Rory Gallimore
BBC Word Service newsroom

Image source, Getty Images

Zambia has reached a deal to restructure more than $6bn (£4.7bn) of debt owed to other governments.

President Hakainde Hichilema said the agreement marked a significant milestone in the journey towards economic recovery.

But he said work was needed to continue on a separate deal with private creditors.

Zambia was the first country to default on its debt during the Covid pandemic. Most of the money is owed to China.

The agreement was announced at a global finance summit in Paris.

There were calls for an overhaul of the international finance system to help poorer countries and tackle climate change.

Favour Nunoo
BBC News, Accra

Image source, Nii Ayikwei Okine/Citinews

A group of protesters attempted to storm Ghana’s parliament on Thursday as they demanded the removal of taxes on sanitary pads.

Security officers stopped the protesters, who were clad in red and holding placards, and made them to gather at the entrance of parliament.

They were chanting “we want free periods, don't tax my pad" and their presence disrupted parliamentary activity for a while.

The group said the government should remove the 20% import tax and 12.5% Value Added Tax on sanitary pads which have made them too expensive for many people.

The high cost of sanitary pads, according to the campaigners, is causing absenteeism among girls in school and hygiene issues for the rural poor.

However, the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) has warned the government not to scrap the import taxes.

It cautions that removing the taxes on imported pads would make it harder for local manufacturers to compete.

The Ghana Revenue Authority says menstrual hygiene products are classified as finished goods and so are subject to import tax.

You may be interested in:

• 'I don't want anyone else to use rags for sanitary pads'

• Nigeria's economy: Why people are buying sanitary pads in packs of two
• Gloria Orwoba: Kenyan senator asked to leave over 'period stain'

Image source, Getty Images

South African authorities say they have been notified of the death of at least 31 suspected illegal miners, believed to be from Lesotho, at a disused mine in Free State.

South Africa’s department of mineral resources said in statement, external that it was informed by the Lesotho government about the deaths, on 18 May, in a mine ventilation shaft.

The mine in Welkom, Free State, was last operational in the 1990s, it said.

South Africa's mineral resources department says it has also been made aware that three bodies have been retrieved from the mine by other illegal miners.

It says it is doing its “utmost best” to act on this information and has been working with all relevant stakeholders, including previous owners of the mine, to retrieve the bodies.

It however says inspectors have assessed the situation and determined that the conditions there are too risky to send a team.

"[The] methane levels in the mine ventilation shaft 5 are very high. It is too risky to dispatch a search team to the shaft,” the department said.

Fatal incidents at old mines are not uncommon in South Africa, with illegal miners including migrants often risking their health and safety in abandoned shafts.

Our proverb of the day:

Click here to send us your African proverbs.

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

Kenya felt it was best to sign a bilateral trade deal, despite claims that it undermined regional unity.

On Saturday, voters in Sierra Leone will head to the polls to elect their next president.

The head of the USAID, Samantha Power has told the BBC they are working with local resistance committees in Sudan to get assistance to people in need.

That's all from the BBC Africa Live team for now. There will be an automated news feed here until Friday morning.

You can also follow the latest at BBCAfrica.com and listen to the new BBC Focus on Africa podcast for more on the big topics in the news.

A reminder of our wise words of the day:

Click here to send us your African proverbs.

And we leave you with this photo taken at an animal market in the northern Nigerian state of Kano, ahead of the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha, showing the proud owner of a four-horned ram:

Image source, AFP

Priya Sippy
BBC News

Image source, Chuku's/Instagram

Ifeyinwa Frederick, co-founder of Chuku’s - a Nigerian tapas restaurant in north London, has told the BBC it was surreal to have received an £8,000 ($10,000) grant from Beyoncé's foundation BeyGOOD.

She co-founded the restaurant with her brother Emeka in February 2020. However, with the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the business struggled to stay afloat and last November the siblings launched a social media campaign aiming to get 600 bookings between 1 November and 31 December 2022.

The money given to them this week by Beyoncé means they can stay afloat.

“I still can’t quite believe that Beyoncé has backed our restaurant. We’d already felt her impact when she was in town and concertgoers chose Chuku’s for their pre-gig meal, but this is a whole other level,” she said.

Emeka added that the grant "couldn’t be more welcome".

“Every day, we’re fighting to stay open to make it to our fourth birthday. This money will make that fight a little easier and allow us to continue celebrating Nigerian culture on Tottenham’s High Road for the time being.”

Ibrahim Abdelbaki
BBC Arabic, Sudan Lifeline radio

The head of a unit combating sexual violence against women in Sudan has told the BBC's Sudan Lifeline radio that it is estimated that only 2% of cases are being recorded.

