African news updates

A baseless claim
that several world leaders were recently murdered or were targets of
assassination attempts for their opposition to Covid-19 vaccines has been
spreading on social media.

The recently
deceased presidents of Tanzania, Burundi and Haiti, as well as prime ministers
of Ivory Coast and Eswatini, have appeared in memes and posts promoting this
baseless claim.

Assassination
attempts against the presidents of Mali and Madagascar have also been linked without any evidence to their views on vaccines.

None
of those deaths or assassinations were in any way related to their personal
positions on Covid vaccines.

Tanzania’s President John Mugufuli – known for his Covid-19 denial – died in March, officially of heart complications although his opponents say he had contracted Covid.

Similarly, President Pierre Nkurunziza of Burundi – who also refused to impose any restrictions to control the spread of coronavirus – died in June, officially of a cardiac arrest, but reports suggest he may have succumbed after contracting Covid.

The Ivory Coast prime minister died in March whilst undergoing treatment for cancer; and the prime minister of Eswatini died in December after testing positive for Covid-19.

As for the others in Madagascar, Mali and Haiti – their presidents were all targeted during attempted coups or political unrest.

There is absolutely no evidence that any of these leaders were the target of attacks because of their views on the efficacy of Covid vaccines.

At least four football players have been killed after a bomb hit their team bus in Somalia’s southern port city of
Kismayo, state-owned TV reports.

It added that 10 others were injured in the attack.

The report says the bus carrying the players was completely destroyed.

The team was heading to a stadium in
Kismayo to play a match.

Radio Mogadishu said government officials
were expected at the stadium where a local league competition was scheduled to
launch today.

No group has yet claimed responsibility
for the bombing, but the government blamed it on al-Shabab.

Basketball fans in the Democratic Republic of Congo have been celebrating news that Goma city-born Jonathan Kuminga has been signed by the NBA’s Golden State Warriors.

The Warriors picked the 18-year-old during a draft session on Thursday night at an event in Brooklyn, New York.

Back home, former basketball player Emmanuel Mwango remembered: “He was the best of the kids of his age here, I could tell he would become something… He just makes DR
Congo and his home here in Goma so proud.

Kuminga moved to the US in 2016 where he played for his high school and in the G-League, which is for developing players, before he was drafted.

Analysts say he was “the
most athletic player and rawest talent” during last night’s draft, averaging 15.8 points, 7.2
rebounds, and 2.7 assists per game last season.

Kuminga hasn’t
returned home since he left for the US, but in May when his hometown was hit by volcanic
eruption, he organised a fundraising to help those affected.

He becomes the sixth DR Congo-born player to play in the NBA after Dikembe Mutumbo, Bismack
Biyombo, Didier Ilunga-Mbenga, Christian Eyenga, Bismack Biyombo and Emmanuel Mudiay.

The security forces in Tunisia are reported to have arrested a member of parliament, who has accused President Kais Saied of carrying out a coup.

The wife of Yassine Ayari confirmed his detention, saying that about 20 members of the security forces came to their home.

She accused them of using violence as they arrested him.

Mr Ayari represents a small party in the Tunisian parliament – he made his name as a blogger criticising politicians, including Mr Saied.

He reportedly has outstanding legal charges against him but his lawyer has said that he doesn’t believe that his arrest is related to them.

The main coastal road in Libya between the east and west of the country has re-opened after being closed for two years because of conflict.

The re-opening of the road is a key element of the ceasefire between the warring sides.

The road has been closed since Khalifa Haftar – the leader of eastern-based forces – launched an offensive to try to take the capital, Tripoli, in 2019.

Last year, a ceasefire was agreed to end the attack and to try to bring stability and unity to the country through a UN-backed process.

The coastal road was briefly re-opened last month, but had to be closed again after only one day.

The UN’s children’s agency Unicef says
more than 100,000 children in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region could suffer
from life-threatening severe acute malnutrition in the next one year.

Pregnant and breastfeeding women were also acutely malnourished, Unicef spokeswoman Marixie Mercado, told a UN briefing in Geneva after returning from Tigray.

She also called for urgent aid access to the region.

