Barbara Plett Usher
BBC News, Africa correspondent

This morning we brought you news from the beseiged Sudanese city of El Fasher, where residents told the BBC of "catastrophic" conditions.

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has now said at least 16 people there died as a result of heavy fighting on Sunday. A further 114 were wounded, the medical charity added.

This brings the total number of deaths MSF has recorded in El Fasher over the past three days to 44.

Clashes intensified between Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on Friday.

El Fasher is the last major city in the Darfur region still controlled by the Sudanese army after more than a year of brutal civil war.

At the weekend MSF reported that a paediatric hospital it supports was forced to shut down after an air strike killed two children in the intensive care unit and a caregiver.

MSF said it had received a total of 290 wounded patients in another hospital since Friday.

Alongside the charity, UN officials have been warning for weeks that an escalation of violence threatens hundreds of thousands of civilians in El Fasher, many of them displaced from fighting elsewhere. The US is warning of a large-scale massacre.

Julian Bedford
BBC World Service

A Nigerian student is reportedly taking legal action against her school after a video of her being bullied went viral.

According to local media reports, lawyers for Namitra Bwala said the prestigious Lead British International School in Abuja state had failed to provide a safe learning environment.

She is said to be seeking a public apology and $350,000 (£280,000) in damages.

Footage of her being repeatedly slapped and insulted by fellow pupils was widely shared earlier this month.

The school has said it is investigating the incident and hopes she will return to classes.

Read more:

• Prestigious Nigerian school closed over bullying reports

DJ Edu
Presenter of This Is Africa on BBC World Service

Zanda Zakuza shot to fame as the voice behind several South African club bangers, including Master KG’s 2018 hit Skeleton Move and Club Contoller by Prince Kaybee.

She found herself grappling with celebrity and international touring and, as she has been telling me, she felt totally ill-equipped to cope with these pressures.

“I found myself lonely at times, I missed my family and everything that I knew, so that took a toll mentally, I was a baby,” Zakuza says.

She describes reaching out to people back home, but finding they were busy getting on with their own lives.

Also, since they felt she was very lucky to be overseas, they did not have much sympathy to offer.

Zakuza says she faced mistreatment at venues because she was black and female, and she also had to deal with online criticism, including about how she looked.

“My hairdresser is all the way back in South Africa, give me a break! I just never got to be an upcoming artist," she says.

"I never got to make mistakes without the world looking at me. It was hard to walk away at what seemed like the peak of my career, but rather I walk away than crash.”

She decided to take a break from music, exploring the world of radio and acting, but now she is back with a fresh EP and renewed confidence.

“I am 30 now! I have created boundaries. I won’t exert myself trying to please everyone. I know how to handle nay-sayers... by the way the best way is to ignore them,” Zakuza advises.

Judging by the exclusive acoustic performances she has recorded for This Is Africa, we are in for a treat when Zakuza’s EP drops.

To hear Zanda Zakuza in session with DJ Edu, listen online here.

Image source, Bring Back Stevo campaign

A Kenyan man due to be executed in Saudi Arabia has had a last-minute reprieve following a large-scale social media campaign.

Stephen Munyakho, son of veteran journalist Dorothy Kweyu, received the death penalty in 2011 following a fatal fight with a colleague in the Gulf nation.

According to the Bring Back Stevo campaign, run by Munyakho's supporters, both workers "sustained stab wounds" but only Munyakho survived.

Consequently Munyakho was handed the death sentence.

Under Saudi law, a death sentence can be lifted if the family agrees to get compensation instead.

His family back home in Kenya have been attempting to raise the required blood money, which is 3.5m Saudi riyals ($940,000; £750,000), for the deceased's family.

On Monday, just two days before Munyakho was due to be executed, Kenya's Principal Secretary for Foreign Affairs said Saudi Arabia had "kindly granted" the government's request to postpone the death in order to allow for "further negotiations between all parties".

Korir Sing'Oei wrote on social media platform X, formerly Twitter: "As we devise strategies to bring this matter to a more acceptable conclusion, and thereby giving both families the closure they so urgently need and deserve, we shall continue to lean on the warm and solid friendship that we have with our Saudi partners, as well as on the goodwill of all Kenyans."

Julian Bedford
BBC World Service

Labour unions in Nigeria have begun a nationwide protest against the withdrawal of subsidies that lowered the price of electricity.

Prices for some customers have risen by 240% following the latest measure to cut government spending introduced by President Bola Tinubu.

The Nigeria Labour Congress says the hike is unaffordable.

Its members have begun picketing the offices of the Nigerian electricity regulator and regional distribution companies.

Staff in some cities have been unable to get into work.

