Surges of Covid are happening again around the world, driven by some new subvariants of Omicron.

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Support seems to be growing for two groups who are campaigning against undocumented foreign nationals.

Mary Harper
Africa editor, BBC World Service

Image source, Raila Odinga

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta has endorsed his former rival, Raila Odinga, as presidential candidate in this year's elections.

The incumbent, who cannot run again as he has already served two terms, told a crowd of thousands in the capital, Nairobi, that he had no doubt that Mr Odinga was team captain.

Last month the governing Jubilee party joined a coalition headed by Mr Odinga.

In 2018 Mr Kenyatta and Mr Odinga declared a truce following deadly post-election violence.

The two families have been arch-political rivals for decades.

Image source, Samuel Otunla

Nigerian student Samuel Otunla sounds exhausted in the voice note he sent the BBC after managing to leave Ukraine.

He recorded the message after getting his first decent sleep in three days, following some 60 hours of travelling as he made it from the eastern city of Sumy across the border in the west into Hungary.

He began the evacuation journey, which involved a bus, a train and then another bus, on Tuesday with other international students.

Otunla had previously told the BBC about how traumatised he was after spending much of the previous 10 days in a basement.

In the latest voice message he says that on the night before he left there was an explosion a kilometre away from his university campus.

"It was so loud that we actually thought it was our building that was hit. We heard the swooshing sound of the rocket as it went past and the building was just shaking.

"It is sad, it is crazy what is happening."

But the veterinary student wants to emphasis how much he enjoyed being in Ukraine.

"Ukraine has been home for us... we really loved this country and we didn't want to leave it. It was a peaceful place to live in and we had a very nice studying environment."

Mary Harper
Africa editor, BBC World Service

The Ethiopian government says it will take action against people seen in a video burning a man alive.

The film of men in Ethiopian army uniforms taunting the man and setting him on fire has been circulated widely on social media.

The authorities said the incident took place in the northern region of Benishangul-Gumuz where there is frequent ethnic violence.

The video has not been verified independently.

It is not clear if the incident is connected with the war in northern Ethiopia, which started 16 months ago.

Image source, AFP

Rupiah Banda, who was Zambia's president from 2008 to 2011, has died at the age of 85 after suffering from colon cancer.

"His life of service to our country, and to our continent, represents the highest form of patriotism," President Hakainde Hichilema said.

Mr Banda, a former diplomat, was serving as vice-president when, in 2008, President Levy Mwanawasa suffered a stroke and later died. He then took office, becoming the country's fourth president, and won the subsequent election.

But he stepped down in 2011 after losing that year's poll to Michael Sata. Mr Banda was widely praised at the time for accepting defeat, rather than challenging the result.

His time in office was dogged by corruption allegations and in 2013 he was arrested after being accused of stealing millions of dollars.

He denied the accusations, describing them as being part of a witch hunt, and was never convicted.

That's all for now from the BBC Africa Live team. There will be an automated news feed here until we're back on Monday morning.

You can also keep up to date on the BBC News website, or by listening to the Africa Today podcast.

A reminder of our wise words of the day:

And we leave you with this picture of performers from the Adjoukrou ethnic group in Ivory Coast. You can find the BBC's selection of the week's best pictures from around the African continent here.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Alexandre Brucato

The French singer and songwriter of Cameroonian descent, TayC, has told the BBC he is saddened by the conflict in Cameroon and that he wants to spread the "Afro Love mindset" amidst the crisis.

He founded what he calls the Afro Love movement in 2019, a music genre which sounds like a mix of R'n'B and Afrobeats.

"Many sad things happen in Africa and all over the world but especially in my country," he said. "My Mum is Anglophone so each day in my house I see my Mum crying and talking to her sisters about the problem. It's sad man. Afro Love isn't just a kind of music, it's a movement," he continued.

There has been conflict in the country since 2017, due to feelings of marginalisation among the English-speaking minority population in the majority Francophone nation.

TayC, whose real name is Julien Franck Bouadjie, is considered to be one of the greatest figures of R'n'B music in France at the moment.

Born in the French city of Marseille to Cameroonian parents, he's always been very much in touch with his heritage. "My mother was one of nine children, eight girls and one boy, so all my aunties used to bring over Cameroonian food. My parents listened to lots of Cameroonian artists like Douleur and Petit Pays and we used to have a party once a month with all the family and dance a lot. So Cameroon was always in my life," he said. He launched his music career in 2012 after relocating to Paris. His debut album dropped in 2019, but his second, entitled Fleur Froide or Cold Flower was what really launched his international career, with his hit song, N'y pense plus, putting him on the map in France and beyond.

He also worked with the late Cameroonian veteran Manu Dibango on another hit song, Dodo.

"It was amazing. He's a legend. He talked to me as a friend, as a little brother," TayC said. "He passed out too early for me, he told me all this stuff he wanted to do."