“We need unfettered
access into Tigray and across the region, in order to
provide support children and women urgently need,” the Reuters news agency
quotes her as saying.

The US State Department on Friday asked for the warring sides to
ensure unhindered humanitarian access and restore electricity,
communication and banking services in Tigray.

It also called for parties in the Ethiopian conflict to urgently
“negotiate a ceasefire” and bring all political sides to a dialogue.

It came as the World Food Programme said it was running out of
food stocks to sustain more than 24,000 Eritrean refugees trapped in two camps
in Tigray region.

Fighting has been ongoing in the country’s northern Tigray
region between the former ruling Tigray People’s Liberation Front fighters and
federal government forces.

The conflict has been spreading to neighbouring Afar and Amhara
regions with intense fighting reported amid ethnic clashes across the country –
which have contributed to a worsening humanitarian situation.

The leader of Tunisia’s
largest party has called for the “return of democracy” in the country after President Kais Saied sacked Prime Minister Hichem Mchichi.

Rached Ghanouchi – who is also
the speaker of parliament – said his party was “ready to make any concessions for
the sake if restoring democracy in the country,” but not to “a dictatorship or
a coup”.

The Ennahdha party leader told AFP news agency that he
regretted the absence of dialogue with President Kais Saied.

Tunisia was thrown into a
political crisis after Mr Saied suspended parliament and sacked Mr Mchichi, a move that sent shock waves in the country
and abroad.

Under pressure President
Saied has appointed former national security adviser to Ridha Gharsallaoui to temporarily run the interior
ministry, a role that was performed by the ousted prime minister.

The name Oswald is trending in Ghana after a nine year-old boy’s wish list for an end of school party went viral.

The letter to his mum tugged at heartstrings after it was posted on
social media.

Oswald asked for biscuits, sweets and sodas, including a “big Coke” for his favourite teacher.

“I didn’t disappoint you in the exams so please disappoint me,” he pleaded with his mother.

People pitched in for treats for Oswald, including musician, Kidi, who visited the school after promising a free performance.

The World Food Programme
(WFP) says part of a convoy of 200 aid trucks that had been held up while heading for Ethiopia’s northern war-torn region of
Tigray has now been allowed to leave.

The WFP had earlier warned
that its food stocks in the region would run out on
Friday.

A convoy of 44 trucks left
Semera, the capital of the neighbouring Afar region, on Wednesday but is yet to
reach Tigray.

It is not yet clear where it has got to.

The remaining trucks – left
behind in Semera “pending security clearances” – have also now been cleared to
leave for Tigray

A spokesperson for the WFP
told the BBC they hope the arrival of the convoy, which is carrying over 900 tonnes
of food, will replenish stocks although it “is just a drop in the ocean”.

The WFP says at least 100
trucks are required each day in Tigray to supply aid to those in need.

More than five million people need humanitarian assistance in the region, with 400,000 living in famine conditions following months of conflict, the UN says.

Read more: What’s stopping aid getting in?

Algerians have taken to social
media to express outrage as hospitals run out of oxygen
amid a spike in coronavirus infections.

People from several parts of the country made appeals for oxygen to save the lives of Covid patients experiencing breathing difficulties.

Pictures shared on social media show chaotic scenes
in hospitals – some capture people gathered near lorries delivering oxygen cylinders.

The government has put in orders to bring in 15,000 oxygen concentrators with
2,250 expected to be delivered early next week.

Algeria has registered 1,537
new cases of coronavirus infections in the last 24 hours with 29 deaths.

Despite starting a vaccination campaign in January, only two million out of a population of 45
million have received the jab because of delays in vaccine deliveries.

The country is expected to
start producing Chinese jab Sinopharm and the Russian vaccine Sputnik from September.

South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir has postponed the swearing in ceremony of new legislators.

The 650 members of the Reconstituted National
Legislature: The Transitional National Assembly and the Council of
States were to take an oath on Friday but will do so on Monday.

The reason for the cancellation was cited as its coinciding with Martyrs’ Day – the day the nation’s founding father John Garang died in a helicopter crash in 2005.

The day also celebrates other people who died during the struggle for the country’s independence.

President Kiir urged the public to remember their loved ones quietly in their homes.