Ferdinand Omondi
BBC Africa, Nairobi

The BBC has learned that Kenya’s athletics association has received a report indicating that two long-distance runners, who have yet to be publicly named, have failed a doping test.  

The association is delaying identifying the runners so as not to spoil a planned reception for long-distance runner Mary Keitany, who won the London Marathon women’s race last weekend, breaking the world record.  

Only three weeks ago, another Kenyan, former London Marathon winner Jemima Sumgong was suspended for failing a drugs test. 

Some of Kenya’s elite athletes are said to be worried that the doping scandals could severely dampen their successes and they will be demanding decisive action against the offenders.

Image source, Getty Images

A UN peacekeeper in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has been suspended over allegations that he had a child with an underage girl.

Under Congolese law, anyone under 18 is considered a minor.

The military observer is among five peacekeepers accused of acts of sexual abuse and exploitation in the first three months of 2017, a senior UN official told the BBC.

UN peacekeeping missions have been hit by a raft of child sex abuse scandals.

The underage girl involved in the first case has been put under the care of the UN children's agency Unicef, Adama Ndao, head of the conduct and discipline team for the UN peacekeeping mission in the country, Monusco.

Image source, AFP

Sammy Awami
BBC Africa, Dar es Salaam

Tanzanian President John Magufuli has sacked nearly 10,000 civil servants for holding fake education certificates. 

He ordered that they leave their work stations by 15 May or else they will be arrested and prosecuted. 

Mr Magufuli was reacting to a report by a task force listing 9,932 government employees with dubious secondary school qualifications.  

That’s just over 2% of the country’s civil servants.

The civil servants could also be prosecuted and if found guilty of fraud could face up to seven years in jail.

The investigation only looked into secondary school qualifications of officials in local government, public institutions and government agencies and has not examined university degree certificates.

When he was sworn in earlier this year, President Adama Barrow said the Gambian election, which saw his predecessor Yahya Jammeh ousted after 22 years in power, was "a victory for democracy".

He told Gambians they had the power to control their own destiny. He also promised to free political prisoners and improve press freedom.

So how does he view his first 100 days in power?

The BBC's Umaru Fofana caught up with President Barrow.

Pope Francis is beginning a visit to Egypt aimed at improving dialogue with Islam three weeks after bomb attacks on two Coptic churches killed 45 people.

He will meet the Egyptian president and speak at al-Azhar University, a key centre of Sunni Islamic learning.

So-called Islamic State said it was behind the Palm Sunday bombings.

The 80-year-old pontiff says he is travelling as a "messenger of peace" and, despite the security concerns, will not use an armoured car.

The two-day visit is the first papal trip to Cairo in 20 years, and comes as Egypt's Coptic Christians - who make up 10% of the country's mainly Muslim population - face increased threats. 

The majority of the Copts are Orthodox, with less than 150,000 of them Catholic.

Read more from BBC News Online.

Image source, AFP

Kenneth Kaunda, one of the continent's last surviving leaders of the anti-colonial struggle, turns 93 today.

Mr Kaunda led Zambia to independence in 1964 and became its first president.

Some Zambians have been sharing pictures of the country's founding father.

We've found this archive shot of Mr Kaunda in 1961 during negotiations with the British:

Image source, Getty Images

A Kenyan religious leader, who was a candidate in the political party primaries, is being detained for a further four more days after being arrested on Wednesday for disrupting a voting exercise, private Standard newspaper reports. , external

Bishop Margaret Wanjiru, a popular religious leader who runs her own church, faces two charges of malicious damage and disrupting a voting exercise.

Chief Magistrate Francis Andayi ordered that Bishop Wanjiru is to be held until 2 May when she will appear in court and could be released on bond, the report says. 

Local TV station KTN reports that if she is found guilty she could face two years in prison:

The person who runs digital communications for Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari has been trolling the New York Times after it tweeted a picture of the president with a story about Ghana.

Image source, New York Times

The New York Times has realised the error and has published an apology in the piece that the tweet links to.

But Mr Ogunlesi has come up with a salty riposte: 

We've been reporting about the revelation that nearly 10,000 Tanzanian civil servants have been found to have fake school certificates (see earlier post).

President John Magufuli, speaking at a ceremony where he received the details, has given the officials with fake certificates a few weeks to resign or face legal measures.

He has also asked newspapers to publish the names of the officials.

The president's comments are being streamed on YouTube, external.

Image source, Millard Ayo

An Egyptian woman believed to have been the world's heaviest is to be moved to the UAE after a row over her weight loss at the Indian hospital where she was being treated.

Mumbai's Saifee hospital said Eman Abd El Aty had weight loss surgery and was free to go as she now weighed 172kg (380lbs), down from an estimated 500kg.

But her sister accused doctors of lying and pleaded for her to stay.

