A Sierra Leonean student, Kobina, has been at the scene of the devastating mudslide in the outrskirts of the capital, Freetown.

Kobina reports on the recovery effort and his conversation with local people.

He struggles to keep his composure while describing the devastation and the shock at finding out a church and an orphanage could have been swept away.

His report was broadcast by the BBC's OS programme:

World football governing body Fifa has just announced its list of nine nominees for the award of best women's coach.

The list includes Nigerian national team coach Florence Omagbeni . Her nomination follows her feat of becoming the first woman to win the Africa Women Cup of Nations both as a player and a coach.

Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote, who ranks as Africa's richest person, has said he will he will sack Arsena's long-serving manager Arsene Wenger if he succeeds in buying the English Premier League club, Bloomberg news agency reports.

In an interview with the agency, Mr Dangote said he would try to make a bid for the club once the construction of an $11bn (£8.5bn) oil refinery, external in Nigeria’s commercial capital, Lagos, is completed toward the end of the decade.

Mr Dangote says he has supported Arsenal since the mid-1980s

Wenger is one of Europe's high profile football managers and recently signed a two-year contract to extend his more than two-decades reign at the club.

He has divided opinion amongst the club's supporters with his detractors saying that he is past his best days and that the club needs a new manager to return to its glory days.

Kennedy Gondwe
BBC World Service, Lusaka

Image source, AFP

Zambian Health Minister Chitalu Chilufya has threatened to shut down all privately-owned health centres that refuse to implement a compulsory HIV testing policy.

President Edgar Lungu on Tuesday announced that testing, counselling and treatment were no longer voluntary in his bid to make the country free of Aids by 2030.

This means that anyone who goes to a private or state health centre for any treatment should automatically be tested for the virus.

Despite the move being condemned by some politicians and human rights campaigners, the government says it is determined to make it work.

Mr Chilufya wondered why people did not want to know their HIV status, according to a report in the state-owned Zambia Daily Mail newspaper, external:

“Why are people afraid of knowing their status? It’s better you know so that if you are positive, medication is given to preserve your life.”

He said that a further proclamation aimed at implementing the decision would be issued.

He disclosed that 81% of admissions at the University Teaching Hospital, the country’s biggest referral hospital, were HIV-related.

Ahmed Adan
BBC Africa, Nairobi

Seven al-Shabab militants have been killed in a security operation in Somalia's Middle Juba region, the government has said.

Residents in Jilib town told the BBC that there had been air strikes in the area.

A government official said the operation had been conducted "in coordination with our international partners".

This is usually a reference to the US, which carries out strikes in Somalia from its base in neighbouring Djibouti.

The Somali government said the dead included a senior al-Shabab leader responsible for multiple bombings in the capital, Mogadishu.

Jilib is controlled by al-Shabab, which is affiliated to al-Qaeda.

A funeral service for the Kenyan electoral commission's murdered IT expert, Chris Msando, is taking place at a church in the capital, Nairobi.

Mr Msando was tortured and his body dumped in a forest a week before elections, leading to opposition allegations that his murder was linked to an attempt to rig the poll.

Speaking at the service, his wife, Eve Msando, said his death would not be in vain.

Addressing her husband's killers, she added: "I know you are watching, may you not have peace."

The Kenyan government vowed to find Mr Msando's killers but the privately-owned Standard newspaper reported on Wednesday , externalthat the police had not made any progress in their investigation.

Mr Msando was a key figure in managing the voter identification and result transmission system.

President Uhuru Kenyatta won the 8 August election, defeating veteran opposition leader Raila Odinga by a comfortable margin.

M Odinga said the commission's IT system had been hacked and the result manipulated to give Mr Kenyatta victory.

The commission said there had been a hacking attempt, but it had failed.

Foreign observers said the poll was free and fair.

Mr Odinga has said he will challenge the result in court.

The values and policies of South Africa's governing African National Congress (ANC) are "still absolutely crucial" to the country's future, sacked Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan has said.

But corruption needed to be tackled head on, he told BBC Hardtalk's Stephen Sackur:

Anna Holligan
Reporter BBC News, The Hague

Image source, AFP

Former Islamist rebel leader Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi was found guilty of tearing down sacred mausoleums in Mali's ancient city of Timbukutu and sentenced to nine years in prison last September.

The Malian was the first jihadist to appear before the International Criminal Court (ICC), the first suspect to plead guilty, and the first person to be charged with the destruction of cultural heritage by the ICC.

He has now been ordered to pay victims of the attacks more than $3m (£2.3m) in damages.

The apologetic jihadist listened as the judge highlighted the importance of cultural heritage and the three types of harm caused by its destruction - the physical damage to the mud-brick buildings, the economic loss suffered by those whose livelihoods depended on them and the moral harm to those whose ancestors were buried inside the tombs, and everyone who shared an understanding of their value to mankind.

