Aboubakar Famau
BBC News, Dodoma

Image source, Reuters

A Tanzanian court has freed the chairman of the main opposition party after the prosecution indicated it had no interest in pursuing charges against him.

Mr Mbowe was arrested in July 2021 in the north-western port city of Mwanza alongside other Chadema party members and has been in detention since then.

They were about to address a public rally to call for constitutional review.

He was facing charges of terrorism and economic sabotage which are not bailable under Tanzanian law.

Last month, Tanzania’s President Samia Suluhu Hassan met Chadema’s leader Tundu Lissu who is in exile in Belgium.

There was speculation that Mr Mbowe’s release was among the issues discussed, although this was never officially confirmed.

BBC World Service

An appeals court in Morocco has upheld a six-year jail sentence for the journalist and human rights activist Omar Radi on charges of espionage and rape.

Radi, who was originally sentenced in July last year, denies the charges.

Omar Radi is the second freelance journalist in a week to be sentenced to a long prison term over sex crime accusations.

The campaign group Reporters Without Borders has condemned the ruling.

BBC Monitoring
The world through its media

Image source, Uganda Presidency

Ugandan President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni met Russian ambassador Vladlen Semivolos on Thursday to discuss "issues of mutual interest".

He gave no further details, external, but it came a day after Uganda abstained from voting for a UN resolution condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Sixteen other African countries including South Africa, Angola, Algeria and Mali abstained from the vote.

President Museveni's son Lt Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba had on Monday expressed support for the Russian invasion of Ukraine in a tweet., external

The first batch of Nigerian nationals evacuated from the conflict in Ukraine arrived on Friday morning in the capital, Abuja.

The group consists of 451 students according to the chairman of Nigeria’s parliamentary committee on foreign affairs, Yusuf Buba, who accompanied them from Romania's capital, Bucharest.

Nigeria is expected to evacuate 5,000 citizens who are fleeing the conflict in Ukraine.

Many have crossed over to the neighbouring countries of Romania, Poland and Hungary.

The repatriation exercise was meant to start on Wednesday but was delayed because of logistics challenges.

The Nigerians in Diaspora Commission has tweeted photos of the students' arrival at Nnamdi Azikwe international airport.

Read more: Why so many African students were in Ukraine

BBC Monitoring
The world through its media

Image source, Abba Kyari

Nigeria has approved the extradition of a former deputy police commissioner to the US to stand trial over money laundering charges.

Abba Kyari, who is currently in police detention, is wanted in the US for conspiracy to commit wire fraud, money laundering and identity theft, the report said.

Nigeria’s Attorney General and Justice Minister Abubakar Malami filed an application before the chief judge of the high court in the capital, Abuja, for Mr Kyari’s extradition.

Mr Malami said the application followed a request by the US government.

Mr Kyari was suspended from Nigerian police service in August 2021 over an alleged link to an internet celebrity Abbas Ramon alias Hushpuppi, who has pleaded guilty to money laundering in the US.

Read:

• Abba Kyari: Nigerian 'super cop' arrested in drug cartel case

Nicolas Negoce
BBC News

Image source, AFP

Burkina Faso's military junta has appointed Albert Ouedraogo as the new transitional prime minister, a decree from the military leader said on Thursday.

Mr Ouedraogo, a 52 year-old economist, was said to have experience in management of public administrations, development projects and private companies.

He will form a government whose main task will be to secure the country from an Islamist insurgency that has killed thousands and forced at least 1.5 million people to flee their homes.

Col Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba was on Wednesday sworn in as interim president for three years after seizing power in a military coup last month.

Read:

• Who is Burkina Faso coup leader Lt-Col Damiba?

Image source, AFP

Sweden has said it will pull its force out of the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali a year earlier than planned, Reuters news agency reports.

The military on Thursday said its 220 soldiers will leave Mali in June 2023, the agency reports.

No reasons have been given for the early withdrawal, but Sweden had previously said the presence of Russian military contractors in the country was making Swedish troops presence untenable.

Swedish armed forces said that "in recent times, conditions have changed in the country", Reuters reports citing a statement.

A UN mission spokesperson said Sweden plays a crucial role in its operations but was free to make its own peacekeeping decisions, the agency reports.

France said it will withdraw its troops from Mali citing a breakdown in diplomatic relations, amid growing hostility from Mali's governing military junta.

