Nichola Mandil
BBC News, Juba

Conflict and disease outbreaks are pushing food prices up in South Sudan, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha).

The prices have increased by 17% compared to last month with the capital, Juba, being the most affected.

In a statement, the UN also blamed food insecurity for "deepening people’s humanitarian needs” in the country.

Some 7.7 million people, more than half of the country’s population, are estimated to be severely food insecure this year.

They include 87,000 people who are already facing catastrophic conditions, according to Ocha.

On Tuesday, the World Food Programme (WFP) said it was cutting food aid to almost 6.2 million people in South Sudan due to shortages of funds.

Among those to be affected by the food cuts are 178,000 children school under WFP's feeding programme. But it says the effect will be across the country, meaning it will have a severe nationwide impact.

While global attention is focused on Ukraine, South Sudan continues to grapple with unprecedented levels of food insecurity caused by conflict, climate change, Covid-19 pandemic and the rising cost of living.

Image source, AFP

The death toll from a weekend jihadist attack in northern Burkina Faso has risen to 86, authorities have said.

The previous toll in the attack in Seytenga village stood at 79.

The country’s military leader Paul-Henri Damiba on Wednesday promised action against the attackers when he visited the scene of the tragedy.

Burkina Faso has been grappling with a jihadist insurgency since 2015 which has claimed thousands of lives and displaced nearly two million people.

The latest raid is a major setback for the military government, which forced its way to power accusing the elected government of failing to address the insecurity.

The conflict which also affects swathes of Mali and Niger is displacing rural communities and contributing to a severe shortage of food.

BBC World Service

Image source, Getty Images

Government employees in Tunisia are to stage a nationwide strike in the latest challenge to the rule of President Kais Saied.

The day of industrial action by the general labour union was called to protest against the economic policy under Mr Saied.

He has in effect assumed personal rule after suspending parliament last year.

The union has refused to engage with his plans to reform the constitution.

The Tunisian employment minister, Nasreddine Nsibi, told state media the strike would cost millions of dollars during a financial crisis while the government was negotiating with international lenders to secure wheat, medicine and fuel supplies.

Image source, AFP

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta has called for the deployment of an East African force to restore security in the troubled east of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

In a statement, he also called for an “immediate cessation of all hostilities for all armed groups, both foreign and local, to lay down arms immediately and unconditionally” amid heavy fighting in recent weeks.

The East African Regional Force is to be deployed immediately to the regions of Ituri, North Kivu and South Kivu to enforce peace in co-ordination with resident UN forces (Monusco), he said.

He added that a meeting of commanders of the defence forces of East African countries on Sunday in Nairobi "should" finalise preparations for the deployment.

The decision to establish the regional force was made in April when Mr Kenyatta, the current East African Community (EAC) chairman, hosted regional presidents over the DR Congo crisis that also threatens neighbouring countries.

The EAC is made up of seven countries - Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda, South Sudan and DR Congo.

More than 100 local and foreign groups operate in South Kivu, North Kivu and Ituri and have destabilised the wider region for more than two decades.

Since March, fighting between the Congolese army and M23 rebels has displaced more than 80,000 people.

DR Congo has accused Rwanda of supporting the group made up of mainly ethnic Congolese Tutsi, but the government in Kigali denies the accusations.

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That's all from the BBC Africa Live team for now - there'll be an automated news feed until Thursday morning.

In the meantime you can listen to our Africa Today podcast and check the BBC News Africa page.

A reminder of our wise words of the day:

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And we leave you with this photo of a Senegalese environment activist, known as "The Plastic Man", in a suburb of the capital, Dakar:

Image source, AFP

A top Chinese diplomat for Africa has condemned a racist video exposed by the BBC's Africa Eye investigation.

The video showed black children in Malawi being made to read out derogatory statements about themselves in Mandarin.

Wu Peng, director-general in the Department of African Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs China, said his country was against discrimination.

"China has been cracking down on those unlawful online acts in the past yrs," he tweeted. "We’ll continue to crack down on such racial discrimination videos in the future."

Home Secretary Priti Patel says the government will not be deterred from doing the "right thing".

Jose Tembe
BBC News, Maputo

Image source, Getty Images

Two police officers in Mozambique have been sentenced to jail - one for six years, the other for two years - for beating to death a young man in a dispute related to Covid-19 restrictions.