This year, he also plans to expand outside of the music sphere, and is writing a film, but the subject matter is yet to be revealed.

You can hear the full interview with TayC this weekend on This Is Africa on BBC World Service radio and partner stations across Africa, and online

Nigeria women's basketball head coach Otis Hughley takes a swipe at the country's sports ministry over unpaid bonuses and demands a contract review.

BBC World Service

Egypt has this week executed seven people convicted of carrying out Islamist attacks, human rights groups say.

Three of them were found guilty of taking part in an attack at Helwan in the suburbs of Cairo in 2016 which killed eight policemen.

The other four were convicted of killing police officers in earlier attacks.

Egypt has handed down hundreds of death sentences in recent years.

Human rights organisations say that not only Islamists but a range of opponents of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi have been targeted.

Alfred Lasteck
BBC News, Dar es Salaam

Image source, Getty Images

Hundreds of Maasai people have volunteered to leave their homes in Tanzania's Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA), after the government asked the pastoralists to relocate because the rising human population was putting pressure on wildlife.

More than 450 people from 86 households have expressed their intention to move.

Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa addressed more than 350 Maasai elders, also known as Laigwanans, on Friday. He said President Samia Suluhu had expressed her deep concern for the fate of the area, which received Unesco’s Global Geopark status in 2018.

President Samia is believed to be worried about the impact the growing number of livestock and human beings is having on the wildlife.

Mr Majaliwa noted that 110,000 people were now living in the area, up from just 8,000 in 1959.

Nigeria's drugs agency has seized three million capsules of opioids, it said on Friday.

The authorities intercepted about 1,500kg (3,300lb) of Tapentadol and Carisoprodol, according to National Drug Law Enforcement Agency director Femi Babafemi, as quoted in the Punch newspaper. , external

The capture "followed a similar operation in which anti-narcotic officers of the agency also intercepted 8,613kg of cannabis smuggled in from Ghana," AFP news agency quoted Mr Babademi as saying.

He said the capsules were thought to have originated from China, and were falsely labelled as insulation fittings and industrial office printers.

However further investigation proved them to be from India and some suspects have been arrested, the news report added.

At least 17 people have died and dozens injured in an attack in Jebel Moon in Sudan's troubled Darfur region.

It is being blamed on a militia group, local sources report.

Four villages were also burned down.

The violence started on Thursday morning and continued for hours, according to a quote from Adam Regal, spokesman for the body in charge of refugees and the displaced in Darfur, in the AP news agency., external

It is thought the attack was caused by clashes between Arabs and non-Arabs, the same agency reports.

It follows a similar attack that left 16 people dead earlier in the week, according to the Reuters news agency.

Image source, AFP

Thirteen Tunisian and international rights groups, including Amnesty International, are urging Tunisia to immediately scrap plans for new restrictions on civil society groups.

The leaked proposals would crack down on freedoms gained during the country’s 2011 revolution, Amnesty warned.

“Tunisians know from experience the dangers that restrictive laws can pose to civil society and public debate,” Middle Eastern and North African Amnesty deputy regional director Amna Guellali said.

“During the deeply repressive Ben Ali era, the authorities used restrictive regulations on associations and cumbersome administrative procedures as key tools to smother dissent,” Ms Guellali continued.

A leaked draft law revealed government plans to interfere in the running of civil society organisations, including their funding and freedom of speech, according to Amnesty, external, although the Tunisian government itself has not commented on a change of law or officially released a draft, the AFP news agency reports.

In 2020, President Kais Saied suspended parliament, meaning any new laws will not have oversight from the legislative body.

Liverpool defender Joel Matip is the first Cameroonian to win the Premier League's player of the month award.

Mary Harper
Africa editor, BBC World Service

Guinea's military rulers have ordered all activities to stop at the Simandou iron ore deposit, believed to be the largest in the world.

They need clarification on how Guinea's interests will be preserved before work can begin again, they say.

The deposit is owned by the mining giant Rio Tinto and a Chinese-backed consortium, with the Guinean government holding a 15% stake.

The development of the mine has stalled many times, largely over rights disputes.

Mining of the 2.5 billion tonnes of high-grade ore was due to start in 2015.

African rugby's governing body is accused of ignoring the interests of game on the continent after deciding to host 2023 Rugby World Cup qualifiers in France.

The South Africa Football Association says it will be bidding to host the African Champions League finals for both men and women.

Mary Harper
Africa editor, BBC World Service

At least 750 civilians were killed in the northern Afar and Amhara regions in the second half of last year, Ethiopia's human rights body says.

More than half died in air strikes and heavy artillery fire, it said. The rest died in extra-judicial killings.

It said fighters from neighbouring Tigray tortured and raped civilians. More than 4,000 schools have been damaged or destroyed and around 2,400 health facilities have stopped working due to war damage.

War erupted in Tigray 16 months ago and spread to the neighbouring regions of Afar and Amhara.