Soulima Ishaq said her team had registered 36 cases in the capital, Khartoum, since the conflict began in April

“In Khartoum, different ages are targeted, ranging from 12 to 18. There are many stories that are too painful to be told. What hurts me most is the narratives related of the little girls - and of the mothers who suffer from sexual violence in front of their children,” she said.

The devastation of the war, being fought between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), is hard for people in Khartoum to understand.

City resident Abul-kareem Zakariah told the BBC his house had been demolished last week and his family now live in a tent in a make-shift camp set up on a street in eastern Khartoum.

“My house was hit by a Sudanese army-affiliated drone. I do not know the reason of the airstrike as I do not belong to the RSF and members of the RSF do not dwell in my house," he said.

“We are now homeless, completely outdoors. My children do not have the simplest elements of life. This is unfair.”

More on Sudan's conflict:

• Doctors shaken by rape in Bahri and Khartoum

Jose Tembe
BBC News, Maputo

About two dozen students in northern Mozambique fainted en masse during classes.

Pemba Secondary School, in province of Cabo Delgado, confirmed that the fainting spells had mainly affected girls during lessons on Wednesday.

Officials say those affected by what seemed to be a contagious phenomenon showed signs similar to those of an epileptic attack.

The students all recovered and are reported to be well.

Provincial chief physician, Edson Fernando, said it may be related some kind of hysteria causing a ripple effect of emotion.

This was not the first time there have been spells of mass fainting at schools in Mozambique, with incidents further south in 2010 and 2018.

Traditional healers, psychologists and sociologists were called in to investigate.

Shingai Nyoka
BBC News, Harare

Image source, EPA

Zimbabwe’s electoral commission has told some would-be candidates for August’s elections that their registration fees need to be paid in cash.

Wednesday’s deadline for registration was extended by one day because of problems with the payment system, meaning some candidates' fees could not be processed.

The country faces cash shortages of both the US dollar and its local currency.

Candidates from smaller parties have complained that the 20-fold hike in registration fees has reduced the number of candidates fielded.

Presidential candidates must stump up $20,000 (£16,000), up from $1,000 in 2018, and fees for those running for parliament were raised from $50 to $1,000.

One of the few women who wanted to run for president told the BBC her application was rejected last night when the electoral commission failed to accept a stamped document from her bank when their payment system failed.

She said it was “a system designed to keep people out”.

Zimbabwe has one of the highest rates of inflation in the world. The average civil servant earns as little at $300 a month.

The ruling Zanu-PF party has fielded candidates for all seats.

Zapu, a small opposition party, opted not to field a presidential candidate using the money to pay for 20 people to run in parliamentary seats, it said in a statement.

The main opposition Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) has complained that there have been multiple fraudulent applications on its behalf.

It says this is aimed at having several CCC candidates on the ballot in some constituencies in order to split the vote in favour of Zanu-PF.

Risto Pyykkö
BBC World Service newsroom

Image source, EPA

A court in Switzerland has acquitted six police officers charged in connection with the death of a 39-year-old Nigerian man who had a heart attack while they held him down.

The judges said it was impossible to say whether Mike Ben Peter had died as a result of police action.

When the verdict was announced, there were shouts of "shame" in the courtroom, and protests outside.

The lawyers for Mr Peter's family had argued that police had used disproportionate violence during the arrest.

The protesters say the case has worrying similarities with the murder of George Floyd in the United States in 2020.

Priya Sippy
BBC News

Image source, Getty Images

Kenyans are among the world's leading users of TikTok, a new study says.

In the Reuters Institute Digital News Reports 2023 survey, external, researchers found that 29% of the Kenyans asked had used TikTok for news in the past week. Overall, 54% of Kenyans used the social media app.

Among the countries surveyed, Thailand was the second country with the highest adoption rate at 51%, followed by South Africa at 50%. TikTok is growing fastest in parts of Asia-Pacific, Africa and Latin America.

The report noted that the last year's election period coincided with a rapid growth of Kenyans using TikTok for news.

According to the non-profit Mozilla foundation, TikTok became the platform where fake polls and videos were disseminated and it faced criticism for spreading misinformation.

While Facebook remains one of the most-used social networks, the report notes that usage is declining.

Instagram, TikTok and Telegram are the only networks to have grown in the last year.

Additionally, people said they pay more attention to celebrities, influencers and social media personalities as opposed to journalists.

The study is an annual report that aims to understand how news is being consumed in a range of countries, and included samples from Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa.

More on this topic:

• The TikTok fears and their impact on Africa

Chris Ewokor
BBC News, Abuja

Image source, AFP

Nigerian security agencies are searching for the gunmen who attacked two communities killing at least 15 people in the central state of Plateau.

Houses were also set ablaze during Tuesday's simultaneous raids in Riyom and Mangu.

