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The world through its media

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Senegal's President Macky Sall has said he plans to regulate social media in the West African nation, describing it as a "a real cancer of modern societies".

“No organised society can accept what is happening here today. We are going to put an end to it, one way or another,” local media quoted him as saying, external.

Political tensions during local elections in January led to fears of widespread violence via online mobilisation.

This followed the case last year of main opposition leader Ousmane Sonko, who was accused of rape. His arrest led to rare mass anti-government protests in which at least 13 people killed and several others injured.

Image source, AFP

Journalists also spoke out about receiving online and physical abuse for reporting the rape allegations.

There are fears that legal measures could be used to crack down on youths using social media to mobilise demonstrations against Mr Sall's administration.

Image source, AFP

African Union (AU) chairperson Moussa Faki has condemned an attack by al-Shabab militants on a military base in central Somalia manned by Burundian soldiers.

The AU has not yet released the number of casualties suffered in the attack on the base, which is some 130km (80 miles) north-east of the capital, Mogadishu.

But al-Shabab militants say more than 170 soldiers were killed and that they have taken complete control of the AU base. This has not been independently confirmed.

In a statement, Mr Faki said the "attack will not lessen the determination" of the AU's force in Somalia.

He called on the international community to increase support to the Somali security services and the AU mission.

Mr Faki has also had a phone call with Burundi's president to "pay respects for the sacrifice" of the Burundi peacekeepers.

A young woman's donation of $0.50 of mobile phone credit helps raise $1m for a medical charity.

Image source, Getty Images

South African convict Thabo Bester, also known as "the Facebook rapist" for using the social networking site to lure his victims, has been found dead in his prison cell, according to local media reports.

The Department of Correctional Services (DCS) spokesperson is quoted as confirming the death at the Mangaung Correctional Centre in Bloemfontein.

Singabakho Nxumalo said an investigation was under way to determine the cause of death and whether a fire in his cell was started deliberately.

“He was discovered at about 03:35 this [Tuesday] morning, where his cell was burnt, he was found on the floor," Mr Nxumalo said, according to public broadcaster SABC.

Bester was serving his sentence for the 2012 murder of a model.

Previously he was convicted of raping and robbing two aspiring models he had lured on Facebook.

Image source, EFF/Twitter

South African police are hunting for the killers of the 28-year-old daughter of a former secretary general of the opposition Economic Freedom Fighters party.

Hillary Gardee’s body was found on Tuesday in a bush in Nelspruit, in Mpumalanga province, with wounds to her head after having gone missing on Friday.

She had been with her three-year-old child, who was found unharmed.

A missing person alert had been shared widely and the South African police had asked for assistance, external from the public to find her.

On Tuesday, Police Minister Bheki Cele visited the crime scene where the body was found.

He said the authorities were working to ensure justice for the death of Ms Gardee, with the police launching a plan to find the killers within 72 hours.

The EFF has described, external Ms Gardee as an "enthusiastic, kind and loving individual".

It said her death had left the “Gardee’s family distraught and the collective leadership of the EFF at a loss for words”.

BBC World Service
Newsroom

The UN Secretary General António Guterres is due to meet Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari and government officials in the capital, Abuja, later on Wednesday.

Mr Guterres has been on a field trip in north-eastern Borno state, where he was visiting UN agencies and humanitarian groups who have been helping thousands of families who fled attacks by Islamist insurgents.

On Tuesday, he met former members of the jihadist group Boko Haram at a de-radicalisation camp in the Borno state capital, Maiduguri.

The UN says more than two million people have had to flee their homes in north-eastern Nigeria as a result of attacks by Islamist militants.

Earlier in Niger, Mr Guterres called for more international support, including equipment and finance, to help countries in the Sahel region deal with extremist groups and the humanitarian crisis.

Image source, AFP

Nigeria's military has linked the beheading of an army couple to the Indigenous People of Biafra (Ipob), a group that wants a breakaway state in south-east Nigeria.

The couple was killed over the weekend while heading to Imo state for their traditional wedding.

