Lion Tsigab
BBC Tigrinya

Image source, Aron Weldegebreal

Residents of a town in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region are still searching for missing bodies after heavy rain and flooding killed at least 10 people last week.

Residents of Selekleka town, in north-west Tigray, say the search is continuing amid fears that the death toll could rise.

Teame Woldegebriel, a resident of the town, told the BBC that the 10 bodies recovered had already been buried.

He said the town had been swamped and “many people” swept away in the 26 June incident.

“[The flood] destroyed shops at the market site. Everyone there was also swept away by the floods. There are others whose bodies haven’t been found,’’ Mr Teame said.

Other residents told the BBC that the heavy floods had destroyed homes, markets and crops.

Guesh Aregay said he was the only one to have survived out of the dozens of people who were at the Selekleka market during the flooding incident.

“We were 25 people together. I’m the only survivor, the rest were swept away by the flood. Two mothers who were here in the market were swept away with their children.

He said though he had survived, he lost 80,000 birr ($1,530; £1,280).

“Now I don’t have anything, I’m just on an empty stomach,” he said.

Tadelech Gela told the BBC that her home was swamped while she was in and had lost all her belongings. She said was rescued by nearby forces but now had nothing to eat.

The residents say many of them had been displaced from their homes but there was no-one who had come to offer help.

Tigray authorities have not responded to the BBC’s queries on the matter.

Lion Tsigab
BBC Tigrinya

A pregnant mother is among eight people who have been wounded in the airstrike in Mekelle - the main city in Tigray in northern Ethiopia, local hospital officials have told BBC Tigrinya.

The director of emergency services at the city's Ayder Hospital said that five of them - including the woman who is in the ninth month of pregnancy - were being treated at his hospital.

He said the other three were admitted to Mekelle Hospital.

A central committee member of the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), Prof Kindeya Geberehiwot, said the airstrike took place at around 10:25 local time in the centre of the city.

"It's near Mekelle Hospital. People are trying to control the blaze," he told BBC Tigrinya.

The Ethiopian National Defence Force's Col Getnet Adane declined to comment, when contacted by BBC Tigrinya.

Mekelle has a population of more than 500,000.

The compound of a well-known company - Mesfin Industrial Engineering PLC - was hit by the airstrike, sources in the city told BBC Tigrinya.

Two warehouses - including one which stocked tyres - went up in flames, and were reduced to ashes, the sources said.

Image source, AC

The UN said three children were killed in air strikes on the city on Monday.

The Ethiopian air force said Monday's strikes had targeted communication infrastructure used by the TPLF.

Lion Tsigab
BBC Tigrinya

Image source, Reuters

A senior member of the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) has defended his decision to sign a peace pact with the Ethiopian government aimed at ending the devastating war in the northern Tigray region.

Getachew Reda's comments came after heavy criticism of the deal he signed with the federal government in South Africa's capital, Pretoria, on 2 November, following talks brokered by the African Union (AU).

In a statement at the weekend, the TPLF's top leadership body, the central committee, said it did not send "any representative to South Africa to sign a peace agreement, nor is there any TPLF army”.

Many TPLF leaders felt that Mr Getachew should have signed the deal on behalf of the Tigray regional government, but Mr Getcahew said the federal government had refused to agree to this.

"We didn’t want to reject the peace and aid needed by the people of Tigray because they didn’t accept our name," he said.

"They said: 'We don’t know the government of Tigray. We will call you TPLF.’ We need peace. In this regard the African Union and others know that we have been arguing to be called as the government of Tigray because we have been elected by the people. But the [Ethiopian] law doesn't recognise us," he added.

Some Tigrayans have welcomed the deal, but others, at home and abroad, have accused TPLF leaders of selling out the community.

TPLF negotiators also agreed to the disarmament of Tigrayan forces, and giving the Ethiopian military control over security in the region, despite the fact that it has been accused of committing atrocities against civilians.

Critics of the deal are outraged, saying the TPLF had no authority to disarm fighters who are in the Tigray Defence Forces, which they see as an "army" and "a public institution that protects the people of Tigray".

Eritrean troops entered Tigray early in the conflict to fight Tigrayan forces, and have also been accused of committing widespread atrocities. They have not yet withdrawn.

The TPLF was re-elected as the Tigray regional government in September 2020. But it held the poll in defiance of the federal government, which refused to recognise its rule over the region.

The dispute contributed to the outbreak of a war that has left hundreds of thousands dead, and millions in need of aid as the federal government enforced a blockade in the region.

The agreement also provides for unhindered aid deliveries to Tigray, but Mr Getcahew acknowledged that this was not yet happening.

"We are waiting. What can we do?"

Continued fighting has also been reported in western Tigray around Tselemti.

Western Tigray was seized by forces from the neighbouring Amhara region early in the war, and they have not withdrawn from the area.

Lion Tsigab
BBC Tigrinya

Image source, AC

Ethiopia’s air force has carried out drone attacks in two places in Mekelle, the capital of the Tigray region, witnesses say.

