BBC Focus on Africa radio

UN Goodwill Ambassador Sabrina Dhowre Elba has said "it's an undeniable truth that people are suffering" in the Horn of Africa where failed rains have led to food insecurity.

She was part of an International Fund for Agricultural Development (Ifad) delegation that visited crisis-hit farmers.

"What I've seen is rural people who are suffering but trying to make it through," she told the BBC's Focus on Africa.

The Horn of Africa is facing the worst drought in 40 years after three failed rain seasons.

Sabrina, an activist and model said there were solutions that can guarantee food security in the long run.

"It's about investing in [the people] so that they can build resilience through technology, through education, even through simple things like drying equipment," she said.

Listen to the full interview with the BBC's Hassan Arouni;

Image source, LADJI BAMA

The authorities in Burkina Faso say rescue teams which have been pumping water from a flooded zinc mine are drawing closer to where they’re hoping to find eight workers who’ve been trapped for more than three weeks.

The six Burkina Faso nationals, one Tanzanian and one Zambian went missing on 16 April after heavy rainfall caused flash floods at the Canadian-owned mine, forcing it to suspend operations.

Government spokesman Lionel Bilgo told Reuters that “it’s a race against time” as hopes to find the missing workers were slowly fading.

Mr Bilgo said rescuers remained with about 10 metres of water above a refuge chamber stocked with food and water.

It is hoped the miners were able to gain access into this chamber.

Distraught family members have been gathering at the mine since their relatives were reported missing last month.

A judicial investigation has been launched by the government, while mine managers have been barred from leaving the country while the probe is underway.

More on this topic:

• Burkina Faso trapped miners: Families have hope after three weeks

Nomsa Maseko
BBC News, Accra

Image source, AFP

Ghana’s consumer price inflation rate has hit 23.6%, a sharp rise from 19.4% in March.

The latest figures announced by Government Statistician Kobina Annim on Wednesday show that prices for imported items increased faster than locally produced items - the first time in over two years.

The rise in the cost of food and services has been condemned by Ghanaians who said the cost of living here was fast becoming unbearable.

The surging inflation rate, the highest it’s been in more than a decade, is expected to derail the country’s targeted economic growth.

The second-biggest West African economy is also battling a sharp increase in the cost of transport, water and gas and a proposed electricity price hike of nearly 150%.

Trade unions have called on the government to give public sector workers a 20% cost of living allowance, an increase in the minimum wage and the removal of petroleum taxes.

Experts have warned that the surge in international food prices is expected to hit African economies the hardest and could trigger social unrest in some countries.

Image source, AFP

A small passenger plane carrying 11 people crashed in a forest near Cameroon's capital, Yaoundé, on Wednesday, the transport ministry said.

The cause of the crash was not immediately clear but the plane lost radio contact with air traffic controllers and was later located in the forest near Nanga Eboko, around 150km (90 miles) north-east of Yaoundé, the ministry said in a statement.

The aircraft was flying from Yaoundé Nsimalen airport to Belabo, in the east of the country, it added.

AFP news agency quotes official sources as saying the plane was chartered by a private company, the Cameroon Oil Transportation Company that maintains a hydrocarbon pipeline that runs between Cameroon and neighbouring Chad.

It says the crash was the first major air catastrophe in the country since 2007, when a Kenya Airways plane carrying 114 people crashed after take-off from Douala airport.

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The BBC investigates a network of Nigerian separatists outside the country urging violence online.

Chris Ewokor
BBC News, Abuja

Image source, Getty Images

If, up to now, you’ve ever been stumped by something written in Krio or Ewe or Tigrinya then, unlike for more than 100 other languages, Google Translate was not going to help you out.

But that’s just changed as Google has announced the addition of 24 languages - including 10 spoken in Africa - to this function.

The new African languages are:

• Bambara - spoken in Mali
• Ewe - spoken in Ghana and Togo
• Krio - spoken in Sierra Leone
• Lingala - spoken in large parts of central Africa including the Democratic Republic of Congo
• Luganda - spoken in Uganda and Rwanda
• Oromo - spoken in Ethiopia
• Sepedi - spoken in South Africa
• Tigrinya - spoken in Eritrea and Ethiopia
• Tsonga - spoken in South Africa
• Twi - spoken in Ghana

Several other African languages were already available, including Amharic, Hausa and Somali.

In the past, the software used to translate as well as learn how to improve the interpretation relied on being fed material that had already been translated.

There is a large and growing amount of text in the more widely spoken and used languages - but this is not the case for many others.

Google has said that these new additions rely on novel software which does not require reference to previous examples.

