Samba Cyuzuzo
BBC Great Lakes

Burundi authorities have banned citizens from going to Serbia even when they have a passport and visa.

Hundreds of Burundians have recently been stranded at airports in Turkey and Qatar after the authorities there asked them to produce Serbian visas, some have told the BBC.

Burundi and Serbia signed a visa-free agreement in June which has led to thousands of Burundians buying air tickets to Serbia. Once in the non-European Union nation many travelled west, mainly to Belgium.

On Sunday, Burundi's interior ministry said nearly 200 citizens were being repatriated home.

“Burundians with ordinary passports and visas are prohibited from departing to Serbia from Bujumbura airport, also through neighbouring countries," the ministry said on Twitter, external.

One Burundi woman without a visa to Serbia is stranded in Turkey with her two children aged three and one.

“It’s been more than a week here. I used about 30 million francs (about $15,000; £13,250).

“Many sold all their properties hoping to get a life in Europe. Where do we go once back?” she told the BBC.

The Burundian authorities have discouraged people from using all their resources to raise money to travel to Europe. It has urged for investment in "self-development activities in Burundi”.

But some say the migration will continue "even more" if the government "does not create jobs and give opportunity to all regardless their political affiliation or tribe", a Twitter user responded.

Samba Cyuzuzo
BBC Great Lakes

At least 23,000 people have fled their homes since Thursday following fresh clashes in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo between government soldiers and the M23 rebels, the UN says.

Among those displaced recently, about 2,500 people have fled to neighbouring Uganda, the UN’s humanitarian affairs agency said.

In total more than 390,000 have been displaced in Congo's Rutshuru area since March.

The AFP news agency reports that the M23 rebels took Ntamugenga village, around 15km (nine miles) from Rutshuru town, during Sunday clashes.

A statement from the army said it “controls the situation on all the fronts”. It added that four civilians were killed and 40 others including children were injured in the clashes.

Each side accuses the other of starting the fighting on Thursday.

The army accused Rwandan forces of invading DR Congo “disguised as M23 rebels”. Rwanda has continuously denied supporting the rebels.

Kenya's Independent Police Oversight Authority (Ipoa) says it has launched investigations into the the killing of prominent Pakistani journalist Arshad Sharif.

Local media outlets reported that Mr Sharif's killing by police was a case of mistaken identity.

The Ipoa, a civilian body, was formed to monitor the work of the police.

Its head, Ann Makori, has told journalists in the capital, Nairobi, that a rapid response team has been sent to investigate the killing of the journalist.

The Citizen TV has tweeted a clip of Ms Makori's remarks:

Emmanuel Igunza
BBC News, Nairobi

Image source, Getty Images

At least nine people are confirmed dead following a jihadist attack on a hotel in southern Somalia.

Nearly 50 have been injured, with authorities warning that the death toll may rise.

Three attackers were killed by the security forces after they rampaged through the hotel in Kismayo, shooting people at random. The fourth died when he blew up his car at the entrance to the hotel.

The al Qaeda-linked al-Shabab militant group has said it carried out the attack.

Kismayo had been relatively peaceful since the jihadis were driven out in 2012.

Federal troops backed by African Union-backed forces and local clan militia have in recent weeks retaken huge territories from al-Shabab, but the group remains deadly.

Image source, AFP

Ethiopia’s warring parties are set to start talks on Monday in a bid to find an end to a brutal civil war that has been raging for two years.

The talks are sponsored by the African Union and will see representatives from the government and rebel forces from the besieged northern region of Tigray meet in South Africa.

Violence returned to the region in August, shattering a five-month truce.

Fighting has escalated in Tigray with government troops and their Eritrean allies controlling key areas deep in the region.

The war has had devastating impacts with tens of thousands believed to have been killed, while millions have been left without food and access to basic services.

War crimes have been alleged and atrocities reported.

Tigrayan forces said their delegation had arrived in South Africa and their priorities include immediate cessation of hostilities, resumption of humanitarian aid and the withdrawal of Eritrean troops - something echoed by the international community.

The government said it’s committed to peace but vowed to continue with an offensive to control airports in the region.