According to the sentence handed down by a court in the central province of Sofala, the two must also pay compensation of around $16,000 (£13,000) to the family of the victim, who was in his twenties.

He was killed in 2020 when the two police officers were trying to disperse a group of children playing football in the central port city of Beira, where a state of emergency was in place because of the pandemic.

The victim took photos of them, which angered the officers who then attacked him.

For the victim's family lawyer, Cremildo João, justice has been served - though in his words, nothing brings back the life that was lost.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has announced, external it has dropped criminal proceedings against alleged war criminal, Mahmoud Mustafa Busayf al-Werfalli, after being convinced of his death.

In a statement the body said they now consider his death to be an established fact after seeing "witness statements, photographs, and social media material" provided by the prosecution.

The ICC's first warrant for Mr Werfalli's arrest was on 15 August 2017.

He "was alleged to have directly committed and to have ordered the commission of murder as a war crime in the context of seven incidents, involving 33 persons" in Libya.

He was also allegedly involved in an eighth incident when he allegedly shot dead 10 people, the ICC says.

He was an alleged commander of Libya's elite al-Saiqa army brigade - a special unit within the country's national army.

BBC World Service

The United Nations has expressed grave concerns about the treatment of indigenous Maasai people in Tanzania, after clashes broke out with security forces last week.

In a statement, the UN said it was deeply alarmed by reports of the use of live ammunition and tear gas by the security forces in Loliondo district in the north of the country.

It said the authorities had decided to turn an area of 1,500 sq km (580 sq miles) into a game reserve, despite an injunction in 2018 by the East African Court of Justice against the move.

There had been a lack of transparency and consultation with the Maasai people, it said.

Juneydi Farah
BBC Somali service

Somalia's President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has appointed a new prime minister.

Hamza Abdi Barre, who is a member of parliament for President Hassan Sheikh's party, will take on the role.

The president said he had been considering the selection of a new prime minister for some time, and saw Mr Barre as a potential candidate.

Speaking after his appointment, Mr Barre said he would form a government worthy of rescuing the country, with the priority of working towards a united Somalia.

Although he has held various positions in the offices of the federal government of Somalia, his name rose to prominence when he became chairman of the Jubbaland Electoral Commission, from 2019 to 2020.

From 2014 to 2015 he was the administrative adviser to the governor of Benadir region and then mayor of Mogadishu, Hassan Mohamed Hussein (known by his nickname Mungab).

His other roles include serving as a senior adviser to the Ministry of Constitutional Affairs and Federalism.

Thirty days ago Somalia elected Hassan Sheikh Mohamud as Somalia’s 11th president after long-delayed elections that were marred by disagreements between then-President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo and his Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble.

The new prime minister is expected to form a government once he is approved by parliament.

Kalkidan Yibeltal
BBC News

At least 40 people have been killed in clashes in the western Ethiopian city of Gambella, after members of armed groups launched attacks on Tuesday, two senior regional officials have told the BBC.

According to one of the officials, 10 of those killed were members of the government security force.

A spokesperson for the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) rebels, said his group had launched what he called an "operation" in the city, along with the Gambella Liberation Front.

The spokesperson later said the operation was concluded "after meeting its objectives", adding that "a large amount" of weapons had been seized.

Residents have told the BBC that calm seems to have returned to the city on Wednesday but businesses and offices remain closed.

On Tuesday evening, the region’s president said his forces had regained control of the city.

You may also be interested in this video about the OLA:

Ishaq Khalid
BBC News, Abuja

Image source, Getty Images

Police in Nigeria say they are investigating a reported mass abduction in the capital Abuja.

Kidnappings for ransom by armed gangs are becoming increasingly common across the country.

But what is extraordinary in this case is that one of the alleged hostages posted a tweet and sent a WhatsApp message sharing their location and appealing for help as they were being driven away by the gunmen to an unknown destination.

That is how the news of the kidnappings first came to public attention - prompting a social media outcry for the authorities to act to rescue them.

The Twitter poster said there were 17 hostages, including three pregnant women and two children, kidnapped from different parts of the Nigerian capital, Abuja.

The post got nearly 40,000 retweets and more than 2,500 people sent messages - many of them urging the Nigerian authorities to take action.

The Federal Capital Territory command of the Nigeria police said investigations were ongoing, called for calm and thanked those who had given what they described as ‘’helpful information’’.

