Ashley Lime
BBC News, Nairobi

Image source, AFP

Child soldiers were used by an Islamic State-linked group to attack and plunder a town in northern Mozambique, a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report, external has said.

The charity said boys as young as the age of 13 raided Macomia town in Cabo Delgado province on 10 May. However, it is not known whether the children fought against government armed forces.

The Al-Shabaab raid sparked heavy fighting after the group targeted government forces and also looted warehouses and shops.

HRW heard from witnesses that dozens of boys were among the Al-Shabaab fighters carrying "ammunition belts and AK-style assault rifles."

Two members of a family said they saw their 13-year-old nephew among the group's members.

“The armed group Al-Shabaab’s use of children as soldiers is cruel, unlawful, and only adds to the horrors of Cabo Delgado’s conflict,” said HRW's senior Africa researcher Zenaida Machado, external.

“Al-Shabab should immediately release all children in their ranks and stop any further recruitment.”

Residents and aid workers told the aid agency that dozens of fighters arrived in Macomia at about 04:00 local time on 10 May.

The International Organization for Migration said the fighting, which started on 10 May and ended on 12 May, resulted in more than 700 people fleeing.

HRW says the Al-Shabaab armed group has used children to fight for years, citing their report in 2021 where kidnapped boys were said to fight government forces.

BBC World Service

A Gambian former interior minister has been sentenced to 20 years in prison by a court in Switzerland for crimes against humanity committed when President Yahya Jammeh was in power.

Ousman Sonko fled to Switzerland in 2016 and claimed asylum, shortly before Mr Jammeh was voted out of office.

Non-governmental organisations presented evidence of atrocities committed against the former president's political opponents.

A prosecutor said Mr Sonko was convicted for killings, torture and false imprisonment.

Philip Grant, the executive director of Trial International, the NGO that filed the complaint for Mr Sonko's arrest, said on X, external that the conviction "sends resounding message against impunity".

In a previous hearing, Mr Sonko's lawyer said that he was not responsible for what happened.

Switzerland tried the case under the principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows countries to prosecute people for crimes that took place elsewhere.

Mr Sonko is the highest-ranking government official ever to be prosecuted under this principle in Europe.

Mr Jammeh who lives in exile in Equatorial Guinea has also been accused of human rights abuses.

Ousman Sonko is convicted of crimes against humanity, including killing and torture, committed in The Gambia.

Internet has been restored in Tanzania after a severe three-day outage, one of the country's major telecom companies says.

Tanzania and the French territory of Mayotte were the worst-hit by the outage that began on Sunday morning, with connectivity levels falling below 30% of what they were expected to be.

The poor connectivity prompted the US Embassy in Tanzania to close for two days and reschedule consular appointments.

The outage was also felt in Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda to a lesser extent.

Vodacom Tanzania said on Wednesday that its network had been fully restored.

"To this end all customers who were unable to use their bundles will be fully refunded," the company added, external.

The patchy service was caused by a cut to two of the undersea cables which carry the data around Africa.

Read more:

• Africa's internet vulnerability and how to fix it

Image source, Getty Images

The five men suspected of murdering South African rapper AKA have been denied bail.

The men appeared in the Durban magistrate's court on Wednesday. The magistrate said releasing them would be reckless and irresponsible, News24 reported.

Last year AKA and his close friend Tebello Motsoane were gunned down outside of a restaurant in Durban in a killing that shocked South Africans.

Police said hitmen were paid to target AKA but no motive was revealed.

Two more men also accused are awaiting extradition from Eswatini.

A prominent opposition politician and critic of Rwanda's President Paul Kagame has been barred by the court from vying in the July presidential elections.

Bernard Ntaganda, 55, had asked the court to lift his convictions so he could qualify to run in the election.

Rwandan law forbids individuals who have been convicted for more than six months from holding public office.

The High Court declined Mr Ntaganda's request on Tuesday, citing his failure to pay legal fees in the previous case.

"The High Court finds that Ntaganda did not abide by the laws that require individuals to request their conviction to be removed, and therefore rejects his appeal," the court ruling said, according to AFP news agency.

Mr Ntaganda maintained he had paid the fees, adding that he was not surprised by the court's decision.

Mr Ntaganda was arrested before Rwanda's 2010 election, in which he planned to run.

He was freed in 2014 after serving time on charges including organising unauthorised demonstrations and threatening state security.

In March, a Rwandan court declined to lift a ban on Victoire Ingabire,another government critic, on vying in the election.

She was freed in 2018 after spending eight years in prison for threatening state security and "belittling" the 1994 genocide.

