Africa

2 days agoMansur AbubakarBBC News, AbujaNigerians are expressing outrage over a big jump in the price of mobile data charged by some of the country’s major phone networks.
MTN – Nigeria’s largest operator – trebled the cost of one of its most popular weekly offers. Airtel has also increased its tariffs.
A price jump was expected as the telecoms regulatory body had approved an increase, but in an announcement three weeks ago it said it had capped it at 50%. The phone companies wanted to boost their revenue in order to cover rising costs.
Nigerians have been living through a long cost-of-living crisis with inflation rates not seen for three decades. Any increase in prices adds to the struggle for many to make ends meet.
In response to customer complaints, MTN said on X that the price adjustment was necessary to serve subscribers better.
“We apologize for any inconvenience caused,” the company added. Airtel is yet to comment.
Subscribers only realised what had happened when they w..

20 hours agoWedaeli ChibelushiBBC NewsThe M23 rebels captured the city of Goma around two weeks agoThe Rwandan-backed M23 rebels have attacked Congolese government forces in the South Kivu province, breaking a two-day lull in fighting.
Heavy shelling began on Tuesday morning, three days after a summit of East and Southern African leaders called for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire.
The rebels have seized vast swathes of land in the eastern DR Congo, including the major city of Goma.
They are now pushing towards Bukavu, the capital of South Kivu – another key city in the region.
Around 2,900 people have been killed since early January as a result of the hostilities, the latest UN figures suggest.
Approximately 700,000 others are estimated to have been forced from their homes and thousands more injured.
The DR Congo rebel leader whose fighters have created turmoilWhat’s the fighting in DR Congo all about?Tuesday’s fighting erupted near Ihusi, a locality around 70km (43 miles) fr..

11 February 2025Ed ButlerBBC World ServiceReporting fromTamale, GhanaBurkina Faso’s military is struggling to defeat jihadists who have taken control of much territoryThree Ghanaians have told the BBC of their involvement in the fighting between Islamist insurgents and the military in neighbouring Burkina Faso, describing scenes of sometimes indiscriminate violence and bloody battles.
“We are always with the dead. In some battles, I’ve seen 40, 50 or 100 dead people,” one of the men told the BBC.
The three, all in their late thirties or early forties, said they had fought in Burkina Faso multiple times since 2018. They crossed the porous 550km-long (340-mile) border between the two countries, without being detected by the security forces.
They denied being primarily motivated by religion or being trained by the jihadists, saying they went to fight to defend civilian communities with whom they had strong family and ethnic ties.
“My elder brother, his wife and children were all killed by..

12 February 2025Simi JolaosoBBC News, Niger DeltaA BBC investigation has uncovered allegations that energy giant Shell has ignored repeated warnings that a controversial clean-up operation of oil-polluted areas of southern Nigeria has been beset by problems and corruption.
The multinational headquartered in London, along with the Nigerian government, has repeatedly stated that work to clean up oil-contaminated sites of Ogoniland, which kicked off around eight years ago, is going well.
But the BBC has discovered evidence that they were warned repeatedly over several years that the scheme, set up by the government and funded by various oil firms to the tune of $1bn (£805m), has been suffering from a string of issues.
One close observer has described the clean-up project as a “con” and a “scam” that has wasted money and left the people of Ogonliland, which lies in the Niger Delta, continuing to live with the devastating impact of oil pollution – 13 years after a ground-breaking UN r..

8 February 2025Barbara Plett UsherAfrica correspondentThe Rwandan-backed M23 group has said they want to liberate DR CongoThe seizure by M23 rebels of vast tracts of land in the mineral-rich east of the Democratic Republic of Congo has triggered a humanitarian and diplomatic crisis, involving several neighbouring countries.
An alarming number of African armies already have troops deployed in the conflict zone, which has a long history of outside interference.
The DR Congo is so vast – two-thirds the size of Western Europe – that it is a member of both the East and Southern African blocs.
The two regional groupings are joining forces to hold an emergency summit on Saturday to try and end the fighting.
So, who are the main players and what do they want?
DR Congo President Félix Tshisekedi says his country has been invadedFirst and foremost is the Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi. He wants to regain territory lost to the rebels, including the largest eastern town of Goma..

7 February 2025Mohanad Hashim & Natasha BootyBBC NewsMany hope an end to the civil war is in sightResidents of Sudan’s capital Khartoum say the army has recaptured large parts of the city from RSF paramilitaries, marking its biggest victory in a year.
“Shrapnel and stray ammunition are falling on my neighbourhood,” a doctor we are calling Mustafa tells the BBC. “The clashes these days are heavy”.
Key sites recaptured by the army this week include the mint – where money is printed.
At the time of writing, the RSF still controls most of Khartoum proper. Whereas the army now holds the majority of territory across the wider tripartite capital – meaning Omdurman, Bahri and Khartoum.
But, after winning back near total control of the crucial state of Gezira, the army believes it now has the momentum to take the capital too, and break the RSF’s almost two-year siege.
“Very soon there will be no rebels in Khartoum,” announced army leader and de facto ruler Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan on T..

7 February 2025Mary HarperSomalia analystFinding and fighting the militants who have become the beating heart of the Islamic State (IS) group in Africa can be tough work as they hide deep in the mountains of north-eastern Somalia.
But in typical Donald Trump style, after the new US president ordered an airstrike on the area last weekend, he posted on social media: “WE WILL FIND YOU, AND WE WILL KILL YOU!”
Trump said the hit, less than two weeks into his term, had targeted a senior IS attack planner and other militants in Somalia’s semi-autonomous region of Puntland and had “destroyed the caves they live in, and killed many terrorists without, in any way, harming civilians”.
He boasted that he had succeeded where former US President Joe Biden had failed.
“Biden and his cronies wouldn’t act quickly enough to get the job done. I did!”
The fact that Somalia was the target of America’s first major military operation under the new administration surprised many in the country who feared the U..