For 18 months reporter Fateh al-Rahman al-Hamdani filmed inside 23 Islamic schools, or khalwas, across Sudan for a BBC News Arabic investigation. He uncovered systemic child abuse, with boys as young as five years old routinely chained, shackled and beaten by the “sheikhs”, or religious men in charge of the schools. The investigation also found evidence of sexual abuse.

We visit some of the nearly 30,000 Sudanese khalwas, where children are taught to memorise the Koran. The schools receive money from the government and private donors both in Sudan and around the world. Because they charge no fees, many families consider them an alternative to mainstream education, especially in remote villages that may not have government-run schools. Students board there, only returning home for the holidays.

We meet two 14-year-old boys, Ismail and Mohamed Nader, who were beaten so badly at one khalwa that doctors worried they might not survive, and hear how their families decide to take legal action. We join Fateh as he confronts the sheikh in charge of the school where they were assaulted. And we hear what Sudan’s new transitional government has to say about reforming khalwas.

Presented by Paul Bakibinga, narrating the words of Fateh al-Rahman al-Hamdani.

Photo: A young boy with his feet shackled and chained. Credit: Jess Kelly/BBC)

Since Islamic State’s hold on Iraq and Syria has weakened in recent years the group has sought to expand into new territories, including Africa.

IS insurgents have reportedly killed thousands, including children, and displaced thousands more in Mozambique, Mali, and Somalia, among other territories across the continent.

It is believed that IS franchises its brand to local militant groups, providing support, claiming responsibility for deadly attacks, all while spreading its influence in these new territories.

Charmaine Cozier asks if Africa is a new power base for the Islamic State group?

Producer: Paul Connolly

(Al-Shebab fighters, an Islamist insurgent group in Somalia. Credit: Mohamed Abdiwahab/Getty Images)

Mauritania has a long history of slavery – and a long history of struggle against it. Since the 1960s, slaves and their descendants have campaigned to end this practice, which is deeply embedded in Mauritanian society. In this Witness History, Josephine Casserly hears the story of Brahim Bilal Ramdhane, who was born into slavery in the 1960s and is now a prominent abolitionist.

People hold a banner reading "No to slavery" during a demonstration against discrimination in Nouakchott on April 29, 2015. Credit: AFP via Getty Images

At the end of the 1990s, tens of millions of people across Africa had been infected with HIV and in South Africa hundreds of thousands of people were dying from AIDS. People were demanding cheaper drugs, but the big pharmaceutical companies didn’t want to play ball. They took the South African to court over the right to import cheap drugs in a case which would last three years and which would pit the big pharmaceutical companies against Nelson Mandela and the rainbow nation. Bob Howard talks to Bada Pharasi, a former negotiator at South Africa’s department of health.

SANDTON, SOUTH AFRICA - JUNE 17: HIV/AIDS activists demonstrate in front of the American consulate on June 17, 2010. Credit: Photo by John Moore/Getty Images.

In 1971, Aziz BineBine – a junior officer in the Moroccan army – was ordered to take part in a military exercise. Unbeknown to him, the attack on King Hassan’s summer palace near Casablanca was in fact a coup attempt. The coup failed – and Aziz, who had never fired a shot, was accused of being part of the plot. He found himself publicly disowned by his father, a devout Islam scholar and close associate of the King. Sentenced to 10 years in jail, Aziz was soon transferred to the dungeon of a secret prison in the Atlas mountains - Tazmamart. It was what Aziz describes as hell; his cell, furnished only with a concrete bench, was dark and dank, liable to flooding by blocked sewers, shared with scorpions and cockroaches, searing in summer and freezing in winter. Many of his fellow prisoners perished. Aziz was to remain at Tazmamart for 18 years. But he found astonishing inner resources to survive this hell. Even before entering Tazmamart, he had made an act of complete, unconditional surrender to God, which enabled him to live one day at a time and forget everything else, even any desire to regain his freedom. Aziz tells the story of his captivity and the faith that sustained him in conversation with John McCarthy, who himself experienced a long imprisonment as a British hostage in Lebanon in the 1980s. Both men were eventually released in 1991.

(Photo: The prison of Tazmamart, a former barracks in the eastern Middle Atlas mountains 60km from the city of Errachidia, Morocco. Credit:: Abdelhak Senna/AFP/Getty Images)

In 2011 Egyptians took to the streets calling for the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak, whose regime had been in power for nearly 30 years. Their uprising was part of a wave of pro-democracy protests in the Arab world aimed at ending autocratic rule. Women were at the forefront of protests in Cairo's Tahrir Square, many taking part in political demonstrations for the first time in their lives. Student activist Hend Nafea tells Farhana Haider she was campaigning not only for freedom, dignity and social justice, but also for her rights as a woman. Photo: Hend Nafea protesting in Tahrir Square in January 2011. (Copyright Hend Nafea)

In March 1960, the South African police opened fire on a crowd of demonstrators in the township of Sharpeville, killing 69 people and injuring nearly 200 more. The massacre outraged black South Africans, leading to a radicalisation of anti-apartheid organisations such as the ANC and a ruthless crackdown on dissent by the whites-only government. Simon Watts hears the memories of Nyakane Tsolo, who organised the demonstration in Sharpeville, and Ian Berry, a photographer whose pictures of the killings caused an international outcry.

