Summary

  • South African train chief sacked over 350% pay rise

  • Celebrated Liberian Ebola fighter dies in childbirth

  • No winner for $5m African leadership prize

  • Gambia removes age limit for presidents and vice-presidents

  • Kenya deploys 2,500 officers over cattle-rustler violence

  • Moroccans 'request return of Jurassic reptile'

  • Nigeria's economy shrinks by 1.5%

  • South Africa 'may drop 2022 Commonwealth Games'

  • Tunisia Sousse attack police were 'shambolic'

  • Libya exposed as child migrant abuse hub

  • Rescuers search for SA toddler trapped in mineshaft

  • Somalia's drought declared a national disaster

  • Algerian colonel sentenced to death

  • Jihadists attack Burkina Faso police posts

  • Mauritania debates 'adding blood symbol' to flag

  • Trevor Noah buys '$10m New York penthouse'

  • Email stories and comments to africalive@bbc.co.uk - Tuesday 28 February 2017

  1. Mind the potholes! Advice for Zimbabwe driverspublished at 12:03 Greenwich Mean Time 28 February 2017

    The potholed roads in Zimbabwe's capital, Harare, are an increasing hazard for drivers. They are especially dangerous following heavy rains, as standing water hides some of the potholes.

    Some residents have taken advantage of the poor state of the roads to fix potholes themselves, stepping in where the state authorities are not acting and collecting money from grateful drivers.

    Media caption,

    Cars in Harare have to take great care due to the numerous potholes

  2. Judge condemns 'cowardly' Tunisia police over beach attackpublished at 11:49 Greenwich Mean Time 28 February 2017

    
          Photo composite shows victims of the attack and a armoured security vehicle
        Image source, EPA/AP/Reuters
    Image caption,

    In total 38 people were killed in the Sousse attack

    The police response to a terror attack at a Tunisian resort in which 30 Britons were killed was at best "shambolic" and at worst "cowardly", a coroner has concluded.

    In all, 38 people were killed when an Islamist gunman opened fire at a hotel in Sousse on 26 June 2015.

    Judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith has begun delivering his findings after an inquest heard that a police commander spent eight minutes briefing his men inside a police building while the gunman was on the rampage.

    He said the gunman had been intent on killing as many tourists as he could.

    The police response could and should have been effective, he said.

    Read the full BBC news story

    Hotel Imperial MarhabaImage source, EPA
    Image caption,

    The Hotel Imperial Marhaba is popular with British tourists

  3. South African official sacked over 350% pay risepublished at 11:01 Greenwich Mean Time 28 February 2017

    Andrew Harding
    BBC News, Johannesburg

    A wallet with South African randImage source, Thinkstock
    Image caption,

    Collins Letsoalo's annual salary after the rise was about $450,000

    A South African government official who granted himself a 350% pay rise has been sacked.

    Collins Letsoalo was supposed to be "Mr Fix-it" - brought in to clean up corruption and waste at South Africa’s troubled railways authority.

    But soon after his arrival last year at the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa, Mr Letsoalo allegedly sought a pay rise of 350% - taking his annual salary to some $450,000 (£360,000).

    When a newspaper published details of what it said was an unauthorised salary increase, Mr Letsoala insisted he had done nothing wrong.

    But the rail agency board has now decided otherwise – and voted unanimously to remove him from the job.

    To some, this is a scandal about the culture of entitlement and corruption pervading the upper levels of the South African state.

    And a rare example of someone actually being found out, and punished.

    But Mr Letsoalo is right to point out that executives running the country’s other struggling state-owned enterprises all earn similarly huge salaries.

    With South Africa’s economy stalled, anger over inequality growing, and the government borrowing heavily to pay its army of civil servants – there may be other lessons to learn from Mr Letsoalo’s fall.

  4. Nigeria's economy shrinks by 1.5%published at 10:38 Greenwich Mean Time 28 February 2017

    Martin Patience
    BBC News, Nigeria correspondent

    An ATM machine in NigeriaImage source, AFP
    Image caption,

    Nigeria is grappling with its worst economic crisis in a generation

    Figures just out show Nigeria’s economy shrank by 1.5% in 2016.

    Last spring Africa’s largest economy officially slid into recession for the first time in 25 years.  

    These figures may be unwelcome but they are not unexpected. 

    Nigeria is grappling with its worst economic crisis in a generation.

    It has been largely caused by the slump in global oil prices, which has sucked all-important US dollars out of the economy.

    It has meant that businesses have been unable to pay for imports leading to a sharp downturn.

    Critics say government policies made a bad situation even worse.

    The country’s leader has also been accused of being missing in action.

    For more than a month now, President Muhammadu Buhari has been in London receiving medical treatment for an unspecified condition.

    But relief may be at hand - global oil prices are rising again and that could end up pulling Nigeria out of recession.

  5. Kenya deploys 2,500 officers to take on cattle rustlerspublished at 10:33 Greenwich Mean Time 28 February 2017

    Ferdinand Omondi
    BBC Africa, Nairobi

    About 2,500 police and paramilitary police officers are being deployed to the western Kenyan region of Kerio Valley to hunt down those responsible for the deaths of 10 people, including two politicians, amid cattle-rustling violence.

