Kenya's Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) has announced that it will investigate Wednesday's reports of alleged police assaults on University of Nairobi students in the capital.

It said that it had seen videos shared on social media showing police allegedly assaulting the students.

Local TV stations used the videos in last night's newscasts:

The officers were quelling a protest by the students against the arrest an opposition MP, popularly known as Babu Owino, who is a former student leader at the university.

A local journalist has shared IPOA's statement:

The newly elected lawmaker was caught on camera calling President Uhuru Kenyatta "son of a dog".

He is facing a subversion charge and another one for uttering abusive words against the president.

He was set free after posting bond.

The UN Human Rights Council has voted today to extend the mandate of the Commission of Inquiry into human rights in Burundi, Reuters news agency is reporting.

According to Reuters this has upset attempts by a group of African countries to replace the commission with a different team.

Burundi's ambassador on Thursday told the other 46 members of the council that their decision to send a team of experts meant the full inquiry was no longer needed.

However the council has voted by 22 to 11, with 14 abstentions, to back a European Union resolution to extend its mandate for a year, Reuters reports.

Image source, AFP

Most schools in Nigeria's Borno state remain shut due to the Boko Haram conflict the UN children's agency Unicef, external said.

Unicef blames the Islamist militants for deliberately targeting schools.

The new academic year started this month but there's a shortage of teachers in the area.

School buildings have also been destroyed in the ongoing violence.

Justin Forsyth, Unicef's deputy executive director, speaking from Maiduguri, Borno's capital, told the BBC's Newsday programme that at least 57 percent of schools there have been destroyed.

He said that more than 2,295 teachers have been killed and 19,000 displaced with nearly 1,400 schools destroyed in the eight years of fighting.

Mr Forsyth said, "There's a need to rebuild the schools and recruit teachers and encourage them to go to these more dangerous areas".

He also said that three million children were in need of emergency education.

Image source, Unicef

Nigeria's senators have passed a bill imposing the death sentence on kidnappers and 30 years in jail for people who collude with them, Premium Times reports. , external

Senator Chukwuka Utazi, Enugu-North, said the bill sought to combat and prevent any form of kidnapping in Nigeria by giving wider powers to the Inspector-General of Police to ensure adequate policing of the crime.

Nigeria has experienced numerous cases of kidnappings.

On Wednesday the deputy police commissioner in the northwestern Kaduna state and his wife were kidnapped.

It follows another high profile incident over the weekend when gunmen kidnapped the head of a zoo in the mid-western Edo state.

In June, police arrested a high profile kidnapper Chukwudumeme Onwuamadike, popularly known as Evans, Premium Times reports.

Evans in August pleaded guilty to a two-count charge of conspiracy and kidnapping brought against him by the Lagos' state government, it adds.

At least 34 radio stations in Ghana have been closed after being found to be operating illegally, Citifmonline reports., external

They are among 131 radio stations that had been listed for sanctions which range from closure to hefty fines.

They include some of the country's popular stations.

Radio XYZ has been fined $924,545 (£691,000), Atinka FM $3m while Radio Gold and Atlantis Radio picked up the heftiest fines with $13m each.

Other stations have been given 30 days to settle their debts.

Ghana's National Communications Authority said in a statement that:

“Twenty‐one FM broadcasting stations have had their authorisations revoked completely since their authorisations had expired over several years and were operating illegally."

Pumza Fihlani
BBC News

A much-loved talk radio host in South Africa has revealed that he has colon cancer.

Xolani Gwala updated listeners on his disease this morning prompting messages of support from across the country.

He said his cancer was at an advanced stage, “I’m living with something big. I found out that I have colon cancer‚ which was advanced‚” Gwala told fellow 702 presenter Stephen Grootes.

He said he has undergone his first operation and will start chemotherapy next week.

The diagnosis came as a shock to the 42-year-old marathon runner and fitness fanatic.

BBC World Service

The United Nations' Emergency Relief Coordinator, Mark Lowcock, has said the international response to hunger warnings earlier this year has averted what could have become famine in the Lake Chad region of Africa.

However, he said, despite increased assistance there were still millions of people suffering, many of whom were still just a step away from starvation.

Mr Lowcock said that although a famine was declared in areas of South Sudan, the situation had now been brought under control.

He went on to say that Yemen remained the world's worst humanitarian crisis, and that levels of suffering there were astronomical.

Authorities in Cameroon's southwestern region have imposed a ban on travel and public meetings ahead of a planned symbolic declaration of independence by residents of the English-speaking region.

Campaigners have been calling for 1 October to be symbolically named independence day.

The authorities announced the closure of sea and land borders, the suspension of transport, a ban on travel between towns and on public meetings of more than four people.

The order comes after thousands of people last week defied a government curfew which was imposed in the northwest region.

AFP reports that the measures will be applied from Friday at 0800 GMT and end on Monday at 0600 GMT.

In a second statement, the Southwest Region authorities said military reinforcements were expected, and called on the population to "stay calm".

English speakers have long complained of discrimination in Cameroon.

They say they are often excluded from top civil service jobs and that many government documents are published only in French, even though English is an official language.

Cameroon was colonised by Germany in the 19th Century and then split into British and French areas after World War One.

Later, areas controlled by Britain and France joined to form Cameroon after the colonial powers withdrew in the 1960s.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said on Tuesday that he was "deeply concerned" about the situation in Cameroon.

In a statement he urged the authorities to promote "measures of national reconciliation aimed at finding a durable solution to the crisis, including by addressing its root causes."

At least eight Somalia government soldiers have been killed after al-Shabab militants attacked their base in the southern town of Barire, around 40 kilometers (25 miles) west of the capital Mogadishu, the AFP news agency is reporting quoting officials and witnesses.

Two suicide bombers detonated their car bombs before gunmen overran the base in the Friday morning attack, the report says.

Mohamed Haji Ali, a Somali military commander, said there was "heavy fighting this morning," but did not provide details of casualties.

Abdulahi Muktar, a resident of Barire, said the attack left bodies of government soldiers scattered on the ground while the militants looted the base stealing vehicles and weapons:

Somali Armed Forces ( SNA) had only established the military outpost at Barire recently after taking control of the town in August with the help of African Union troops.

Al-Shabab claimed responsibility for the raid in a statement saying that it had used suicide bombers.

Adding that its fighters had taken 11 vehicles, five of them mounted with machine guns.

Image source, GETTY IMAGES

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