Image source, GAVI

Following a year-long recruitment process, the global vaccine alliance (Gavi) has named a Nigerian former health minister as its next CEO.

Muhammad Ali Pate "stood out in a field of world-class candidates", said Gavi board chairman José Manuel Barroso.

Dr Pate himself said he was "deeply honoured" to be appointed. He takes up the post in August, leaving his role of professor of public health leadership at Harvard University in the US.

Gavi faced criticism during the pandemic over a lack of access to vaccines for the world's poorest people.

It co-leads the Covax coronavirus vaccine initiative, alongside the World Health Organization and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations.

A journalist given a controversial two-month jail term has been freed by sympathetic prison officers, according to a message shared on his Twitter page and by the Somali Journalists' Syndicate (SJS).

Abdalle Ahmed Mumin was arrested in Somalia in October following a government crackdown on information about the militant group al-Shabab.

Along with four other media advocacy groups, the SJS had called the sentence on security-related charges a "travesty of justice".

International rights groups, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, said Mr Mumin faced persecution for defending freedom of expression.

Reporters Without Borders has ranked Somalia 140th out of 180 countries for press freedom. Fifty journalists have been killed there since 2010.

Patricia Oyella
BBC News, Kampala

A Ugandan High Court has granted bail to two MPs arrested in 2021 in connection to a spate of killings using machetes in the central districts of Lwengo and Masaka.

The MPs, Muhammad Ssegirinya and Allan Ssewanyana, are linked to the opposition National Unity Platform led by Robert Kyagulanyi also known as Bobi Wine.

The two MPs appeared before the High Court in Masaka via video call from Kigo prison in Kampala where they are on remand.

Each man had been ordered to pay a cash bail of 20m Ugandan shillings ($5,400; £4,460), and their respective guarantors must deposit non-cash bail of $13,500. The two MPs were also asked to deposit their passports in court and report every month.

Along with seven others, they face charges of terrorism, aiding and abetting terrorism, and attempted murder.

They were granted bail in 2021, two weeks after they were charged but were quickly rearrested by security forces as they left Kigo prison where they had been remanded and fresh murder charges preferred against them.

Attempts by their lawyers in the past to secure their bail on grounds of it being a constitutional right, ill health, and delayed trial were previously denied.

Mr Ssegirinya’s mother, Justin Nakajjumba, shouted out her gratitude after the ruling outside the courtroom to those who had stood with her and the MPs during their detention.

Image source, AFP

All political terms in office in Gabon will now last five years, President Ali Bongo announced on Monday.

Until now, presidents officially served seven-year terms and senators served six-year terms.

But Mr Bongo, who has led the country since his father's death in 2009, has not made any statements regarding a new limit on the number of terms a president can serve.

As things stand presidents, MPs and senators can run for office as many times as they like, external, RFI explains.

President Bongo's announcement came during talks between the government and opposition, which were called to discuss election matters ahead of polls expected later this year.

More on Gabon:

• Why ex-French colonies are joining the Commonwealth
• Who is Ali Bongo, president of Gabon?

Presidential candidate Rabiu Kwankwaso says he is the best person to lead Nigeria.

Image source, Getty Images

If the latest forecasts from the World Bank prove true, Senegal's economy will grow more than any other African nation this year.

"After slowing to 4.8% in 2022, growth in Senegal is projected to jump to 8.0% in 2023 and firm to 10.5% in 2024," the body predicts, external.

That's because huge oil and gas fields have been discovered in the Atlantic Ocean off Senegal's coast, the first of which could start producing this year, according to Petroleum and Energies Minister Aïssatou Sophie Gladima.

Analysts also expect to see continued growth in Senegal's thriving banking sector, external, as well as in telecommunications and financial services, among others.

Tanzania has floated a locally built cargo and passenger ship in the Lake Victoria port of its north-western city of Mwanza.

The vessel, which the government says is the biggest in the Great Lakes region, is expected to improve transport between the East African countries that share the lake.

The ship has the capacity to carry 1,200 people and 400 tonnes of cargo and 20 vehicles.

It is being built for 109bn Tanzanian shillings ($46.6m; £38.6m) and is 82% complete.

Speaking at the event to land the ship ashore, Tanzania’s Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Works and Transport Gabriel Migire said the building of the ship was an initiative to help improve trade between the regions bordering the lake.

The government spokesman, Gerson Msigwa, shared images of the ship:

The Archbishop of Canterbury was speaking in Ghana after recent changes to the church's position.

Image source, HOUSE ON THE ROCK CHURCH

"Some people are looking for my trouble. And I came here prepared," joked Pastor Uche Aigbe on Sunday as he took to the pulpit brandishing an assault rifle.

Under Nigerian law, it's only legal to carry a gun if the Inspector General of Police grants you a licence.

It's not known whether the gun the pastor carried in the House on the Rock Church in Abuja belonged to him, or if the gun was loaded. The church has not responded to requests to comment.

"Today, there are some pastors with gift of divination who go about ripping people. This is why we should carry our 'guns' and defend ourselves. I will particularly be coming very soon for some of you sleeping in the church," he told the laughing congregation on Sunday.

Patience Atuhaire
BBC News, Kampala

Image source, Getty Images

The authorities in Uganda are calling for the criminalisation of LGBTQ organisations and their activities in the country.

A January report from the NGO Bureau, an official body which oversees the work of NGOs, calls for the amendment of the country’s laws to criminalise LGBTQ activities.

In the alternative it urges the enactment of a new law “that prohibits the promotion of LGBTQ activities in the country”.

It further says the government needs to provide more resources to the NGO Bureau so that it can “identify and weed out those that are involved in activities that are prejudicial to the interests of the people of Uganda”.

