Author: BBC

Police in South Africa are searching for answers after the bodies of three police officers – who had been missing for six days – were found in a river. Boipelo Senoge, 20, Cebekhulu Linda, 24, and Keamogetswe Buys, 30, were last seen leaving a petrol station near Johannesburg last Wednesday. Their bodies were discovered by […]

A prominent Tanzanian Catholic priest and government critic has been violently attacked amid rising political tensions ahead of elections due in October. Fr Charles Kitima, who had attended an all-day religious meeting, was ambushed by two people at night in a canteen restroom near his residence in Dar es Salaam. According to the police, he […]

A selection of the week’s best photos from across the African continent and beyond:

While Arsenal fans continue protesting about the club’s sponsorship deal with Visit Rwanda, the African country’s tourism board has signed a deal with another top European football side. Spanish giants Atletico Madrid have agreed a three-year contract with Visit Rwanda, and their men’s and women’s teams will carry its logo on their shirts next season. […]

outh African President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced a judicial inquiry into allegations of political interference in the prosecution of apartheid-era crimes. The announcement comes three decades after the end of white-minority rule – and after a group of survivors and victims’ relatives sued Ramaphosa’s government over a perceived lack of justice. The Truth and Reconciliation […]

A former biology teacher-turned-environmentalist is on a crusade in Uganda to save the once-flourishing trees from which shea butter is made – the cosmetic known as “women’s gold”. Mustafa Gerima wants local communities to stop chopping down the trees to make charcoal – which they say is more profitable than the oil, also used in […]

A Kenyan member of parliament has been shot dead in the streets of the capital Nairobi by gunmen on a motorcycle in a suspected assassination. Police said the attackers had been trailing Charles Ong’ondo Were’s vehicle before one of them got off the motorbike and shot him at close range. “The nature of this crime […]

At least 68 African migrants have been killed in a US air strike on a detention centre in Houthi-controlled north-western Yemen, the armed group’s TV channel says. Al Masirah reported that another 47 migrants were injured, most of them critically, when the centre in Saada province was bombed. It posted graphic footage showing multiple bodies […]

Now predominantly Muslim, North Africa was once a Christian heartland, producing Catholic popes who left their mark on the Church to this day. Their papacies were in the era of the Roman Empire, which stretched across modern-day Tunisia, the north-east of Algeria and the coast of western Libya. “North Africa was the Bible Belt of […]

A senior figure from South Africa’s ruling ANC party has defended his country’s sovereignty amid growing tensions with the US over race relations and a new land law. “We are a free country, we’re a sovereign country. We’re not a province of the United States and that sovereignty will be defended,” ANC National Chair Gwede […]