BBC News Africa

Jomar O’MeallyCopyright: Jomar O’Meally

If someone used to work in McDonald’s and their nickname is “The Sauce” you may not necessarily expect them to be a 6ft 5in lean, mean fighting machine.

But in a few weeks’ time Lawrence “The Sauce” Okolie will box for a world title for the first time.

“I’m going to be bringing that world title back to Britain and I’ll be bringing it back to Nigeria.”

The 28-year-old was born and raised in London but has parents from Nigeria: one Yoruba and one Igbo.

“It’s a massive part of who I am and why I am the way that I am. My parents always said to me that when it’s time to go back, go back with something.

“God willing I’m able to win my next fight, it’s like now I’m a world champion there’s more pulling power and more stuff that I can actually accomplish.”

In the build-up to the fight on 20 March, against Poland’s Krzysztof Glowacki for the vacant WBO cruiserweight crown, Okolie and his friend and fellow boxer Joshua Buatsi joined me on This Is Africa for a chat about their love of afrobeats, the classic tracks they grew up listening to and the heavy-hitting tunes that get them through tough training sessions.

“If I’m doing a long run, I know reggae music’s the one for me,” says Buatsi, an Olympic bronze medallist who was born in Ghana’s capital, Accra, before moving to the UK when he was nine.

“But it has to be a live version. I can’t listen to the ones done in the studio. In the boxing gym, when I’m working hard, I love the American artists. Gunna, Lil Baby - the rhythms and the beats they put together and the flows over it.”

Okolie adds: “I think it [music] is part of every training session of mine.

“Hours every day, it’s music. Most athletes would say music is one of the most important things.”

For every boxer one of the toughest musical choices comes in the form of that all-important ring walk.

But when you write and record your own rap tracks, like Okolie, maybe it’s not so tough after all.

“I feel like, if I’m going to walk out, I might as well motivate myself and walk out to my own sound.”

If “The Sauce” becomes a world champion later this month, you may end up hearing more of his tasty lyrical flavours.

You can secure a ringside seat to hear the rest of that interview by checking out Saturday’s This is Africa on BBC World Service radio and partner stations across Africa.

A week after Nasa's Perseverance rover landed successfully on Mars, BBC Focus on Africa’s satirical Resident Presidents debate the value of space travel.

Olushambles is full of the wonders of the so-called Red Planet, but Kibarkingmad has more mundane concerns, like what happens to human waste.

Listen to their weekly catch-up:

EPACopyright: EPA

Medical workers in Zimbabwe have been reluctant to take Covid-19 vaccinations received from China, the AFP news agency reports the nurses’ union as saying.

It cites a lack of clarity over whether China's Sinopharm vaccine protects against a virus variant that emerged in neighbouring South Africa.

The vaccination campaign began last week, but Enock Dongo, president of the 12,000-member Zimbabwe Nurses Association, said that uptake amongst health workers was low.

"As things stand, people are reluctant," Mr Dongo told AFP.

Developers of the Sinopharm vaccine say it is 79% effective against coronavirus.

But its efficacy against the more contagious variant, now dominant in Zimbabwe, is still unclear, AFP says.

Sanusi JangebeCopyright: Sanusi Jangebe

Two mothers in northern Nigeria have told the BBC how Friday’s school kidnapping is terrifying parents.

More than 300 schoolgirls were abducted in the early hours of the morning by unidentified gunmen from a school in north-western Zamfara state.

“Most parents are withdrawing from school,” Aisha Muktar, a fashion designer with three children, told BBC OS.

She lives in Katsina state, where 300 boys were taken from their boarding school in December, and says kidnapping for ransom is widespread as the country lacks basic security.

But after that incident, at a school that was only an hour's drive away, Ms Muktar says her eight-year-old was scared.

He kept asking what he should do if this happened to him if he went to boarding school.

“I didn’t have an answer,” she said.

Hawwa Dodo, who runs a food business in Katsina, agrees the frequency of the mass kidnappings is alarming.

