A UN-backed report says the famine in South Sudan has eased, but it warns the situation for millions of people there remains desperate.

The report, external says the classification of famine no longer applies to several counties where it was declared in February.

It says the scale up of humanitarian assistance has played a significant role in reducing the severity of food shortages, but adds that the number of people struggling to find enough food each day has swelled to about six million.

South Sudan, the world's youngest state, has seen a succession of conflicts since independence in 2011.

Image source, AFP

Campaigners have called for a #SocialMediaBlackout in South Africa today to protest against the alleged high cost of data and collusion between network providers to exploit customers.

The public is being urged to avoid buying data bundles and keep off social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter for the day.

Leading South African poet and musician Ntsiki Mazwai is at the forefront of the campaign:

A popular South African actress has been shot and wounded during an attack on her smallholding near the main city, Johannesburg, paramedics have said.

Initial reports suggested that she was shot twice when gunmen entered her home shortly after midnight, Netcare 911 paramedics spokesman Chris Botha said.

She was taken to hospital and was in a serious but stable condition, he added.

The actress has not yet been named.

Suspected militant Islamists have ambushed a convoy of about 200 vehicles on a major highway in north-eastern Nigeria, killing a police officer and a truck driver, the local Vanguard newspaper has quoted witnesses and police as saying, external.

The convoy included the burial party of a policewoman who died last week, as well as a busload of mobile police unit officers. It came under fire yesterday from suspected Boko Haram gunmen on the highway between the capital of Borno state, Maiduguri, and the town of Damboa, the newspaper reported.

It quoted witnesses as saying that anti-aircraft guns and other heavy weapons were used in the estimated 30-minute long attack on the convoy, which was being escorted by police and government troops.

Vehicles on the Maiduguri-Damboa highway usually travel in a convoy under security escort because of the threat posed by militant Islamists.

Image source, AFP

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