The Central African Republic has the worst healthcare standards in the world, according to a study of 195 countries by the medical journal The Lancet.

With the exceptions of Afghanistan, Haiti and Yemen, the 30 countries at the bottom of the ranking of healthcare quality were all in sub-Saharan Africa.

The 32 diseases for which death rates were tracked included tuberculosis and other respiratory infections; illnesses that can be prevented with vaccines such as diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus and measles; several forms of treatable cancer and heart disease; and maternal or neonatal disorders.

The country at the top of the list was the tiny European country Andorra.

Image source, Getty Images

BBC World Service

Police in Kenya say they have found the body of a politician linked to violence in the Rift Valley region.

They say Thomas Minito's body was found floating in Athi River, south of the capital Nairobi.

He appeared to have been struck on the head with a blunt object.

Mr Minito was arrested in March in connection with a wave of attacks on farms and safari lodges.

Much of the violence has been blamed on drought-affected livestock herders who have been moving their animals onto private land.

But it is also said to be political as elections due in August draw closer.

A UN report, external into violence and human rights abuses in and near the South Sudanese town Yei says they "may amount to war crimes".

Yei is 150km south-west of the capital, Juba.

Researchers investigated what happened between July 2016 and January 2017 as pro-government forces clashed with supporters of Riek Machar in the ongoing civil war there.

They found that there was:

Image source, UN

The report says 114 people were killed by pro-government forces, but adds that researchers did not have access to areas controlled by opposition forces so could not find out what happened in those places.

The violence divided people along ethnic lines and turned a peaceful town into one in which thousands were forced to flee.

South Sudan's civil war began in December 2013 when forces loyal to the former Vice-President Riek Machar clashed with those loyal to President Salva Kiir.

A teenager from Guinea has escaped from an Australian house where she was allegedly being held as a sex slave, according to police.

The 17-year-old girl had been brought to Sydney in early April by a man who offered her work as a cleaner, New South Wales Police said.

She was allegedly taken to a house and sexually assaulted by "a number of men" until her escape on 27 April.

Police officers from human trafficking and sex crime squads are investigating.

The teenager told police she fled the unknown location before being picked up by a woman who drove her to a community centre.

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Hashtags concerning violence against women have been a theme over the past week on Twitter in South Africa.

Last week, people on Twitter were using and then debating #MenAreTrash in the wake of the news about the murder of Karabo Mokoena.

Her former boyfriend was arrested after her badly-burnt body was discovered.

The murder also turned the spotlight on the high number of women being murdered in the country.

Now #DearSouthAfricanWomen has been trending over the past 24 hours as people share advice about how women can stay safe.

Meanwhile, Ms Mokoena is being buried today, and people are sharing photos of the ceremony:

A group of homeless men in downtown Johannesburg, South Africa, have found solace and hope in performing plays written by William Shakespeare.

The city's abandoned buildings have been dubbed "the dark home" by the thousands of men and women who live there.

But Shakespeare has provided a means to start making a viable living.

Three suicide bombers in Nigeria have been killed while trying to attack a female university hostel in Maiduguri in the north-east of the country.

The city was at one time the centre of the Islamist militant insurgency in the country.

Local reports that four security men were injured, but there were no other deaths.

Image source, AFP

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court, will not join an Islamic summit in Saudi Arabia with US President Donald Trump, AFP news agency quotes his office as saying.

He has apologised to to King Salman of Saudi Arabia for being unable to attend, according to the Suna news agency.

His planned attendance at Sunday's summit of Arab and Muslim leaders in Riyadh had drawn strong criticism from Washington.

Sudan was one of seven included in Mr Trump's proposed travel ban, along with Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen.

Economic sanctions were imposed against Sudan in 1997 after the state was labelled a "sponsor of terrorism" by the US.

Mr Bashir has evaded arrest since his indictment by the ICC for alleged genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity related to the conflict in Darfur that has killed tens of thousands.

New French President Emmanuel Macron is due to travel to Mali in West Africa, at the end of his first week in office.

French soldiers have been fighting Islamic militants in the north of the former French colony since 2013.

He is due to review some of the 4,000 anti-insurgent troops France has deployed in the region.

Image source, EPA

This is Mr Macron's second foreign trip as president. He visited German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin a day after his inauguration on Sunday.

As president, he is expected to continue his predecessor's policy regarding military presence in West Africa.

Mr Macron has talked about writing a new page in his country's relationship on the continent, and of breaking away from the old neo-colonial networks.

As a candidate, he stirred controversy at home by labelling France's colonial war in Algeria a crime against humanity.

French election: What Emmanuel Macron's win means for Africa - BBC News

Rana Jawad
BBC North Africa correspondent, Tunis

Reports from Libya say at least 60 people have been killed in fighting between rival forces in the south of the country.

The death toll could not be independently verified.

A spokesman for the Libyan National Army group said an airbase it controls at Brak al-Shati came under attack.

A faction known as the Third Force said it carried out the offensive.

The area has become a focus of tensions between supporters of Libya's UN-backed government based in Tripoli, and its opponents.

Earlier this month, the commander of the Libyan National Army group, Khalifa Haftar, met the head of the government in Tripoli, Fayez al-Sarraj, to try to calm the situation in the south.

There were hopes that that landmark meeting would pave the way for a wider political and military settlement in the country.

But whatever tentative truce there was appears to have collapsed.

Two former Gambian army officers have been indicted for the 2004 murder of prominent Gambian journalist Deyda Hydara, the AFP news agency reports.

The two named were former colonel Kawsu Camara and major Sanna Manjang.

Mr Hydara was shot dead on the outskirts of the capital, Banjul, in what was described by human rights groups at the time as a pre-meditated killing by well-organised professionals.

They linked the journalist's murder to his criticism of a media law which he argued restricted press freedom.

Human rights activists list his killing as one of the examples of abuses committed under the rule of the former President Yahya Jammeh.

Mr Jammeh is now living in exile after more than two decades in power. He stepped down in January.

Image source, AFP

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