    Some 4,000 people have also been displaced in a region the authorities have declared to be “dangerous and disturbed”.

    The region has always experienced low-level violence between the Pokot and Tugen ethnic groups over grazing for their cattle – and the latest clashes come amid a severe drought.

    Analysts say elections due in August are also adding to the tension.

    Deputy President William Ruto, who visited Kerio Valley on Monday, said $970,000 (£780,000) would be set aside to compensate those who had lost livestock in the region during the recent cattle-rustling incidents.

    Today’s papers are going big on the government’s operation against the rustlers:

    East African Standard spread on cattle rustling
    Image caption,

    The East African Standard looks at those displaced in the violence

    People Daily front page
    Image caption,

    The People Daily leads on the deployment

  6. Do Ugandans really speak the best English in Africa?published at 10:00 Greenwich Mean Time 28 February 2017

    Uganda's government-owned New Vision newspaper has a story this morning which has got everyone talking.

    It reports that Uganda has been named the best English-speaking country in Africa in a study conducted by World Linguistic Society. Here's how the rest of the list plays out. 

    1. Uganda 2. Zambia 3. South Africa 4 . Kenya 5. Zimbabwe 6. Malawi 7. Ghana 8. Botswana 9. Sudan

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    We should also mention that we haven't been able to verify the research in question, or even find an official website for the people behind the World Linguistic Society...

    Still, it's a fun discussion so we're throwing it out there! 

    Which country do you think speaks the best English in Africa? And does it matter in any case? 

    Let us know your thoughts on the BBC Africa Facebook page or email africalive@bbc.co.uk. 

  7. Libya child migrant abuse: 'They used to beat us every day'published at 09:25 Greenwich Mean Time 28 February 2017

    Children at a detention centre in LibyaImage source, UNICEF/ROMENZI
    Image caption,

    Many migrant children are kept in detention centres in Libya

    The UN has warned that large numbers of children are still risking their lives to make the dangerous journey from Libya to Italy.  

    Girls such as nine-year-old Kamis, who set off with her mother from their home in Nigeria. 

    After a desert crossing in which a man died, followed by a dramatic rescue at sea, they found themselves held at a detention centre in the Libyan town of Sabratha.

    Quote Message

    They used to beat us every day. There was no water there either. That place was very sad. There's nothing there."

    Kamis

    Unicef says almost 26,000 children - most of them unaccompanied - crossed the Mediterranean last year.

    Many children suffer from violence and sexual abuse at the hands of smugglers and traffickers, it says.

    But they rarely report their abuse, for fear of arrest and deportation.

    The agency also says there is a lack of food, water and medical care in Libya's detention centres.

    The plight of children, many of them unaccompanied by parents, has become a tragically familiar part of the wider story of mass migration over the past two years.

    But while much has been said about the extreme dangers faced at sea, the privations experienced on land, especially in Libya, are less familiar.

    Read the BBC News story for more

  8. Islamist attack on Burkina Faso policepublished at 09:07 Greenwich Mean Time 28 February 2017

    Two police posts in Burkina Faso were attacked by jihadists on Monday night, officials said, just months after 12 soldiers were killed by militants in a raid near the Mali border, AFP news agency reports. 

    It was unclear whether there had been any casualties from the latest attack, which took place in Soum province in the country's north, security minister Simon Compaore told AFP.  

    The incident comes as the capital, Ouagadougou, is on high security alert, as it hosts the 25th edition of  Fespaco, external , Africa's biggest film festival, which takes place every two years.

    
          Police officers check cars at the entrance to the Pan-African Film and Television Festival (Fespaco) in Ouagadougou on February 27, 201
        Image source, AFP
    Image caption,

    There is tight security in Ouagadougou for Fespaco

  9. SA mine search for trapped toddlerpublished at 09:02 Greenwich Mean Time 28 February 2017

    
          Community members look on as a rescue worker is sent underground to save a five-year-old boy fell into a disused mine shaft in Boksburg. Picture: Pelane Phakgadi/EWN
        Image source, Pelane Phakgadi/EWN
    Image caption,

    Large crowds have been watching the rescue efforts over the last few days

    Rescue efforts are set to continue to find a five-year-old boy trapped for nearly three days in a disused mineshaft in the Boksburg, a small town on the outskirts of the South African city of Johannesburg.

    The boy reportedly fell into the hole sometime between 12:00 and 13:00 local time on Saturday.

    According to EyeWitness News, external , the search operation was called off on Monday night after rescue workers experienced difficulty breathing underground.

    An emergency services spokesman told News24, external on Monday that a drone was going to be used to fly over the area to assess the stability of the ground.

    Some community members say that for years they have called on authorities to seal the hole, EyeWitness reports.

    Residents are expected to gather in their hundreds again to watch the rescue mission.

  10. Wise wordspublished at 09:01 Greenwich Mean Time 28 February 2017

    Today's African proverb:

    Quote Message

    All fingers face in one direction; the thumb alone begs to differ."

    Sent by Fagbemijo Amosun Fakayode in Ibadan, Nigeria

    A pair of handsImage source, Thinkstock

    Click here to send your African proverbs .

  11. Good morningpublished at 09:00

    Welcome to the BBC Africa Live page where we'll be keeping you up-to-date with news and trends from across the continent.