Africa Live: Nigeria police arrest wanted internet scammer

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The former president of France's famous Louvre museum has been charged with conspiring to hide the origins of antiquities suspected to have been removed from Egypt during the Arab Spring uprisings, according to French media.

Jean-Luc Martinez was charged with complicity in fraud after being taken in for questioning, judicial sources say.

Investigators are looking into whether he deliberately overlooked fake certificates of origin for the acquired pieces.

Opened in 2018, the case relates to five works worth a combined $8.5m (£6.8m).

They include a rare pink granite artefact depicting the Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamun.

Mr Martinez was in charge of the Paris Louvre from 2013 to 2021. According to the Art Newspaper, he has previously denied any wrongdoing in the management of the acquisitions.

Morocco and Sudan are investigating suspected cases of monkeypox, Africa’s health body says.

This comes after outbreaks of the virus have recently been found in Europe, Australia, America and the Middle East.

Monkeypox is usually associated with travel to central or West Africa, near tropical forests, but some of the new cases have no travel link.

During his weekly briefing, Dr Ahmed Ogwell, deputy director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control (CDC), confirmed there was still no direct link.

He said the continent had so far reported 1,405 cases and 62 monkeypox-related deaths this year - a case fatality rate of 4.4%

These have occurred in four countries where the disease is endemic: Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Nigeria.

Dr Ogwell said all African countries were advised to scale up surveillance and testing.

Monkeypox, a mild viral infection, can be spread when someone is in close contact with an infected person.

Initial symptoms include fever, headaches, swellings, back pain, aching muscles - and a rash can develop once the fever breaks.

It is thought to be spread by rodents, such as rats, mice and squirrels.

“The washing of hands is very important as it is a contact-spread disease,” Dr Ogwell said.

He also advised people to avoid touching animals that looked sick and those known to be carriers.

Smallpox vaccines were being administered in Africa, Dr Ogwell said.

“The available supplies of smallpox vaccines will be prioritised to health workers and areas with confirmed cases of the virus,” he said.

• EXPLAINER: What is monkeypox and how do you catch it?

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The security forces in Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa, have seized the managing director of popular weekly magazine Fitih, his colleagues have told the BBC.

Temesgen Dessalegn has been critical of the government and told the BBC last Friday that he might be targeted.

He accused the government of "authoritarianism" and being "hellbent on stifling any media exposing its wrongdoings".

It comes after media rights watchdog the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said that 11 journalists and media workers had been arrested in recent days.

The BBC has unsuccessfully tried to get a response from the police in Addis Ababa about Mr Temesgen's detention.

The federal police and Addis Ababa authorities have told state-run media outlets that more than 340 individuals suspected of terrorism and other crimes have been arrested in the city in the past few weeks.

This follows the announcement that 4,500 people have recently been arrested in the region of Amhara.

The state-affiliated Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) said that many of those arrests were carried out without proper court warrants.

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African ministers attending Zimbabwe’s elephant summit are expected to come up with proposals on how to manage the continent’s elephant population - the largest in the world.

Zimbabwe wants them to back the lifting of the decades-old ban on the ivory trade to deal with growing numbers of the animals.

Trade in ivory was banned in 1989 by the Convention for the International Trade of Endangered Species (Cites) after elephant populations declined as a result of poaching.

The next Cites gathering - usually held every two to three years - will be in Panama in November.

But influential countries such as South Africa are not expected to support Zimbabwe’s proposal.

They believe that there are alternatives to managing elephants without legalising ivory sales, saying that could risk more poaching.

At the summit in the resort town of Hwange, Zimbabwe argued that revenue from the hundreds of millions of dollars worth of ivory stockpiles it holds would help it manage growing numbers of elephants and support communities living around the national parks.

Zimbabwe’s information ministry says that this year alone 60 people have been killed by elephants that strayed from conservation parks in search of food and water.

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Kenya's Deputy President William Ruto has asked President Uhuru Kenyatta for forgiveness after the pair fell out following their re-election in 2018.

The differences between President Kenyatta and his deputy have played out openly in public.

The president does not support Mr Ruto's bid for the presidency in August's elections and has instead thrown his weight behind opposition leader Raila Odinga.

Mr Ruto made his comments at an annual prayer breakfast meeting organised by parliament - with Mr Kenyatta in the audience.

The deputy president addressed the gathering, asking Kenyans for forgiveness for any of the government's shortcomings - and then went on to refer to Mr Kenyatta as his "good friend".

"I also know that serving as deputy president I may have fallen short of expectations of my boss, his excellency the president - my good friend, I ask for your forgiveness," he said.

He went on to wish the president a peaceful retirement.

Mr Kenyatta, who is finishing his second and last term this year, did not react to Mr Ruto’s comments.