Image source, gett

Senegal's foreign ministry has said a Facebook post by Ukraine's embassy that called on Senegalese volunteers to enlist in the fight against Russia was illegal.

In a statement, the ministry said recruitment of volunteers, mercenaries and other foreign fighters was illegal in the country and punishable by law.

Ukrainian ambassador Yurii Pyvovarov was summoned to the ministry to explain Thursday's post. After verifying its legitimacy, he was asked to take it down, the statement said, external.

It did not mention if further action would be taken.

The Dakar Actu news website quoted the Ukrainian ambassador as saying that 36 Senegalese had applied to be enlisted following the publication of the post .

Senegal was among 17 African countries that abstained from voting at the UN General Assembly on a resolution deploring Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and calling for the immediate withdrawal of its forces.

Our African proverb of the day:

Click here to send us your African proverbs.

Riky Rick was one of South Africa's top rappers but there was always a hidden side to his fame.

A selection of the best photos from across the Africa and beyond this week.

Yolande Knell
BBC Middle East correspondent

Image source, Natalia Miroshnikova

Since Russia invaded their country, some 17,000 Ukrainian holidaymakers have been stuck in Egypt’s Red Sea resorts, watching in horror.

“Panic, tears, shock!” is how Natalia Miroshnikova sums it up. She was on her first foreign trip – a week in Sharm el-Sheikh with her husband and son – but when they tried to leave early on 24 February, there was no sign of their charter flight.

She found out that war had started from a message sent by her son’s school.

“To say we were shocked is an understatement. We’re in a foreign country and all our relatives, acquaintances, in fact our entire lives, remained at home in Ukraine,” she tells me.

Another stranded Ukrainian holidaymaker, Julia - a mother of nine-year-old twins - staying in Hurghada, was forced to tell her children the news.

“I was crying all the time for the first few days and could not hide my feelings,” she admits. “My husband is in Kyiv, and it is very worrying.”

Ukrainians can now choose to stay in their hotels for an extended period at a cheap rate or be moved to three-star accommodation paid for by the Egyptian government.

Russians have previously made up the biggest numbers of tourists in Egypt – with Ukrainians not far behind. Hotels are now being advised to try to keep the two nationalities apart.

That's all from the BBC Africa Live team for now. We'll be back on Friday with the latest news from around the continent.

In the meantime, you can check our website or listen to the Africa Today podcast.

Our wise words of the day:

Click here to send us your African proverbs.

And as the UN marks World Wildlife Day, we leave you with this photograph of ibis birds roosting on Thursday on an island lake in a park in central Johannesburg in South Africa

Image source, EPA

Jose Tembe
BBC News, Maputo

Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi has sacked Prime Minister Carlos Agostinho do Rosário.

He is being replacing by Adriano Afonso Maleiane, who was finance minister and has been key in restructuring the country's hidden debts which were at the heart of a corruption scandal that shook the country to its core.

The change comes as part of a major cabinet reshuffle - seen as an attempt by Mr Nyusi to deal with allegations of government mismanagement and corrupt practices.

Five sacked ministers have yet to be given new posts.

Image source, AFP

A Gambian man has been charged in Germany with being part of an army assassination group when former President Yahya Jammeh was in power.

Identified as Bai L, he is accused of participating in crimes against humanity, including the 2004 killing of Deyda Hydara, one of The Gambia’s most-respected journalists.

The federal prosecutor said Bai L had been a member of the elite unit known as “the Junglers” between December 2003 and December 2006.

On at least three occasions he had driven officers to locations where they had fired on Mr Jammeh’s opponents, the prosecutor said.

He was arrested in Hanover in March 2021 and has since been in pre-trial detention.

Mr Jammeh fled into exile after losing elections in 2017.

A truth and reconciliation commission set up afterwards heard from hundreds of witnesses about executions squads and other alleged rights violations committed under his 22-year rule.

For more on those seeking justice for Deyda Hydara, listen to last month's openDemocracy podcast, external.

Peter Okwoche
BBC Focus on Africa TV, Przemyśl

My BBC Africa colleagues and I have been intimidated by "ultra" football fans in Przemyśl, a city in southern Poland where we have been reporting on those fleeing the conflict in Ukraine.

"Ultras" are hardcore supporters known for their racist and far-right leanings.

We had been hearing over the last few days that those from clubs around Przemyśl had come into the city to “protect” it from African and Asian refugees crossing over from Ukraine, where there have been reports of discrimination by officials as they attempted to flee - something denied by both Poland and Ukraine.

