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Twitter did not chose Nigeria for its African headquarters because the media often mispresents the country, Information Minister Lai Mohammed has said.

He was responding to Monday’s announcement by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey that the micro-blogging site had decided on Ghana for its first African office as the country was a “champion for democracy” and “a supporter of free speech” and “online freedom”.

Nigeria is Africa's biggest economy and has a more established tech hub, but it also faces numerous security challenges - and was hit by mass protests last year against police brutality by the notorious Special Anti-Robbery Squad (Sars).

The demonstrations became known by the Twitter hashtag #EndSars - and led to President Muhammadu Buhari bowing to the protesters’ demands and disbanding the unit.

In a video posted on the information ministry’s Twitter feed, Mr Mohamed was critical of the media’s "unpatriotic" coverage of the protests when asked about asked about Twitter's decision to snub Nigeria.

"Nigerian journalists were... painting Nigeria as a hell where nobody should live," the minister said.

"This is what you get when you de-market your own country.”

You may also be interested in:

• Why Nigerians fear social media sanctions

AFPCopyright: AFP

French anti-terrorist prosecutors have asked for a Rwandan former policeman to stand trial in Paris for genocide and crimes against humanity in his homeland in 1994.

Philippe Hategekimana has been held in France for two years since his extradition from Cameroon, where he was arrested on a French warrant in 2018.

He has accused of putting up checkpoints where ethnic Tutsis were slaughtered in the southern town of Ntyazo, and of complicity in the murder of the town's mayor Narcisse Nyagasaza.

About 800,000 people were slaughtered in Rwanda in 100 days in 1994 by ethnic Hutu extremists, many of whom later fled the country.

They were targeting members of the minority Tutsi community, as well as their political opponents, irrespective of their ethnic origin.

Last month, a report by French historians said France bore "heavy and overwhelming responsibilities" over the genocide but found no evidence of French complicity.

More on the genocide:

• What happened during Rwanda's 100 days of slaughter
• The radio show which brought children back from the dead

AFPCopyright: AFP

A court in Ivory Coast’s main city of Abidjan has handed down a life sentence to a former warlord, Amadé Ouérémi, for his role in massacres that were carried out in the west of the country following the disputed election in late 2010.

The UN said 300 people were killed in Duékoué although the International Committee of the Red Cross said more than 800 died in a single day - 29 March 2011.

At the time Ivory Coast was in the grip of a civil war - which arose from Laurent Gbagbo's refusal to step down as president after losing an election to Alassane Ouattara.

The five months of violence were described as some of the most brutal clashes the country had ever seen.

Ouérémi’s militia was also allegedly responsible for the destruction of a camp for displaced people in Nahibly, also in the vicinity of Duékoué, in July 2012.

The former militia leader was arrested in May 2013 in a rainforest where he had been making a living from trafficking timber and the cultivation and sale of cocoa beans.

AFPCopyright: AFP

Ouérémi faced 24 charges including mass murder and rape.

Given the magnitude of the war crimes committed during the crisis - more than 3,000 people died - many in Ivory Coast feel others should also be put on trial, our reporter says.

Last month, Mr Gbagbo's acquittal by the International Criminal Court on charges of crimes against humanity was upheld.

BBCCopyright: BBC

The Ugandan government has admitted to having held more than 1,000 people who were arrested in the run-up to January's elections.

The internal affairs minister told parliament most were still in detention.

The government has been under pressure to respond after the opposition National Unity Platform (NUP) party said more than 400 of its supporters and members were missing after being seized in raids by the security forces.

Following a BBC report in March about 18 young men who had been taken from a village in Kyotera, south-west of the capital, Kampala, all of them were released without charge, dumped near their village in the dead of night.

Dozens more have been released in a similar manner, some saying they had been tortured during their detention.

Earlier this week, UN Human Rights experts called on the Ugandan authorities to stop suppressing their political opponents.

The government's latest response leaves many unanswered questions about the number of people being held, on what grounds and where.

Singer-turned-NUP politician Bobi Wine was the main challenger to President Yoweri Museveni, who went on to win a sixth term in January.

Getty ImagesCopyright: Getty Images

More than seven million people in South Sudan will suffer acute food insecurity over the coming few months - and efforts need to be focused on stopping a potential famine, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) has said.

“This coming lean season 7.24 million will suffer from severe food insecurity - including 1.4 million children and young mothers who will suffer from malnutrition, and that is the situation we are responding to,” the WFP's Matthew Hollingworth told reporters in the capital, Juba.

“As such, we need to act and focus all our resources and energy on it in order to mitigate and stop this potential catastrophic food insecurity - to stop potential famine," he said.

The warning came as the US government, through its envoy in Juba, announced that it was contributing $95m (£70m) in additional humanitarian assistance for those affected by ongoing political conflict and extreme food insecurity.

A unity government was formed in February last year, ending a six-year brutal civil war - but insecurity is still rife across the fertile country.

This has prevented many farmers, who were forced to flee their homes, from planting or harvesting crops, causing food shortages nationwide.

Meanwhile, South Sudan has lifted a lockdown it imposed in early February to help contain rising cases of Covid-19, which will allow non-essential businesses to reopen.

The pandemic has further hampered economic recovery following the civil war.