Cameroon's Sebastien Bassong describes former Tottenham team-mate Gareth Bale as 'a hell of a player' and recalls the moment the Welshman caught Samuel Eto'o's eye.

BBC World Service

The annual inflation rate in Egypt has hit its highest level for five years as food prices continue to soar.

The country's statistics agency said the rate had risen to more than 21% in December, almost 3% higher than in the previous month.

Rising prices have followed a currency devaluation in October and restrictions on imports.

The government has instructed ministries to cut non-essential spending until the end of the current fiscal year in June.

Omar Wally
Journalist, The Gambia

Image source, BBC/Omar Wally

Thousands of mourners have attended a highly emotional state funeral in The Gambia for leading opposition activist Ebrima Solo Sandeng - nearly seven years after he was tortured to death by intelligence agents from former President Yahya Jammeh's regime.

His wife Nyima Sonko sobbed as she walked behind the van carrying his body from the mortuary to the Arch 22 monument in the capital, Banjul, where Solo lay in state until his burial.

She was accompanied by their nine children and grandchildren, in a poignant reminder of the suffering that the family - and many other people, experienced during the authoritarian rule of Mr Jammeh.

Solo's youngest child was two-years-old when he died.

Solo is hailed by many as The Gambia's Steve Biko, a reference to South Africa's renowned anti-apartheid activist who died in detention in 1977.

His body was wrapped in a mattress and buried in a detention facility after he was tortured to death about 48 hours after his arrest in April 2016.

A senior member of the opposition United Democratic Party, Solo was arrested after spearheading a peaceful protest calling for electoral reforms.

The protest was seen as a catalyst for the changes that swept through The Gambia, with Mr Jammeh defeated in elections in the same year and forced into exile.

The entire cabinet - except for President Adama Barrow - attended the funeral.

A group of activists staged a protest, carrying placards that read "Martyrs never die" and "Solo Sandeng lives".

They complain that the reforms Solo died for have not yet been implemented.

Gabon's Jaures Kombila can get into almost any position using his amazingly flexible body.

Mary Harper
Africa editor, BBC World Service

A suspected warlord from Sierra Leone has appeared in an appeals court in Finland accused of atrocities in Liberia's civil war.

A retrial was ordered after Gibril Massaquoi was acquitted by a lower court last year.

The trial will move to Liberia next month and then to Sierra Leone. Mr Massaquoi was arrested in Finland in 2020, accused of murder, rape and other war crimes.

He was a senior commander in the Revolutionary United Front, a Sierra Leonean rebel group that also fought in Liberia.

Hundreds of thousands of people were killed and mutilated in the Sierra Leonean and Liberian civil wars of the 1990s and early 2000s.

The US rapper had provoked criticism after shooting scenes in the country's presidential palace.

Image source, Airteamimages / Paul Buchroeder

Kenya Airways says it’s experiencing flight disruptions as a result of delays in getting parts for aircraft maintenance.

The airline’s chief executive Allan Kilavuka said the airline had found it difficult to get components required for some of its aircraft undergoing maintenance.

He said the airline could be forced to cut some flights should the challenges persist.

He blamed the Russia-Ukraine war for the problem, which he said had crippled the supply chain of Russian raw materials crucial in the aviation industry.

“The challenges have been occasioned by the Ukraine war crisis which has significantly crippled the Russian supply chain crucial to global aviation," he said.

"For example, 100% titanium used on Embraer and 35% titanium used on Boeing are sourced from Russia. With a limited inventory, airlines have had to look worldwide to find the parts they need."

Kenya Airways which is one of Africa's bigges airline, operates a fleet of Boeing and Embraer planes.

Mumbai Indians Cape Town and Paarl Royals meet in opener as cricket's latest franchise competition hopes for global appeal.

BBC Monitoring
The world through its media

The Djibouti authorities have signed a preliminary agreement with Hong Kong Aerospace Technology Group for the development of infrastructure for launching satellites and rockets in the Horn of Africa country.

Djibouti President Ismail Omar Guelleh presided over the signing of the accord, the website of state-owned Djibouti news agency ADI reported.

The project, which will cost around $1bn (£822m) and take five years to complete, will also involve the construction of a port and highway in the northern Obock Region.

Wayne Parnell will captain a franchise in the new SA20 competition - five years after turning his back on his national team.

Jose Tembe
BBC News, Maputo

Image source, South Africa Police / Twitter

Mozambican Interior Minister Arsénia Massingue has said that legal procedures were under way for the extradition of a suspected kidnap kingpin who was arrested on Saturday night in neighbouring South Africa.

Esmael Malude Ramos Nangy, 50, is wanted in his home country in connection to several kidnappings there in recent years.

He was arrested near South Africa's capital, Pretoria, following an international arrest warrant issued by the Mozambican authorities, the minister said.

She said work was under way on the extradition that “in due time may be revealed”.

Kidnapping for ransom is common in Mozambique's major cities and towns.

Kalkidan Yibeltal
BBC News, Addis Ababa

Newly appointed Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang has arrived in Ethiopia to kick off a weeklong tour to five African countries.

He was welcomed in the capital, Addis Ababa, on Tuesday morning by his Ethiopian counterpart Demeke Mekonnen.

