South African trackers are trying to find a lion that is on the loose outside the capital, Pretoria.

It has been spotted near a popular hiking trail about 30km (19 miles) west of the city on the way to Hartbeespoort Dam.

Arthur Crewe from the Strategic Response Unit, a security firm, said the search for the big cat began on Wednesday near the Hennops Hiking Trail.

Technology such as drones was being used to track down the animal that had been sighted a couple of times, he told South Africa’s TimesLive.

He told News24 that he was also hoping for helicopter assitance.

Mr Crewe urged the public not to panic, saying the animal was unlikely to attack as it was in a bushy area.

“There is no major threat to any homes or the public in the area it is in now,” TimesLive quoted him as saying.

It is not clear from where the lion escaped.

A report that the lion had killed a donkey turned out not to be true as that animal had been hit by a vehicle.

Image source, @jidesanwoolu

The governor of Nigeria's Lagos state, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has called for people to come forward and donate blood as medics treat those wounded in a collision between a train and bus earlier on Thursday.

“It is still a critical period for some of the patients as we continue to call for blood donations across different state government medical facilities,” Mr Sanwo-Olu said in a series of tweets about the accident, external.

He said that 85 passengers were on board the bus carrying civil servants to work when it was hit by a commuter train during rush hour on Thursday morning in the Ikeja area of the city.

The governor confirmed that six people had died and said 29 people were in a critical condition, another 42 people had moderate injuries and a further eight had mild wounds.

He thanked the emergency workers and others involved in the rescue operation and also the staff and students at Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (Lasuth), where those injured are being treated.

The crash happened at a railway crossing with no barrier.

“This was a totally avoidable incident that simply required patience and the need to follow proper transportation protocol,” said the governor, who is seeking re-election next week.

An overview of the media in Cameroon, including links to newspapers and broadcasters

Patience Atuhaire
BBC News, Kampala

Image source, AFP

A bill has been tabled in Uganda's parliament that would criminalise anyone identifying as LGBTQ+. If passed, they would face jail terms of up to 10 years, as would those engaging in same-sex relations.

The law would ban the funding or promotion of LGBTQ+ activities and jail landlords who rented premises to members of the LGBTQ+ community.

The bill will be scrutinised by a parliamentary committee before it is tabled before the house again for debate.

There has been rising anti-gay sentiment in Uganda and neighbouring countries in recent weeks.

Activists are concerned that this could lead to mob attacks on anyone suspected to be gay.

In 2014, the country’s constitutional court nullified the anti-homosexuality act, which had toughened laws against the LGBTQ+ community.

It included making it illegal to promote and fund LGBTQ+ groups and activities, as well as reiterating that same-sex relations should be punished by life imprisonment.

The court ruled that the legislation be revoked on the basis that it had been passed by parliament without the required quorum.

The punishment of life imprisonment for same-sex relations already exists in the country’s penal code.

Same-sex relations are banned in about 30 African countries.

The campaign group, Human Rights Watch, said it believed that if the proposed law is passed, Uganda would be the only African country to criminalise those who simply identify as LGBTQ+.

Read more: Ugandan bill threatens jail for saying you're gay

Provides an overview of Cameroon, including key dates and facts about this west African country.

Ike Ekweremadu allegedly thought it was "far better to buy" a kidney than ask a relative to donate.

BBC World Service

The coast guard in Tunisia says that 14 people from sub-Saharan Africa have drowned off the coast of the city of Sfax.

It said it reached the scene late on Wednesday after their boat had sunk, and rescued 54 people.

It's not clear whether the people had been living in Tunisia itself, where black African immigrants have recently suffered a wave of racism prompted by remarks from President Kais Saied.

Ameyu Etana
BBC Afaan Oromoo

Image source, AFP

Amnesty International has called on the authorities in Ethiopia to immediately lift restrictions on several social media networks that began a month ago.

The blocked sites include Facebook, Messenger, TikTok, Telegram and YouTube. It is not a complete internet shutdown.

No official reason has been given for blocking them, though it happened following a split in the popular Orthodox Church, which raised tensions in the deeply religious country.

At the time each side had planned rival rallies as a show of strength – but the demonstrations were banned and the stand-off appears to have eased since then.

Social media content creators in Ethiopia have complained that traffic is down, though some people have been using virtual private network (VPN) software to access the sites.