Gay relationships are illegal in Uganda, where they can be punished by up to life in prison for committing "unnatural offences".

The report is a result of a year-long investigation into activities of NGOs involved in sexual minorities’ rights work in Uganda.

The bureau says it received concerns regarding various organisations, but did not state the source of the concerns.

In total 26 NGOs were investigated but the probe is yet to conclude its work on many of them.

It says that Sexual Minorities Uganda, one of the most prominent LGBTQ organisations in the country, was neither officially registered as an NGO nor as a business.

The NGO Bureau ordered the closure of the organisation in August 2022, but the organisation has since filed a case at the East African Court of Justice contesting its closure.

Registration applications of at least three other organisations to the bureau were rejected due to their involvement in LGBTQ human rights work.

In recent weeks, several government officials and leaders in the country have been speaking out against the “promotion of gay activities” in the country.

Last week, Archbishop Stephen Kaziimba, the head of the Anglican Church of Uganda, spoke against the recent Church of England’s decision to bless same-sex marriages.

Archbishop Kaziimba said that homosexuality was a sin and that the Anglican church in Uganda would not endorse it.

There have also been renewed calls in parliament for a new anti-gay bill to be drafted and tabled for debate.

Uganda received global attention when it passed an anti-homosexuality law in 2013. It later annulled it in 2014 when a court ruled that it had been passed without the required quorum in parliament.

Read more:

• The Ugandan mum who was once ashamed of her gay son

A municipality in South Africa’s Mpumalanga province has suspended schooling and health services amid heavy floods.

The floods have damaged roads and homes, leaving many families in Nkomazi Municipality displaced.

It comes as the number of people missing and those believed to have been swept away by the floods in the municipality rose to six, the Sowetan news site reports.

The municipality on Thursday reportedly said that two people had died of drowning.

Images of some of the devastation caused by the flooding has been shared online:

Emmanuel Igunza
BBC News

Image source, Getty Images

Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki has accused the US of supporting Tigrayan rebels during the recently concluded civil war in northern Ethiopia.

In a Sunday interview with local media, the president claimed that the peace deal signed between Ethiopia and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) was rushed by the US to prevent the rebels from losing in the battlefield.

The peace deal signed in South Africa in November 2022 ended a two-year civil war that killed tens of thousands and left millions in dire need of humanitarian assistance.

In the interview, Mr Isaias also admitted for the first time that hundreds of thousands of people died in the conflict, though he did not elaborate on Eritrean casualties.

Last week, the reclusive leader denied reports that Eritrean troops committed war crimes in neighbouring Ethiopia where they had been deployed to fight alongside federal troops and pro government militia.

Kenyan rice farmers are worried for their harvests as huge flocks of quelea birds eat the crop.

Image source, AFP

One of Africa's most prestigious universities has banned those attending its graduation ceremony from carrying phones, cameras and video cameras.

Uganda's Makerere University will from Monday hold a five-day graduation ceremony at its Freedom Square. Faculties have been assigned different graduation dates across the week.

No reason was given for the banning of cameras at the graduation square, but other items prohibited from the ceremony include alcohol, cigarettes, canned foods and bottled drinks.

“A detailed list of prohibited items has been inserted in the graduation invitation package that is presented to the graduands and invited guests,” the head of ceremonies committee, Prof Patrick Mangeni, said.

A total of 13,221 students are scheduled to graduate, with each allowed to invite only two guests.

First Lady Janet Museveni, who is also the minister of basic education, is expected to attend the ceremony on Monday.

Image source, Reuters

Tunisia has arrested two former judges who were sacked by President Kais Saied last year, according to reports.

The police detained Bechir Akremi and Tayeb Rached, who were among the dozens of judges and members of the judiciary sacked in 2022, a lawyer close to the cases told the Reuters news agency.

The arrests of the ex-judges on Sunday came on the second day of a wave of detentions of prominent people, amid growing concerns over pollical freedoms in the country.

On Saturday, the police arrested prominent politicians and a politically connected businessman.

The arrests were reportedly based on suspicion of conspiracy against state security.

The president was accused of a power grab after shutting down parliament in 2021 before taking control of the judiciary and pushing through a new constitution that gave his office almost unlimited powers.

BBC World Service

At least 12 civilians have been killed in an attack in northern Burkina Faso, according to reports.

Locals in Kossi province, close to the border with Mali, told the French news agency that armed men on motorbikes stormed the village of Sanakadougou early on Friday.

Animals and goods were looted.

It is thought the assailants were members of the Islamist insurgency that has forced hundreds of thousands of people from their homes in Burkina Faso and in neighbouring Mali and Niger.

The military regimes in Burkina Faso and Mali have expelled the French troops who had been unsuccessfully fighting the Islamists and have invited Russian mercenaries in their stead.

Peter Jegwa
Lilongwe, Malawi

Image source, AFP

Malawi has dropped criminal charges against the head of the anti-corruption agency following pressure from the country’s main donors and local civil society groups

Martha Chizuma was facing charges of criminal defamation over a leaked audio in which she allegedly made remarks suggesting that a number of senior government officials and some judicial officers were hindering the fight against corruption.

In a statement over the weekend, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) said he discontinued the cases following a review and consultation with the attorney general.

"I decided to discontinue the criminal case against Ms Chizuma in line with the prescriptions of the constitution and other relevant laws,” Masauko Chamkakala said.

But Ms Chizuma's lawyer told Voice of America that the charges have not been formally dropped.

The alleged defamatory remarks are contained in a secretly recorded private conversation that Ms Chizuma had with a person not employed by her office.

The lawsuits saw her suspended from office before being reinstated to office last week by a high court.

The United States, the United Kingdom and European Union had all issued statements expressing “deep concern” over her suspension.

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