violence between police and gangs in Haiti, with an eyewatering 80 percent of the capital Port-au-Prince under the control of gangs. The government has been calling for international intervention but its neighbours including the US have opted to keep out. So why has Kenya decided to get involved? It has offered to send 1000 police officers to lead a...