Focus on Africa

We thought you might enjoy listening to the latest season of the BBC’s global investigations podcast World of Secrets: Searching for Soldier Dad.
In this first episode of the season, we meet Cathy. Cathy is 10 years old when she starts asking questions. Why don’t I have a father? The secret her mum Maggie is forced to reveal changes everything.
Years later, when lawyers and a geneticist turn up in their hometown in Kenya to take DNA samples, Maggie hopes they can help her finally learn the truth.
In this investigation, we follow as a team of lawyers and a leading geneticist travel to Kenya to help locate the British soldiers who fathered children then vanished. We witness the groundbreaking legal and scientific detective work used to find the missing dads.   
What’s at stake is more than the reputation of the British army and the UK’s post-colonial legacy. The mixed-heritage children have in some cases been ostracised by their communities and denied a chance of British citizenship since birth – something which could transform their lives.
Searching for Soldier Dad is a BBC Long Form Audio production for the BBC World Service. Listen to the full series, wherever you get your BBC podcasts.
Please note, the image being used is for illustrative purposes only and the child depicted is a model.
Presenter: Ivana Davidovic
Series Producer: Josephine Casserly
Sound design: Tom Brignell
Executive Producer: Matt Willis
Commissioning Senior Producers: Katy Davis and Anne Dixey
Commissioning Editor: Jon Manel

We speak to South African influencer and software developer Masheane Sefuthi, who has been on a journey to ‘whiten’ his skin; public health advocate Amira Adawe, who has been campaigning against these harmful products; and Kenyan media personality Kush Tracey, who has spoken about reversing skin bleaching after years of struggling with it.
Presenter: Charles Gitonga
Producers: Fana Negash, Basma El Atti and Layla Mahmood
Technical Producer: Maxwell Onyango
Senior Producer: Carolyne Kiambo Jotham
Editors: Priya Sippy and Maryam Abdalla

For a while now, Sudan's military government has been accusing Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates of working with the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in the Sudan war that entered its fourth year in April. Both the UAE and Addis Ababa have refuted that claim. An investigation by the Reuters news agency in January showed the presence of a secret training camp in Ethiopia allegedly used to train thousands of RSF fighters. We speak to a Horn of Africa expert.
Also, bicycles are fading away in many parts of urban Nigeria, but in the northeastern rural community of Mishara, they remain a symbol of love and commitment to marriage.
Presenter: Nkechi Ogbonna
Producers: Bella Twine and Ayuba Iliya
Technical Producer: Maxwell Onyango
Senior Producer: Charles Gitonga
Editors: Priyanka Sippy and Maryam Abdalla

As medical experts work to contain the spread of hantavirus on board a stranded cruise ship in the Atlantic ocean, we hear from a representative of the World Health Organisation in Cape Verde. What's hantavirus, how does it spread and what happens to those on board the MV Hondius luxury cruise liner?
Also, seven years after the enactment of the law promoting inclusion for persons living with disability in Nigeria, advocates say implementation remains weak.
Presenter: Nkechi Ogbonna
Producers: Rukia Bulle, Bella Twine and Ayuba Iliya
Technical Producer: Maxwell Onyango
Senior Producer: Charles Gitonga
Editors: Priyanka Sippy and Maryam Abdalla

Taiwan's President Lai Ching-te has finally visited Eswatini where his arrival had been expected since April. The state visit was cancelled last minute, and Taiwan blames China - saying Beijing applied pressure on African countries not to allow the plane carrying President Ching-te to use their airspace on the way to the Kingdom of Eswatini. We look at the significance of this visit and Taiwan's diplomatic ties to the Southern Africa kingdom.
Also, we have a fire chat with Ghanian musician Stonebwoy, whose Accra-famous music festival known as BHIM is going global, headlining at the OVO Wembley Arena in London this August.
Presenter : Charles Gitonga
Producer: Rukia Bulle, Blessing Aderogba and Mark Wilberforce
Technical Producer: Maxwell Onyango
Senior Producer: Bella Twine
Editors: Priyanka Sippy and Maryam Abdalla