Image source, Getty Images

The lawyers of double Olympic champion Caster Semenya say she "is feeling poised and confident" ahead of a crucial hearing on whether she should be required to reduce her testosterone levels before competing as a female.

The Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, will hear the case on Wednesday, before making a final ruling at a later date.

"I hope that the court’s decision will pave the way for all athletes’ human rights to be fiercely protected, for once and for all, and inspire all young women to be and accept themselves in all their diversity," Semenya said in a statement released by her lawyers.

Semenya, 33, was born with differences of sexual development (DSD), a group of rare conditions whereby a person's hormones, genes and/or reproductive organs may be a mix of male and female characteristics

She was barred by the governing body World Athletics from competing in female track events without taking testosterone-reducing drugs.

The South African believes World Athletics is showing discrimination against athletes with her condition.

World Athletics has said its DSD regulations "are a necessary, reasonable and proportionate means of protecting fair competition in the female category".

Read more:

• Judges to hear Semenya case before final ruling

Israel says Egypt must reopen the crossing - but Egypt says Israel's military operation there is blocking aid.

Image source, Getty Images

Gabon's deposed President Ali Bongo and two of his sons have gone on hunger strike to protest against their alleged subjection to "acts of torture and barbarity", the family's lawyers say.

Mr Bongo was ousted in a military coup in August last year, shortly after he won a disputed presidential poll.

He was then confined to his house in the capital, Libreville, along with two of his sons, Jalil and Bilal.

The ruling junta also placed his wife Sylvia Bongo and eldest son Noureddin in prison, awaiting trial on corruption allegations.

In a statement on Tuesday, their lawyers alleged that Noureddin was "repeatedly tortured, beaten with a hammer and crowbar, strangled, whipped and electrocuted with a taser".

They further allege that Sylvia was beaten, strangled and forced to watch Noureddin's torture.

The BBC has contacted the Gabonese authorities to comment on the allegations.

The ousted president, aged 64, had led the oil-rich country since 2009 when he succeeded his father who had been in power for more than 40 years.

The family' lawyers say they have also filed a complaint with the Paris judicial court, a week before Gabon's junta leader Gen Brice Oligui Nguema is due to visit France.

Image source, Getty Images

South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa has defended his plan to sign into law a contentious bill that aims at providing universal health coverage.

The National Health Insurance (NHI) bill seeks to give South Africans “of all races, rich or poor and legal long-term residents, external” access to quality healthcare. Its implementation would cost billions of dollars.

But it is facing widespread objection from the main opposition party, the Democratic Alliance (DA), and medical unions vowing to take legal action against the bill, if signed into law.

Mr Ramaphosa said he would sign the bill into law on Wednesday whether people like it or not.

“The NHI is one of those focus areas which is going to help poor people and now the opposition on NHI is coming from the well-to-do rich people. This is what often happens, the-haves don’t want the have-nots to benefit from what they have been having," the president added.

On Tuesday, the DA accused the president of using the bill as an electioneering tool just days before the polls.

But Mr Ramaphosa said that his government was not reckless and that the introduction of the NHI would not be done in a destructive manner.

Supporters of the bill hail it as a generational change that will reverse persistent inequality.

An Algerian man who has been missing for more than 25 years was found held captive in his neighbour's home in the northern Djelfa province, local media report, citing authorities.

Local media place Bin Omran Omar's disappearance between 1996 and 1998, during the Algerian civil war.

He was found in an underground hole covered with hay, the daily Echorouk newspaper reported.

He said his captor had cast a spell on him, leaving him unable to call out for help, AFP news agency reported, citing local media.

The brother of the man's alleged captor had outed him on social media after they got into a dispute over inheritance, the agency added.

The man, now in his mid-40s, is receiving medical attention after he was rescued by authorities.

His alleged captor, a 61-year-old man, has been arrested.

Image source, EPA

An unspecified number of villagers are feared trapped following a landslide in Kenya's Kimende area of central Kiambu county.

The incident happened on Tuesday night following heavy rains in the area, which is reported to have escarpments.

Photos shared online showed several homes covered in mudslides.

Following the incident, the area has been cordoned off and declared a danger zone, external, the Kenya Red Cross said.

Although no fatalities have been confirmed so far, several people remain unaccounted for, the aid agency added.

Rescue efforts are set to resume on Wednesday.

There are fears that the landslide could encroach on the neighbouring areas as the rains continue.

A total of 289 people have died and more than 280,000 others displaced after weeks of heavy rainfall across the country.