“It’s very close to us, very close to home,” Ms Dodo said.

“I was a product of boarding school and I know how good it is, but I don’t think I can ever let my two kids go to boarding school.”

You can listen to Aisha Muktar and Hawwa Dodo on BBC OS on the World Service.

A judge in Paris has ruled that the corruption trial of a leading French industrialist should go ahead, despite his guilty plea.

The court decided that the case against Vincent Bolloré was so serious that it should not be settled, as agreed with prosecutors, with a $450,000 (£323,000) fine.

Mr Bolloré and two others had already accepted their guilt in bribing an official in Togo to win a contract to run the port of Lomé a decade ago.

The case against Mr Bolloré's conglomerate has been concluded with a fine of $15m.

AFPCopyright: AFP

Lawmakers in Senegal have voted to lift the immunity of leading opposition MP Ousmane Sonko, who has been accused of rape - allegations he denies.

Mr Sonko finished third in the 2019 presidential elections, and is considered a strong future presidential contender in the West African state, the AFP news agency reports.

The 46-year-old head of the opposition Pastef party has accused President Macky Sall, who is serving his second term in office, of conspiring against him, AFP says.

Correspondents say the news is likely to upset his young supporters, who protested last month when a beauty-salon employee filed rape charges against him.

AFPCopyright: AFP

The house of RFI’s correspondent in Niger was attacked and burnt amid tensions about the results of a presidential run-off held on Sunday, the French broadcaster said.

Moussa Kaka was targeted on Thursday because he was a journalist, the French radio station said, condemning the attack.

Former Interior Minister Mohamed Bazoum, the ruling party’s candidate, was declared the winner, which opposition candidate Mahamane Ousmane is contesting, alleging fraud.

“This is a very serious attack on the freedom of the press,” the RFI statement said.

“A long-time RFI correspondent in Niger, Moussa Kaka has already been subjected to numerous threats, including cyber-harassment by unknown individuals at the end of last year, and has already filed a complaint.”

At least two people have died during protests this week.

Meanwhile, leading opposition figure Hama Amadou, accused by the government of stoking unrest, has handed himself into police, one of his aides said, the AFP news agency reports.

Mr Amadou had once been considered the main opposition contender to run against Mr Bazoum, but was banned from running because of a conviction for baby trafficking, which he says was politically motivated.

He went on to support Mr Ousmane in the race.

Mr Bazoum, 61, is set to succeed President Mahamdou Issoufou, who is stepping down after two five-year terms.

Thousands of anti-government protesters have taken to the streets of the Algerian capital, Algiers, with columns of marchers converging on the city centre.

EPACopyright: EPA

The gathering appeared to be a resumption of the weekly demonstrations on Fridays that were halted a year ago by the coronavirus pandemic.

The street protests brought down President Abdulaziz Bouteflika in 2019, and then continued as the demonstrators pressed in vain for a sweeping away of the rest of the political establishment.

• Read: Why Algeria's protests are back and the president is worried

EPACopyright: EPA

Ivory Coast has become the second country after Ghana to receive coronavirus jabs as part of the global vaccine-sharing programme Covax.

Half a million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine were delivered from a plant in India.

Ivorian Health Minister Eugene Aka Aouélé welcomed their arrival, saying the fight against the pandemic must be done democratically.

"This is an important step in our shared fight against the common enemy that is Covid-19," he said.

"The pandemic has taken a heavy toll around the world and our country is no exception. More than 32,000 people living in Ivory Coast have been infected with the disease, and 188 have died. This is a tragedy."

Ivory Coast plans initially to immunise health workers, teachers and members of the security forces, starting next week.

On Wednesday, the first Covax consignment arrived in neighbouring Ghana.

Getty ImagesCopyright: Getty Images

Eritrea's government has "categorically rejected’’ accusations that its troops fighting in Ethiopia's northern Tigray region killed hundreds of people in the holy city of Aksum over two days in November.

