Brian Hungwe
BBC Africa, Harare

Zimbabwe’s main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has told a huge crowd of his supporters in the capital, Harare, that countrywide demonstrations are on the cards.

“This is about jobs and improving the economy, which is in dire straits," he said.

  This placard in Shona reading “basa ringu riripi” means “where is my job?”: 

Mr Tsvangirai's speech was brief and police, who had denied permission for the protest, cordoned off the main street leading to parliament.

A High Court ruled that the march could go ahead (see 10.55 post).  

The BBC's Nigeria correspondent tweets:

For more about how and why the girls were kidnapped: Chibok abductions: What we know

Islamic State (IS) recruits are increasingly heading to Libya following the setbacks the militant group has suffered in Iraq and Syria, US President Barack Obama has said.

The US will continue efforts to beat it back in Libya, he added.

Last week, Mr Obama said the "worst mistake" of his presidency was his failure to plan for the aftermath of the ousting of Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

Image source, AFP

Read the full BBC story

Mansur Liman
BBC Hausa editor

The video obtained by CNN of the Chibok girls is too short for any meaningful comment on the state of health of those kidnapped two years ago. But the 15 that appear in the footage look well fed and do not seem to show any sign of distress. However, their captors may have selected them from among the 219 girls still in captivity specifically to give that impression.

Image source, CNN

It has always been clear that Boko Haram regard the Chibok girls as high-value and a potential negotiating tool. In the past they have indicated their desire to exchange some of the girls with some of their commanders arrested by the government.

Recently, the military authorities in Nigeria have been claiming victory over the insurgents, pointing to the destruction of various militant camps spread across the group's stronghold in north-eastern Nigeria and the killing of many members of the group.

However the video, apparently filmed in December, indicates that despite these successes, the group has been able to hold secure locations where they can hide the girls, even if only in small groups.

These safe havens might provide many of the group's leadership an environment in which they can lie low and regroup at a later time, as they did after the premature victory declared by the Nigerian government against Boko Haram in 2009.

The video has however raised other questions as to how talks are proceeding over the girls' release - what is the motive for releasing the video to a media house in the middle of negotiations that have the trust of all involved?

UK Prime Minister David Cameron, among other Western leaders, promised action to help find the Nigerian girls kidnapped by Boko Haram in 2014.

Will Ross, who was the BBC's Nigeria correspondent at the time, gives his analysis on the different factors which played into the UK military's co-operation with Nigeria:

"Boots on the ground were never likely given the complexities of the conflict and difficulties of working with the Nigerian army, which has an extremely poor human rights record. But I am told no more help was wanted.

"That might seem a strange position for a country that at the time was losing a war against jihadists but there were other factors at play.

"It is likely that some senior Nigerian officials in the former government would not have wanted these international partners to find out too much about its military which had been severely weakened by corruption."

Will has also been speaking those closely involved with the UK's military assistance to Nigeria. 

Read the full piece here

The BBC's Nigeria correspondent tweets from the march in the capital, Abuja:

Bashir Sa'ad Abdullahi
BBC Africa, Abuja

A small crowd of Bring Back Our Girls campaigners is marching through the capital, Abuja, towards the presidential villa.

The protesters will not be able to meet President Muhammadu Buhari today as he’s on a state visit to China.

Instead they will hold a press conference outside his official residence to mark two years since the kidnapping of the more than 200 Chibok girls.

Mr Buhari has sent his own envoy to the town of Chibok today.

His Environment Minister Amina Mohammed is expected to personally deliver the president's message to the parents of the missing girls.

A charity run by Didier Drogba is being investigated over "serious regulatory concerns" by the Charity Commission.

The Daily Mail claimed that just £14,115 ($19,939) out of £1.7m donated to the Didier Drogba Foundation has gone to good causes in Africa. 

Former Chelsea striker Drogba, 38, is threatening legal action and called the Mail's story "false and defamatory".

In a statement,, external the Ivorian added: "There is no fraud, no corruption, no mismanagement and no lies."

Image source, Getty Images

Read the full BBC Sport story 

The founder of the Bring Back Our Girls Campaign, Obiageli Ezekwesili, has told the BBC's Newsday programme that the newly released video, appearing to show some of the kidnapped schoolgirls alive, should be considered an important lead.

Ms Ezekwesili, a former Nigerian education minister, said that parents of the missing girls were "anxious to see some action taken on the premise of what they saw in the video".

