Nicola Mandil
BBC News, Juba

Image source, chan.dealdut/Instagram

The acting mayor of South Sudan's capital city, Juba, has been sacked after he was caught on camera apparently slapping a member of the public.

Emmanuel Khamis Richard had refused to resign despite mounting pressure from fellow politicians since footage of him appearing to assault the female street vendor went viral a week ago.

His dismissal was announced by the governor of Central Equatoria state on Friday evening, then more widely reported over the weekend.

The governor acted after MPs had sent him a letter unanimously calling for the mayor's removal.

Mr Khamis Richard has not admitted or denied slapping the woman. Before his sacking he had been summoned to appear before councillors in Juba to answer for his actions, but he did not appear and instead requested a two-week reprieve.

No successor has yet been appointed. But the head of Juba city council, Martin Simon Wani, has been ordered to supervise the general activities of the municipality for the time being.

Dark smoke rises from the cone-shaped tower as government offices come under attack.

Will Ross
Africa editor, BBC World Service

The Malian military says it has deployed additional troops to an area of the country where Tuareg rebels have been attacking army bases.

A military statement did not give details of Sunday's fighting in the town of Léré in the Timbuktu region.

It said recent military operations had significantly reduced what it called the threat of terrorism.

An alliance of Tuareg groups that re-launched a rebellion last month said it had captured two bases from the Malian army in Sunday's fighting.

The violence between the Coordination of Azawad Movements (CMA) and the army is intensifying as thousands of UN peacekeeping troops were ordered to leave the country.

Al-Qaeda-linked jihadists are also carrying out attacks in the Timbuktu region.

Image source, AFP

Contaminated water and a lack of sanitation in flood-hit eastern Libya means people there are at serious risk of disease outbreaks, the UN has warned.

It says teams from nine UN agencies are giving humanitarian aid, including emergency medical kits that will support 15,000 people for three months.

Thousands of people were killed when two dams above Derna broke during a powerful storm a week ago.

So far 11,300 people are known to have died, according to the UN, and more than 10,000 remain missing.

"The UN in Libya continues to co-ordinate with Libyan authorities and international partners to ensure that the right aid, gets to the right people, at the right time," it said in a statement.

Tuareg rebels from northern Mali say they have seized control of two army bases in the centre of the county, as tensions with the country's military rulers worsen.

A Malian official told the AFP news agency there were some deaths in Sunday's attacks in Léré town, in the Timbuktu region, but did not confirmed how many.

A peace deal Tuareg separatists made back in 2015 has floundered since the civilian government was kicked out in 2020, and the expulsion of UN peacekeepers last month has further fuelled the conflict.

"We attacked and took control of the two military camps in the town of Léré this Sunday", a spokesman for the Tuareg rebel alliance - known as the Coordination of Azawad Movements (CMA) - told AFP. He also claimed they had shot down an army plane.

Days earlier the rebel alliance had announced it was resuming hostilities with the government, and on Tuesday had clashed with the military in the town of Bourem resulting in dozens of deaths on both sides.

The renewed conflict with Tuareg rebels comes weeks after the al-Qaeda-linked jihadist alliance Support Group for Islam and Muslims (GSIM) said it was declaring "war in the Timbuktu region".

The military leaders of Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali signed a joint defence pact in Bamako at the weekend, under which they promise to come to the aid of each other if attacked by foreign forces or internal uprisings.

Members of a Libyan family also died in the crash and several other people were seriously injured.

BBC Monitoring
The world through its media

Nine people have died from a cholera outbreak in Ethiopia's north-western Benishangul-Gumuz Region, state television (ETV) reported on Sunday, citing health authorities.

A regional health official, Abdulmunhem Al-Beshir, said that "some 131 people have been infected in the outbreak while nine others died," ETV said.

Cases have been reported in three districts, according to the Benishangul-Gumuz Health Bureau.

Meanwhile, a cholera outbreak also killed nine Sudanese refugees in Ethiopia's north-western Amhara region.

Local media say the cholera outbreak has spread through 11 regions of Ethiopia in the past year, killing 320 people.

A two-year civil war and a drought have caused a severe humanitarian crisis in the region.

The Newsroom
BBC World Service

Image source, AFP

The main liberal opposition political movement in Egypt has said it will not nominate a candidate in the presidential election due next year after one of its leaders was sentenced to six months in prison.