She will now go to Burjeel hospital in Abu Dhabi.

A statement, external released by Ms Abd El Aty's doctors said she would receive "secondary physiotherapy" there as the hospital is "closer to home for Eman and her family".

Read the full story

Image source, SAIFEE HOSPITAL

Somali Mohamud Gedi Ire escaped the violence in Mogadishu in 2008 and went to live in South Africa, where he runs a shop with his sons. 

He has been the target of xenophobic violence but also knows that he has freedoms in South Africa that he would not have in his birthplace. 

Video journalist: Christian Parkinson 

Nearly 10,000 Tanzanian civil servants have fake school certificates, according to a report received by President John Magufuli.

The details released in the capital, Dodoma, show that 9,932 government employees were found to have fraudulent secondary school qualifications.

The BBC's Sammy Awami says that this is just over 2% of the country's 435,000 civil servants.

Image source, AFP

South Africa-based cycling outfit Team Dimension Data is making history at the ongoing Tour de Romandie in Switzerland. 

For the first time at the top level of the sport, they are fielding a squad featuring only African riders. 

Four Eritreans, a Rwandan, two South Africans and an Algerian make up their team for the event. 

Team Principal Doug Ryder spoke to the BBC's Newsday programme:  

Thursday's unveiling of Kenya's opposition presidential candidate, Raila Odinga, and a proposed government structure, among the leaders of five opposition parties, continues to elicit debate. 

The Nasa coalition has pledged top government positions to the leaders of the main parties in the coalition.

But political analyst Kaamotho Waiganjo has said on local TV station Citizen that holders of the proposed roles of premier cabinet secretary and two deputies will still have to be vetted by parliament - and this could present a problem.

Which means that if Raila Odinga wins the presidency but the opposition coalition fails to get a parliamentary majority it is likely that his opposition counterparts would be blocked from assuming the roles agreed as part of the deal.  

Another Kenyan high-profile athlete has failed a drugs test according to the Reuters news agency, which is quoting the chairman of Athletics Kenya (AK).

The news comes three weeks after news that Kenyan Olympic marathon champion Jemima Sumgong tested positive for a banned substance.

She has been suspended from cpmpetition but is still waiting for the results of a test on a B-sample before permanent action is taken.

AK chairman Jackson Tuwei said he could not yet say who this latest athlete is, Reuters reports.

The sport in Kenyan has been hit by several doping scandals in the past few years.

Image source, Getty

Sammy Awami
BBC Africa, Dar es Salaam

Tanzania's President John Magufuli is set to receive a report by a task force he commissioned to investigate civil servants who allegedly have fake academic certificates.

By February the government had discovered that about 300 public servants had fake degrees.  

Immediately after assuming office Mr Magufuli temporarily suspended recruitment for government jobs and ordered an audit of state workers. 

Top governmental officials are attending the event. 

Image source, AFP

An appeals court in Senegal on Thursday upheld the life sentence given to Chad's former leader Hissene Habre for war crimes, crimes against humanity and torture. 

The ruling was issued by a special court set up by the African Union. 

Victims of atrocities committed under Habre welcomed the court decision. 

Souleymane Guengueng is a Chadian who was imprisoned and tortured in Chad in the 1980s. 

He was in Dakar to hear the court's decision and spoke to BBC Newsday.

The government of Nigeria's Lagos state has said it has rescued 237 abandoned babies - 106 male and 131 female - over the past year.

According to Lagos' Youth Commissioner Uzamat Akinbile-Yussuf, quoted by the Punch , externaland Guardian, external newspapers, this was a rise from the number found in the previous 12-month period.

This year so far 53 babies have been rescued.

The Guardian reports that just this week an abandoned baby was found near a refuse dump in the Alagbado area of Lagos.

Image source, iStock/Getty

Martin Bashir
Religious Affairs correspondent, BBC News

Image source, AFP

Pope Francis arrives in Egypt today for a short visit in which he hopes to foster inter-religious dialogue while addressing the issue of persecution of Christians across the Middle East. 

The Pope will meet the President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and make a speech at Al-Azhar University, a leading academic centre of Sunni Islam. 

This is the first Papal visit to Cairo in almost 20 years and comes at an urgent moment for Christians in Egypt. 

Just three weeks ago, on Palm Sunday, so-called Islamic State said they were behind two bomb attacks on Coptic churches, that killed dozens of Christians and injuring more than a hundred. 

Pope Francis, in a letter to the people of Egypt, said his visit was intended to comfort all Christians in the Middle East and to continue dialogue with the followers of Islam. 

Several Catholic commentators have criticised the Pope's approach to Islam, saying he is naive and should demand more from the leaders of Muslim-majority countries where Christians are being persecuted.

Today’s African proverb:

Image source, AFP

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