Image source, AFP

Mary Harper
Africa editor, BBC World Service

Image source, AFP

Seven Somali pirates have been sentenced to between six and 15 years in jail by a French court.

They were found guilty of hijacking a French yacht and killing its owner in the Gulf of Aden in 2011.

The wife of the owner was kidnapped and rescued two days later by a Spanish warship.

The yacht owner's family said the judge's decision was not satisfactory because they had hoped for life sentences.

Piracy off the coast of Somalia has decreased in recent years because of international naval patrols and the presence of armed guards on board ships.

Read more about piracy in Somalia

The BBC's Nigeria correspondent Martin Patience has travelled to the country's remote north-eastern region and gained rare access to the school:

Brian Hungwe
BBC Africa, Harare

Zimbabwe’s main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangurai is leading about 2,000 of his supporters into central Harare to protest about the deteriorating economic situation in the country.

Some of them have been holding up placards calling for the 92-year-old President Robert Mugage to resign:

Riot police are patrolling the area. 

The High Court granted the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party permission to hold the march after the police had denied them clearance, saying they did not have the staff to secure the route.

World leaders pledged to help find the students abducted by Boko Haram from a north-eastern Nigerian girls' school two years ago.

The 219 girls are still missing. BBC News assesses the impact - or lack thereof - of the international #BringBackOurGirls campaign?

Image source, AFP

A South African high court judge has dismissed the government’s right to appeal her earlier ruling granting the release of the killer of anti-apartheid hero Chris Hani after more than 22 years in prison.

Janusz Walus was convicted in October 1993 for the murder, which had threatened to derail South Africa's transition to democracy. 

Judge Nicoline Janse van Nieuwenhuizen’s decision in March caused controversy.

Chris Hani's widow, Limpho, had described the white judge's ruling as racist.

The government had previously refused to grant Walus parole as he was said to have shown no remorse. 

Image source, AP

A Nigerian politician and rights activist, who has been involved with previous negotiations with Boko Haram over the release of the Chibok girls, has been speaking to the BBC about the emergence of a new video appearing to show some of the girls alive:

Image source, AFP

Read the full BBC News story

Patrick Kihara
BBC Monitoring

Image source, AFP

The two-year anniversary of the kidnapping of the Chibok girls has not been given prominence on the front pages of the country's newspaper websites this morning.

Comments in the Nigerian media have carried much scepticism about the whether they will ever be found.

An editorial, external in the Vanguard newspaper reads:

"Two years on, and with the military on the verge of winning the war on terror, hope appears to have dimmed for the rescue of the girls." 

A commentary in the same daily paper says, external there are doubts about the prospects of finding them: “Stakeholders in education sector are asking if the Chibok girls will ever return to their parents.“

The Guardian newspaper criticises, external those who may be taking advantage of the situation.

It says while some of the girls may have been married off or perhaps “drugged and used as suicide bombers against their will, some Nigerians with a mercantile streak have found voice in advocacy to make money from international donors by shouting for their release but never for the sake of those poor girls.

“While they hurt, we conduct our lives as normal but we cannot wish them away however hard we try."

Martin Patience
BBC News, Nigeria correspondent

This new footage which appears to show some of the kidnapped Chibok girls is reportedly a proof of life video filmed last December, which was provided to negotiators seeking the girls' release.

Nigerian officials say they are studying the footage but believe it is genuine.

The video will provide renewed hope to the girls' families that some of their daughters are still alive.

The last footage to emerge of the girls was a month after their kidnapping.

The mass abduction two years by Boko Haram militants ago sparked worldwide condemnation. But despite international assistance not one of the girls has been rescued.

Their parents are furious, blaming the previous government for doing nothing when the kidnapping took place and now the current administration for failing to devote enough resources to the search. 

But in the last year, the Nigerian army has made progress in its fight against the militants.

It has retaken towns and villages controlled by Boko Haram. And it has also freed hundreds of women and children held captive by the insurgents.

Image source, Reuters

A video released by Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram appears to show some of the schoolgirls kidnapped two years ago from the town of Chibok.

The video, apparently filmed in December, was sent to the Nigerian government and shows 15 girls in black robes identifying themselves as pupils abducted from the school.

The are all dressed in full length Islamic dress - stating their names and where they are from. CNN, which obtained the video, showed the footage to parents of the some of the 219 girls kidnapped on 14 April 2014:

Today’s African proverb:

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