Image source, AFP

Kenyan authorities ignored "credible reports" about a doomsday cult in which more than 400 members were found buried in shallow graves, a state-funded human rights watchdog has said.

The bodies of 429 people, including children, were discovered in Shakahola, a forest near the town of Malindi, last year.

Survivors and victims' families said that cult leader Paul Mackenzie had urged his followers to fast in order to "go see Jesus".

In its report, external, The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) criticised security officers in Malindi for "gross abdication of duty and negligence" prior to the deaths.

"They not only failed to be proactive in collecting and acting on intelligence to forestall the Shakahola massacre but also unjustifiably failed to act on credible and actionable reports," KNCHR chairwoman Roseline Odede said.

The report said that in 2019, justice officials discussed radicalisation involving Mr Mackenzie but ultimately took no action.

The rights group added that a former cult member was accused of making baseless accusations when he tried to raise the alarm.

Mr Mackenzie has denied responsibility for the deaths. He and several of his followers are currently on trial for several charges, including terrorism, murder and torture.

On Wednesday, the Kenyan government said it would release some of the bodies belonging to victims to their families next week.

More on this story:

• Behind the starvation cult
• The mother who fled Shakahola forest to save her children

BBC Monitoring
The world through its media

Sudan's Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group has rejected an agreement between the country's military government and UN agencies to deliver humanitarian aid into the impoverished Darfur region.

On Thursday, Darfur governor Minni Minawi announced he had reached a deal for aid to be delivered to the western region through a new route controlled by the Sudanese army.

But the RSF, which controls majority of Darfur, said the UN agencies had not consulted it about aid deliveries.

It also accused the "extremist former regime" of attempting to smuggle arms into Darfur - an allegation to which the military government has not responded.

Top UN officials have said Sudan's civil war is "one of the worst humanitarian nightmares in recent history" and could trigger the world's largest hunger crisis.

Last month, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said it has only been able to deliver vital aid to 10% of those in need in areas embroiled in the conflict, like Darfur.

This struggle is down to issues such as looting, security threats and roadblocks.

More on Sudan's conflict:

• Famine looms in Sudan as civil war survivors tell of killings and rapes

Will Ross
Africa editor, BBC World Service

Islamist militants in Niger have killed at least 23 soldiers and injured 17 others during an attack in the north-west of the country, the defence ministry says.

More than 100 armed men on motorbikes used improvised explosive devices and suicide bombs to ambush the military unit as it was making its way back from an operation in the Tillabéri region.

The ministry said 30 of the attackers were killed.

Following last year's coup in Niger, the country's military rulers severed ties with its western allies.

French forces who had been leading an international fight against the jihadists were forced to leave.

Last weekend the authorities said they were cancelling an agreement allowing US troops to be based in Niger.

• 'France takes us for idiots' - Inside coup-hit Niger

Earlier, we brought you media reports from South Africa, where journalists said Speaker of Parliament Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula had turned herself in to the police.

Ms Mapisa-Nqakula's lawyer has now told the BBC that this is not true.

Ms Mapisa-Nqakula announced on Thursday that she would take special leave after investigators raided her house earlier in the week as part of a corruption probe.

Image source, Office of Tanzania's vice-president/X

Tanzania's Vice-President Philip Mpango has threatened to resign over a prolonged water shortage affecting residents from the northern Mwanga district.

Mr Mpango on Thursday accused contractors working on a major project aimed at supplying water in the region of taking too long time to complete it.

The project worth over $100,000 (£79,000) was started close to 20 years ago, according to Mr Mpango.

"If this project will not be providing water [to the locals] by June, I will step down. I don't know what will be the fate of the local administrator and his juniors if I resign," Mr Mpango said.

"I cannot come here again and tell citizens to wait further for this water, water is life," he added.

According to government officials accompanying Mr Mpango to Mwanga on Thursday, the project is nearly 90% complete.

Image source, Rwanda Ministry in charge of Emergency Management/X

Rwanda has received 91 refugees and asylum seekers from Libya under a programme supported by the UN's refugee agency, African Union and European Union.

The arrivals include 38 Sudanese people, 33 Eritreans, 11 Somalis, seven Ethiopians and two people from South Sudan.

The refugees and asylum seekers were evacuated under the Emergency Transit Mechanism programme, which has seen 2,150 refugees sent to Rwanda from Libya since 2019.

Out of these,1,600 have gone on to resettle in the US and across Europe.

"Rwanda remains committed to offering refuge to people in need," the country's emergency management ministry said on Thursday., external

The arrival of the refugees and asylum seekers comes as the UK attempts to pass new legislation that would allow it to send some asylum seekers to Rwanda, pending the processing of their claims.

The UK Supreme Court had earlier quashed the plan, terming it unlawful.

Will Ross
Africa editor, BBC World Service

Botswana's President Mokgweetsi Masisi has criticised proposed legislation in Britain to ban the import of trophies from hunted endangered animals, including elephant tusks.

