The Newsroom
BBC World Service

Image source, Reuters

Fishmongers in Egypt say they have been forced to slash their prices by up to 50% because of a boycott that has swept the country.

A campaign against high prices, which began in the major cities of Port Said and Alexandria, has spread elsewhere under the slogan "let it rot".

The protest began online weeks ago, sparked by the ongoing price hikes of almost all goods.

President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi has previously advised consumers to boycott products that become unaffordable as the Egyptian currency plunged in value.

Seafood is traditionally eaten during celebrations of the Sham Ennessim national festival, which falls on 6 May.

The festival will coincide with the Easter Monday celebrations of the Egyptian Coptic Orthodox Church.

Our African proverb of the day:

Click here to send us your African proverbs.

A selection of the week's best photos from across the continent and beyond.

The Question Time audience were surprised when Chris Philp answered an audience member's question about DR Congo.

The prime minister warns that El Niño-triggered heavy rains are likely to continue into May.

The pair met inside No 10 Downing Street before jogging through Horse Guards Parade.

A Moroccan club is awarded a 3-0 win despite refusing to play after their kit was confiscated by Algerian customs officials.

East Africa is being pounded by unusually heavy rains linked to a combination of global weather events.

A manhunt is launched after more than 100 inmates escape the colonial-era facility near Abuja.

Photos of the three naked tourists have gone viral in Namibia, angering the authorities.

Paul Carney ran a 250km race in the Sahara Desert after training at the University of Chichester.

The UK's National Crime Agency says it has arrested an 18-year-old Sudanese citizen on Wednesday.

Found adrift in the Atlantic after a pirate attack, it cost £10k to convert into accommodation.

That's all from the BBC Africa Live team for now. To keep up with news from the continent, visit the BBC Africa webpage.

And if audio is your thing, have a listen to the BBC's Focus on Africa and Africa Daily podcasts.

A reminder of Wednesday's wise words:

And we leave you with this photo from Kenya's capital Nairobi, where residents of the Mathare slum look on from their balconies following heavy rain and floods in the country.

Image source, AFP

Mansur Abubakar
BBC News

Image source, University of Nigeria Nsukka

A lecturer at one of Nigeria's leading universities - the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) - has been suspended following allegations that he sexually harassed a female student, a statement by the university has said.

The move comes after a video went viral on social media, showing a man in only his shorts and trying to hide his face as he is confronted by people in what appears to be an office.

In the video, a person says: “We have been following this case from day one, we have tracks, all the voice notes, and everything.”

Another one says. “A married woman for that matter, someone’s wife.”

The university said the lecturer has been suspended, pending the outcome of an investigation by a disciplinary panel.

He has not yet commented.

"For the record, the University of Nigeria has zero tolerance for sexual misconduct involving our staff and students,” the university statement said.

“As a university, we are committed to protecting our students from any form of abuse and exploitation,” it added.

Two Sudanese nationals and a South Sudanese citizen have been arrested by police in the UK after five migrants died in the English Channel.

The men were detained on suspicion of facilitating illegal immigration and entering the UK illegally.

Five people, including a seven-year-old girl, were killed in a crush on board a boat crossing the Channel.

The boat was carrying 112 people at the time of the tragedy.

Speaking after the arrest, National Crime Agency (NCA) Director of Investigations Craig Turner said: "This tragic incident once again demonstrates the threat to life posed by these crossings and brings into focus why it is so important to target the criminal gangs involved in organising them."

Officers have already conducted initial interviews with the men, who are aged 19 and 22.

Further interrogations will follow in the coming days.

Read the full report here.

BBC World Service

Image source, Getty Images

Portugal's President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa has said that his country must take full responsibility for colonial-era abuses and that there are circumstances in which reparations should be paid.

President de Sousa has several times expressed regret for Portugal's role in enslaving and colonising Africans.

Now, he's said that in some cases it should "pay the costs" for wrongs done - such as when massacres took place under colonial rule, or where significant items were looted and never returned.

German police have arrested 11 Nigerian men suspected of being in a mafia group who orchestrated large-scale dating scams.

The Black Axe gang was involved in "multiple areas of criminal activity" globally, Bavarian police said in a statement.

In Germany, the organisation focuses on romance scams and money laundering, the force added.

The statement said: "Using false identities, the fraudsters for example signalled their intention to marry and in the course of further contact repeatedly demand money under various pretexts."

Globally, the gang's main areas of operation were "human-trafficking, fraud, money-laundering, prostitution and drug-trafficking".

The arrested suspects all hold Nigerian citizenship and are aged between 29 and 53.

They were detained on Tuesday in raids across the region of Bavaria following a police probe that lasted more than two years.

A 2021 BBC investigation of Black Axe unearthed evidence that the group had infiltrated politics in Nigeria and ran a killing operation spanning the globe.

Read more:

• Leaked documents shine spotlight on secretive Black Axe gang

Alfred Lasteck
BBC News, Dar es Salaam

Authorities in Tanzania have shut down five hydroelectric stations in a bid to reduce excess electricity in the national grid, the country's prime minister has said.

Kassim Majaliwa said the main plant, Mwalimu Nyerere Hydroelectric Station, has alone generated enough electricity to power major cities, including Dar es Salaam, the country’s commercial hub.

"We have turned off all these stations because the demand is low and the electricity production is too much, we have no allocation now, “ an official from state-run power company, Tanesco, said.

The 2,115 MW Julius Nyerere hydropower dam is said to be almost full with water, following heavy rains that started early this year.

A current spell of extreme weather has caused at least 58 deaths in Tanzania and devastated other East African nations like Kenya.

It is the first time Tanzania, which suffers chronic power shortages, has closed hydroelectric stations due to excess production.

The UN says that at least 32 people have died and more than 40,000 have been forced from their homes.