A new defence witness is expected to take the stand on Friday in the corruption trial of former National Assembly Speaker, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula. She faces 12 counts of corruption and one of money laundering, stemming from her time as Minister of Defence.

The state alleges that she solicited $266,000 in kickbacks from a military contractor in exchange for using her influence to secure tenders. Prosecutors say the former defence minister ultimately pocketed $130,000 and used it to pay the contractors who renovated her house in cash.

Residents of Nairobi's Mathare informal settlement are taking precautions against the threat of heavy El Niño rains, nearly two years after devastating floods swept away homes, destroyed livelihoods and claimed lives.

With Kenya's Meteorological Service warning of potentially intense rainfall between October and December, the government has urged around 1.5 million people living in flood-prone areas to move to higher ground.

Along the Mathare River, residents are clearing rubbish and debris in an effort to reduce the risk of flooding. Many remember the destruction caused by the 2024 rains, when rising waters overwhelmed homes and swept away property.

Since November 6, thousands of Burkinabe gold miners have been returning home.
In Bobo-Dioulasso, more than 37,000 Burkinabe nationals, including some 8,000 children, as well as more than a thousand citizens of other nationalities, are hoping to start a new life with support from the authorities.

Hundreds of people took to the streets of Bangui on Friday to protest the rising cost of living in Central African Republic and the arrest of five civil society leaders.

"People in the Central African Republic can no longer afford to live," Samson Ngaïbino, a member of the opposition BRDC told Africanews.

"That is why the population has decided to march and call on President Touadéra, saying enough is enough. He is living comfortably while the people are suffering. This is unacceptable. We say no to this situation. We demand that fuel prices be lowered so that Central Africans can afford a decent life.”

Good news out of Nigeria where authorities say no further cases of Ebola have been detected since a woman arriving from Uganda tested positive for the virus last month.

All 62 contacts linked to the patient have now completed a 21-day monitoring period without signs of infection, the country’s Centre for Disease Control said on Friday.

On October 20, Nigeria announced that a Swiss woman returning to Abuja after spending time in Uganda had tested positive for Ebola. Authorities said it was the same Bundibugyo strain of the virus driving the latest outbreak in the DRC. The patient received treatment in Switzerland and has since recovered.

France on Friday asked the European Commission to look into Algeria’s alleged non-compliance with a EU trade deal. Paris is accusing Algers of an almost total blockade on French imports and of suspending urea shipments to France.

The Democratic Republic of Congo's worst-ever outbreak of Ebola has now reached more than 11,000 confirmed cases, official Congolese figures showed on Wednesday, as armed conflict hampers the response.

The 17th outbreak of the virus in the DRC's history was officially declared in May but experts believe it emerged weeks or even months earlier.

It has infected 11,042 people in the DRC and caused 5,387 deaths, according to the National Institute of Public Health.

The Democratic Republic of Congo’s opposition has condemned a new law enacted by President Félix Tshisekedi that opens the door to constitutional changes, accusing him of seeking to extend his hold on power.

“He openly declares that he wants to stay in power until someone strong enough can drive him out,” said Jean-Baptiste Kasekwa, an opposition politician and member of the C64 coalition, which brings together the country’s main opposition parties.

DR Congo President Felix Tshisekedi enacted a law that paves the way for constitutional change, condemned by the opposition as an attempt to cling to power.

A succession battle is emerging within Uganda’s ruling party, after senior officials rejected President Yoweri Museveni’s reported plan to position his son as his successor.

Five party sources say the proposal to back army chief Muhoozi Kainerugaba was met with strong opposition during a closed-door meeting on Tuesday.

The vote was abandoned after several members spoke out against his candidacy, with only four reportedly voting in his favour and three against.