Google Translate’s research scientist Isaac Caswell told the BBC that this work was part of “expanding coverage to many communities who were very much overlooked not just by Google but other technologies in general”.

But will the translations be accurate? Many polyglots have up to now noted problems with the languages already available.

“For many supported languages, even the largest languages in Africa that we have supported - say like Yoruba, Igbo, the translation is not great. It will definitely get the idea across but often it will loss much of the subtlety of the language,” Mr Caswell admitted.

With the new languages, he said, it would be no different. But the people who helped in the research said it was a good place to start.

“Some of the Krio [speakers] said, ‘Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.’

“In the end, we have to make the call. And my impression from other people I have talked to was that it was a very positive thing for them.”

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

Click here to send us your African proverbs.

And we leave with this photo of a robot called Spot, pictured earlier on Wednesday on the waterfront in South Africa's city of Cape Town with his handler. The robot, which is able to navigate terrain with unprecedented mobility, was being shown off on the side-lines of the Mining Indaba investment conference:

Image source, Getty Images

Ishaq Khalid
BBC News, Abuja

A High Court in the northern Nigeria has sentenced a man to death by hanging for the kidnapping for ransom and killing of his five-year-old nephew in 2019.

The 19-year-old man had denied the charges. Witnesses say he looked sombre as the death sentence was handed down.

A spokesperson for Kano State’s judiciary told the BBC it appeared the convicted man had killed the boy as he feared he had been recognised.

Nigeria is struggling to tackle a wave of kidnappings for ransom by organised gangs and opportunistic criminals.

Earlier this week, security forces in the northern state of Bauchi arrested two men for allegedly kidnapping and subsequently killing a five-year-old girl after collecting a ransom from her family.

Shingai Nyoka
BBC News, Harare

Image source, Getty Images

Zimbabwe’s government has blamed currency speculators and money launderers for sending the local currency, introduced three years ago, spiralling down in value.

The country has a history of hyperinflation, abandoning its currency in 2009 - so it is understandably nervous. It does not want to see history repeat itself.

In response, the president unexpectedly stepped in over the weekend announcing on state TV that all banks had to suspend lending.

Businesses were also banned from importing from one country but paying in another for goods - to curb money laundering.

There are also higher transaction fees for foreign currency transfers.

This is all because the government says some businesses have been borrowing huge sums of local money to buy US dollars on the black market.

Even though these rates are high, businesses say it is safer to keep their money in US dollars as that does not lose value.

From January to the first week of May the local currency depreciated by 52% to Z$165 against the US dollar - officially.

However on the black market, which many believe reflects the true value, $1 is trading for between Z$340 and Z$400.

The business community is unhappy about the president’s measures - and in a circular to financial institutions, Zimbabwe’s Reserve Bank has now said it will allow some pre-approved lending on a “case-by-case basis”, seemingly cycling back given the anger.

The Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce said Saturday's measures would expose businesses to predatory loans and “usurious interest rates”.

Banks could also be affected, as up to 40% of their business is lending.

But some business owners who spoke to the BBC anonymously said that some of the measures could be positive if they helped rein in inflation, which stood at just over 96% in April.

“Gains of reduced inflation far outweigh the rate of lending but only if the suspension is for a brief period of time,” one man said.

Ishaq Khalid
BBC News, Abuja

Image source, AFP

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari ordered all his ministers who wish to contest in next year's election to resign by Monday next week.

Information Minister Lai Mohammed told journalists at the presidential palace that Mr Buhari gave the directive during Wednesday's cabinet meeting.

The move could have an impact on the running of government given the high number of ministers likely to be affected by the decision - though the presidential spokesperson told the BBC its activities would not be affected.

Several ministers have already declared their intentions to be their party’s candidates in either presidential or gubernatorial elections:

• Abubakar Malami, minister of justice and attorney-general - gubernatorial ambitions in his home state of Kebbi
• Rotimi Amaechi, transport minister - presidential ambitions
• Chris Ngige, labour minister - presidential ambitions
• Emeka Nwajiuba, deputy education minister - presidential ambitions
• Ogbonnaya Onu, science and technology minister - presidential ambitions.

Women Affairs Minister Pauline Tallen is likely to be affected too as she wants to be a senator for her home state of Plateau.

However, the directive does not affect the president's deputy Yemi Osinbajo - who is seeking the presidential ticket of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) party - as he is an elected official and not appointed.

American Floyd Mayweather is planning to establish a boxing academy in Nigeria, Africa's most populous country.