The talks initially might not address all the details - but they sure have ignited hope for a long-suffering country.

Beverly Ochieng
BBC Monitoring

Police in Kenya have confirmed the shooting of renowned Pakistani journalist Arshad Sharif on Sunday night in Kajiado county, which neighbours the capital Nairobi.

Police spokesperson Bruno Shioso says they are investigating the circumstances behind Mr Sharif’s death.

Local media say he was shot at a roadblock on the Nairobi-Magadi highway in a case of mistaken identity.

Mr Sharif's wife Javeria Siddique tweeted on Monday that she had " lost [a] friend, husband and my favourite journalist”.

Mr Sharif’s reporting on alleged corruption and his criticism of Pakistani officials frequently led him to run-ins with the authorities.

At the time of his death, Mr Sharif was said to be working on an investigative report that featured journalists from various parts of the world looking into claims of state-sponsored criminal cartels that implicated senior Pakistani officials.

Pakistani police had also filed sedition cases against Mr Sharif over a contentious interview with an opposition activist.

Pakistan President Arif Alvi said, external "Arshad Sharif’s death Is a great loss to journalism and Pakistan. May his soul rest in peace and may his family, which includes his followers, have the strength to bear this loss".

Patience Atuhaire
BBC News, Kampala

Image source, Getty Images

Nine more people have tested positive for the Ebola virus at Uganda’s national referral hospital Mulago in the capital Kampala.

This brings the number of positive cases at the facility’s isolation unit to 14.

Health Minister Dr Jane Ruth Aceng has said that the positive cases are contacts of an individual from Kassanda, one of the most affected districts, who recently died at Mulago hospital.

Seven of the new positive cases are from one family. The others are a health worker and his wife.

The health worker is from a local clinic in an area just outside the city, where he treated one of the now-positive cases.

There is growing concern that the outbreak could get out of hand as more cases continue to be reported in the capital.

There is an ongoing quarantine in the two most affected districts of Mubende and Kassanda, but cases have continued to rise.

Last week, officials inspected health facilities in Kampala and Entebbe region to check on their readiness to handle Ebola cases.

It has been over a month since an outbreak of the Sudan strain of Ebola was first reported in Uganda’s central region, in a rural part of Mubende district.

Official figures show there are currently 75 positive Ebola cases in the country, 28 of whom have died. These are only confirmed cases, and do not include figures for probable cases or deaths.

Read more:

• What is Ebola and why is Uganda's outbreak so serious?
• Why Ebola keeps coming back

Vumani Mkhize
BBC Africa Business

Image source, AFP

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has addressed the nation detailing the steps his government will be taking in implementing a commission's report on state capture.

The six-part report sought to uncover corruption, fraud and the weakening of state institutions under the administration of former president Jacob Zuma.

State capture describes a form of corruption in which businesses and politicians conspire to influence a country's decision-making process to advance their own interests.

In a bold admission, President Ramaphosa accepted the findings by the commission of inquiry led by Judge Raymond Zondo that state capture did happen.

He announced that the commission made over 300 recommendations, some of which the government was responding to ranging from criminal prosecutions of accused persons, legislative changes, as well the establishment of an anti-corruption commission.

President Ramaphosa however was thin on detailing how his government would be implementing the commissions findings. No mention was made of members of his cabinet implicated in the report.

The corruption and fraud uncovered by the state capture report is estimated to have cost the country over $27bn (£24bn).

Mr Ramaphosa said the stolen money robbed South Africans of their future.

Emmanuel Igunza
BBC News, Nairobi

Image source, AFP

Four Kenyan policemen accused of being behind a spate of murders, abductions and torture across the country are set to go on trial on Monday in the capital, Nairobi.

They were part of an elite squad that was disbanded by President William Ruto for allegedly carrying out extrajudicial killings and disappearances of suspects over several years.

Among their alleged latest victims were two Indian nationals who went missing in July and whose remains were discovered last week in a forest in central Kenya.

The members of the now disbanded Special Services Unit face multiple charges including murder, abuse of office and conspiracy to commit felonies.

The unit was disbanded after the president received a police report on the disappearance of the two Indian nationals.