The Nigerian authorities are facing increasing criticism for failing to tackle widespread insecurity in the country including frequent killings and kidnappings.

Read more:

• Nigeria's kidnapping crisis: Should ransom payments be banned?

Chris Ewokor
BBC News, Abuja

Image source, Getty Images

The Nigerian army says it has found a woman believed to be one of the girls abducted from a school in the town of Chibok in 2014.

A short statement on its social media page said a patrol had intercepted her and her son on Tuesday around Ngoshe village in the north-eastern state of Borno.

She was identified as Mrs Mary Ngoshe - no further details were given about what had happened to her.

One of the leaders of the Chibok community, Manasseh Allen, told the BBC that they were waiting for more information to be able to confirm her identity.

A total of 276 girls were abducted by Islamist militants Boko Haram from the school in April 2014, sparking global outrage. Fifty-seven of them escaped from trucks in the first hours of their abduction.

Between 2016 and 2018, several were found or rescued in the Sambisa forest hideout of Boko Haram by the military, while 103 were freed following negotiations between the government and the militants.

More than 100 of the girls are still missing.

You may be interested in:

• Nigeria's Chibok girls: Why was this former captive treated differently?

BBC World Service

Image source, AFP

An official in Tunisia's most powerful union has said that all international flights to and from the country will be cancelled on Thursday as part of a national strike called in protest at the policies of President Kais Saied.

The UGTT trade union is demanding salary rises for employees in the public sector after a decision by Mr Saied's government to freeze wages.

The move is part of a reform package intended to help reach a deal with the International Monetary Fund for a $4bn (£3.3bn) loan.

The UGTT says that all staff at around 160 state institutions and public companies will stop work on Thursday.

More about Tunisia:

• Democrats, despots and the fight for power
• A quick guide to Tunisia

BBC World Service

Egypt, Israel and the European Union have signed a provisional deal for the export of natural gas at an energy conference in Cairo.

The memorandum of understanding is aimed at lessening the EU's reliance on gas from Russia.

The Israeli gas is expected to be sent to liquefaction plants in Egypt and then shipped north to markets in Europe.

The Israeli energy ministry says it will allow significant exports of Israeli gas to Europe for the first time.

Image source, Getty Images

Namibia's environment and tourism ministry says it has discovered the carcasses of 11 rhinos killed by suspected poachers in a park since the beginning of the month.

It said investigations indicated that the carcasses of the black rhinos in the northern Etosha National Park were “between three weeks and old”.

“This is regrettable and a strong indication that the fight against poaching is not over,” a statement, external by the ministry spokesman Romeo Muyunda said.

No arrests have been made so far as investigations continue.

The ministry has urged Namibians with any information to report it to the police or to the ministry.

A total of 22 rhinos have been killed by poachers since the beginning of the year, according to the ministry.

Two opposition MPs have been arrested in Zimbabwe following violent protests over the killing of an opposition member in Chitungwiza near the capital, Harare.

Political tensions have been rising in the community after Moreblessing Ali's mutilated remains were found in a well, close to three weeks after she was reported missing.

MPs Job Sikhala and Godfrey Sithole were arrested on allegations of inciting public violence, according to their Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) party.

The police have also confirmed the arrest of Mr Sikhala, accusing him of being connected to an "orgy of public violence" in the Nyatsime area of Chitungwiza - about 30km (18 miles) from the capital, Harare.

Image source, Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Kenya has written to Somalia to express "regret" at the “inadvertent and inappropriate presence” of the flag of the breakaway state of Somaliland at an event hosted by President Uhuru Kenyatta.

Somalia's ambassador to Kenya, Mohamud Ahmed Nur, is reported to have walked out of Tuesday's annual diplomats conference in Kenya's capital, Nairobi.

In its letter, Kenya's foreign ministry said it reaffirmed "its recognition of the sovereignty of one Federal Somali Government and the integrity of the Federal Somali State".

Somaliland declared independence from Somalia in 1991 although it has not been recognised internationally. It functions like a nation state - with its own passport, currency, flag, government and army.

In a response on Twitter, its ministry of foreign affairs said "it was disappointed about the actions taken by the ambassador of Somalia" at the event.

"The Republic of Somaliland is a sovereign, independent and democratic country that aspires to line in peace and tranquillity with our neighbouring countries, that includes Somalia," the statement said.

More on this topic:

• Somaliland elections: Could polls help gain recognition?
• A quick guide to Somaliland