An Amnesty International report says the mass killings on 28 and 29 November may amount to a crime against humanity

But Eritrea’s Information Minister Yemane G Meskel dismissed it as preposterous.

“The report is largely based on testimonies of some 31 individuals from the Hamdayet Refugee camp in the Sudan,” he tweeted.

Mr Meskel said it was known that many in that camp were fighters loyal to Tigray's ousted TPLF party who had fled after being accused of a "hideous massacre" in Mai-Kadra earlier in the conflict.

Amnesty says it based its report of the Aksum massacre on interviews with refugees from Tigray in Sudan and also conducted numerous phone interviews with witnesses in the city. The rights group also provided satellite imagery analysis showing evidence consistent with new burial sites.

The 41 survivors and witnesses provided the names of more than 200 people they knew who were killed in Aksum.

The BBC also spoke to witnesses in Aksum who give similar accounts to those interviewed by Amnesty.

A civil servant said that the bodies of boys and men shot by Eritrean soldiers remained unburied on the streets for days, with many being eaten by hyenas.

He estimated that the death toll could be as high as 800, a figure also given by a church deacon interviewed by Associated Press who was verifying victims' identity cards and assisting with burials in mass graves.

Both the Ethiopian and Eritrean governments deny that Eritrean soldiers are involved in the conflict in Tigray.

The Ethiopian Human Rights commission says Amnesty's report should be "taken seriously" and that it was investigating the allegations.

Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed launched the offensive to oust the region's ruling TPLF party in early November after its fighters captured federal military bases in Tigray.

He told parliament on 30 November that "not a single civilian was killed" during the operation.

A communications and electricity blackout and restricted access to Tigray has meant reports of what has gone on in the conflict have been slow to emerge.

• Read: How a massacre in the sacred city of Aksum unfolded

Nomsa SibayaCopyright: Nomsa Sibaya

When Nomsa Sibaya’s only kidney began to fail in 2008, her doctor in South Africa told her she needed to urgently find a kidney donor.

Her other kidney had already been removed a few years earlier as a result of an infection.

Nomsa’s condition began to deteriorate - her weight plummeted, her complexion darkened, she was in constant pain and felt exhausted. So Nomsa’s twin sister, Thembi Makhoba, stepped in after being told by doctors she could help by donating one her kidneys.

The twins had always been close. When they were younger, if Thembi was sick Nomsa would be unwell too. So for Thembi, agreeing to be tested as a possible donor was an easy decision, despite resistance from her in-laws on religious grounds.

After passing a series of tests, surgeons removed and transplanted one of Thembi’s organs into Nomsa in October 2012.

Nomsa remembers waking up after the operation:

Quote Message: It was like I was given a second chance at life. The gift of life.”

It was like I was given a second chance at life. The gift of life.”

But according to the South African Journal of Critical Care, the majority of patients in need of an organ do not have a suitable living donor and the most serious patients end up on a donor waiting list.

Unable to find a compatible living donor, Sandrisha Rugbir is relying on a deceased donor’s organ and has been on the waiting list for seven years.

Diagnosed with renal failure at 21, she has been in limbo ever since.

Quote Message: You just have to keep the faith and pray every day that one day I will get a call saying that I have a kidney donor, and it is compatible.”

You just have to keep the faith and pray every day that one day I will get a call saying that I have a kidney donor, and it is compatible.”

There are 4,300 South Africans awaiting a life-saving transplant but only 0.2% of the country are registered as donors, according to South Africa’s Organ Donation Foundation.

Lack of awareness and cultural taboos are some of the factors that account for the shortage in organ donors.

Silindile Makhwasa, an organ transplant co-ordinator in Durban, says she often gets questions such as: “If I donate my organs to other people when I die, will my ancestors recognise me?”

Silindile MakhwasaCopyright: Silindile Makhwasa

She regularly holds outreach programmes at shopping centres, universities and churches to address such questions.

