Two Kenyan airport workers and a police officer have won praise after returning a bag carrying about $19,000 (£17,000) and other valuables to a British tourist.

Benson Nickolson was in a group that had just returned from a safari at Maasai Mara game reserve when he lost the bag at Wilson airport in the capital, Nairobi.

The airport workers and policewoman found the bag and screened it for explosives before the owner was contacted.

"All the money totalling to around $19,000 and some thousands of Kenya shillings were all intact. All my cards were found intact. All other valuables which included a regalia given to me by my late grandmother was also intact. It was a daydream for me," Mr Nickolson said in a gratitude email, external to Kenyan police.

He said he had carried the substantial amount to facilitate his group's movement and comfort.

The airport's security supervisor, Joseph Kabangi, told the local Citizen TV that "integrity is a core value" among staff at the airport.

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Image source, AFP

President Félix Tshisekedi has instructed the army chief to establish recruitment centres across the country in response to Rwandan “aggression” - a reference to claims that Kigali is militarily supporting the March 23 Movement (M23) rebel movement in DR Congo's eastern Nord-Kivu province.

Mr Tshisekedi made the remarks in a national address on Thursday.

He said he was responding to the appeal by the Congolese youth who “have been expressing their desire to protect the territorial integrity” against threats by “some neighbouring countries”.

He urged them to "organise themselves into vigilance groups" to support the army.

The president added that diplomatic efforts to ease tensions with Rwanda had failed.

He repeatedly accused Rwanda of backing the M23 rebels, who have been involved in a series of clashes with the Congolese army since May.

Rwanda has denied supporting the rebels.

Charles Gitonga
BBC Africa business reporter, Nairobi

Image source, Getty Images

Pilots at Kenya’s national airline, Kenya Airways, will go strike this Saturday, union officials have announced.

The action comes days after the expiry of a two-week’s strike notice issued by the pilots’ union, who are demanding that the airline resumes contributions to their retirement fund.

The Kenya Airline Pilots Association (Kalpa) says their members will not report for duty at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi from Saturday 06:00 local time.

It's the largest airport in the country and the fourth busiest in Africa.

“Kenya Airways Management’s actions have left us with no other option,” reads the statement signed by union by general secretary Murithi Nyagah.

The union’s 14-day strike notice expired on Wednesday, but operations at the airline remained uninterrupted on Thursday.

Kenya Airways officials are yet to respond to the escalation of calls for a strike.

Earlier in the week, the company said it was unable to resume contributions to the pilots’ provident fund until 2023.

Drought-stricken Kenya has donated a planeload of relief supplies to neighbouring Somalia.

The donation has been met with an uproar on social media as more than a quarter of Kenyans living in arid and semi-arid areas are facing high levels of food insecurity, according to UN data.

The consignment included assorted food items and various assorted drugs, according to a statement by Kenya's military.

It said the relief aid was in response to last week's bombings in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, that left 120 people dead.

“We feel the pain that our brothers and sisters in Somalia are feeling and we are grateful to President William Ruto for this initiative which will help alleviate the suffering of our neighbours,” said Colonel Victor Kang’ethe.

Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua had on Thursday appealed to Kenyans to donate food to their starving fellow citizens, according to local media outlets.

“No Kenyan should die from hunger when other Kenyans have surplus food,” he is quoted as saying.

On Twitter, John Ndungu asked: "How do you send a plane full of foodstuffs to Somalia yet your own people are dying of hunger? Make it make sense."

Maurice Onyango posed: "Who said we have more than enough to give?"

A fourth season of failed rains is causing one of the worst droughts East Africa has seen in decades.

Image source, AFP

Equatorial Guinea's President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, who has ruled the West African country for 43 years, launched his bid for a sixth term on Thursday.

Mr Obiang, 80, seized power in 1979 from President Francisco Macias Nguema, who was the leader at independence and whose rule prompted a mass exodus and thousands of deaths.

The general elections are scheduled for 20 November.

The president told a rally that his party had chosen him to run "because I am the symbol of peace that reigns in Equatorial Guinea", the AFP news agency reports.

AFP adds that the country has 425,000 registered voters out of a population of around 1.4 million.

Read more:

• The African presidents grooming their sons for power
• Find out more about Equatorial Guinea

Image source, AFP

The French parliament suspended its session on Thursday after a far-right MP shouted "they should go back to Africa" as a black member spoke on immigration.

