Tag Archives: BBC News

At least 100 people have been abducted by gunmen in Nigeria’s northwest, residents have said. Locals told the BBC that armed men on motorcycles stormed villages in Zamfara state. The residents were kidnapped after the villages failed to pay a “tax” imposed on them by the gunmen, witnesses said. In recent years, kidnapping for ransom has become rife in north-western ...

By Kalkidan Yibeltal & Danai Nesta Kupemba BBC News, Addis Ababa & London More than 50 people have died in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray and Amhara regions amid drought and an aid freeze, local officials have told the BBC.  The Horn of Africa has had five failed rainy seasons since 2019, according to the UN. The US and UN suspended aid ...

An artist’s impression of the robot rover, which is designed to search for life on Mars By: Jonathan Amos A scientific instrument built in Wales will lead the search for life on Mars at the end of this decade. Enfys, meaning “rainbow” in Welsh, is an infrared spectrometer and will be assembled at Aberystwyth University.  It will be fitted to ...

By Nadine Yousif BBC News Four high school students accused of beating a classmate to death in Las Vegas have been formally charged with second-degree murder. Jonathan Lewis Jr, 17, died after a fight in an alleyway near his school, where as many as 10 of his classmates swarmed him.  Police said nine students in total have been arrested so ...

The army wants to recruit about 1,500 people between the ages of 18 and 25 By Farouk Chothia BBC News At least 37 people have died in a stampede during an army recruitment drive at a stadium in Congo-Brazzaville, the government has said.  People tried to force their way through the stadium’s gates in the capital, Brazzaville, causing the stampede, ...

Image caption, Fire services and rescue teams have been deployed around Hamburg’s airport By Jaroslav Lukiv BBC News Police in the German city of Hamburg are dealing with a suspected hostage situation at the airport after an armed man drove through a security barrier and onto the tarmac. There are at least two people in the car including a child, police ...

Image caption, Amina Noor is the second person to be successfully prosecuted under the Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003 By Jeremy Britton BBC News A woman has been found guilty of taking a three-year-old British child to Kenya for female genital mutilation (FGM). Amina Noor, 39, is the first person to be convicted of assisting a non-UK person to perform FGM. ...

Image caption, Dr Olufemi Olaleye did not show any remorse during the trial, the judge said By Wycliffe Muia BBC News The head of a top Nigerian cancer clinic has been sentenced to life in prison for raping his wife’s teenage niece. Dr Olufemi Olaleye sexually assaulted the girl for more than a year until his wife found out and informed ...

Image caption, Terri Harris (bottom left) and her children John Bennett (top left) and Lacey Bennett (bottom right) were found dead along with Lacey’s friend Connie Gent (top right) By Dan Martin & Oli Constable BBC News A series of “very stark” failures by the probation service contributed to the murders of a mother and three children, a coroner has ruled. ...

Haiti has fallen into lawlessness since the murder of Jovenel Moise in 2021 By Graeme Baker BBC News Haitian police have arrested a former justice ministry official suspected of ordering the assassination of President Jovenel Moise.  Joseph Felix Badio was caught as he was driving out of a supermarket car park in the capital, Port-au-Prince.  Mr Moise was murdered in ...