Army spokesman Onyema Nwachukwu termed the killings “gruesome, barbaric and most despicable”.

He blamed the armed wing of Ipob - the Eastern Security Network - for the killings.

"The Nigerian army will ensure the perpetrators of this dastardly act unleashed on its personnel do not go unpunished," he said in a statement, external.

The local Punch newspaper said the attackers made a video of the incident and circulated it online.

Chinasa Nworu, Ipob’s second in command, said the beheadings had nothing to do with the separatists. On Facebook he posted a “fake news” image, saying the story was going to be used by the army as an excuse to step up its operations against Ipob in Imo state.

Ipob was founded by Nnamdi Kanu in 2014.

It wants a group of states in south-east Nigeria, mainly populated by people from the Igbo ethnic group, to break away and form an independent nation called Biafra.

Read more on this topic:

• Biafran leader Nnamdi Kanu: The man behind Nigeria's separatists
• Nnamdi Kanu's arrest leaves Nigeria's Ipob separatists in disarray

Update 4 May 2021: This post has been updated with a response from Ipob.

Our proverb of the day:

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That's all for from the BBC Africa Live team for now. We'll be posting here from Wednesday morning Nairobi time, but there will be an automated feed overnight.

You can also check for stories on the BBC News website and catch up by listening to the Africa Today podcast.

A reminder of our wise words of the day:

Click here to send us your African proverbs.

And we leave you with this post from Nigerian artist Ken Nwadiogbu, who has shared images of his solo exhibition in Abuja:

Paris has responded to Mali's decision to end its military co-operation agreement with France, describing it as "unjustified", the AFP news agency reports.

Earlier, Mali's military government said it was breaking off all defence agreements and cited multiple violations of its sovereignty by French troops and noted a "profound deterioration of the military co-operation with France for some time now".

France said that it "considers that this decision is unjustified and absolutely contests any violation of the bilateral legal framework", AFP quotes a French spokesperson as saying.

France had already been pulling troops out of the country in the wake of two recent coups.

"France will continue the withdrawal in good order of its military presence in Mali, in line with the commitments it has made to its partners," the French spokesperson added.

Witnesses tell Human Rights Watch about summary executions, torture and the beating of civilians.

Lulu Sanga
BBC News, Arusha

Image source, Getty Images

World Press Freedom Day has been marked here in Arusha, Tanzania, with journalists and media figures from more than 50 African countries calling on governments to allow greater freedom of expression on the continent.

Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan, who was the chief guest, reiterated her government’s position that journalists should be allowed to operate freely. She however said that African reporters must aim for positive reportage.

"We should make our African media platforms cherish our development goals and promote Africa’s rich resources, rather than stereotypical reporting under the influence of foreign media," President Samia insisted.

Journalists in Tanzania have been complaining about the different laws and regulations that they say stifle media freedom. But President Samia said a review is in progress and amendments will happen soon.

The president said her administration is now in dialogue with media stakeholders following complaints that the laws were hindering media development in Tanzania.

Most reporters agree that the situation for journalists has improved since President Samia came to power in March last year following the death in office of her predecessor, John Magufuli.

Read more:

• Tanzania viewpoint: What President Samia has achieved in her first year

Ishaq Khalid
BBC News, Abuja

Image source, AFP

UN Secretary General António Guterres has arrived in the north-eastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri on the third and final leg of his tour of West Africa.

Mr Guterres was initially scheduled to travel to the town of Banki, near the Cameroonian border, to meet victims of the Boko Haram insurgency to highlight the humanitarian crisis in the region. But officials say that trip has now been cancelled.

Instead, Mr Guterres is meeting victims of the conflict in the city of Maiduguri as well as former Boko Haram militants who have laid down their arms, renounced violence and surrendered to the Nigerian authorities.

It’s not exactly clear why his visit to Banki was cancelled.

But a spokesperson for the Borno state governor told the BBC the decision was taken due to what he called "some circumstances" without giving details.