The president does not have the power to sack his deputy - he can only be removed from office if he is impeached or is incapacitated.

Here is a video of the moment Mr Ruto made the remarks - tweeted by NTV Kenya:

Read more:

• Kenyatta, Ruto and Odinga: The true cost of Kenya's political love triangle
• Kenya's Deputy President Ruto campaigns for 'Hustler Nation'

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Nigeria's police cyber-crime unit has arrested a 37-year-old man alleged to be the head of a transnational cyber-crime syndicate.

The syndicate launched mass phishing campaigns and business email compromise schemes targeting companies and individual victims, according to a statement by Interpol.

The Nigerian was arrested at Murtala Mohammed International Airport in Lagos in an operation - codenamed Delilah - that spanned four continents, it said.

“I hope the results of Operation Delilah will stand as a reminder to cyber-criminals across the world that law enforcement will continue to pursue them, and that this arrest will bring comfort to victims of the suspect’s alleged campaigns,” said Nigeria's Assistant Inspector General Garba Baba Umar.

Interpol said there had been an increase in many forms of cyber-crime in recent years.

Read more:

• Why Nigeria's internet scammers are 'role models'
• 'I went to Nigeria to meet the man who scammed me'

South African police say they are on high alert following an incident in which three men accused of being drug dealers were burnt alive inside a house by a mob.

The victims were aged between 22 and 36, the police said.

Community members followed the three men to their rented house in Ga-Mokgopha Section in North-West province and pelted it with stones, the statement said.

The men allegedly stabbed and injured some of the attackers while attempting to escape, but they were forced back to the house before it was set alight, the police said.

Provincial Commissioner Lieutenant General Sello Kwena termed the incident “inhumane, totally unacceptable and must be condemned”.

“No human being should be subjected by another to any kind of brutal attack irrespective of the nature of the accusation,” he said.

No-one has been arrested so far over over the matter.

A case of kidnapping, murder and arson is being investigated by the police.

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Tunisian President Kais Saied has announced that there will be a referendum on a new constitution on 25 July.

According to an official notice, there will be one question: Do you agree with the new constitution?

It said that the polls would open at 06:00 and close at 22:00 local time.

It comes after he named an advisory committee to draft a new constitution for a “new republic” amid opposition’s calls to reverse the move.

The country’s main political parties say they will boycott dialogue on the formation of the new constitution.

Mr Saied has pushed through a series of moves expanding his powers and dismantling elected institutions since last year, when he suspended parliament.

He announced the plan for a “new republic” earlier this month.

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More than 80,000 people displaced by clashes in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo are in urgent need of food, the UN says.

Fighting between government soldiers and M23 rebels has intensified in recent weeks in North Kivu province.

The clashes spread south early this week to about 20km (12 miles) from Goma town, the provincial capital.

Those displaced have fled to improvised sites, churches and schools, the UN office for humanitarian affairs, Ocha, says.

Humanitarian agencies fear the worst for the refugees if the hostilities continue.

In a statement on Wednesday, the spokesperson for the province's governor said they were “faced with this very worrying situation”.

"The military governor of North Kivu province calls on the population to remain calm and vigilant and to not cede to panic," Gen Sylvain Ekenge added.

M23 rebels were reported to be in control of positions about 25km from Goma town, although Gen Ekenge said the rebels were being pushed back.

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Eleven newborn babies have been killed in a fire in a hospital in the western Senegalese city of Tivaouane, the country’s president said late on Wednesday.

President Macky Sall said he had “learned with pain and dismay about the deaths of 11 newborn babies in the fire that occurred in the neonatal department of Mame Abdou Aziz Sy Dabakh Hospital in Tivaouane”.

“To their mothers and their families, I express my deepest sympathy,” Mr Sall said on Twitter.

Tivaouane is around 120km (75 miles) east of the capital, Dakar.

The fire was caused by "a short circuit", local politician Diop Sy was quoted as saying.

The hospital is said to have been newly inaugurated.

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Our proverb of the day:

Quote Message: When the river dries and the crocodile moves into the fish dam seeking water, it won't sit on a throne." from A Chichewa proverb sent by Victora Kampira in Malawi

When the river dries and the crocodile moves into the fish dam seeking water, it won't sit on a throne."

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Click here to send us your African proverbs.

That's all from the BBC Africa Live team for today. There will be an automated news feed until we're back on Thursday morning, Nairobi time.

You can also keep up to date on the BBC News website, or by listening to the Africa Today podcast.

A reminder of our wise words of the day:

Quote Message: Debt never decays." from A Nuer proverb sent by Isaac Nhial Lam Lony in Juba, South Sudan.

Debt never decays."

Click here to send us your African proverbs.

And we leave you with this picture of a lion near a residential compound in Zimbabwe's Hwange National Park.

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