The specific amount of individual and collective damages will be calculated by the ICC's independent Trust Fund for Victims. It will also provide the money which al-Mahdi doesn't have.

A symbolic one euro was awarded to both the Malian state and to the global community via Unesco. The ICC hopes this landmark case will resonate beyond Mali and send a message of hope to communities in Iraq and Syria witnessing brutal attacks on their cultural heritage.

See earlier post for more details

In pictures: Timbuktu's manuscripts

Nigerian-born businessman Adebayo Ogunlesi was among prominent advisers dismissed by US President Donald Trump when he dissolved a council set up to advice him on the economy, the Vanguard newspaper reports. , external

Mr Ogunlesi was the only African on the Strategy and Policy Forum.

The US president tweeted his decision:

His decision was seen as preempting a plan by members of the business councils to quit over Mr Trump's response to Saturday's clashes between far-right and counter protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, in which he blamed "both sides" for the violence.

Judges at the International Criminal Court have ruled that a former Islamist rebel who was jailed for destroying sacred sites in Timbuktu in Mali should pay victims of the attacks more than $3m (£2.3m) in damages.

Amad al-Faqi al-Mahdi was jailed for nine years last September after pleading guilty to war crimes for his involvement in the destruction of 10 mausoleums and religious sites in Timbuktu.

Read: The destroyer of mausoleums

Image source, AFP

South Africa's Police Ministry says it will not act against Zimbabwe's First Lady Grace Mugabe until it receives clarity from the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (Dirco) on Zimbabwe's claim that she qualifies for diplomatic immunity in the assault against her, South Africa's Eyewitness News reports, external.

Ministry spokesman Vuyo Mhaga is quoted as saying:

Mass burial of victims of Sierra Leone's mudslide that occurred four days ago is expected today as authorities allowed more time for families to identify the bodies.

Nearly half of the 400 people known to have died in the mudslide and flooding on the outskirts of the capital Freetown have already been buried, health officials say.

The BBC's Umaru Fofana in Freetown snapped this picture of pathologist Dr Owiz Koroma signing the death certificates for the victims:

Farouk Chothia
BBC News

Image source, AFP

South Africa's government risks a public backlash if it lets Zimbabwe's First Lady Grace Mugabe go scot-free.

This happened in 2015, when it failed to execute an international arrest warrant for Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir, who was wanted by the International Criminal Court.

South Africa's government argued that he qualified for diplomatic immunity, but the country's judges disagreed. The government was then strongly criticised for undermining the rule of law.

It seems that the government wants to avoid a similar backlash and is therefore insisting that that Zimbabwe’s first lady must appear in court.

But by taking such an approach it risks a diplomatic row with Zimbabwe's government - a staunch ally whom it has resolutely defended over the years despite international criticism of President Robert Mugabe's human rights record.

So the two governments - including Mr Mugabe and his South African counterpart Jacob Zuma - are bound to be in talks to resolve the crisis over the first lady.

One option being mentioned in the South African media is that Mrs Mugabe should plead guilty during a short court appearance, and pay a fine.

But it is unclear whether Mr and Mrs Mugabe - known for their uncompromising nature - will agree to this, especially after Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu-PF party said in a tweet on Tuesday that the first lady was "attacked", contradicting the version of her accuser.

The mother of 20-year-old Gabriella Engels - a model who has accused Zimbabwe's First Lady Grace Mugabe, 52, of assaulting her - has appealed to the South African government not to grant her diplomatic immunity, South Africa's privately owned eNCA news site has reported, external.

Ms Engels' mother, Debbie, said the attack was unprovoked, it reported.

She said she told her daughter that even if the assault case failed to reach court, she should be "proud of herself for speaking out, no matter what people are going to say about her because there will be people who will thrash her".

Police opened a case of assault against Mrs Mugabe after Ms Engels accused her of hitting her over the head with an extension cord.

The alleged assault took place after Mrs Mugabe found her with the first lady's two sons, Robert and Chatunga, in a hotel room in Sandton, a wealthy suburb north of Johannesburg, on Sunday evening.

Mrs Mugabe's sons, who are both in their 20s, live in South Africa.

Ms Engels released an image of a head injury online.

Image source, Gabriella Engels

Image source, Reuters

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has arrived in South Africa amid an attempt by his wife, Grace Mugabe, to gain diplomatic immunity in an assault case filed against her by a model who accuses the first lady of hitting her with an extension cord at an upmarket hotel in Johannesburg on Sunday evening.

Mr Mugabe is in South Africa to attend a Southern African Development Community summit of regional leaders, due to start on Saturday, Zimbabwe's state-owned Herald newspaper reported, external.

It did not mention the assault case against his wife.

South Africa's privately owned Eyewitness News reported that Mr Mugabe, 93, had been scheduled to only arrive - along with other regional leaders - on Friday but he came early to diffuse the situation around the first lady, aged 52.

Read: The rise of Grace Mugabe

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