Patience Atuhaire
BBC News, Kampala

Image source, Getty Images

A prominent Christian cleric in Uganda has warned that extreme faith can sometimes lead to mistakes, and has urged religious leaders to believe in science.

Reverend Daniel Tokens Wejuli's comments came as Uganda grapples with an Ebola outbreak which has so far claimed 19 lives, including one in the capital, Kampala.

In the latest measure to curb the spread of the disease, President Yoweri Museveni ordered traditional healers and herbalists not to treat people who have Ebola-like systems.

In Uganda even highly religious people visit their traditional healers. For many, the two health systems back each other up - if one doesn’t work, the other might.

The reverend, who is in charge of Spirituality and Mindset Change at the Inter-religious Council of Uganda, told the BBC he agreed with Mr Museveni's directive.

"Cultural and religious practices can spread the disease - for instance, touching or mixing with people who are infected.

"You can pray for someone from a distance, or even remotely using technology. Religious leaders have a responsibility to protect their flock," he added.

Hajjat Aisha Rashid Lukwago, who runs Corporate Herbalist, one of the biggest herbal care establishments in the country, said she would comply with the directive.

"With herbal medicine there are things you cannot handle. We do not have enough research on Ebola and therefore can’t offer any solutions," she told the BBC.

Peter Mwai
BBC Reality Check

A widely shared video which alleges to show Ugandan paratroopers landing wrongly in a stadium during national celebrations is not from the East African country.

In the video, two paratroopers can be seen falling into the crowds while another rams into a mobile toilet.

Kenyans online have been using the video to make fun of Uganda’s armed forces.

This comes after Uganda President Yoweri Museveni’s son, Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba, posted on Twitter last week that it would take the Ugandan army two weeks to capture the Kenyan capital Nairobi.

Gen Kainerugaba was subsequently sacked as commander of the army's land forces.

Uganda’s army spokesperson has urged online users to ignore the paratrooper video “because it is fake”.

“A keen eye will see that the parachutes are not the ones that were used at Kololo ceremonial grounds… all our paratroopers had successful jumps,” he says.

The video is from Honduras and was taken during independence day celebrations last month.

About 40 paratroopers from the country’s air force took part in the show.

Media reports say it was very windy which would explain why they faced difficulties controlling the parachutes.

CNN published a video about the incident , externaland the paratroopers can be seen, although from a different angle.

There are other videos showing the failed landings posted online, including one where a paratrooper lands outside the stadium:

Zawadi Mudibo
BBC Africa business editor, Nairobi

Image source, Michael Khateli

Kenya's government has denied media reports that it has failed to meet its debt repayment obligations to China over the construction of a multi-billion dollar railway line from the capital Nairobi to the coastal city of Mombasa.

Business Daily reported that China had imposed a $10m (£8.9m) penalty after Kenya defaulted on repaying a $4.5bn loan for building the 472km (293 mile) line - Kenya's biggest infrastructure project since independence.

In a BBC interview, Kenya's Director General of Public Debt Management, Haron Sirima, dismissed the report as "ridiculous".

The government has not run up any arrears, he added.

French club Ajaccio sign Youcef Belaili on a free transfer after the Algeria international's deal at Brest was terminated.

Keisha Gitari
BBC Africa

Nigerian lawyer Patrick Fakoya, who rose to fame as a reality television star, has died at the age of 29.

Fakoya, popularly known by his stage name Rico Swavey, featured in the Big Brother Naija television series in 2018.

His management confirmed his death in a tweet on Thursday morning.

Rico Swavey had been involved in a road accident on Tuesday in the commercial capital, Lagos, and was hospitalised in a critical condition.

His former housemates and fans have been sharing their tributes on social media platforms.

The hashtag “PrayForRicoSwavey” was trending in the West African nation to raise funds for his treatment before news of his death was announced.

Ishaq Khalid
BBC News, Abuja

Image source, Getty Images

Nigeria's government has signed an agreement with US technology giant Microsoft to train five million people in digital technology.

Minister of Communication and Digital Economy Isa Ali Pantami said the agreement would boost "job creation and economic development".

Prof Pantami described the initiative as "amazing and also very huge".

He told the BBC it would start immediately, and run for five years.

The deal was signed on the sidelines of an IT exhibition in Dubai on Wednesday, with a Microsoft representative saying the company was willing to work with the Nigerian government to provide "economic opportunities" for young people.

Microsoft and the government have been in talks for more than a year about the project.

Nigeria is Africa’s most populous country and biggest economy.

It has a largely young population of more than 200 million. But unemployment is high and the education sector is struggling. The government says it is trying to make the economy digitally oriented.