The attacks appear to be part of the year-long conflict between the federal government and rebel forces from Tigray.

The first drone strike hit at 09:00 local time in a residential neighbourhood known as Diaspora.

Witnesses who spoke to the BBC said the attack had damaged homes.

One resident described how his home had been destroyed.

“We’re civilians and there is no military place around, but the shell fell on my home,” he said.

“When the bombardment happened, I was with my family on the ground floor. We are alive, but my possessions, which I have gathered over 27 years, were utterly destroyed by the attack.”

Another resident told the BBC: ”God saved my life. I lost my belongings, but that doesn’t matter, I can buy them with money.”

BBC Tigrinya has seen video and pictures from sources in Mekelle which show damaged homes.

Witnesses said a second strike hit the city at around 12:30 local time.

When asked to comment, federal government spokesman Legesse Tulu told the BBC that he had no information on the latest assault.

Mekelle has been hit from the air several times since last month.

Twelve other Britons were rescued after a fire on a boat which was on a cruise in the Egyptian Red Sea.

Three British tourists are missing after a fire on board a boat during a cruise in the Egyptian Red Sea.

The crew members are receiving medical treatment after the accident while filming in Morocco.

Some of those key to boosting agricultural output in Africa's most-populous nation have given up.

Dragos Tigau made a racist comment at a meeting in April but has only now been disciplined.

Mollie Perella
BBC World Service Newsroom

Image source, AFP

Sixteen southern white rhinos have been released in the Democratic Republic of Congo in an attempt to reintroduce the endangered species.

They were transported from a private reserve in South Africa to the Garamba national park in north-eastern DR Congo.

The area's last northern white rhino was killed in 2006. One official said efforts to save the species had been "too little, too late", and described the southern white rhino as its closest genetic alternative.

Conflict and poaching in the DR Congo has caused wildlife populations to plummet.

Richard Hamilton
BBC World Service Newsroom

Image source, AFP

Police in Nigeria say they've detained the governor of the country's Central Bank during an investigation.

On Friday, Nigeria's new president, Bola Tinubu, announced that he had suspended the governor, Godwin Emefiele, with immediate effect amid planned reforms in the financial sector.

At his inauguration last week, President Tinubu criticised Mr Emefiele's monetary policies and his handling of the Nigerian currency.

The naira has weakened progressively under Mr Emefiele's leadership.

Operations have been handed over to the bank's deputy governor.

People in the capital city buy food and medicine as warring generals agree a brief ceasefire.

The passengers narrowly escaped with their lives when the Carlton Queen capsized.

Police say they ended a six-hour siege at the site in Mogadishu, killing all seven attackers.

A father describes narrowly escaping with his life when the boat he and his son were on capsized.

Members of Oxford's Sudanese community continue to fight for evacuations to get loved ones home.

That's all from the BBC Africa Live team for now. We'll be back on Monday morning at bbc.com/africalive.

Until then we leave you with an automated feed. You can also can follow the latest news at BBCAfrica.com and catch up with the new BBC Focus on Africa podcast.

A reminder of Friday's wise words:

Click here to send us your African proverbs.

We leave you with this photo from a South African protest by Extinction Rebellion calling for an end to oil exploration - it's one of our favourite shots of the past week:

Image source, AFP

DJ Edu
Presenter of This Is Africa on BBC World Service

Image source, Twins Photography

Bobo Wê is an award-winning rapper and singer from Benin whose love of music started when he learned drumming in church:

Drumming is a direct influence in Bobo Wê's sound today – he calls his blend of traditional and contemporary music "gangan trap":

Bobo Wê's breakthrough hit was La Rue, released in 2020. The song is about gang warfare and how groups of young men in Cotonou challenge each other to fights to prove their strength and influence:

In other songs Bobo Wê talks about jealousy (Jalousie) which he says is rife in Benin, with people wanting to trip up and bring down those they see succeeding, and injustice (Injustice), especially the gulf between the rich and the poor:

You can hear Bobo Wê on This is Africa this Saturday, on BBC World Service radio and partner stations across Africa, as well as online here: BBCworldservice.com/thisisafrica

Simon Ponsford
BBC World Service News

Suspected Islamist militants have killed at least 10 people in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Local reports say they used axes and machetes to attack civilians in their homes in Bukokoma village, Nord Kivu province, on Thursday evening.

The attackers are thought to be from the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a militia linked to the Islamic State group.

Eastern DR Congo is a hotbed for rival militia who've been blamed for attacks that have killed thousands of people.

A similar attack last week in Beni territory left at least nine dead.

Wazir Khamsin
BBC World Service News

The UN mission in South Sudan says at least 13 people have been killed in inter-communal fighting at a camp in the northern part of the country.

The clashes between two ethnic communities in Malakal began on Thursday after a man was stabbed to death.

More than 20 people were injured with some needing hospital treatment.

The Malakal camp - which was set up at the start of the civil war in 2013 - is home to at least 50,000 people.