You may be interested in:

• Kenya's new planned tax hikes spark anger
• Why Nigeria's economy is in such a mess

Earlier, we reported that popular blogger Dorcas Adeyinka was wanted by the Nigerian police in connection with a cyber-stalking, abduction and murder case.

A lawyer for Ms Adeyinka has dismissed the allegations against her, saying she is a "law-abiding citizen" who has been "unfairly targeted".

Pelumi Olajengbesi, from Abuja-based practice Law Corridor, said the allegations boiled down to a "social media altercation" between Ms Adeyinka and a number of other individuals.

He said Ms Adeyinka had been the first to report the dispute to the police, "only to face further harassment and attempts to silence her".

He added that his client had never "shunned" the police and had "initiated contact with the appropriate channels".

A key cable linking the region to South Africa was cut on Sunday morning, an industry expert says.

BBC World Service

Residents of the beseiged Sudanese city of El Fasher have told the BBC there has been no let-up in the fighting.

The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have been trying to take the one major city in the Darfur region outside their control but their offensive has so far been beaten back by the regular army and allied militias.

Witnesses report street fighting, sniper fire, artillery and air strikes and say hundreds have been forced to flee.

One resident said the situation in El Fasher was "catastrophic".

"Aircraft are also bombing near to the El Fasher Children's Hospital... some children, I think around two or three, have passed away."

Supplies of food and water are running low, with the RSF blockading roads and looting trucks trying to reach the city.

The population of El Fasher has swollen to at least 1.5 million as those displaced by the conflict seek shelter.

Both sides in the year-long conflict have been accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Read more about Sudan's conflict:

• Children killed as bomb falls near Sudan hospital - MSF
• A front-row seat to my country falling apart
• Fear and prayers in Sudan city under siege

A group of university students and other victims who had been kidnapped in northern Nigeria were rescued on Sunday, the authorities said.

Gunmen attacked the Confluence University of Science and Technology in Kogi state late on Thursday night, kidnapping nine students.

The abductees were rescued by local hunters and security forces who tackled the kidnappers in a shootout, Kogi information commissioner Kingsley Femi Fanwo said on social media platform X, formerly Twitter.

Mr Fanwo also said the rescued abductees had been taken to hospital for medical attention.

"Security agents are currently combing the forests to ensure all the kidnapped students are found and brought home safely," he added.

Nigeria is experiencing a resurgence of kidnapping gangs, known as bandits, which have abducted hundreds of people since the year began, mostly in the north-west of the country.

Many of the abductees have been freed, some after ransom payments were made.

Image source, Rwanda Presidency/X

Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye has hosted his Rwandan counterpart, Paul Kagame, at a basketball game in capital city, Dakar.

The game took place on Sunday evening and featured Senegal’s AS Douanes and Rwanda’s APR Basketball Club. Both teams are competing in the Basketball Africa League.

Mr Kagame is among the first leaders to visit Senegal since Mr Faye, 44, was sworn in as Africa's youngest democratically elected leader in April.

The Rwandan president's visit to Senegal seeks to boost bilateral ties and promote co-operation in areas including trade, tourism and governance, the Rwandan presidency says.

Read more:

• Who is Bassirou Diomaye Faye, Africa's youngest elected president?

Image source, AFP

The death toll from a building that collapsed last Monday in South Africa's southern coastal city of George has reached 24, local authorities say, external.

Efforts continue to rescue and recover 28 other people who remain trapped under the rubble.

Among those still trapped is Florence Kawunga, a 19-year-old woman who had been employed at the site as a cleaner, her family told the News24 website, external.

Eighty-one people were in the partially constructed, five-storey building when it fell.

Out of the 29 survivors who have been rescued, 13 remain hospitalised.

The cause of the collapse is being investigated.

The rescue effort includes 200 people with sniffer dogs, heavy lifting equipment and rescuers removing concrete blocks and debris by hand.

Read more:

• Man freed five days after South Africa building collapse

Image source, Nigeria police force/X

Police in Nigeria are searching for a popular UK-based blogger wanted in connection with a cyber-stalking, abduction and murder case.

A Nigeria Police Force wanted poster also linked Dorcas Adeyinka to "injurious falsehood, threat to life and extortion, external".

They did not provide further details on the case, which the blogger is yet to comment on.

The poster says that if seen, Ms Adeyinka should be arrested and taken to the nearest police station.

"A handsome reward awaits any person(s) with information leading to her arrest," police also said.

Ms Adeyinka is described as a married Yoruba blogger who lives in the UK but frequently visits Nigeria.

Image source, AFP

Several schools are reopening in Kenya after the start of term was postponed by deadly flooding.

Police and transport officials have been deployed to ensure students get to class safely.

More than 1,600 schools across the country may not reopen yet due to floods, the authorities said.

