Jonathan Paye-Layleh
BBC Africa, Monrovia

Hundreds of mostly young women dressed in black have marched in Liberia's capital Monrovia to protest against the alleged rape of dozens of girls at a US-backed charity school, the More Than Me Academy.

Katie Meyler, the CEO of More Than Me, announced she would step aside after a report by ProPublica and Time magazine , externalrevealed the abuse.

Protesters carried placards which read: “Our girls are unprotected” and “Fix the system”.

Nurse Nanela Warner said she was moved to participate in the protest because “it could have been my daughter to be raped”.

“So I am standing up for a cause and I want the government to come in to help us bring all of those that are involved to justice,” she added.

Image source, INSTAGRAM/ KATIE MEYLER

The NGO had received almost $600,000 (£455,000) from the US government, and Ms Meyler had been praised by celebrity philanthropists including Oprah Winfrey, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. She had also received an invitation to the White House from former President Barack Obama.

According to the investigative report, Ms Meyler entrusted a local man, Macintosh Johnson, to recruit vulnerable young girls in the West Point slum of Monrovia for her school, which opened in 2013.

Johnson, who later died from Aids, was her main contact on the ground while she continued to live outside Liberia for up to 10 months a year.

According to police records, Johnson repeatedly raped several young girls under his care at his home and on school property.

Rana Jawad
BBC North Africa correspondent, Tunis

Image source, AFP

Flash floods in Tunisia triggered by torrential rain have killed at least five people, officials have said.

A powerful rainstorm on Wednesday that lasted into the early hours of the morning has wreaked havoc in north-western and central areas of the country.

The spokesman of Tunisia’s National Guard told a local radio station that 42 roads, including nine national routes, were cut off.

Tunisia has seen unusually heavy downpours since August.

People living in rural regions have long complained that riverbeds swiftly overflow and flood because they are not properly maintained and are filled with rubbish.

Cooking pots in Benin usually need a lot of charcoal, which is made from trees. But this new one doesn't need any.

A film by Raïssa Ioussouf for BBC World Hacks. Like, Share, Engage, external.

Image source, AFP

A South African swimmer who has made more crossings between Cape Town and Robben Island than any other person has died.

Theodore Yach, 60, had completed the challenge 108 times.

He usually followed an 11-km (7-mile) route between the island, where Nelson Mandela and other senior political figures were jailed during the years of apartheid, and the mainland.

He died in hospital while undergoing what were described as routine tests for asthma.

Regional premier Helen Zille has backed calls for an annual swimming event from Robben Island to be renamed after Mr Yach.

Tributes have been pouring in on Twitter for the swimmer:

BBC World Service

Image source, AFP

The United Nations has urged rebels in South Sudan to release hundreds of civilians who were abducted during a surge in violence earlier this year, shortly before a peace deal was agreed with the government.

A report by the UN Human Rights Office, external and the UN Mission in South Sudan says 900 people were seized in the west of the country between April and August.

It documents abuses including unlawful killings, rape and sexual slavery.

A report earlier this year on fighting in the north of the country gave details of similar atrocities committed by government forces.

The two sides signed what they called a "final, final" peace deal last month to end five years of civil war.

BBC Sport

Image source, Togo Football Federation

The Gambia Football Federation (GFF) has written a a formal complaint to the Confederation of African Football over the eligibility of Togo's Adewale Olufade.

Olufade played for Togo as they drew 1-1 with The Gambia in an Africa Cup of Nations qualifier on 12 October.

Following the match The Gambia protested that the player is Nigerian and does not meet the necessary criteria to play for Togo.

He did not play in the reverse qualifier on Tuesday, which Togo won 1-0.

Read the full BBC story here

Tibebeselassie Tigabu
BBC Amharic service

Image source, AFP

A total of 1,147 youth have been freed from Ethiopia's Tolay military camp after they were arrested over political violence that broke out last month, police say.

They were released after completing what the authorities described as “training on the Ethiopian constitution, rule of law and on nation building,” local media reports say.