The British government says the ban will play an important role in protecting threatened wildlife.

But Mr Masisi defended trophy hunting as a means of controlling the population of elephants.

He told the BBC it was a "sad tragedy" there had been no attempt to understand the impact a ban would have on his country.

The Botswana leader described the move as "hypocritical" as Britain allows the hunting of stags and export of their antlers.

A moratorium on hunting was lifted in Botswana in 2019.

The southern African country says with an elephant population of more than 130,000, there has been an increase in cases of conflict with humans.

Image source, AFP

The speaker of South Africa's parliament has turned herself in to the police amid an ongoing corruption investigation against her, according to local media.

Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula handed herself over to the Pretoria Central Police on Friday morning and is expected to appear in court later in the day, local reports say.

She is accused of soliciting bribes in return for awarding contracts when she served as defence minister.

The reports do not make it clear whether or not she is under arrest.

Local media say she has filed urgent court papers to prevent authorities from detaining her.

State broadcaster SABC also reports that Ms Mapisa-Nqakula wants to step down from her position.

On Thursday, she announced that she was taking special leave from her role due to the "seriousness of the allegations," a statement shared by parliament, external said.

Earlier this week, Ms Mapisa-Nqakula's Johannesburg home was raided by an elite police unit, who conducted a five-hour search.

She maintains her innocence and says she is co-operating with the investigators.

Image source, Getty Images

Algeria's President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has brought forward the presidential election date by three months.

The presidency on Thursday announced that Mr Tebboune has scheduled the poll for 7 September.

The election was previously expected to be held in December.

The presidency did not provide an explanation for holding the election earlier.

Mr Tebboune, 78, is yet to announce whether he will be running in the election.

His term is due to expire in December.

He won 58% of the vote to secure his first term in December 2019.

Will Ross
Africa editor, BBC World Service

Image source, Reuters

The former head of the retail group that was at the centre of a huge corporate fraud case in South Africa has died, a day after he was ordered to pay $25m (£20m) as a fine.

Police said Markus Jooste succumbed to a gunshot wound after he allegedly shot himself on Thursday outside his home.

“The circumstances surrounding his death are being investigated,” police spokesperson André Traut told local media.

The country's financial regulator said Jooste had played a role in the publishing of misleading financial statements about Steinhoff International Holdings.

The retailer has suffered heavy losses, as have investors in South African pension funds, since an accounting scandal broke in 2017.

Prior to that, Jooste had acquired billions of dollars' worth of high street retailers across Europe (including the UK-based Poundland).

He had also been fined for insider trading in 2020.

Image source, AFP

Ethiopia is set to begin the third phase of repatriating 70,000 of its citizens from Saudi Arabia.

Ethiopia's foreign ministry says the citizens "are in a difficult situation", external in the Gulf country.

The repatriations will begin in two weeks.

Saudi Arabia had asked foreign workers residing in the country without legal rights to leave or face jail time.

The country hosts an estimated 750,000 Ethiopians, more than half of whom are in the country illegally, according to the UN migration agency IOM, external.

They include workers, job seekers and refugees fleeing conflict in the Horn of Africa nation.

Human rights groups have previously said that some Ethiopian migrants have faced rights abuses in Saudi Arabia, including torture and killings.

Saudi Arabia has repatriated more than 350,000 Ethiopians since 2017, according to IOM.

Image source, AFP

Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni has appointed his son Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba as the country's army commander, a move that is likely to fuel speculation that the president is grooming his eldest child to succeed him.

Gen Kainerugaba has been serving as a senior presidential adviser in charge of special operations after his father removed him as commander of the army's land forces in 2022.

He was promoted to his new post late on Thursday, in a cabinet reshuffle that saw five ministers sacked.

He takes over from Gen Wilson Mbadi who has been named as trade minister.

Two of Gen Kainerugaba's closest advisers were named ministers in the new changes announced by President Museveni.

Embattled Karamoja Affairs Minister Mary Goretti Kitutu, who is facing corruption charges involving the theft of thousands of metal roofing sheets, was dropped from her post.

Lt Gen Samuel Okiding was named as the deputy army chief in the new appointments. He replaced Gen Peter Elwelu, whom Mr Museveni named as one of his senior advisers.

Gen Kainerugaba has recently been holding rallies around the country, with his critics saying this was in breach of the military's code of discipline.

In power since 1986, Mr Museveni has long been suspected of grooming the 49-year-old general to succeed him to entrench what critics call monarchic rule in Uganda.

But Mr Museveni has dismissed this speculation.

Uganda is set to hold general elections in 2026.

Read more:

• Muhoozi Kainerugaba - Uganda's ambitious tweeting general

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The president is under pressure from Ghanaians who want him to sign the bill, and from those who condemn it.

The government's flagship Rwanda bill will be back before MPs after Easter, following a series of heavy defeats in the Lords.

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