The Guardian is running a photo essay today by Fernando del Berro, who has photographed the thousands of Moroccan women who carry heavy loads over the border to the Spanish enclave of Melilla every day.

You can see his photographs by following the link below.

People in the Nigerian oil city, Port Harcourt, have been posting photos on social media, showing black soot pollution. It's been a recurrent problem but seems to have got worse recently. 

Here is a selection of pictures from Twitter, posted with the hashtag #StopTheSoot

Kenyan athlete Peres Jepchirchir has set a world record in the women's half marathon.

She clocked a time of one hour, five minutes and six seconds in the Ras al-Khaimah half marathon in the United Arab Emirates:

Her time was three seconds quicker than the mark set by fellow Kenyan Florence Kiplagat in Barcelona two years ago.

Reuters reports the new record remains subject to ratification.

One commentator on Twitter said Jepchirchir's feat was all the more remarkable as she had just recovered from pneumonia:

Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta has warned people involved in food distribution not to "enrich themselves", a statement from the presidency said. 

He made the comments as the government declared that the drought affecting 23 of the country's 47 counties was a national disaster.

His warning came as the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said more than 11 million people in Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia were facing severe hunger and were in urgent need of humanitarian assistance because of the drought.

It said the situation was particularly severe in Somalia where nearly 40% of the population now needed some form of help.

In Ethiopia, the worst drought in half a century was further compounded by an influx of people fleeing Somalia, the Red Cross said.

Water sources in Kenya had dried up, leading to large-scale loss of livestock, it added.

Mr Kenyatta said the drought was also affecting wild animals.

Image source, AFP

Image source, Nji Collins Gbah

The first African winner in Google's annual coding competition is 370km (230 miles) from home, sitting outside his cousins' house in the Cameroonian capital, Yaounde, because the government has cut off his hometown from the internet.

As cocks crow in the background, 17-year-old Nji Collins Gbah tells the BBC about the series of complex technical tasks he completed for Google between November and mid-January.

Nji had thrown himself into the contest, using knowledge gained from two years of learning how to code, mainly from online sources and books, as well as other skills he was picking up on the fly.

The prestigious Google Code-in is open to pre-university students worldwide between the ages of 13 and 17. This year more than 1,300 young people from 62 countries took part.

By the time entries closed, Nji had completed 20 tasks, covering all five categories set by Google. One task alone took a whole week to finish.

And then just a day after the deadline for final submissions, the internet went dead.

Read more via this link.

Image source, Getty Images

Tanzanian Defence Minister Hussein Mwinyi has told German broadcaster Deutsche Welle, external he intends to lead a push for compensation from Berlin for alleged atrocities in the colonial era.

Mr Mwinyi said the government would seek compensation for tens of thousands of people who were allegedly starved, tortured or killed by German soldiers as they tried to put down rebellions between 1905 and 1907.

Germany ruled Tanzania, then known as Tanganyika, from 1890 to 1919.

Asked who would be expected to benefit from any compensation, he said: "The idea here is to compensate those who lost their lives and of course there are some surviving victims of the war. But those who lost their lives, they have people who could benefit from it."

Germany has not commented.

A Kenyan cartoonist pens his take on the fate of the estimated 260,000 Somalis living at the Dadaab refugee camp after the High Court ruled yesterday that the government's move to close it was tantamount to an act of group persecution:

The Kenyan government says it will appeal against the ruling on security grounds as it believes attacks by the Somalia-based al-Shabab group have been planned in the camp, which was set up in 1991 for those fleeing famine and conflict.

The BBC's Alastair Leithead in Kenya says the refugees in Dadaab live behind thorn scrub fences under basic tarpaulin shelters as they are not allowed to build permanent structures.

They also cannot work and rely on handouts to survive.

But he says at least the camp provides basic healthcare and schools – something Somalia still cannot yet offer.

Google Street View has added virtual tours of major landmarks in Ghana, Senegal and Uganda. 

The photo in the tweet below is from a Unesco World Heritage site in Ghana – the village of Nzuelo, built over Lake Tadane:

In Senegal you can take a tour of the imposing 49m (160ft) African Renaissance monument, external in Dakar:

Image source, Google Street View

And in Uganda the internet giant has partnered with the Uganda Wildlife Authority to capture sites from seven of the country’s national parks, external.

Google says its Street View, which launched in 2007, now covers seven countries in Africa.

Image source, AFP

Africa Cup of Nations winners Cameroon have risen 29 places to 33rd in the latest Fifa world rankings., external

The Indomitable Lions also climb to third from 12th in Africa, behind top-ranked side Egypt, whom they beat 2-1 in Sunday's Nations Cup final.

Egypt are at Africa's football summit for the first time in more than six years, and now sit 25th in the world - up from 37th.

Nations Cup quarter-finalists Senegal, the top African side last month, are second in Africa and 31st overall.

Africa's top countries in Fifa's rankings for February (last month's ranking in brackets)

1 (3) Egypt

2 (1) Senegal

3 (12) Cameroon

4 (4) Tunisia

5 (6) DR Congo

You can read more of the rankings in the BBC Sport story here.

Image source, AFP

Nigeria’s biggest airline has said it will challenge its takeover by the government.

Arik Air has been in financial trouble and the government said yesterday it was stepping in to prevent it going bust.

The company has racked up enormous debts and left employees unpaid for months.

Ado Sanusi, Arik Air’s deputy managing director, said the company would comply with the government’s order, but would seek a court order.

Nigeria’s Vanguard newspaper quoted him as saying:

The BBC’s Martin Patience in Lagos says even by the standards of Nigerian airlines, Arik Air had become a byword for utter dysfunction.

Passengers were so frustrated with delays and cancellations that the airline was forced to issue a plea for them not to attack staff.

The government agency Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria is now responsible for supervising the airline.

Image source, AFP

Plans to return the body of longtime Congolese opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi to Kinshasa for a grand national funeral have run into problems in a dispute over burial arrangements, AFP news agency has reported.

The Congolese government had promised to let his casket lie in state in parliament and offered to pay for former colleagues to travel to Brussels to collect his body. 

But Mr Tshisekedi's Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS) party has rejected the proposal and issued its own demands.

It says the government should agree to build a mausoleum for Mr Tshisekedi in the heart of Kinshasa and also demanded that funeral costs be paid by a future government whose formation has been agreed but which has yet to take office. 

Agreement to create a new government incorporating an opposition coalition established by Mr Tshisekedi was part of a power-sharing deal finalised on New Year's Eve.

It was one of Mr Tshisekedi's final acts as a political leader and he was to have headed a transitional council.

The government has responded to the UDPS demands by saying a mausoleum may be possible, but not in the city centre, AFP says. 

The news agency also says the Catholic Church, which is overseeing implementation of the transition deal, has said the new government cannot be finalised until after Mr Tshisekedi is buried.

Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari is not ill and will be back in Abuja in a matter of days, his media adviser has told the BBC’s Newsday programme.

Femi Adesina said the president was on holiday in the UK and having what he called routine medical tests - listen to the full interview here:

On Thursday, the Nigerian presidency tweeted two photos of the 74-year-old president meeting two visiting Nigerian politicians in an apparent attempt to dispel rumours about his health:

Today's African proverb:

Image source, AFP

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