Zulfiqar Ahmad Khan and Mohamed Zaid Sami Kidwai were in Kenya to help the electoral campaign of Mr Ruto, but they went missing together with their local driver Nicodemus Mwania soon after being picked up by police in Nairobi.

Human Rights groups say their independent investigations have linked the squad and other police units to the death of more than 600 people over the past four years.

Some of the bodies were later recovered in rivers in western and northern Kenya.

A coalition of international and local NGOs is now calling on the government to prosecute the rogue officers, and to compensate the victims of police excesses.

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At the 1999 Comrades ultramarathon, South Africa’s most gruelling road race, runner Nick Bester and his teammates notice something suspicious, as they run the 90km race from Pietermaritzburg to Durban.

Nick speaks to Craig Boardman about his experience in the race including winning it in 1991. However, it was a bizarre twist in 1999s race that stands out for him.

(Photo: Starting line at the 1999 Comrades ultramarathon in Pietermaritzburg. Credit: The Comrades Marathon Association)

Think Sahara Desert, think intense heat and drought. We see the Sahara as an unrelenting, frazzling, white place. But geo-archaeologist Dr Judith Bunbury says in the not so distant past, the region looked more like a safari park.

In the more recent New Kingdom of Ancient Egypt, from around 3.5 thousand years ago (the time of some of Egypt’s most famous kings like Ahmose I, Thutmose III, Akhenaten, Tutankhamun and queens like Hatshepsut) evidence from core samples shows evidence of rainfall, huge lakes, springs, trees, birds, hares and even gazelle, very different from today.

By combining geology with archaeology, Dr Bunbury, from the department of Earth Sciences at the University of Cambridge and Senior Tutor at St Edmund’s College, tells Jim Al-Khalili that evidence of how people adapted to their ever-changing landscape is buried in the mud, dust and sedimentary samples beneath these ancient sites, waiting to be discovered.

With an augur (like a large apple corer), Judith and her team take core samples (every ten metre sample in Egypt reveals approximately 10,000 years of the past) and then read the historical story backwards. A model of the topography, the environment, the climate and the adapting human settlements can then be built up to enrich the historical record.

The core samples contain chipped stones which can be linked directly to the famous monuments and statues in the Valley of the Kings. There are splinters of amethyst from precious stone workshops, tell-tale rubbish dumped in surrounding water as well as pottery fragments which can be reliably time-stamped to the fashion-conscious consumers in the reign of individual Pharaohs.

The geo-archaeological research by Judith and her team, has helped to demonstrate that the building of the temples at Karnak near Luxor, added to by each of the Pharaohs, was completely dependent on the mighty Nile, a river which, over millennia, has wriggled and writhed, creating new land on one bank as it consumes land on another. Buildings and monuments were adapted and extended as the river constantly changed course.

And Judith hopes the detailed, long-range climate records and models we already have, can be enriched with this more detailed history of people, their settlements and their activities within a changing landscape and this will contribute to our ability to tackle climate change.

Producer: Fiona Hill

Will there ever be equality in machine learning technology or will our cultural biases continue to be reflected in algorithms? Dr. Sandra Wachter from the Oxford Internet Institute argues in her latest research that data bias is unavoidable because of the current bias within western culture. How we now try and negate that bias in AI is critical if we are ever to ensure that this technology meets current legislation like EU non-discrimination law. She’s on the programme to discuss how we make real progress in AI equality.

This research has come from the Oxford Internet Institute, whose Incoming Director is also on the show – Professor Victoria Nash tells us of her plans in the new role.

EdTech in Malawi A programme which allows seven year olds to have three lessons a week on ipads in Malawi is narrowing the learning gap between girls and boys. With an average class size of around 60 pupils with one teacher, young girls are often left behind and drop out of formal education, but with this individual approach many more are staying on in school. The programme is so successful it is now being rolled out to hundreds of schools, with the hope of going nationwide. Director for Education, Youth and Sports Lucia Chidalengwa of Education, Youth and Sports in Malawi’s Ntcheu district explains why this approach is so successful.

Online learning via your games console With COVID cases rising in many countries and some regions even facing a third wave of the pandemic, many children around the world will continue to learn remotely – but what if there is no computer or laptop for them to use at home? How about converting a games console into an online school workstation? Reporter Chris Berrow shows you how to do it by powering up his games console and getting online to learn.