Gyan Bere, a spokesperson for the Plateau governor, told the BBC that police and soldiers had been mobilised for a joint operation to secure the communities and track the attackers.

Those behind the attacks had not yet been identified, he said.

Plateau state has for years seen outbreaks of communal violence involving spiralling revenge attacks as different groups compete for land.

According to local media, since May nearly 200 people have died during clashes involving farmers from the Berom ethnic group, who are mainly Christian, and the cattle-breeding communities of Fulani Muslims.

Yūsuf Akínpẹ̀lú
BBC News

Image source, AFP

People are rushing to markets in Sierra Leone’s capital to stock up on food ahead of elections on Saturday, residents in Freetown have told the BBC.

It follows a stand-off on Wednesday between the security forces and supporters of the main opposition party that reportedly left at least one person dead.

Businesses shut down briefly amid the chaos and there is now a palpable fear that there could be further violence after Saturday's poll.

Sidi Yahya Tunis, spokesperson for the opposition All People's Congress (APC), told the Reuters news agency that one of the party’s supporters had been killed by the police.

An unverified video of the chaos showed an unconscious man who appeared to have been shot in the neck.

Police director of operations Mohamed Braima Jah said no shots had been fired by officers, accusing the protesters of firing the shots: "Two from a pistol and three from an AK-47."

Image source, AFP

Local media say about 66 people have been arrested.

The trouble started after the APC called for a demonstration over allegations that the election commission’s electoral roll was incorrect. Around 3.4 million people are registered to vote.

Image source, AFP

The election is the fifth since Sierra Leone’s decade-long civil war officially ended in 2002. It was a particularly brutal conflict, with 50,000 deaths and thousands of people estimated to have had their arms and limbs amputated.

President Julius Maada Bio is seeking re-election for a second and final term in office.

His main challenger is the APC's Samura Kamara, who came a close second in the last election in 2018.

One of the biggest campaign issues has been about soaring prices - inflation reached about 43% in April.

Catherine Byaruhanga
BBC Africa correspondent

Image source, Reuters

The head of America's agency for international development says USAid is trying to work with brave community-based volunteers to get food to the most needy.

In a BBC interview, Samantha Power spoke of her frustration at trying to get assistance to the millions of victims of the war in Sudan as ceasefires are repeatedly broken.

Ms Power called on the civilian authorities there to remove bureaucratic hurdles that are slowing down aid delivery and costing lives.

She also said it was heart-breaking that because of the ethnic violence in Darfur some people were fleeing to Chad for the fourth time in their lives.

The war, which broke out in mid-April between rival military factions, has forced more than two and a half million people to flee their homes.

More on the Sudan crisis:

• The unsung heroes keeping Khartoum residents alive

Image source, Kenya Railways

A mother who gave birth to a baby onboard an express train between Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, and the coastal city of Mombasa has been showered with congratulations.

Kenyans have been delighted with the news after Kenya Railways shared the story on social media.

The national rail firm also posted photos showing one of the attendants holding the new-born alongside the mother and those who had assisted in the birth.

Luckily a doctor and a nurse were on the train and were able to help with the delivery on Wednesday.

“We were blessed to have Dr Indanyenyi Luseso onboard who performed the delivery, assisted by Ms Fauziya Lugogo, a nurse at Kenyatta National Hospital and our Madaraka Express Passenger Attendant, Ms Mary Nyiha,” the post said, external.

Afterwards the passenger and her “bundle of joy” were rushed to “Mariakani sub-county hospital for further medical assistance”, it said.

Mariakani is the penultimate stop on the Madaraka Express (also known as the SGR) between Nairobi and Mombasa, a journey which usually takes six hours.

“Both the mother and the baby are OK. We wish her well,” Kenya Railways said.

One woman has recently commented on Facebook: “I was there yesterday. It was a joyful moment. SGR miracle baby.”

Many others said the baby should be entitled to free tickets.

“Kenya Railway I hope the new-born will be awarded free transport aboard the SGR for the rest of his/her life as is culture on airplanes,” one person wrote.

Others suggested the new-born be called Madaraka, a Swahili word meaning “power”.

Kenyans have a national holiday on 1 June called Madaraka Day to mark the time in 1963 when the country attained internal self-rule from British colonialists.

At least two members of the Kenyan president's security team have been injured after their car rolled over on a road in the Rift Valley district of Naivasha.

The vehicle was part of a motorcade that was on its way back to the capital, Nairobi, on Wednesday after President William Ruto had attended an event to flag off the WRC Safari Rally competition.

Mr Ruto is said not to have been in the motorcade as he had flown by helicopter.

It was not clear what caused the accident. Witnesses told local media that the driver had been trying to negotiate a sharp bend.

The injured were taken to a nearby hospital for treatment.

Image source, Getty Images