The Free Current coalition said that Hisham Kassem had been a potential presidential candidate. He was found guilty of slander and verbally assaulting a police officer.

His supporters say the charges were politically motivated.

President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi is expected to announce he is standing for a third term, but has yet to do so.

The only person to have announced his candidacy so far, Ahmed al-Tantawi, has said his team has faced increasing harassment by the security forces.

Image source, AFP

A week after catastrophic floods ravaged the Libyan port city of Derna, rescue teams are still pulling out dead bodies from ruined buildings and the sea.

The interior minister of the self-proclaimed eastern administration - Essam Abu Zeriba - has told the BBC that while they accept all types of aid, at the moment they prefer "technical aid".

"[We] prefer to have technical aid, that is, search and rescue teams and teams specialising in identifying bodies. Libya is poor in such technical experience," he said.

He thanked countries that were already helping, including Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and neighbouring Egypt.

He said all teams were distributed to areas but noted that this was "just the drop in a sea of ill-fated areas".

"All rescue teams are still working in an attempt to find bodies under the debris. There are also rescue teams working in the sea," he added

Thousands of people are known to have died and many more are still missing.

Emery Makumeno
BBC News, Kinshasa

Image source, AFP

Seventeen people have been killed by a landslide in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The disaster occurred overnight on Sunday near the banks of the Congo River, in the northern city of Lisala, the capital of Mongala province.

Seven women, seven men and three children under five years died.

They were buried the same day because of a lack of space to keep them at the local mortuary, Lisala official Désiré Koyo, told the BBC.

The deaths followed days of torrential rain. Witnesses said several houses along the river had been submerged and residents were struggling to rescue people from the rubble.

The governor of Mongala, César Limbaya, sent his condolences to all the families of the deceased.

He has declared three days of mourning starting from Monday, during which flags will be flying at half mast.

Image source, AFP

Water suppliers in Johannesburg, South Africa, have asked residents of the city and its suburbs to use less water amid an intensifying water shortage that they warn could “result in the collapse of the system”.

Rand Water and Johannesburg Water on Sunday said that high water consumption by residents “is putting a strain on the system” and has resulted in significantly low water reservoir levels.

The companies have asked residents to save water by limiting their showers to two minutes, only flushing toilets after long calls and only washing cars on weekends using buckets.

The companies have also asked residents to stop filling swimming pools until water scarcity ends, avoid watering gardens and lawns with clean water and fix or report water leakages.

Johannesburg is currently under the yearly water restrictions, which often last during South Africa’s dry season between September and March.

In recent weeks, some of the city's residents and institutions such as hospitals, external have gone without water, causing public discontent.

BBC World Service

Image source, AFP

At least 20 people have died in South Africa after a major road accident in the northern province of Limpopo.

The victims - believed to be miners - were on a bus which crashed head-on with a truck.

They were being transported to one of the biggest diamond mines in the country - Venetia - owned by the mining giant De Beers.

Venetia, near the borders with Botswana and Zimbabwe, accounts for more than 40% of South Africa's annual diamond production.

Image source, Getty Images

The government in Congo-Brazzaville has denied reports of an attempted coup against President Denis Sassou Nguesso, who has been in power for 39 years.

It follows rumours on social media that the military had been trying to oust the 79-year-old leader, who is currently in the US attending a UN summit with other world leaders.

"The government denies this fake news," Information Minister Thierry Moungalla posted on X (formerly Twitter), external on Sunday, saying he wanted to reassure members of the public they could "go about their activities calmly".

The government’s website also posted a statement, external denying the coup attempt reports.

There has been a wave of coups across Africa in recent months, mostly recently in neighbouring Gabon, where the military seized power in August.

Mr Sassou Nguesso rose to power in the oil-producing central African country in a military coup in 1979. He lost Congo’s first multi-party elections in 1992 but regained power in 1997 after a civil war.

The Congolese leader is the third-longest serving president in Africa, after Equatorial Guinea's Teodoro Obiang Nguema and Cameroon's Paul Biya.

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BBC Africa Eye gains rare access to Operation Dudula, South Africa's prominent anti-migrant movement.

Gnawa music is a Moroccan spiritual musical tradition developed by descendants of enslaved people from Sub-Saharan Africa. It combines ritual poetry with traditional music and dance, and is traditionally only performed by men. But one female Moroccan artist, Asmâa Hamzaoui, has broken the mould. She's become an international star, who has even performed for Madonna on her birthday. For Assignment, reporter Myriam Francois travels to Casablanca to meet Asmaa and her family, and follows her to the Essaouira Festival, the annual celebration of Gnawa culture.

