Peers continue standoff with MPs over legislation enabling asylum seekers to be sent to east Africa.
Read moreBy Paul Seddon & Jennifer McKiernan
Politics reporters
By Paul Seddon & Jennifer McKiernan
Politics reporters
By Chris Mason
Political editor, BBC News
A batch of the children's cough syrup manufactured by Johnson & Johnson in 2021 has now been recalled by drug authorities in six African countries.
This is after Nigeria's drug agency warned that it contained high levels of a toxic and potentially fatal substance.
Drug regulators in Tanzania and Zimbabwe are the latest to recall the syrup as a precautionary measure, although Zimbabwe's Medicines Control Authority said there was no record of the syrup being imported into the country.
Last week, Nigeria's National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (Nafdac) recalled a batch of the Benylin Pediatric syrup after detecting the toxic substance Diethylene glycol in it.
A few days later, Kenya's pharmacy board ordered a halt in the sale of the syrup, acting on Nafdac's advice.
They were then followed by drug authorities in South Africa and Rwanda, who recalled the syrup during the weekend.
Diethylene glycol has been linked to the recent deaths of dozens of children in Cameroon and The Gambia.
Human consumption of the substance causes multiple adverse effects, including acute kidney injury, which may lead to death.
The recalled Benylin Paediatric syrup, batch no 329304 was manufactured in South Africa in May 2021 and was marked with an expiry date of April 2024.
South Africa's drug regulator said batch 329303 was also affected, and that the batches had been sold in South Africa, Eswatini, Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania and Nigeria.
Kenvue, which now owns the Benylin Paediatric syrup brand, said it is collaborating with authorities and conducting its own tests, Reuters news agency reported.
By Nick Eardley, political correspondent & James Gregory & Chris Mason, political editor
BBC News
By Nick Eardley
Political correspondent
Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame met his South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa and they reaffirmed their support in finding a "political situation" to the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Mr Ramaphosa was visiting the East African country to take part in the 30th commemorations of the Rwandan genocide.
President Ramaphosa told reporters that he left “with a renewed vigour and intention” to solve the issues plaguing DR Congo, which has been wracked by violence for more than three decades.
South Africa troops are leading a Southern African Development Community (Sadc) force that is helping the Congolese army fight M23 rebels in DR Congo’s North Kivu province.
The South African deployment caused tension with Rwanda, which accuses the Congolese army of collaborating with rebels who threaten their country. This is denied by DR Congo.
UN experts and others accuses Rwanda of supporting the M23, which it has denied.
“I think we had a very good discussion, a very good understanding of the situation, and maybe the best ways we can work together to resolve that. I was satisfied," President Kagame said.
By Wedaeli Chibelushi
BBC News
By Victoria Uwonkunda
BBC News, Kigali
Victoria Uwonkunda returns to Rwanda for the first time since fleeing the 1994 genocide to find out how the country is healing through reconciliation and forgiveness.
The BBC's Victoria Uwonkunda speaks to survivors of the Rwanda genocide violence 30 years after she fled.
President Emmanuel Macron has said that France and other countries could have stopped the 1994 Rwandan genocide, where ethnic Hutu extremists killed more than 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus.
“France, which could have stopped the genocide with its Western and African allies, lacked the will to do so," Mr Macron said in a video message.
The video is set to be aired during the 30th commemoration of the Rwandan genocide on Sunday, President Macron's office said.
The event is set to be attended by several international guests including French Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné and ex-US President Bill Clinton.
Relations between France and Rwanda have recently been on the mend, following years of tensions over France's alleged involvement in the genocide.
France has been accused of failing to do enough to stop the Rwanda genocide. French leaders have denied its complicity in the genocide.
However, in a 2021 visit to Rwanda, Mr Macron said that France had a duty to "recognise the suffering she has inflicted on the Rwandan people by too long valuing silence over the examination of the truth".
Rwanda has received 57 Eritrean and 35 Sudanese asylum seekers, days after 91 other refugees and asylum seekers arrived in the country from Libya.
The 183 refugees and asylum seekers will remain in Rwanda pending the processing of their resettlement applications, the UN's refugee agency said on Wednesday.
The arrivals are part of a programme supported by the UN's refugee agency, African Union and European Union.
Since 2019, the programme has sent more than 2,200 refugees and asylum seekers of various nationalities from Libya to Rwanda. Over 1,600 of them have been resettled in the US and across Europe.
The latest arrival of the refugees and asylum seekers in Rwanda comes as the UK attempts to pass new legislation that would allow it to send some asylum seekers to Rwanda.
The UK Supreme Court had earlier quashed the plan, terming it unlawful.
BBC journalist Victoria Uwonkunda returns to Rwanda for the first time after fleeing the genocide in 1994, to find out how the country, and its people, are healing.
Rwanda's lower house of parliament has passed a bill that proposes stricter regulations to protect forests in the country.
The bill forbids the harvesting, use and trade of immature trees.
It additionally requires Rwandans to obtain permits from authorities before cutting any trees, including privately planted ones.
The bill also proposes harsher penalties for those who cut trees before they mature or without a licence, with fines of up to 3m Rwandan francs ($2,300; £1,800).
"This law aims to further preserve the environment and prevent the effects of climate change," the lower house of parliament said after passing the bill on Monday.
Rwanda also aims at using the bill to sell carbon credits, pro-government New Times new website reported last year, citing Environment Minister Jeanne d’Arc Mujawamariya.
But the proposed law is unpopular among many Rwandans, who view it as an inconvenience that will make it difficult to access wood for cooking, construction and other common uses.
Rwanda's tree conservation efforts have grown the country's forest cover from 10.7% in 2010 to 30.4% in 2022, according to the environment ministry.
Rwanda has received 91 refugees and asylum seekers from Libya under a programme supported by the UN's refugee agency, African Union and European Union.
The arrivals include 38 Sudanese people, 33 Eritreans, 11 Somalis, seven Ethiopians and two people from South Sudan.
The refugees and asylum seekers were evacuated under the Emergency Transit Mechanism programme, which has seen 2,150 refugees sent to Rwanda from Libya since 2019.
Out of these,1,600 have gone on to resettle in the US and across Europe.
"Rwanda remains committed to offering refuge to people in need," the country's emergency management ministry said on Thursday.
The arrival of the refugees and asylum seekers comes as the UK attempts to pass new legislation that would allow it to send some asylum seekers to Rwanda, pending the processing of their claims.
The UK Supreme Court had earlier quashed the plan, terming it unlawful.
By Ido Vock
BBC News
By Chris Mason
Political editor, BBC News