Peter Jegwa
Lilongwe, Malawi

Image source, AFP

Three men in Malawi have been each sentenced by a High Court to 155 years in jail for killing a person with albinism.

Aged 44, 45 and 71, they were found guilty after they confessed to the murder of a 23-year-old albino man in January this year.

One of those sentenced was the man’s uncle.

Over the past decade, Malawi has experienced gruesome attacks and killings of people with albinism, fuelled by false beliefs that concoctions mixed with their body parts bring luck and wealth.

Since 2014, there have been more than 170 cases ranging from killings and grave-tampering to attempted abductions and physical violence.

Earlier this month, a High Court ruled on another albino murder case, finding a former Roman Catholic priest, a police officer and a hospital clinician guilty of trading in body parts.

The convictions were the first of prominent members of society linked to the attacks.

That ruling and these long jail terms are a message from the justice system that such killings and violence will not be tolerated.

You may be interested in:

• Malawi albino attack survivor: 'I am too scared to sleep'

There was national outrage when Astou Sokhna and her unborn baby died after a traumatic labour.

Will Ross
Africa editor, BBC World Service

Image source, AFP

The government in Togo says eight soldiers have been killed and 13 wounded in what it called a terrorist attack at Kpinkankandi in the northern Savanes region of the country near the border with Burkina Faso.

Togolese troops are deployed in the north to try to contain a jihadist threat pushing south from Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, where militants linked to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group operate.

A senior security source in Togo told the AFP news agency that the soldiers were attacked by a group of 60 gunmen on motorbikes.

This is thought to be the first deadly attack by Islamist militants in Togo.

Officials said troops had foiled an attempted raid in November.

Nkechi Ogbonna
West Africa business journalist, BBC News

Image source, AFP

Nigeria's state oil company has agreed to help the country's airlines source aviation fuel at a reduced price after they had threatened to halt all domestic flights.

The airlines said the price of fuel had tripled in just four months - partly because of the impact that Russia's invasion of Ukraine has had on the global energy market.

The agreement followed a meeting between the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), the central bank and airline representatives.

However the deal is just for three months and the airline industry still faces potential disruption and fuel price hikes.

The average cost of a one-hour domestic flight jumped from about $60 (£48) to $130 between February and May this year.

Nigeria is Africa’s top oil producer, but almost all its aviation fuel is imported because it lacks refining capacity.

Jose Tembe
BBC News, Maputo

Image source, Getty Images

The World Bank says it intends to resume direct budget support to Mozambique, six years after it was suspended when more than $2.7bn (£2.1bn) of undisclosed state debts were discovered.

It became known as the tuna bond scandal as much of the money the government secretly borrowed was to set up a fishing industry, but the money was allegedly diverted to corrupt officials.

The announcement comes a day after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) made a similar pledge.

During a briefing in Washington DC, World Bank official Idah Pswarayi-Riddihough said the first trench of $300m would be up for approval by the end of June.

“We feel that this is an excellent opportunity for the government particularly to also recognise the very strong work that they have done since the hidden debts... around transparency and governance,” she said.

"The approval of the IMF programme and [the World Bank's] budget support activities give a very strong signal to the market but even more importantly they give a strong signal to all of partners of Mozambique in terms of financing."

She explained that this help would allow the government to create more resources for development that would also help deflect the economic impact of the Ukraine crisis and the coronavirus pandemic.

Namibian sprinter Christine Mboma is a doubt for the African Athletics Championships next month after suffering a thigh injury.

Image source, AFP

Germany's government has said it will increase the number of German troops serving in the UN peacekeeping mission by 300 soldiers to 1,400.

"This is intended to compensate for capacities previously undertaken by French forces," government spokeswoman Christiane Hoffmann is quoted by the AFP news agency as saying.

France has decided to withdraw its soldiers, which are not part of the UN force, after disagreements with Mali's military rulers.

Germany's announcement comes a week after it said it would no longer take part in a European Union military training mission in Mali because of concerns that the soldiers it helps could then fight alongside Russian mercenaries who are suspected of atrocities.

According to the Associated Press, this support and training will now be offered to Niger's government in its fight against Islamist militants.

Jose Tembe
BBC News, Maputo

Mozambique’s tax authority (AT) has seized about 20,000 mobile phones that were being smuggled into the country.

A senior AT official, Gimo Jona, told journalists they were contained in 250 boxes intercepted last week as they left a warehouse.

Inspectors found they had no import documents and there were other invoicing problems.

In the first three months of this year, tax officials had caught smugglers attempting to defraud the state of $47,000 (£38,200), Mr Jona said.

Other seizures have included luxury vehicles and alcohol.