What does its ever-growing popularity tell us about the changing identity of a country that once saw itself primarily as part of the Arab world, but has now become more interested in its links to the rest of the African continent?

Presenter: Myriam Francois Producer: Tim Whewell Series editor: Penny Murphy

(Photo: Asmâa Hamzaoui. Credit: Myriam Francois/BBC)

Tens of thousands of Zimbabweans are fleeing their country, looking for work in the West, especially in the United Kingdom.

Last year Zimbabwe was the third largest source of foreign workers for the UK, behind India and Nigeria, and ahead of the Philippines and Pakistan, which have much larger populations.

A popular social media post reads: “the Zimbabwean dream is to leave Zimbabwe.”

Many of those leaving their country are highly qualified. They’re taking jobs in the British care sector, where there is a huge shortage of workers. They send much of what they earn back to their families in Zimbabwe. For those back home it’s often the only way to survive in a country with hyper-inflation.

Zimbabwe is about to go to the polls but few expect things to change. The economy is in dire straits and the opposition hasn’t been allowed to campaign freely. Some activists have been imprisoned or even killed. The ruling ZANU PF party, which has been in power since independence in 1980, shows little sign of losing control.

Earlier this year the UK gave Zimbabwean teachers “Qualified Teacher” status, allowing them to work long-term in the UK. Zimbabwean parents fear their children’s teachers will be the next to leave.

Zimbabwe’s latest skills exodus could break the country’s healthcare and education systems, which are already crumbling after decades of under-investment and corruption. For Assignment, Charlotte Ashton hears from Zimbabweans who’ve left, Zimbabweans who want to leave and Zimbabweans who say they can only dream of leaving.

Presenter: Charlotte Ashton Producer: John Murphy

(Image: A well-used five US dollar note in Zimbabwe. Credit: KB Mpofu)

The battle to keep the peace between people and elephants in northern Botswana. The earth’s largest land mammal, the elephant, is an endangered species. Poaching, habitat loss and disease have decimated elephant populations. But not in Botswana, which has the world’s biggest population of elephants. In the north of the country, in the area around the remarkable Okavango Delta (the world’s largest inland delta), elephant numbers are growing and they outnumber people. This can pose serious problems for the human population, particularly local subsistence farmers. A crop raid by elephants can destroy a family’s annual food supply overnight. Elephants also pose a risk to life in their daily commute between their feeding grounds and their water sources. John Murphy travels to the top of the Okavango Delta, to see what efforts are being made to keep both people and elephants safe, and to persuade locals that these giant animals are an asset not a liability. He also explores threats from further afield to this green jewel in the desert, the Okavango Delta, which animals and people alike depend on.

Presenter: John Murphy Producer: Charlotte Ashton Studio Mix: Rod Farquhar Editor: Penny Murphy

(Image: Elephant wading in Botswana’s Okavango Delta. Credit: Brytta/Getty)

Sean Williams thought cricket in Zimbabwe was "dying", but he is now hoping for "fairytale" ending with 2027 World Cup co-hosts.

Tunisia’s democracy is being dismantled by a president who claims he’s saving it from anarchy. Parliament has been dissolved, scores of judges sacked and opponents jailed. Once Tunisia - the north African country of just 12 million people squeezed between it’s much bigger neighbours Libya and Algeria - was a beacon of democracy. It was the first Arab country to overthrow it’s dictator Ben Ali in 2011 during what became known as the Arab Spring. Now a new authoritarian leader, Kais Saied, dominates the country. Tunisia faces numerous problems, from soaring prices and shortages of some basic foods - to thousands of migrants – many Tunisians - trying to flee across the Mediterranean to Europe.

Mike Thomson meets the sister of an activist who was imprisoned, an aspiring kickboxer who wants to settle abroad, a sub-Saharan migrant who’s lost his job and his home and a rapper, whose music helped inspire that 2011 revolution. What future faces Tunisia – democracy or dictatorship?

Presenter: Mike Thomson Producer: Bob Howard Mixed by Rod Farquhar Production coordinator: Helena Warwick-Cross Series Editor: Penny Murphy

(Image: Tunisians with Tunisian flags protesting against the constitutional referendum. Credit: Mohamed Messara/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)