(Image: Getty images:)

The programme is presented by Gareth Mitchell with expert commentary from Bill Thompson.

Studio Manager: Giles Aspen Producers: Emil Petrie and Ania Lichtarowicz

South Africa is now grappling with a highly transmissible new strain of Covid-19 that is causing international concern. Stephen Sackur interviews Professor Barry Schoub, virologist and Chair of the South African Government’s Advisory Committee on Covid-19 vaccines. What does the country’s Covid crisis mean for the worldwide effort to end the pandemic?

(Photo: Professor Barry Schoub appears via video link on Hardtalk)

Stephen Sackur speaks to Ethiopia’s Attorney General, Gedion Timothewos. Ethiopia’s federal armed forces have launched the final phase of their assault on Tigrayan rebels in the north of the country. International observers have voiced deep concern about possibly devastating humanitarian consequences. This after many hundreds have already been killed, and tens of thousands have been forced to flee three weeks of fighting. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed pledged to bring the country together - why has it gone so horribly wrong?

(Photo: Gedion Timothewos appears via videolink on Hardtalk)

Anna Della Subin takes a journey with a man once worshipped as a living god.

Anna Della has been writing a book about people inadvertently turned into gods, and in this bewitching talk she describes a journey across Morocco with one of them. She discusses what prompts people to regard others as gods, and what it might tell us about our society.

Producer: Giles Edwards

Boko Haram is ranked as one of the world’s deadliest terrorist groups. It’s shock tactics include the mass kidnapping of schoolgirls and the use of female suicide bombers. In the city of Maiduguri in North East Nigeria Stacey Dooley meets Falmata. She was kidnapped by Boko Haram at the age of 13, forced to marry three times and finally strapped to a suicide belt and sent out on a bombing mission. Astonishingly Falmata managed to escape to tell her painful story. But not all women in Boko have been forced to join. Some are there through choice. Ammabua believed in Boko Haram’s ideology. She volunteered for a suicide-bombing mission, which she thought would send her to paradise. Fate intervened and she survived. Now separated from Boko Haram, she is trying to reintegrate into a society of people she was once willing to kill.

April 1916. By the Nile, the foremost poets of the Middle East are arguing about Shakespeare. In 2004, Egyptian singer Essam Karika released his urban song Oh Romeo.

Reflecting on his travels and encounters around the Arab world, Islam Issa, from Birmingham City University, discusses how canonical English writers (Shakespeare and Milton) creep into the popular culture of the region today. Recorded with an audience at Sage Gateshead as part of BBC Radio 3's Free Thinking Festival.

Islam’s Issa's book, Milton in the Arab-Muslim World, won the Milton Society of America’s ‘Outstanding First Book’ award. His exhibition Stories of Sacrifice won the Muslim News Awards ‘Excellence in Community Relations’ prize.

New Generation Thinkers is a scheme run by BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to select ten academics each year who can turn their research into radio

Producer: Fiona McLean

Zoe Norridge reports from Rwanda as the country prepares for the 20th anniversary of genocide. Over 100 days, beginning in April 1994, up to a million people were massacred in one of the worst atrocities of the 20th century.

Rwanda, a country described as a "tropical Switzerland in the heart of Africa", experienced an extraordinarily vicious genocide as Tutsis were attacked by Hutus - two groups who shared not only the same land but also the same language and similar traditions.

How does a country set about healing such trauma and what has been the role of memory and culture in the reconstruction of Rwanda?

Zoe Norridge visits several of the worst massacre sites in this small land to find out how the killings are marked and how their presence helps shape the public memory of genocide. She reports from unremarkable country hillsides whose names - like Nyarubuye and Murambi - have taken on a terrible resonance.

She talks to survivors about their stories and about how they cope with their memories. She talks to politicians, film makers, writers and to those who have helped provide a lasting memory of genocide in Rwanda. Zoe Norridge explores the role of memory and memorialisation in post genocide Rwanda, a remarkable and tragic story with significance for us all.

First broadcast in March 2014.