Image source, AFP

Around 50 girls have been hospitalised in Burkina Faso following botched circumcisions, or female genital mutilation (FGM), BBC Afrique reports.

Some of the girls are as young as four years. Two 60-year-old women have been arrested over the botched circumcisions, along with the parents of some of the girls, BBC Afrique reports.

FGM has been illegal in Burkina Faso since 1996, and carries a jail term of up to three years.

The minister of women's affairs, Laurence Marshall Ilboudo, said the total number of girls circumcised is thought to be higher, but not all of them have been traced.

The circumcisions took place between 4 and 6 September in the Kaya area, about 100km (62 miles) north of the capital, Ouagadougou, she added.

A dozen of the girls have been admitted to the Kaya Regional Hospital and 38 to the Chiphra Protestant Hospital in Ouagadougou.

Some of the girls had suffered serious complications, Dr Dieudonne Ouedraogo said.

Image source, Reuters

The former vice-president of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Jean-Pierre Bemba, is due to be sentenced later today by international judges for bribing witnesses during an earlier war crimes trial.

The International Criminal Court in The Hague acquitted the one-time rebel leader three months ago for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

But a second legal case has continued to disrupt his ambition to stand as a presidential candidate in DR Congo.

He's been found guilty of bribery, corruption and of coaching 14 defence witnesses at his original trial.

In response, the Constitutional Court in Kinshasa ruled that Bemba was ineligible to run in December's presidential poll.

He has already spent a decade behind bars during his trial and is unlikely to serve any more time.

Image source, AFP

Brazilian officials have confiscated more than $16m (£12.2m) worth of cash and luxury watches from a delegation accompanying the son of Equatorial Guinea's President Teodoro Obiang Nguema, local media has reported.

Teodorin Obiang, the flamboyant vice-president of Equatorial Guinea and a son of the long-time president, flew in with his entourage in a private plane on Friday, the reports said.

The money and watches were reportedly found in the luggage of the delegation at the the Viracopos International Airport in Sao Paulo.

Police found about $1.5m in cash in one bag and watches worth an estimated $15m in another, the respected Brazilian newspaper, O Estado de Sao Paulo, reported on its website.

It quoted a diplomatic source from Equatorial Guinea as saying the money was to be spent on medical treatment for Mr Obiang in Sao Paulo.

The watches, engraved with his initials, were for his "personal use", the report said.

Last year, a French court gave Mr Obiang a three-year suspended jail term after he was found guilty of embezzlement. He was sentenced in absentia.

His assets in France will be seized, including a mansion on Avenue Foch in Paris. He also got a suspended fine of about $35m.

TV Globo, the leading broadcaster in Brazil, said the vice-president was the only member of the delegation who had diplomatic immunity as the group was not on an official mission.

Under Brazilian law, it is illegal to enter the country with more than about $2,400 in cash.

There has been no official comment from Mr Obiang or Equatorial Guinea's government.

Ishaq Khalid
BBC Africa, Abuja

Image source, AFP

The authorities in Nigeria say more than 100 people have been killed inf floods across the country in the past two weeks.

The National Emergency Management Agency (Nema) says heavy rains caused the country’s two major rivers - Niger River and Benue River - to overflow.

The government is urging residents along waterways to relocate to safe places.

The devastation is across Nigeria, but most have been killed in the north-central state of Niger.

The head of Nema, Mustapha Yunusa Maihaja, told the BBC more than 40 people have died in the state.

Deaths have also been reported from 11 other states, he said.

Image source, AFP

Dozens of areas have been submerged, thousands of people have been left homeless and vast swathes of farmlands have been destroyed by the floods.

Rural areas are the worst hit. The Nigerian authorities say there is the possibility of more floods in the coming days and weeks as the country continues to witness heavy rains.

They are considering declaring a state of emergency over the disaster to ensure a more effective response.

Nigeria faces flooding almost every year.

Analysts blame it on lack of proper town planning, blocked waterways and poor drainage systems.

They also say the Lagdo Dam in neighbouring Cameroon, which is on the Benue River that runs through Nigeria, poses a risk of heavy flooding when the Cameroonian authorities release the dam’s excess water.

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