Rumours began spreading on social media that these refugees were stealing from shops and had attacked one or two local women. Przemyśl’s mayor denied the claims, yet it has not stopped the ultras pouring in.

On Wednesday night after finishing our day's reporting, our team, made up of me - a black Nigerian - my white Irish producer and a black British cameraman, decided to go out for dinner.

When we got to the centre of town, which normally is quite busy, it was eerily quiet. There was a large police presence and officers seemed to be dressed in riot gear, although it was dark and difficult to tell.

The first restaurant we went to said it was full, though it didn’t look it - the waitress was polite and told us to try again in half an hour.

She suggested we could go and wait in a bar up the road - but the moment we got there, a woman ushered us out and said they were closed. She seemed in a hurry.

We ended up going to a pizza place, spending about an hour there.

As we left at about 20:00 local time we noticed about six men, mostly dressed in dark colours, chatting amongst themselves about 30m (100ft) away. Locals had said these were the “ultra” fans patrolling the town.

The moment they saw us walking, they started towards us and within seconds had caught up with us and quickly formed a loose semi-circle around us.

"Where are you from? What're you doing?" two or three asked at the same time. They weren't shouting, but we heard the menace in their voices.

When we explained we were journalists from London, they demanded: "Who do you work for?"

After we said we were with the BBC, they mumbled to each other and at first said we could go.

We hurriedly moved away from them, turned left at the end of the block, but then one of them shouted for us to stop and ran over.

"Where is your ID card? Show it to me!"

As I pulled out my card, we tried to ask who he was. “Me?” he asked with a menacing laugh, elucidating no further. He checked all our cards before allowing us to go.

As we walked back to our vehicle through the back roads of Przemyśl, we saw several small groups of men. Some stopped and stared at us while others just walked on.

In all a very unnerving situation.

You may also be interested in this video:

The Pope will be visiting Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the country's eastern city of Goma in July.

His four-day visit to DR Congo will be followed by a two-day trip to South Sudan’s capital, Juba. He will be in the world’s newest country as it marks the 11th anniversary of its independence from Sudan.

Both countries have large Roman Catholic congregations. They are also plagued by violence.

Pope Francis has made several visits to Africa since he became the pontiff in 2013.

Image source, Bufo films

Somali Omar Abdi, who plays the lead role in Finnish-Somali film The Gravedigger's Wife, has been nominated for the best actor prize at Finland's equivalent of the Oscars - the Jussi Gala.

He is the first African actor to get a nomination.

The film, directed by Finnish-Somali Khadar Ahmed, gained notoriety after it won the grand prize at the prestigious pan-African film festival Fespaco last year.

In the film, Abdi plays gravedigger Guled, whose job it is to wait outside hospital to bury the dead. The story focuses on his efforts to save his terminally ill wife.

It's a virtuoso role, which he plays with tenderness and at times surprising humour - transmitting his fear, anxiety and desperation.

Abdi is up against two other actors and the winner will be announced on 6 May.

Canadian Yasmin Warsame also received a nomination for best actress. In all the film garnered nine nominations.

Read more:

• How film-school reject Khadar Ahmed is winning prizes and hearts

BBC World Service
Newsroom

A rival government in Libya has been sworn in as a showdown with the existing administration seems set to intensify.

Fathi Bashaga took the oath of office as prime minister in the eastern city of Tobruk, where Libya's parliament elected him last month.

Incumbent Prime Minister Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah has said that he will not step down.

A UN-backed roadmap to try to end the rift between rival factions in Libya has been in doubt since scheduled elections failed to go ahead in December.

A Kenyan who was mistaken for a stowaway who died in London says his community has rejected him and sees him as a ghost.

Cedric Shivonje says his life became difficult ever since his photos were published and he was mistaken for a Paul Manyasi, who fell out of a Kenya Airways plane in London in 2019.

He says villagers in Kakamega in western Kenya, where he lives, believe he is dead.

Mr Shivonje says his wife of two years left him because people would tell her she was married to a ghost.

Here is a video of the interview shared by the Daily Nation newspaper:

Mr Shivonje's photo was mistakenly published by Sky News as the stowaway who fell to his death in June 2019. It apologised for the error., external

Mr Shivonje at the time was in remand in a Kenyan prison after being accused of a crime.

The identity of the man who fell from the plane's landing gear into a London garden remains unknown.