Demand for VPNs in Ethiopia over the last month peaked at one point by 3,651%, according to London-based VPN research firm TOP10VPN.

Flavia Mwangovya, Amnesty’s deputy regional director for east and southern Africa, has urged the authorities “to lift this blockade without delay and to end this culture of interfering with people's right to express themselves and to seek and receive information”.

Internet shutdowns have been a common tactic used by the government.

Some areas of the northern region of Tigray, where a brutal two-year conflict came to an end in November, remain without access to the internet.

Government supporters say internet shutdowns are intended to curb the spread of false and inflammatory messages, and to ease tensions.

Matt Taylor
BBC Weather

Having formed to the north-west of Australia more than 30 days ago, storm Freddy is still going and could end up in the record books for the longest-lasting tropical storm on record.

The World Meteorological Organization is currently analysing the weather system to see if its longevity is indeed record-breaking.

Over the past week or so it has bounced between southern Mozambique and coastal Madagascar.

However, it is now strengthening again and its last act is to head back to Mozambique, as a cyclone once more, with wind gusts in excess of 160km/h (99.4mph) and a coastal storm surge.

Expected to make landfall on the coast of central Mozambique late on Friday, as winds gradually ease, flooding will become the major hazard.

Between 30cm and 50cm (11.8in and 19.8in) of rain could fall in central Mozambique and southern Malawi over the weekend, with devastating floods possible over a large area.

Into next week, impactful rain will also occur over parts of Zimbabwe and southern Zambia.

This however, could be the last act of this long-lasting storm.

Mayeni Jones
BBC News, Lagos

Six people have been confirmed dead after a bus and a train collided in the Nigerian city of Lagos.

Seventy-one people were injured, 29 of them critically.

The accident happened on Thursday morning during rush hour and both vehicles were carrying commuters.

You can see how far the train dragged the bus in my tweet from the scene of the crash in Ikeja:

The coach was taking civil servants to work while the train was shuttling commuters from the outskirts of Lagos into the city.

At the site of the crash, the wreckage has been cleared but shards of glass and blood can still be seen.

Cars have started driving across the tracks once more.

The BBC spoke to angry bystanders who complained about the lack of a barrier separating the tracks from the road.

They said it was the second accident like this in a year.

The injured have been moved to a nearby hospital and the bodies of those killed are now in a mortuary.

The governor of Lagos has declared three days of mourning and a half work day on Friday. Flags will also fly at half-mast.

Pumza Fihlani
BBC News, Johannesburg

The case against a retired teacher who is wanted for sexual assault accusations in the UK and South Africa has been postponed until 19 May for further investigations.

The 76-year-old made a brief appearance in the Wynberg Magistrates' Court in Cape Town on Thursday.

Wearing a dark grey suit, he looked frail and used a cane to help him walk.

He is accused of molesting a pupil in South Africa nearly 40 years ago. The retired teacher has yet to enter a plea since his arrest in December when this allegation against him was made.

He has been referred to in the South African media as “Mr P”, following a court order that he cannot be named.

Mr P is also wanted in the UK in connection with at least 42 charges of sexual abuse by former pupils of two prestigious boys' schools in the UK between 1970 and 1990, allegations he has denied.

In 2018, UK authorities wrote to South Africa’s justice ministry to request that he be extradited to face the charges.

Mr P, who lives in an upmarket retirement village in Cape Town’s Rondebosch suburb, is fighting the extradition.

According to his court papers, the accusations by UK prosecutors are “too broad, vague… and embarrassing”.

Another reason for the delay in the extradition process has been a question of jurisdiction.

Local courts need to determine if South Africa and the UK are still bound by an extradition treaty, which was in place when the UK was still part of the European Union.

Mr P has argued that the treaty lapsed after Brexit. South Africa’s prosecutors are trying to get the courts to review the argument on jurisdiction.

The retired teacher was arrested after a pupil, identified as “Luke” - which is not his real name - reported the alleged abuse to Cape Town police after a BBC documentary aired in South Africa.

The pupil alleged that when Mr P was a teacher in Cape Town he repeatedly sexually molested him.

The Newsroom
BBC World Service

Image source, Getty Images

Tunisia's President Kais Saied has announced that municipal councils elected in 2018 are to be dissolved and replaced by what he called special delegations.

The councils were seen as one of the democratic gains achieved in Tunisia after the uprising in 2011 that overthrew the autocratic regime of Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali.