The arrests were strongly condemned by rights group Amnesty International and social media users who said the indiscriminate detention of the youth threatened the human rights gains made since Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed took office in April.

At least 28 people died in clashes near the capital, Addis Ababa, following the return of exiled leaders of a former rebel group, the Oromo Liberation Front on 15 September.

The attacks in Ethiopia’s ethnic Oromo heartland outside Addis Ababa were seen as a setback to Mr Abiy’s efforts to achieve national reconciliation.

Oluwashina Okeleji
BBC Sport

Image source, Getty Images

Madagascar's government has rewarded the country's football team for qualifying for a first Africa Cup of Nations finals.

The Barea sealed a place at next year's finals in Cameroon after Tuesday's 1-0 win over Equatorial Guinea.

Madagascar's acting President Rivo Rakotovao handed over a total of U$28,150 (£21,485) to the squad and technical staff for their efforts.

"They are also awarded with National Honours for their merit in reaching the finals phase of Nations Cup 2019 in Cameroon," a statement added., external

Madagascar, 106th in Fifa's world rankings, belied their status as a minor football nation with a shock 2-2 draw with 2018 World Cup finalist Senegal and back-to-back wins over Equatorial Guinea to become the 40th different nation to qualify for the Nations Cup finals.

Read the full BBC story here

Ajibade Rasheedat is one of the best female freestyle footballers in Nigeria.

The teenager is called a lion by her supporters and uses the sport to help build her confidence.

She told BBC Minute , externalthat the sport has given her fame and she doesn't intend to quit.

Video journalist: Dan Ikpoyi

Mohanad Hashim
BBC Africa

Image source, AFP

Sudan's former military ruler Field Marshal Abdel Rahman Suwar al-Dahab has died in hospital in the Saudi Arabian city of Riyadh, the Sudanese presidency has announced.

Many Sudanese remember him as the only military ruler who handed power voluntarily to an elected civilian government.

Suwar al-Dahab took power in a military takeover in April 1985 following popular protests against the government of President Col Jaafar Muhammad Numeiri.

He presided over a transitional government and stepped down in May 1986.

Since then, Suwar al-Dahab, who was born in 1935, has assumed the role of an elder statesman in Sudan.

He will be buried in the Muslim holy city of Medina.

Image source, Walta TV

Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has said that some of the soldiers who entered the grounds of his office last week had planned to kill him.

At the time, he defused the situation by ordering them to do press-ups and joining in.

Mr Abiy and the soldiers were seen laughing but he told parliament that "inside I was very unhappy".

He added that after "the situation was brought under control, some forces, were heard saying that 'he escaped before we could kill him'. So, we should not see the situation lightly".

Last month, Ethiopian prosecutors charged five suspects with terrorism over an attempt to kill Mr Abiy in a grenade attack at a rally in June.

He escaped uninjured and described the attack at the time as an "unsuccessful attempt by forces who do not want to see Ethiopia united".

BBC World Service

Image source, AFP

The legendary Kenyan gold medalist, Kipchoge Keino, who inspired a generation of athletes in his country, has handed himself in to police in Nairobi to face a corruption charge.

He's accused of involvement in the misuse of funds intended for Kenya's Olympic team at the Rio Games two years ago.

Mr Keino is alleged to have abused his former role as head of Kenya's Olympic Committee to siphon off about US$25,000 for his son to go to Rio.

Hassan Wario, a former sports minister who's now Kenya's ambassador to Austria, has also handed himself in.

The two men failed to appear in court earlier this week when several others were charged.

Image source, Oxfam

Teams of detectives will be deployed to regional hubs in Africa and Asia to help ensure that "sexual predators" do not get jobs with aid agencies, UK International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt has said.

The move comes after some aid workers have been accused of sexually abusing women and children while on humanitarian missions in the developing world.

Speaking ahead of the International Safeguarding Summit in London, Ms Mordaunt said DfID and global police agency Interpol are launching a pilot project, external "to help stop sexual predators from being able to move between aid organisations without being caught".