Grégoire de Fournas, a member of the National Rally (RN), later apologised and said his remark had not been aimed at Carlos Marten Bilongo himself but at migrants trying to reach Europe by sea.

But Mr Bilongo, who was born in France, condemned the remark as shameful.

The Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said there was "no room for racism" in France.

Read the full story here.

Chris Ewokor
BBC News, Abuja

Image source, AFP

Police in Nigeria have arrested seven men over allegations that they assaulted and tortured a 40-year-old woman in the south-eastern state of Enugu.

In a police complaint, a legal aid activist said the group raided the woman's house after accusing her of going into a "sacred forest" to hunt for and harvest snails.

At least 10 men are said to have raided the house where the woman had been living with her four children and an aged mother.

They later stripped the woman and forced her to walk in the town while beating her with sticks and rods.

The woman was later rescued and taken to hospital but is reported to be seriously ill.

She and her assailants belong to the same Agunese Affam-Mmaku community.

Our proverb of the day:

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A selection of the best photos from across Africa and beyond this week.

Huge concessions have been made by Tigray leaders to end a two-year conflict in northern Ethiopia.

That's all from the BBC Africa Live team for now. We'll leave you with an automated service until our team returns on Friday morning.

Until then you can find the latest updates on the BBC News website, or listen to our podcasts Africa Today and The Comb.

A reminder of our wise words of the day:

Click here to send us your African proverbs.

And we leave you with this picture of a farmer in Egypt gathering the date harvest:

Image source, Reuters

Ameyu Etana
BBC Afaan Oromoo

Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) rebels, who are fighting Ethiopian federal government forces, kidnapped an unknown number of officials from the western town of Mendi earlier this week, according to a local official and residents.

Residents of the town, which is located more than 500km (310 miles) from the capital, Addis Ababa, told the BBC that the rebels seized control of Mendi after intense fighting.

At least three banks were reportedly robbed and government offices ransacked, according to residents who talked to the BBC on the condition of anonymity.

"There is no transportation, shops are closed and residents are inside their house," one person said.

"No government office was left, all are damaged,’’ another resident added.

A rebel commander confirmed to the BBC they had kidnapped local officials but did not say how many.

The OLA, which had made an alliance with northern Tigrayan forces that have just signed a truce with the government, have been accused of targeting local officials and minorities in the restive region of Oromia, which they always deny.

Ahmed Rouaba
BBC News

A banknote issued by the Central Bank of Algeria has caused a stir in the French media and angered politicians in France.

The 2,000 dinar banknote ($14, £12) was issued to commemorate the Arab League Summit held in Algeria on 1 and 2 November.

But the problem for the French is that it features the amount written in Arabic and English.

This all comes amid concern that English is being preferred over French.

In July Algeria's President Abdelmadjid Tebboune announced that the former French colony would start teaching English in addition to French in primary schools.

Although French has not been on Algerian banknotes since 1964, the use of English was seen by many French politicians and commentators as a "disregard" of their language.

French opposition leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon blamed France's President Emmanuel Macron for the "omission" of French from the banknote.

He tweeted: "It is an Algerian banknote. The common language is no more there. Sad. Macron... [has] failed in everything everywhere."

Commentators on radio and TV programmes described the move as a political message from the Algerian authorities.

Algeria gained independence from France in 1962 after 132 years of French colonisation.

Read more on this story:

• How English is becoming a popular option in Algeria

Jose Tembe
BBC News, Maputo

At least 13 women die every day in Mozambique from causes related to pregnancy and childbirth, Health Minister Armindo Tiago has said.

He added that he was greatly concerned by these high numbers despite some improvements in recent years.

Among the causes of death are haemorrhaging before, during and after childbirth, complications from unsafe abortions and HIV, Dr Tiago told health professionals at a meeting called to try and find solutions to the high mortality rates.

The situation causes other problems. For example, children whose mothers die during childbirth have only a 50% chance of surviving their first year.

“In our country, despite the remarkable progress in reducing under-five mortality... Neonatal mortality is still a challenge."

Former international John Paintsil is confident Ghana coach Otto Addo can make the side competitive at the World Cup in Qatar.

Image source, Getty Images

The UK has agreed to open negotiations with Mauritius over the future of the Chagos Islands, a British territory in the Indian Ocean since 1814.

Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said he wanted to "resolve all outstanding issues" over the archipelago.

The effective operation of the joint UK-US military base on Diego Garcia would be guaranteed, he added.

Chagossians have campaigned to return since more than 1,000 people were forced to leave in the 1960s and 1970s.

Diego Garcia is the largest of the 60 small islands of the Chagos archipelago. After the military base was established in 1966, the island's inhabitants were expelled.

Mauritius, which won independence from the UK in 1968, maintains the islands are its own and Chagossians have fought for their return in the British courts.

The United Nations' highest court, the International Court of Justice in The Hague, has ruled that the UK's administration of the territory is "unlawful" and must end.

But until now the UK has resisted international pressure to begin talks about the islands.

Read more on this story.

BBC Focus on Africa radio

Image source, Reuters

There is a sense of hope and optimism in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, after a cessation of hostilities agreement was signed to halt the civil war in the country's Tigray region, the BBC's Kalkidan Yibeltal reports.

The reaction of the people in Tigray itself is however difficult to gauge as the communications blackout persists.

One of the aid agencies working in Tigray has told BBC Focus on Africa that it was "very happy" with the deal signed on Wednesday in Pretoria, South Africa,

"There is hope that this agreement translates into the improvement of the situation for the people on the ground, so people can get food, clean water and the supplies that they need," Alyona Synenko, from the International Committee of the Red Cross, said.

Millions of people in Tigray need urgent assistance after two years of living through an armed conflict.

Nichola Mandil
BBC News, Juba

Over one million people have been affected by flooding caused by torrential rains across South Sudan, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha), says.

Ocha said the ongoing flood response by its aid partners was being hampered by renewed violence, insecurity and inaccessibility due to impassable roads.

Damaged infrastructure such as broken bridges and flooded airstrips have worsened the situation, along with a lack of funds.

An alert has been raised amid media reports that Uganda may open dams upstream on the White Nile river to relieve pressure there. If this water is released it is likely to worsen the situation in South Sudan, Ocha added.

The Relief and Rehabilitation Commission, a government humanitarian agency, has deployed assessment teams to flood-affected areas across the country to gather more information about the disaster caused by flooding.

Image source, EPA

More than 50 journalists have lost their lives reporting in Somalia in the last decade - the most recent fatality happened on Saturday in a bomb blast. The BBC's Bella Sheegow reflects on life there as a reporter.

Working in Mogadishu was one of the most difficult things I have done in my whole life. It was like living in constant fear while trying to do your job.

As a journalist it is your job to tell the truth but sometimes that is very difficult as you are in danger from different sides and that makes you feel very unsafe. You think at the back of your mind: “Who's going to be angry about this? How is this going to affect me?”

And sometimes you ask yourself: “Is this the last thing that I’m going to do?”

For me that is the kind of experience that I have been through.

There were a couple of times that I felt that my life was in danger because of the stories that I have done. The most recent one was in 2021 when I was working on a story about a female spy who was killed.

Some of the government officials got angry and were not happy with the things that we were saying. That really put my life in danger and I remember at night I used to wake up and think about the woman who died – she was like me, she was a working woman and she died because of what she was doing. And that could have happened to me too.

We have the militant group al-Shabab – they don’t like us – they kill journalists whenever they see them.

And we have the government on the other side – they only like you when you say the good things that they do and start hating you when you start telling the truth. Like when you hold them accountable, they don’t like that. And they’re dangerous too.

And we have the community and the people. It’s very tricky because they’ve been through a lot and they don’t trust anyone. So nobody likes you somehow and you are in danger so it’s very difficult.

I recently lost a good friend of mine who was also a great journalist. Mohamed Isse Koonaa had done an amazing job while he was working in Mogadishu and his stories had changed a lot of people’s lives.

It was only over the weekend when I received a call from someone telling me that Koonaa had died in a blast.

It was very difficult to hear something like that because we’ve been working together for a long time and I did not just see him as a journalist.

He was someone who changed lives. He was someone who was willing to do anything to do the job that he was doing to tell the truth and to make sure that the people in Somalia know what’s going on in their own country.

Koonaa was a father, son and amazing colleague and everyone who worked with him loved him, including me. Being very far away from him and hearing about his death like that made me feel very sad and a reminder that journalists in Somalia are in danger and things need to be changed.