PHOTO: The crowd fleeing from the police at Sharpeville in 1960 (Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images)

The Ghanaian president, Kwame Nkrumah, was one of Africa's most famous independence leaders. But in 1966, while he was out of the country, the Ghanaian military and police seized power in a coup. The legendary Ghanaian film maker Chris Hesse worked closely with Nkrumah and was with him at the time. He spoke to Alex Last about his memories of the coup and his friendship with the man who'd led Ghana to independence.

Photo: Kwame Nkrumah c 1955 (Getty Images)

In December 2010, anti-government protests broke out in Tunisia after a young fruit-seller called Mohammed Bouazizi set himself alight outside a government office in the south of the country. At one of the huge rallies in Tunis, a young singer called Emel Mathlouthi sang a song called "Kelmti Horra" or "My Word is Free". A video of her passionate performance immediately went viral and inspired protestors to take to the streets in other parts of the Middle East in what became known as the Arab Spring. Emel Mathlouthi talks to Witness History.

PHOTO: Emel Mathlouthi performing in 2012 (Getty Images)

In the early months of 2011 demonstrators took to the streets across the Arab world in what became known as the Arab spring. In February, protests in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi soon turned into an armed revolt seeking to overthrow the dictator, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. Six months later, following fierce fighting, Libyan rebel forces swept into the capital, Tripoli. After more than 42 years the Libyan leader was forced from power. He was later captured and killed. Farhana Haider has been speaking to BBC Arabic correspondent Feras Kilani, who was detained and beaten while covering the uprising.

Photo: Libyan anti-Gaddafi protesters wave their old national flag as they stand atop an abandoned army tank in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi on February 28, 2011.(Credit PATRICK BAZ/AFP via Getty Images)

A wave of popular anti-government uprisings swept through the Arab world in the early months of 2011. Many of the activists who took to the streets were inspired by social media posts. Israa Abd el Fattah was one of the first Egyptian activists to use social media. In April 2008 she tried to organise a general strike in protest at low wages, and rising prices. She was given the nickname "Facebook Girl". In 2011 she used her experiences with Facebook to help mobilise people before the Egypt's Arab Spring uprising. She spoke to Zeinab Dabaa for Witness History in 2017. She has since been detained by the Egyptian authorities.

Photo: Israa Abd El Fattah in her office in Cairo in 2011. Credit: Khaled Desouki/AFP/Getty Images

When Dr Henry Chakava became Kenya's first African book editor in 1972, there were virtually no books or educational material published in African languages, even in Kiswahili. He made it his priority to translate work by African authors into African languages, he also commissioned original work in several of Kenya's many languages, and published hundreds of textbooks. A champion of cultural diversity across East Africa, Dr Chakava tells Rebecca Kesby why he devoted his life to preserving and enriching the region's languages, and why he believes even more must be done to make sure they survive and thrive in the future.

(Photo: Dr Henry Chakava. From his private collection)

In July 1970, one of the largest dams in the world - the Aswan High Dam in Egypt - was completed. It had taken ten years to build, and was not without controversy. Louise Hidalgo brings us voices from the archives and from one man who was there, Professor Herman Bell, about the cost of the dam to the region's people and its antiquities.

This programme is a rebroadcast.

(Photo: The Aswan High Dam under construction in southern Egypt in the 1960s. Credit: AFP)

On December 18th 1979 hundreds of Namibian children were taken to East Germany to escape the war in their home country. But after communism in Europe collapsed in 1989 the children were sent back to Africa and an uncertain future. Johannes Dell has been speaking to Selma Kamati who was just four years old when she found herself experiencing a snowy East German Christmas.

Photo: Selma Kamati (far right of picture) and some of the of the other Namibian children.

When Chief Albert Luthuli won the Nobel Peace Prize he was living under a banning order in rural South Africa. He won the prize for advocating peaceful opposition to the Apartheid regime. His daughter Albertina spoke to Rob Walker for Witness History in 2010. Also listen to archive recordings of his acceptance speech.

(Picture: Albert Luthuli receives the Nobel Peace Prize in 1961. Credit: Keystone/Hulton Archive)

In Ethiopia, a political battle has sparked a bloody conflict.

Federal Forces have engaged in combat with the Tigray People’s Liberation Front - or TPLF.

Hundreds have reportedly been killed and tens of thousands displaced.

Just last year, Abiy Ahmed, the Ethiopian Prime Minister, won a Nobel Prize for his part in brokering peace with neighbouring Eritrea.

So, Charmaine Cozier asks why Ethiopia’s Nobel Peace Prize winner is bombing his own country?

In May 1991, the brutal Ethiopian dictator, Colonel Mengistu and his miltary regime were on the verge of collapse after years of civil war. The end came when a Tigrayan-led rebel movement advanced on the capital Addis Ababa and took power. They would rule for Ethiopia for decades. In 2014, we spoke to an American diplomat who witnessed the end of Ethiopia's civil war. Photo: EPRDF rebels in Addis Ababa, 28 May, 1991.

Photo: Rebels in Addis Ababa (BBC)