The five-year pilot will cost £10m ($13 million, 11m euros), with the UK contributing £2m towards it.

Save the Children is coordinating the participation of non-governmental organisations in the project.

Ms Mordaunt said:

The new Interpol project, named Operation Soteria after the Greek goddess of safety, will include deploying teams of specialists to two regional hubs in Africa and Asia to "strengthen criminal record checks and information sharing between all 192 members, including high risk countries, and help ensure a more robust law enforcement response against individuals", Ms Morduant added.

Interpol Secretary General Jürgen Stock said:

The UK was also supporting non-government organisations "to test a new passport for aid workers to prove an individual’s identity, provide background information and vetting status" in order to make it easier for employers to gather up to date information on applicants.

In July, a report by UK MPs said the aid sector is guilty of "complacency verging on complicity" over an "endemic" sex abuse scandal.

The committee's inquiry was launched in light of revelations that senior Oxfam staff paid survivors of the 2010 Haiti earthquake for sex, external.

The report, which looked at allegations dating back to 2001, says the delivery of aid to people had been subverted by sexual predators.

Image source, AFP

Two people have been arrested in Uganda on human-trafficking charges following the death of a Ugandan woman in Jordan, apparently after her kidneys were removed, police are quoted by local media as saying.

Juliet Nakiyimba, said to be a 31-year-old mother of five, died in Jordan's capital, Amman, on 4 September, and her body was repatriated to Uganda on 24 September.

"The post-mortem reports confirmed that the deceased’s kidneys had been removed - a condition that may have resulted in her sudden death,” the police were quoted as saying.

A former Nigerian pharmaceuticals executive who was implicated in a BBC investigation into the illegal sale of addictive opioids has been arrested.

Chukwunonye Madubuike was detained west of the commercial capital Lagos, close to the border with Benin, police said.

He went on the run in May after he was filmed apparently illegally selling codeine syrup to a BBC reporter.

The BBC documentary exposed the extent of Nigeria's young people addicted to codeine-based cough mixture.

• Watch it here:

Liberia's finance ministry says it will enforce a ban on its employees wearing coloured hair extensions or dying their hair.

The ban has been written into law since 2014 but is only being observed now.

Residents and civil servants in the capital, Monrovia, gave BBC Focus on Africa their views on the ban:

Image source, Reuters

The World Health Organization (WHO) says it wants the UN Security Council to approve additional resources for the international peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo where health workers are tackling an outbreak of the Ebola virus.

Insecurity because of armed groups and mistrust from the local community have hampered efforts to stop the spread of the virus.

A total of 139 people have died in the current outbreak, which began in August.

The WHO says it has decided not to declare the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern.

It said an international response was already in place and was making progress.

• Ebola basics: What you need to know

Image source, ICRC/EPA

The father of Nigerian midwife Hauwa Liman, who was shot dead execution-style by militant Islamists, has paid a moving tribute to her, saying she had had been of "immense help" to her community and he had no regrets about letting her work in a dangerous area.

A Boko Haram offshoot, the Islamic State of West Africa Group (Iswap), said on Monday it had killed Ms Liman, 24, because the government had failed to meet its demands, and she had "abandoned" Islam by working for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in the town of Rann in north-eastern Nigerian's Borno state, the epicentre of militant activity.

In an interview with AFP news agency, Mohammed Liman said:

Image source, AFP

The militants also killed another midwife, Saifura Ahmed Khorsa, a month earlier.

A third aid worker, Alice Loksha, from the UN children's agency Unicef, is still in captivity, following the abduction of the three in March from Rann.

A Christian schoolgirl, Leah Sharibu, who was seized in February from the town of Dapchi in Yobe state, is also being held by Nigerian militants.

Mr Liman accused the militants of "sheer deception", saying they had "made up their mind to kill Hauwa and Saifura no matter what effort would have been made to save them".

He added:

• Read more: Midwife murders reveal brutal IS tactics in Nigeria

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