Read more:

• Kenya floods: What a deluge reveals about Nairobi's vulnerability

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Nigeria's President Bola Tinubu has suspended a planned levy on electronic banking transactions following widespread public criticism of the scheme, Information Minister Mohammed Idris said.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had last week told financial institutions to charge 0.5% of the value of electronic transfers to raise money for enhancing cybersecurity in the country. The levy was to start in five days.

"The cybersecurity tax policy implementation has been directed by the government to be put on hold, so it has been suspended," Mr Idris told reporters on Tuesday following a cabinet meeting in the capital, Abuja.

President Tinubu directed the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to review the modalities for its implementation, the minister added.

Many Nigerians had condemned the planned levy, with some saying it would push them back to using cash.

But Mr Idris said that the president was not insensitive to the feelings of Nigerians.

Nigeria is experiencing its worst economic crisis in a generation and many people said the levy would cause further hardship as they struggle to afford basic items.

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Illegal shipments of rosewood continue and some of the profit ends up with jihadists, research says.

That's all from the BBC Africa Live team for now. There will be an automated feed here until Wednesday morning - and you can get the latest news on our homepage.

You can also listen to our podcasts: Africa Daily and Focus on Africa.

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We leave you with this image of a man performing at the Shal el-Nessim spring festival in Ismailia, Egypt.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

South Africa's main opposition party, alongside a number of labour and business groups, have said they will take legal action against a bill aimed at providing universal health coverage.

Earlier, we reported that South African President Cyril Ramaphosa was due to sign the contentious proposal into law on Wednesday.

The National Health Insurance (NHI) bill seeks to give South Africans “of all races, rich or poor and legal long-term residents, external” access to quality healthcare. Its implementation would cost billions of dollars.

On Tuesday, the Democratic Alliance (DA) party leader said his party would challenge the law "all the way to the Constitutional Court".

"Our legal team was briefed months ago already and will file our legal challenge against this devastating legislation without delay," John Steenhuisen added.

Elsewhere, trade union Solidariteit said it had warned Mr Ramaphosa that it would take legal action against the bill "within an hour" of it being signed on Wednesday.

The South African Health Professionals Collaboration (SAHPC), which represents 25,000 healthcare workers in the public and private sectors, is quoted by news agency Reuters as saying it was also exploring a legal challenge.

According to the Reuters news agency, the group said the bill would "reverse, rather than progress, equitable, quality healthcare in South Africa".

Supporters of the bill hail it as a generational change that will reverse persistent inequality.

The South African Medical Association Trade Union, which represents most public sector doctors, called it "a monumental shift towards achieving universal health coverage and ensuring that every South African has access to quality healthcare irrespective of their socio-economic status".

More on this topic:

• South African MPs pass ‘revolutionary’ health bill

Ashley Lime
BBC News, Nairobi

Huge cracks have emerged in Kenya's Rift Valley region, attributed to the recent heavy rains and mass flooding.

Some residents in Nakuru county lost their houses and farms after huge fissures ripped through their property.

Kiambogo, Kaptembwo, Ngata and London are some of the worst affected places in the county.

Reports indicate that last week houses that were still occupied sank in Kiambogo.

The government has sent top geologists to Nakuru to investigate further.

The county lies on one of the weak areas of the Great Rift Valley that runs from the Horn of Africa, all the way to Mozambique.

These spots along the Rift Valley have had cracks that are filled with volcanic ash.

It is the ash that it thought to have been washed away by the recent rains, leading to the cracks opening up.

Mining Principal Secretary Elijah Mwangi told Kenya's Daily Nation newspaper that residents had already been warned of this geohazard as Nakuru was located in an area susceptible to earthquakes, sinkholes and landslides.

A similar incident occurred in 2018 when the Mai-Mahiu-Narok road, near a place called Suswa at the bottom of the Rift Valley, was split by a crack following a heavy downpour.

The internet outage in East Africa highlights the fragility of the continent's online connections.

Julian Bedford
BBC World Service newsroom

Local media in Mozambique say the army suffered significant losses in a militant attack in the northern province of Cabo Delgado on Friday and has been trying to cover up the full extent of the casualties.

State media have reported that one member of a local militia was killed in the assault on the town of Macomia, which was repelled.

But locals say the town was occupied for a day, despite attempts by Rwandan peacekeepers to intervene. A second nearby town was attacked on Sunday.

Islamists militants have waged a six-year campaign in northern Mozambique.

Read more stories from Mozambique:

• 'I survived a ferry disaster - but lost 17 of my family'
• How to cyclone-proof your life