Mr Qin, who until recently was ambassador to the US, became the foreign minister in late December.

He is expected to meet senior African Union officials during his trip in Ethiopia and visit the Chinese-funded headquarters for the continent’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Addis Ababa.

Mr Qin will thereafter proceed to Gabon, Angola, Benin and Egypt.

China is a major trading partner with African countries.

Image source, AFP

Amnesty International has urged the Algerian authorities to overturn death sentences against dozens of people over the lynching of man falsely accused of starting forest fires.

Amnesty said five of the 54 people who were convicted last November received their sentences in absentia, and included a woman.

A further 28 people were sentenced to between two and 10 years, while another 17 were acquitted over the lynching of Djamel Ben Ismail, who had gone to help fight the fires.

Locals falsely accused Ismail of starting fires himself and attacked him, torturing and burning him before taking his body to the village square.

On Monday, Amnesty said the cases were “marred by fair trial violations and torture claims” and least six people “were prosecuted due to their political affiliations”.

“By resorting to the death penalty in mass proceedings following unfair trials, the Algerian authorities not only reveal their utter disregard for human life, but also send a chilling message about how justice is delivered,” said Amnesty's regional head, Amna Guellali.

She urged the authorities to urgently overturn “these callous death sentences and convictions”.

The defendants are appealing against their convictions but the date of their appeal has yet to be fixed, the AFP news agency has quoted their lawyer as saying.

Image source, Getty Images

South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa is on Tuesday scheduled to convene a meeting of the National Coronavirus Command Council to discuss a new variant detected in the country this week.

The new Covid sub-variant, known as XBB.1.5, has also been recorded in the US and UK.

It is an offshoot of the globally-dominant Omicron Covid variant and is highly transmissible.

President Ramaphosa confirmed Tuesday's meeting to local journalists and urged South Africans not to panic.

"We are agile enough to want to have that meeting tomorrow, and thereafter there will be information that will be shared with the rest of the country," he told Eyewitness News, external on Monday.

"“Some people have said ‘are we going to have restrictions, the lockdown and all that?’ — far from that. We just need to be informed about what’s happening with this variant," he added, according to Business Day, external news site.

South Africa recorded over three million Covid-19 infections at the height of the pandemic - the highest number of confirmed cases by any African country.

Read more about the new Covid variant:

• What is known about new Covid variant XBB.1.5?

BBC Monitoring
The world through its media

Image source, AFP

Nigeria's Independent National Electoral Commission (Inec) has warned that the general elections could be cancelled if nothing is done to tackle insecurity in the country.

The elections are due to be held on 25 February.

Inec chairman Mahmood Yakubu said the commission was ensuring that election personnel, materials and process have the highest level of protection especially "given the current insecurity challenges in various parts the country".

He said if it was was not dealt with decisively, the insecurity "could ultimately culminate in the cancellation or postponement of elections in sufficient constituencies to hinder declaration of elections results and precipitate constitutional crisis".

"This must not be allowed to happen and shall not be allowed to happen," Mr Yakubu said.

He called for strengthening of security outfits to ensure the polls are held successfully across the country.

Local media have flagged 15 states likely to experience poll-related violence in the run-up to, during and after the elections.

Five south-eastern states, four north-western states, Lagos, Kano, Benue, Plateau, Taraba and Borno states were named as areas likely to witness election-related chaos.

Image source, Getty Images

American rapper Meek Mill has apologised after sparking an uproar in Ghana over a music video filmed in the country's presidential palace - also called Jubilee House.

Local media had reported that people were enraged over what they viewed as the "desecration" , externalof the presidency by Meek Mill and the security issues regarding the filming of a music video in such a high-profile building.

The video was reportedly first posted on Meek Mill's Instagram account on Sunday according to the news site GhanaWeb, external.

On Monday, the rapper tweeted an apology to Ghanaians and the presidency.

He said: "My apologies to the people if any disrespect... My apologies to the office also."

"We still gonna push to make the connection between black people in America and Africa... what I'm trying to do is more than a video and you should see coming soon!"

Several American celebrities have been in Ghana over the last few days as the country hosted the Black Star Line Festival last week, which featured big names musicians like Chance the Rapper, T-Pain and Erykah Badu.

Mary Harper
Africa editor, BBC World Service

Image source, AFP

Rwandan President Paul Kagame says his country will no longer offer refuge to people fleeing conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Decades of instability in the east of the country have forced scores of refugees across the border into Rwanda.

"This is not Rwanda's problem," said Mr Kagame, adding: "I am refusing that Rwanda should carry this burden."

The presidency has shared Mr Kagame's remarks in a tweet:

He said the rest of the world had completely missed the point when it came to eastern DR Congo.

The real threat to security - in his view - is what he describes as the remnants of Hutu extremist forces who tried to wipe out his Tutsi ethnic group in the 1994 genocide.

Rwanda is being accused of backing the M23 rebel group - which the country has always denied.

The rebel group has captured swathes of territory in recent months, sending tens of thousands of refugees across the border into Rwanda.

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The authorities continue to search for the more than 20 still being held after a weekend attack.

The WellBoring charity builds wells in schools in Africa to give people access to safe, clean water.