The insurgency which began in 2009 has killed nearly 350,000 people and displaced millions of others in Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon and Chad according to the UN.

Mr Guterres earlier said the humanitarian crisis in the region required more international support to tackle. He also called for more military assistance to Niger, including equipment and finance to enable it to deal with the various extremist groups.

On Wednesday, the UN chief will be meeting Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari and other senior officials in Abuja as well as youth and women groups.

Nichola Mandil
BBC News, Juba

Image source, SBS Online

The government and the people of South Sudan are mourning a prominent ex-female fighter, Aguil Chut-Deng, who died recently at the age of 58 in mysterious circumstances in Brisbane, Australia.

South Sudanese news outlets reported that Ms Aguil went missing on Wednesday last week as she left the house for her daily exercise and never returned home.

The police found her body in some woods in Brisbane on Saturday. The cause of death or how she ended up in the woods remain unclear.

Ms Aguil rose to prominence when she left school in 1984 at the age of 20, and joined the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), a rebel movement that fought for independence against successive governments in Khartoum from 1983 to 2005.

She was an active fighter in the Katiba Banat or Ladies' Battalion, which fought alongside their male counterparts during the 21-year war, which led to the independence of South Sudan in 2011.

In a condolence message to her family, President Salva Kiir described the late fighter as “a bigger-than-life personality and a woman of immense courage in her generation”.

“In her death, our country has lost a patriot who has worked tirelessly for the cause of our freedom,” President Kiir said.

Many South Sudanese on social media paid tribute to the Ms Aguil.

Some described her death as “a great loss to the nation” and to women in particular. They called her “a courageous woman who was a role model”.

• LISTEN: Africa Daily - Have the women of South Sudan’s independence fight been forgotten?

Former Wimbledon finalist Kevin Anderson announces his retirement from professional tennis at the age of 35.

The Somali Islamist militant group al-Shabab has said in a statement it had killed more than 170 Burundian soldiers who were in Somalia as part of an African Union (AU) force.

It has also said that it has taken complete control of the AU base where they were stationed, which is more than 100km (62 miles) north-east of the capital, Mogadishu.

The claims have not been independently confirmed.

There were reports of heavy gunfire following the pre-dawn raid and eyewitnesses said they had seen weapons being fired from helicopters.

The jihadist group frequently carries out bombings and gun attacks as part of its war against Somalia's central government.

Image source, AFP

Zimbabwe's President Emmerson Mnangagwa has told British government to stop meddling on the country's affairs, the state-owned Herald newspaper reports quoting the president's spokesman.

It follows criticism to a proposed law, the Private and Voluntary Organisation Bill, that critics say will give government more control over civil society groups.

The government says the bill will end money laundering and foreign funding of local politics, but campaigners say it will give the authorities powers to interfere with operations of NGOs.

The bill will be passed regardless of the criticism, President Mnangagwa is quoted as saying, as he sharply condemned the country's former colonial power.

"They must mind their own business, they cut relations with us (and) we got nothing from them... we don't pay attention to what they are saying," he said.

The United Nations General Assembly declared 3 May is World Press Freedom Day, but what does that mean?

Former Nigeria coach Gernot Rohr has held talks with Mali about their vacant managerial role, but a deal is yet to be finalised.

Patricia Oyella
BBC News, Kampala

Image source, AFP

Pollution levels in Uganda’s capital, Kampala, are five to seven times higher than the Word Health Organization (WHO) recommends.

This is according to air quality data gathered from monitoring systems in the country in the last seven months and released to mark the global Air Quality Awareness week.

The data also showed that pollution levels during the period of study peaked countrywide in January 2022.

In a joint statement, the country’s National Management Environment Authority, Kampala Capital City Authority and air quality research initiative AirQo, based at Makerere University, called for joint action to reduce air pollution.

Kampala Capital City Authority officials say dust from unpaved roads, emissions from vehicles and industries as well as the open burning of solid waste are responsible for the poor air quality.

The 2021 World Air Quality report ranked Kampala as one of the most polluted cities in the world.