The councils are dominated by what are now the main opposition parties to Mr Saied, who is increasingly imposing what his critics say is one-man rule.

He said the new councils would also be elected, but under new rules that he will write.

More on this topic:

• Democrats, despots and the fight for power

An overview of the media in Cape Verde, as well as links to broadcasters and newspapers.

Image source, AFP

Kenya's Trade Minister Moses Kuria has said the dollar shortage in the country is beyond the government's control.

Mr Kuria told MPs that the shortage was a global issue but also blamed Kenya's culture of importing things that can be manufactured locally.

"You cannot be crying that we have problems with dollars when we are importing everything," he said.

He called for incentives to encourage local manufacturers and protect them from foreign competitors.

The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) has directed commercial banks to ration dollars following a shortage of the currency, local media outlets report.

Analysts have blamed the CBK for the dollar crisis, saying the regulator introduced tough rules in the interbank currency market.

But the regulator has repeatedly maintained that Kenya has sufficient foreign currency reserves to meet demand.

The Kenyan shilling has lost 9% against the dollar in over a year, pushing up the cost of living.

Meet Mauritania's 'Meharists', a camel-riding police unit combating jihadist groups in the Sahel.

The Newsroom
BBC World Service

Image source, AFP

The governor of North Kivu province in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo says at least 36 villagers have been killed in an attack by a rebel group.

Carly Nzanzu Kasivita posted on social media that the village of Mukondi had been burnt to the ground by the ADF, which allies itself with Islamists but seems more intent on exploiting the region's mineral riches.

He called for more troops to be deployed to neighbouring villages south of the city of Beni to prevent further attacks.

Andrew Gift
BBC Pidgin, Lagos

Image source, Nema

A dramatic collision between a passenger bus and train in the neighbourhood of Ikeja in the Nigeria’s city of Lagos has left three people dead.

Rescuers helped another 84 people from the wreckage on Thursday morning.

Image source, Nema

Image source, Nema

Ibrahim Farinloye from the National Emergency Management Agency (Nema) said a train coming into Lagos from Abeokuta ploughed into the bus carrying state government staff as it tried to get over the railway crossing.

Crowds gathered during the rescue operation, trying to help.

The wrecked coach has now been loaded on to a lorry to be towed away.

Image source, Nema

BBC Monitoring
The world through its media

Image source, EPA

Kenya’s Trade Minister Moses Kuria has said that a Chinese-run retail business in the capital, Nairobi, “is a middle-class conspiracy”.

He told a parliamentary committee on Wednesday that the China Square shop does not benefit low income earners who are the majority contributors to the economy.

Mr Kuria said he had no intention to frustrate investors from China, but was preventing “the country from becoming the dumping ground for sub-standard goods”.

China Square resumed operations on 6 March after it closed its doors for two weeks amid inspections by Kenya’s Anti-Counterfeit Authority.

"I cannot frustrate investors but some people are dumping [fake products] on us," said Mr Kuria.

He added that plans were under way to establish a “Kenya Square”, which would rival the Chinese business accused of undercutting prices that have affected small traders.

More on this story:

• China Square: The cheap Chinese shop at the centre of Kenya row

Image source, Getty Images

Kenya has imposed an indefinite ban on milk powder imports to cushion local processors and farmers from surplus production and low prices in anticipation of the long rains.

The rainy season is expected to improve fodder production and significantly boost local milk production - hence reducing the need for imports.

The Kenya Dairy Board said it would continue to monitor the production and demand dynamics of the commodity before lifting the ban.

The board has also suspended the issuance of import permits.

Although the move may earn farmers higher prices, it is likely to raise the price of milk powder.

The ban is seen to go against the East Africa Community (EAC) free-trade agreements on free movement of goods and services and the common market.

Uganda and Rwanda are the two leading African countries from which Kenya imports dairy products.

An unprecedented long drought in the region has resulted in the current high milk prices.

Casualties are feared after a collision between a train and a passenger bus in Nigeria's commercial hub of Lagos, local reports say.

The accident reportedly happened at a railway crossing in Ikeja area on the mainland of Lagos

Eyewitnesses have told the BBC that the bus was dragged for a distance by the train.

Footage and photos on social media show a huge crowd around the scene and passengers with bloodied faces.

The number of casualties is unclear but the bus was carrying Lagos state government workers, reports add.

This is a breaking story and details will follow.