The Latest Breaking News from RFI

This week on The Sound Kitchen you’ll hear the answer to the question about the Southern African Economic Partnership Agreement. There’s a California travelogue, the “Listeners Corner”, and “Music from Erwan”. All that, and the new quiz question, too, so click on the “Play” button above and enjoy!

Detained Senegalese opposition leader Ousmane Sonko has been removed from the country's electoral roll in a move denounced by his political party as "inhumane persecution". Sonko, who is in hospital on hunger strike, was transferred to intensive care after his condition weakened overnight, the party added.

Aminatou Ibrahim scoops water from the floor of her seven-square-metre hut at the Dana camp site for internally displaced people in Maroua, in Cameroon’s Far North Region. It’s become a familiar routine. Like some 500 others at the camp who have fled inter-ethnic violence, Aminatou lives in a makeshift hut.

The American singer-songwriter Sixto Rodriguez went from oblivion to a career renaissance after his music developed a cult following in South Africa. He passed away on Tuesday at the age of 81.

This week on The Sound Kitchen, a special treat: RFI English listeners musical requests. Just click on the “Play” button above and enjoy!

The African Union, European Union and United Nations expressed concern on Friday over the detention of Niger's elected president, Mohamed Bazoum, who was ousted by members of his military guard on 26 July. He has been held at the presidential palace ever since, where he is reportedly cut off from…

Music historians agree that the birth of hip-hop culture happened on 11 August 1973 in an apartment in the Bronx, a New York City borough. Since then, the movement has gone through five decades of intense renewal and influenced a plethora of musicians around the world – including in France.

Leaders of the West African bloc Ecowas are meeting for an emergency summit in Nigeria on Thursday, after their ultimatum to soldiers who have seized power in Niger was ignored. Meanwhile the junta, which continues to detain the elected president, said it had formed a new government.

In six months' time voters in Senegal will head to the polls to choose their next president. But observers say that government-imposed restrictions on social media, journalists and opposition parties are a sign that one of the strongest democracies in West Africa is in trouble.