Muslim leaders have expressed concern over student safety and asked for the situation to be closely monitored.

They are calling on drivers to be vigilant on roads battered by the floods.

Several schools have been damaged by the floods, which killed more than 250 people across Kenya.

Schools had been due to open on 29 April before the new term was pushed back.

Rwanda's government has denied accusations that it armed a rebel group alleged to have carried out a grenade attack in Burundi's economic hub, Bujumbura.

At least 38 people were injured in Friday's attack, Pierre Nkurikiye, the spokesperson for Burundi's interior ministry said.

"These terrorists were recruited, trained and even equipped with weapons in Rwanda and by Rwanda," Mr Nkurikiye added.

Rwanda's government dismissed the allegations on Sunday, saying it "has absolutely no connection" with the attack and had "no reason to be involved" in it.

"We call on Burundi to solve its own internal problems and not associate Rwanda with such despicable matters," a government statement said.

Red Tabara, the group accused of executing the grenade attack, has also denied responsibility, saying it "does not attack innocent civilians".

Rwanda's relationships with neighbouring nations Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo have become strained in recent years.

Both neighbours have accused Rwanda of funding rebel attacks in their countries, but Rwanda has repeatedly denied these allegations.

Paul Njie
BBC News, Chad

Image source, AFP

Chad’s interim Prime Minister Succès Masra has filed a petition at the Constitutional Council challenging the preliminary results of last week's presidential election.

His boss, General Mahamat Déby, was declared winner with 61% of the vote, but Mr Masra considers himself to be the true victor.

“With the help of our lawyers, today we submitted a request to the Constitutional Council to reveal the truth of the ballot boxes,” Mr Masra announced in a social media post on Sunday, external.

The opposition figure and his Transformers’ party said the results should be annulled, alleging that some ballot boxes were stuffed and others were carried away by soldiers to be counted elsewhere.

Some opposition members have been arrested, while Mr Masra and his supporters have been threatened, the party added.

However, Mr Masra reiterated that his followers remain “peaceful for the love of our country”, insisting that “the change you want to see cannot happen in a destroyed country”.

Shortly before the election results were announced, Mr Masra had urged his supporters to mobilise and hold peaceful demonstrations in order to defend their votes.

The Constitutional Council is set to decide in the coming days whether to uphold the preliminary results or annul them, as requested by Mr Masra and Yacine Abdramane Sakine, another candidate who lost the election.

Even though the council is yet to confirm Mr Déby as Chad's new president, some heads of state such as Nigeria's Bola Tinubu and Guinea-Bissau's Umaro Sissoco Embaló have already congratulated the military leader.

Image source, AFP

Plans to introduce new taxes and increase exsisting ones have triggered widespread criticism in Kenya.

The price of bread is set to climb after the national treasury proposed removing the staple product from a value added tax (VAT) exemption list.

The costs of mobile money transfers, airtime and data are also set to go up as the government seeks to raise an additional $2.4bn (£2bn) in taxes, in the financial year that starts in July.

In the 2024 Finance Bill, published on Saturday, the government also proposed a new motor vehicle tax that will see drivers pay up to $750 (£600) annually to keep their vehicles on the road.

The tax hikes are part of a series of financial measures introduced by President William Ruto's government in order to fund its extensive infrastructure and social programmes.

The move has generated sharp criticism, with politicians and human rights activists calling the taxes "burdening".

The opposition has threatened to mobilise protests across the country if the government goes ahead with the new tax measures.

Last year, the government introduced several taxes, including a controversial housing levy, despite widespread objection from some Kenyans.

Read more:

• William Ruto: The ‘tax collector’ president sparking Kenyan anger

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Outside of a war zone, South Africa is one of the most dangerous places in the world. The country’s murder rate is now at a 20-year high. With trust in the police falling, communities say they have no option but to defend themselves. BBC Africa Eye’s Ayanda Charlie joins two volunteer units, a team of farmers near Pretoria, and a group in Diepsloot, a poor township near Johannesburg. We see the risks they take, and ask who holds patrols accountable.

Alice Annum is Ghana's original 'Baby Jet'.

She gained the nickname after winning two silver medals at the 1970 Commonwealth Games, for the 100m and 200m sprint races.

Alice was also the first woman to represent Ghana at the Olympics. Throughout her career, not only did she compete as a runner, she also competed in long jump.

In more recent years the name 'Baby Jet' has been taken on by former footballer, Asamoah Gyan.

But Alice knows that she is the original. She tells Gill Kearsley the story of how she got the nickname.

(Photo: Alice Annum in 2024. Credit: Sally McBratney. Photo: Alice Annum the finish line of the Women's 100-metre event of the 1970 Commonwealth Games. Credit: Daily Express/Archive Photos/Getty Images)