Prof Pantami also said that Nigeria would continue to provide an "enabling environment" for Microsoft and other companies to operate in the country by ensuring that regulatory measures were "developmental and flexible".

Kalkidan Yibeltal
BBC News, Addis Ababa

Thousands of students in the northern Ethiopian region of Amhara have walked out of the national school-leaving exams that determine their entry to universities.

Over 12,000 high school students refused to sit the exams, according to official figures.

A statement by the education ministry has not provided any reason for their refusal but it comes as authorities introduce new measures to curb what they called a rampant epidemic of cheating.

Exam leaks have become common in recent years.

To limit the cheating, the government this year moved students - more than 500,000 in the first round alone - to different university campuses around the country. They were to be confined in the campuses for the exam period and prohibited from accessing mobile phones and the internet.

Amid the new measures, a student was killed and some security forces were injured when violence erupted after students tried to stage a walkout in Amhara.

Another student had died earlier when a bridge collapsed in a university campus in the country’s south.

The exams are not taking place in the war-torn region of Tigray, where the federal government has not provided education for two years.

Anne Soy
BBC News, Nairobi

Image source, Getty Images

“Traditional healers are forbidden from handling Ebola cases,” Uganda's President Yoweri declared in an address to the nation on Wednesday evening, in the latest effort to curb the spread of the disease.

Across much of Africa, the practice of traditional medicine, passed down generations through family lineage or apprenticeship, is widespread.

During outbreaks of deadly infectious diseases such as Ebola, they’ve proven to be a critical point of vulnerability.

In May 2014, the first confirmed case of Ebola in Sierra Leone was recorded.

Investigations led to a traditional healer, described as "well-known and widely respected", in Kenema in Eastern Province.

Patients from across the border in Guinea had sought her services. Soon, she became ill and died. Hundreds attended her funeral and burial ceremony.

The World Health Organization reported that local authorities later linked up to 365 Ebola deaths to that one burial.

Later in 2018, during an outbreak of the disease in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, clinics that provided a mixture of herbal and pharmaceutical medicine, called ‘tradi-moderne,’ were quickly identified as hotspots of infection.

They were staffed by healers who barely had a formal education, and who had no protective equipment.

But they fill a glaring gap in medical care, where hospitals are few and far between.

Rather than ban them, response teams trained and equipped the healers to safely identify and refer Ebola patients to specialised treatment centres.

Uganda’s health system is much more developed. There’s a sense of confidence among health officials that the current outbreak can be brought under control, as the country has during previous epidemics.

But experts meeting at a regional ministerial conference this week have urged them to be extra vigilant as every outbreak faces different challenges.

Uganda has reported 19 deaths from the current outbreak, including one in the capital Kampala.

Image source, AFP

Hundreds of Nigerians held demonstrations in the capital Abuja to protest against the “illegal” slaughter of donkeys by Chinese nationals, local media report.

They said the killing of donkeys had continued despite an order by the government to stop the menace.

The civil society groups that organised the protests accused the agriculture minister of allowing foreign nationals to engage in the donkey trade.

A bill to regulate the regulate donkey business is currently being considered in parliament.

Last month, Nigeria's customs service intercepted 7,000 donkey penises at an airport in the commercial hub, Lagos, that were headed to China.

Donkey parts are in demand in China for use in traditional medicine.

Abdi Dahir
BBC Monitoring, Nairobi

Image source, Somali Journalists Syndicate

Somalia's information ministry says the leader of the country's journalist union, Abdalle Ahmed Mumin, is “being held on security related charges”.

Mr Muumin was arrested on Tuesday after openly criticising new government restrictions on the reporting of militant Islamist group al-Shabab.

Journalists' unions and media freedom activists condemned the directive as restrictive.

In a statement, the ministry said the journalist’s arrest was not linked to his work, without providing details of the security related charges.

It added that the ministry was waiting to receive further information on his possible prosecution.

Somalia consistently ranks poorly on media freedom surveys due to threats against journalists by the government and militant groups.

BBC Great Lakes

Rwanda’s prominent opposition leader Victoire Ingabire reunited on Wednesday night with a son she last saw 12 years ago after the government blocked her from leaving the country.

Ms Ingabire said she was "extremely happy" to see her last-born, Rist Shimwa Muyizere, 19, who travelled from the Netherlands to visit her.

The opposition leader is an outspoken critic of President Paul Kagame and his ruling party.

She is not allowed to leave Rwanda without government permission. She says her requests to leave the country have been denied.

Ms Ingabire returned from exile in the Netherlands in 2010 to take part in presidential elections. She was arrested and barred from standing after being charged with threatening state security and "belittling" the 1994 genocide - charges she said were politically motivated.

