Africa Daily

“My wish is that we hold free and transparent elections, so that the voice of the people can be heard for peace. Because governing a country with weapons is not normal.” – voter, Chad.

Interim president, General Mahamat Déby, has been declared the winner of this week’s presidential election with 61% of the vote. His nearest rival, former Prime Minister Succes Masra, came second with just 18.5% - and alleged the vote was rigged.

Deby took over from his father, President Idriss Déby in 2021,who had been in power for more than 30 years.

In conversations recorded before the winner was announced, Alan Kasujja discusses whether this election was a step towards a functioning democracy – or whether it was simply a way for the Déby family to keep hold of power.

Kush is being sold all across Sierra Leone.

It’s a psychoactive blend of addictive substances and has been prevalent in the country for years.

Sierra Leone's president - Julius Maada Bio - has called Kush a “death trap" and said it poses an "existential crisis" in the country. And due to its notoriety and impact, the government has declared a national emergency over rampant drug abuse.

In today's episode, our reporter based in Sierra Leone Umaru Fofana talks to a man who became addicted to the drug and hears more about what the government are doing.

Today we’re in Burkina Faso where there's been a serious crackdown on foreign media.

Liberia, along with several other African nations, receives donated medications from international organisations such as The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

The World Health Organisation says that Africa accounts for 94% of global malaria cases and had over 400,000 tuberculosis-related deaths in 2022.

USAid discovered that a staggering 90% of pharmacies in Liberia are involved in the illicit sale of stolen medications meant for those in dire need.

Today, we're shining a light on a topic that keeps many African nations in the dark – the struggle for stable electricity supply.

Regular attacks by men on motorbikes wielding AK-47 rifles have become a common occurrence in Plateau State in central Nigeria.

People in the state are still reeling from the trauma of Christmas Eve attacks just over four months ago, when gunmen attacked 25 villages killing over 150 people.

Over the years, the clashes have mostly been between Muslim Fulani herders from the north and Christian farmers in the state.

The conflict however seems to have morphed into a complicated situation, with the authorities claiming there are some ‘political forces’ fuelling it.

The region is fertile and regarded as Nigeria’s bread basket but insecurity has meant low food production with farmers not being able to go to the farms.

Federalism in Africa is the topic of today’s episode.

Depending on how you define the term, there are only around six countries in Africa that use the federal model, with Nigeria and Ethiopia among them.

But what is federalism and what does it look like in practice? How does it function and differ from a system where power is centralised under one authority?

Mpho Lakaje has been looking into all of this and examining whether this is a form of government that suits Africa.

He is in conversation with Dr Bizuneh Yimenu, a teaching fellow at Birmingham University in the UK.

He has also been talking to Dr Dele Babalola, a senior lecturer in International Relations at Canterbury Christ Church University in the UK and author of `The political economy of Federalism in Nigeria`.

“We should also harvest the water, store it in the soil. Grow our crops and grow our trees. Because the storage in the soil is much, much bigger than any store we can ever put on the surface. God has already given us a huge reservoir where we can put our water.”

We’ve spoken many times on Africa Daily about mining and whether natural resources are actually a blessing or a curse for the continent.

It’s led to decades of conflict in countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo and the neighbouring Central African Republic - and reports from Human Rights organisations about the appalling conditions miners - including children - often work in.

But we rarely get a real sense of what it’s like for people living in these areas.

The BBC’s new Global China Unit has been looking inside the mines owned by Chinese companies in the DR Congo, Indonesia and Argentina.

Africa Daily’s Mpho Lakaje talked to the BBC’s Wanqing Zhang about a mine near Lubumbashi, a place often referred to as the mining capital of the country, and learned more about the lives of the communities living near the mine.

“Before pronouncing sentence on Bobrisky, the judge asked, ‘are you male or female?’. For me this was a red flag. Bobrisky’s gender has nothing to do with whether he (or she) abused the Naira.”