Find out more in this week’s episode of The Comb.

Subscribe to the show on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts.

AFPCopyright: AFP

Human Rights Watch (HRW) says it has gathered evidence of a revenge attack nearly a year ago by Cameroonian soldiers on a village where they raped at least 20 women.

The raid on Ebam in the Anglophone South-West region, an area where separatists are fighting for an independent state of Ambazonia, was one of the worst atrocities carried out by Cameroon’s army in recent years, the rights organisation said.

It had gone largely unreported because of stigma and fear of reprisal which discourages survivors of sexual violence from speaking out, HRW said, adding that there had been no effective investigation.

“One year on, survivors of the Ebam attack are desperate for justice and reparations, and they live with the disturbing knowledge that those who abused them are walking free and have faced no consequences,” said HRW’s Ida Sawy’er in a statement.

HRW’s investigation included interviews between August and January with witnesses, rape survivors and a doctor who had treated them.

Witnesses said that more than 50 soldiers entered Ebam on foot at about 03:00 on 1 March 2020, breaking into almost all the 75 houses in the village.

A number of soldiers rounded up men, while others raped women, including four with disabilities, HRW said.

Dozens of men were detained and severely beaten and a 34-year-old man was also killed by soldiers in a forest by the village, the rights group said.

“Five masked soldiers entered my home,” a 40-year-old woman told HRW.

“It was dark, and I was alone. They searched the house and stole my phone and money. One of them abused me. He said: ‘If you don’t have sex with me, I will kill you!’

“I was too afraid to say or do anything. After the rape, I ran into the bush where I spent two months. I am still upset and traumatised.”

Witnesses said that the military operation was a reprisal attack to punish civilians suspected of collaborating with separatist fighters.

An army spokesman dismissed the report.

"We have better things to do than react to this report. Human Rights Watch is clearly complicit in the terrorists' atrocities," Col Cyrille Atonfack told the Reuters news agency, referring to the rebels.

Anglophone activists say the country's French-speaking majority is marginalising the English-speaking minority.

The secessionist violence in the English-speaking regions of North-West and South-West Cameroon has claimed more 3,500 lives since late 2016, HRW estimates.

Both the separatists and government troops have been accused of human rights abuses.

You may also be interested in:

• Disturbing Cameroon atrocity
• The rebels fighting for independence
• Burning Cameroon: Images you're not meant to see

ReutersCopyright: Reuters

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) has made an urgent appeal for more than a $100m (£72m) to ease severe shortages in the Ethiopia's northern region of Tigray.

The UN agency says three million people - about half of Tigray's population - need food aid.

Much of the region has remained cut off to humanitarian workers since Ethiopian government forces ousted the local leadership of the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front (TPLF).

The WFP says its response was requested by the government in Addis Ababa.

Aid agencies have issued increasingly shrill warnings of widespread hunger in Tigray, despite official denials.

Last week, the International Committee of the Red Cross described the scale of need as overwhelming.

You may also be interested in:

• How a massacre in the sacred city of Aksum unfolded

ReutersCopyright: Reuters

Rwanda’s high court has rejected a request by the man portrayed as a hero in a Hollywood film about the Rwandan genocide to move his trial on terrorism charges to Belgium.

Paul Rusesabagina had said at the opening of the trial earlier this month that he was being held illegally as he was Belgian, and no longer held Rwandan nationality.

But the court in the capital, Kigali, has ruled that Mr Rusesabagina did not legally renounce his Rwandan nationality, it does not view him as a “Belgian hostage” and so the trial should continue.

Mr Rusesabagina became famous after Don Cheadle played him in the 2004 film Hotel Rwanda, which depicts his efforts to save hundreds of people from being murdered during the 1994 genocide.

He left Rwanda in 1996 and sought asylum in Belgium. He later obtained a green card for the US, becoming involved in opposition politics in exile.

