Author: BBC
Ethiopia says it has completed building a mega-dam on the Blue Nile that has long been a source of tension with Egypt and Sudan. Launched in 2011 with a $4bn (£2.9bn) budget, the dam is Africa’s biggest hydro-electric plant, and a major source of pride for Ethiopians. Ethiopia sees the dam as vital to meeting […]
Peter Rufai has been hailed as a “giant of football” after the former Nigeria goalkeeper died aged 61 on Thursday following a prolonged illness. Affectionately known as Dodo Mayana, he helped the Super Eagles win the Africa Cup of Nations in 1994 and also represented his nation at the Fifa World Cup in 1994 and […]
Two female tourists, including a British pensioner, have been killed by a charging elephant while on safari in Zambia, police have told the BBC. Easton Janet Taylor, 68, from the UK and 67-year-old Alison Jean Taylor from New Zealand were attacked by a female elephant that was with a calf at the South Luangwa National […]
Mali’s military leader Gen Assimi Goïta has been granted a five-year presidential term by the transitional parliament, which is renewable without elections. The junta leader, who has seized power twice, had promised the return of democracy last year, but it never materialised. The bill granting his new mandate said it could be renewed “as many […]
As record nine-time Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (Wafcon) champions, Nigeria’s historic dominance of continental football is unrivalled. The Super Falcons have racked up 48 wins from 61 games across 12 editions of the finals since 1998, but the team’s aura of invincibility has faded in recent years despite remaining the top-ranked side in Africa. […]
A Ugandan military helicopter crashed and caught fire at the main international airport in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, killing five people on board. The pilot, co-pilot and flight engineer survived with “serious injuries and severe burns”, Ugandan military spokesman Maj Gen Felix Kulaigye said, adding that an investigation into the cause of the crash was under […]
A DNA bone test on a man who lived 4,500 years ago in the Nile Valley has shed new light on the rise of the Ancient Egyptian civilisation. An analysis of his skeleton shows he was 60 years old and possibly worked as a potter, but also that a fifth of his DNA came from […]
South Africa’s two biggest political parties are in an unhappy marriage, but neither side wants to file divorce papers as it could damage them and, ultimately, their offspring – South African voters. But as the children of all toxic relationships know, it can be painful to watch the tantrums played out in public as each […]
One of Nigeria’s wealthiest businessmen, Aminu Dantata, has been buried in Saudi Arabia after he died on Saturday in the United Arab Emirates. Business mogul Dantata, 94, an uncle of Africa’s richest man Aliko Dangote, leaves three wives, 21 children and 121 grandchildren. His body was transferred from Abu Dhabi, where he died, to the […]