She was found guilty and sentenced to 15 years in prison but was released in 2018 following a presidential pardon.

In January, the visiting son released a song in Dutch about missing his mother and his hope to see her again.

Ms Ingabire has tweeted a picture of her reunion with her son:

BBC Monitoring
The world through its media

Image source, EPA

Thirty African countries voted in favour of a UN resolution rejecting Moscow’s contentious referendums in four Ukrainian regions that it declared part of Russia.

Nineteen countries abstained, including Eritrea that had previously voted to reject a UN resolution condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Mali, the Central African Republic, Ethiopia, Congo-Brazzaville, South Africa, Sudan, Uganda and Zimbabwe also abstained.

Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea and Sao Tome were absent from the UN General Assembly during the vote.

Earlier this month, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba toured Africa to counter Russia’s apparent hold on the continent and persuade leaders to support Kyiv.

He cut the visit short after Russia intensified the bombardment of Ukraine.

Wildlife enthusiasts in South Africa have shared footage of a honey badger fighting off a mother leopard and her two cubs at Kruger National Park.

Outsized and outnumbered, the honey badger lived up to its reputation of being among the most fearless animals as it wrestled all the three leopards in turns before eventually "trotting off as though nothing had happened".

Field guide Dan Fiser and business consultant Paola Murguia shared the story with LatestSightings.com - a website that shares footages of wildlife sightings and experiences.

"The honey badger was fighting back, instead of trying to run away, actually turning the tables at times."

Concern is mounting in Sudan about a rise in so-called honour killings.

So far this year at least 11 young women have been killed by family members, more than double last year's total - though the real number is thought to be much higher, campaigners say.

In some cases women have been killed for using a smartphone, with a relative suspecting they were sending messages to a boyfriend. Relationships before marriage are illegal in Sudan.

The government's efforts to deal with the issue are being hampered by the ongoing instability in the country, particularly since the military coup last year.

Sulaima Ishaq Al Khalifa, the director general of the government's Combatting Violence Against Women unit, says fathers involved in the killings get light sentences because they are considered to be the breadwinners of their families.

She told the BBC Newsday programme that "honour killings" were not embedded within Sudan's society, but there was suspicion that religious extremism was behind the recent surge.

Rhoda Odhiambo
BBC Africa health reporter

Image source, Getty Images

African health ministers attending a high-level meeting following the Ebola outbreak in Uganda want two regional health bodies to set up an Africa Ebola co-ordination task force.

They said this would oversee preparedness and response to the current outbreak as well as other epidemics in the continent.

The latest Ebola outbreak has so far killed 19 people in Uganda, including four health workers. The virus has now spread to five districts.

Acting director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control, Ahmed Ogwell, says Africa needs to stop seeking international assistance, as it is on its own during pandemics.

“This is not the first outbreak of the Sudan strain of Ebola virus here in Africa and particularly here in Uganda,” he told the gathering in the Ugandan capital, Kampala

“As Africa, we must now do things differently, appreciating that for the most time we will be on our own. Knowing that we are on our own, though, needs to motivate us so that we can do things on our own but not alone,” he added.

Plans are under way to test two vaccines in a small group of people who had contact with Ebola patients.

The Africa CDC says the continent is dealing with 11 different public health outbreaks. They are monkeypox, cholera, flooding, influenza, lassa fever, measles, yellow fever, hepatitis E, and the Crimean - Congo haemorrhagic fever.

Patience Atuhaire
BBC News, Kampala

Image source, Getty Images

Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni has directed traditional healers to stop treating people during the ongoing Ebola outbreak that has so far killed 19 people in the country.

The president also directed security officials to arrest people suspected of having contracted the virus if they refuse to go into isolation.

In a televised address to the nation, during which he switched to the widely spoken Luganda language to address them directly, he told traditional healers and herbalists not to treat people suspected to be infected with the viral haemorrhagic disease.

It follows the death of a 45-year-old-man who was listed by health teams as having been exposed to the Ebola virus.

The man, who died in a hospital in the capital, Kampala, had fled his village in Mubende district, the outbreak’s epicentre.

He sought treatment from a traditional healer elsewhere before turning up at the Kampala hospital and died hours after being admitted there, authorities said.

Some of the man’s family members have been put under quarantine, while others have gone into hiding. The president urged them to report to health facilities.

Although Mr Museveni said there were currently no confirmed cases of Ebola in Kampala, he warned the public to continue being vigilant, assuring that health workers would bring the outbreak under control.

It has been almost a month since Uganda confirmed the outbreak of the Sudan strain of Ebola, which has now spread to five districts.

There have been 54 confirmed cases so far. Some 20 people, including five medical workers, have recovered.

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