Leaders of Australia and Ethiopia both highlighted the importance of supporting developing nations with the challenge of adapting to climate change. Australia is leading negotiations at a time of fears that the world is not moving quickly enough, as Turkey is hosting the event.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said that wealthier countries must support pacific island nations which are already heavily impacted by climate change. "We must share the opportunities that climate action creates with the people who need the most to adapt and thrive, the most vulnerable countries need capital. We must ensure that they get it," added Albanese.

When it comes to climate change, many of the world’s island nations have banded together to be heard better. Their voices play the role of a conscience to a warming world, pleading to stop carbon pollution before it’s too late.

The deputy head of US Africa Command (AFRICOM) cautioned that similar partnerships with military-led governments in West Africa have failed to improve security.

Lieutenant General John Brennan said they were concerned that Russia wants to expand the model it has used in the Sahel to elsewhere across the continent.

"Madagascar sits in a location that is extremely important, as is Mozambique, and we don't want to see those models be applied in those two locations," he said.

Kenya's Health Minister Aden Duale announced on Wednesday that the last Ebola patient was discharged, with which the country officially began it's 42-day countdown toward being declared Ebola-free, even as the number of cases recorded in the wider region topped 11,000 since the outbreak began in May.

The country recorded nine Ebola cases in October after the first patient traveled from Congo through Uganda, transmitting the virus to four family members and four healthcare workers. The first patient and his mother died of Ebola, while the other seven patients have fully recovered. The government had identified 135 contacts who had interacted with the first patient. Kenya now begins the 42-day countdown to being declared Ebola-free, provided no new infections are recorded during that period.

An acrid haze hung over a sprawling dump in Ghana's capital, Accra, as excavators gouged into mounds of smouldering rubbish.

Thin plumes of black smoke curled from burning plastic and rubber, mingling with the rank odour of stagnant lagoon water.

At Agbogbloshie, a district on the Korle Lagoon delta, thousands of tonnes of refuse have accumulated over decades, overwhelming the fragile wetlands overlooking a slum of around 80,000 residents, many of them migrants and traders.

With South Sudan six weeks away from its first national vote since independence, the head of the UN mission there told the Security Council that the real test is whether the country’s political transition holds together beyond polling day.

“The central challenge facing South Sudan today is whether the transition remains anchored in the Revitalized Peace Agreement and whether the gains of recent years can be preserved and sustained beyond the election,” said Anita Kiki Gbeho, head of the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) briefing Member States today (10 Nov) in New York.

The elections are set for 22 December. In September, President Salva Kiir dissolved the transitional unity government, removed all vice-presidents, including First Vice-President Riek Machar, and appointed a caretaker administration. Opposition groups have rejected the moves as breaching the power-sharing terms of the 2018 peace agreement.

Tens of thousands have fled across the border from Nigeria to Niger and Benin to escape violence and insecurity this year, the United Nations has said.

Northern Nigeria faces rising religious intolerance and violence by jihadists and criminal bandit gangs, as well as farmer-herder clashes.

The UN's refugee agency (UNHCR) said in a statement on Thursday that more than 66,000 had fled across the borders by mid-October, three times the number in the same period last year.

Slovakia's Robert Fico accused the German chancellor of "blackmail" as four EU countries resisted his demand to link approval of the bloc's next long-term budget to fresh financial support for Ukraine.

The leaders of Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Bulgaria have pushed back against German Chancellor Friedrich Merz's ultimatum to make approval of the EU's next long-term budget conditional on fresh financial support for Ukraine.

The race for Gambia's presidency is heating up, as opposition leader Ousainou Darboe officially files his candidacy for the December 5 election.

Grieving families in northeastern Senegal are struggling to come to terms with the loss of loved ones after a migrant boat capsized off the country's coast, killing dozens of people in one of the deadliest such tragedies in recent years.

Anticipation is building in Cameroon after President Paul Biya called legislative and municipal elections for February 7, 2027.

Security is once again deteriorating in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

In South Kivu, clashes between Congolese forces, backed by Wazalendo militia, and FRN fighters, formerly known as AFC/M23, are intensifying across several front lines.