The 66-year-old was detained in unclear circumstances in Dubai last August. He says he was illegally abducted and flown to Rwanda. The authorities say he was arrested under an international warrant.

Human Rights Watch, the EU Parliament and a group of US senators have all condemned Mr Rusesabagina’s arrest and rendition.

On Thursday, the US State Department said it was engaged in “high-level” talks about the case with the Rwandan government.

A fierce critic of Rwanda's President Paul Kagame, Mr Rusesabagina is accused of sponsoring deadly attacks in Rwanda in 2018 and 2019 by the FLN, the armed wing of the Rwandan Movement for Democratic Change (MRCD), a coalition of opposition parties which he heads.

His lawyers have denied the charges against him and say they will appeal Friday's ruling.

Hulda Swai, a Tanzanian professor of life sciences and bio-engineering, has been declared the 2020 winner of the African Union Kwame Nkrumah Continental Awards for Scientific Excellence.

Her work with nanotechnology has helped to study more effective anti-malarial medicines, and through the World Bank, she has helped to secure millions of dollars to fund African researchers.

"I'm using nanotechnology, which is my training and expertise, to improve the availability of existing herbal extracts which are very potent but are lacking for example solubility," she told the BBC's Focus on Africa radio programme.

Prof Swai earned the prestigious award together with a cash prize of $20,000 (£14,000).

She told BBC Focus on Africa's Esau Williams about what motivated her to take up a career in science and how she hopes to inspire other women in the field.

"Science is not that difficult, it's just a myth. Women are as good as men," she says.

Here is her full interview:

ReutersCopyright: Reuters

The US has urged Rwanda to guarantee the man portrayed as a hero in a Hollywood movie about the Rwandan genocide a fair trial as it is set to resume.

Paul Rusesabagina has been charged with terrorism, murder and other crimes. His lawyers have denied the charges against him.

The US state department said it had engaged with the government of Rwanda at the "highest levels" in "Washington as well as in Kigali".

"We believe that the legal process adjudicating his case should be fair and transparent, should respect the rule of law, and it must be consistent with Rwanda’s own commitments and human rights obligations internationally," US State Department spokesman Ned Price told journalists.

He had been asked whether a fair trial was possible and if President Joe Biden's administration was planning to join a bipartisan group of US senators calling for Mr Rusesabagina's release.

The 66-year-old became famous after Don Cheadle played him in the 2004 film Hotel Rwanda, which depicts his efforts to save hundreds of people from being murdered during the 1994 genocide.

He left Rwanda in 1996 and sought asylum in Belgium. He later obtained a green card for the US, becoming involved in opposition politics in exile.

A fierce critic of Rwanda's President Paul Kagame, he says he was illegally abducted in Dubai last year and flown to Rwanda. The authorities say he was arrested under an international warrant.

Getty ImagesCopyright: Getty Images

Ebola’s back in Guinea - and people are nervous, because this was the epicentre of the world’s deadliest Ebola outbreak in 2013.

That one spread to Liberia and Sierra Leone, lasted three years and claimed more than 11,000 lives.

But this time, things are different.

“[It’s] compounded by the fact that there’s also the coronavirus here and in recent days the number of infections has been going up steadily,” said Alhassan Sillah, the BBC’s reporter in Conakry, the capital of Guinea.

But it’s not all bad news. Lessons have been learnt from the last epidemic.

Governments have tracking systems in place to contain the spread of the disease, vaccines are being rolled out in hotspots and scientists are studying the DNA of the virus.

Dr Christian Happi, director of the African Centre of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases, is credited with preventing the disease spreading to Nigeria.

“Using genome sequencing actually enables you to have a deep understanding of the genetic make-up of the virus that is creating the disease,” he said.

“That genetic make-up is very critical for any counter measures that could be developed, for instance for diagnostics, for drugs, for vaccines.”

So, could Africa finally be ready to beat Ebola? Find out in Friday’s edition of Africa Daily.

Subscribe to the show on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts.