Otto Addo is returning for a second spell as coach of Ghana’s men’s national soccer team after Borussia Dortmund agreed to release him from his role in talent development at the end of the season.

Addo already coached Ghana on an interim basis for much of 2022, including at the World Cup in Qatar, when Ghana beat South Korea but was still eliminated in the group stage.

He returns to the job on a 34-month contract with an option to extend by another two years, the Ghana Football Association wrote on Facebook. That would cover at least the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations and the 2026 World Cup.

“To be able to take over the role of head coach of my national team is a great privilege,” Addo said in a statement by Dortmund. “As interim coach I have already had the chance to gather intensive experience in this role and I look forward to the task that lies ahead of me, starting in the summer.”

Addo’s role at Dortmund is as the “talent coach” responsible for developing a select group of promising youngsters at a club famed for producing some of European soccer’s brightest young talents. He has worked with players including Erling Haaland and Jadon Sancho.

The German club said it agreed to release Addo from his contract when the season ends but would also allow him to take charge of Ghana for upcoming friendlies this month. Dortmund previously allowed Addo to combine his work at the club with the 2022 interim stint.

During his playing career, the Hamburg-born Addo won the Bundesliga with Dortmund and played for Ghana at the 2006 World Cup.

The Somali extremist group al-Shabab said its fighters have attacked a hotel in the capital Mogadishu, where a loud explosion and gunfire were heard Thursday night.

Al-Shabab said on its Telegram channel that its fighters managed to penetrate the SYL Hotel, which is located not far from the presidential palace in a normally secure part of Mogadishu. The hotel is patronized by government officials.

There was no immediate word on casualties.

Attacks in the seaside capital had reduced in recent weeks amid a beefing up of security there. Al-Shabab, which opposes Somalia’s federal government, is responsible for many lethal attacks on hotels and other places over the years.

The last major attack in Mogadishu happened in October 2022, when at least 120 civilians were killed in twin car bombings at a busy junction.

Somalia’s government has been engaged in a high-profile new offensive against the extremist group that the United States has described as one of al-Qaida’s deadliest organizations.

Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has declared “total war” against the extremists, who control large parts of central and southern Somalia and have been the target of scores of U.S. airstrikes in recent years.

The Republic of Congo has recorded its first cases of mpox in several regions, the health ministry said, an indication of how the disease may be spreading across Africa since sexual transmission was first confirmed on the continent last year.

Mpox is a virus that originates in wild animals and occasionally jumps to people, who can spread it to others. The virus was previously known as monkeypox, because it was first seen in research monkeys.

The World Health Organization said in November it had confirmed sexual transmission of mpox in neighbouring Congo for the first time. African scientists warned this could make the disease difficult to contain.

The Republic of Congo’s health ministry published its report on Wednesday. The report said some 43 cases had been reported to the ministry, including in nine out of the country’s 12 departments. The government has not issued any further comment on the publication, which was not officially distributed to the media and appears to have been intended for internal use.

Mpox became a focus of worldwide concern during an international outbreak in 2022 that saw the disease spread to over 100 countries, mainly by sex among gay or bisexual men. Mpox has been endemic in parts of central and west Africa for decades, but most cases involved infection from rodents, limiting the spread of the disease.

The WHO declared the outbreak a global emergency and there have been over 90,000 cases to date. In Congo, where sexual transmission was first confirmed, it has tracked more than 12,500 cases and 580 deaths, its largest-ever outbreak.

The WHO previously warned that sexual transmission could mean the disease is spreading in other parts of the continent.

In Africa, the figures are likely an underestimate, experts say, because testing facilities are limited and victims may avoid stepping forward because of prejudice and draconian laws targeting LGBTQ+ communities.

While the outbreak of mpox prompted mass vaccination campaigns in Europe and North America, in Africa there are no such plans.

Doctors at Kenya’s public hospitals began a nationwide strike Thursday, accusing the government of failing to implement a raft of promises from a collective bargaining agreement signed in 2017 after a 100-day strike that saw people dying from lack of care.

The Kenya Medical Practitioners Pharmacists and Dentists Union said they went on strike to demand comprehensive medical cover for the doctors and because the government has yet to post 1,200 medical interns.

Dr. Davji Bhimji, secretary-general of KMPDU, said 4,000 doctors took part in the strike despite a labour court order asking the union to put the strike on hold to allow talks with the government.

Dr Dennis Miskellah, deputy secretary general of the union, said they would disregard the court order the same way the government had disregarded three court orders to increase basic pay for doctors and reinstate suspended doctors.

Miskellah said medical interns make up 27%t of the workforce in Kenya’s public hospitals and their absence means more sick people are being turned away from hospitals. Some doctors, however, have remained on duty to ensure patients in the intensive care units don’t die.

In an interview with leading broadcaster Citizen TV, Miskellah said doctors were committing suicide out of work-related frustration, while others have had to fund raise to get treated for sickness due to a lack of comprehensive health coverage.

The impact of the strike was felt across the country with many patients left unattended or being turned away from hospitals across the East African nation.

Pauline Wanjiru said she brought her 12-year-old son for treatment on his broken leg, which had started to produce a smell, but she was turned away from a hospital in Kakamega county in Western Kenya.

In 2017, doctors at Kenya’s public hospitals held a 100-day strike — the longest ever held in the country — to demand better wages and for the government to restore the country’s dilapidated public health facilities. They also demanded continuous training of and hiring of doctors to address a severe shortage of health professionals.

At the time, public doctors, who train for six years in university, earned a basic salary of $400-$850 a month, similar to some police officers who train for just six months.

Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu has ordered security forces not to pay ransom for the release of close to 300 students and staff who were kidnapped from a school in north-western Kaduna state last week.

Mr Tinubu instead directed security agencies to ensure the release of all kidnapped victims without any payment to the kidnappers, the country’s Information Minister Mohammed Idris told reporters on Wednesday.

Mr Idris said the president had told forces searching for the pupils to make sure “not a dime is paid”.

Earlier, Gunmen had kidnapped 286 students and staff from a school in northern Nigeria last week have demanded a total of 1 billion naira ($620,432) for their release, a spokesman for the families of the hostages and a local councillor told Reuters.

The school children, some older students and members of the school staff were abducted on March 7 in the town of Kuriga, in Nigeria’s northwestern Kaduna State, in the first mass kidnapping in the country since 2021.

Jubril Aminu, a community leader who acts as a spokesman for the families of the hostages, said he had received a call on his phone from the kidnappers on Tuesday.

“They made a total of a 1 billion (naira) ransom demand for all the pupils, students and staff of the school,” Aminu said.

“They gave an ultimatum to pay the ransom within 20 days, effective from the date of the kidnap. They said they will kill all the students and the staff if the ransom demand is not met.”

Idris Ibrahim, an elected official from the Kuriga Ward municipal council, confirmed the ransom demand and the amount.

There have been several mass kidnappings over the last week, including the seizure on Tuesday night of more than 60 people from a village also in Kaduna state.

Over the last three years, hundreds of students have been abducted.

Some of the hostages have been released following negotiations with the authorities, although officials deny ransom payments are made.

A law passed in 2022 banned paying ransom to kidnappers.

The surge of large-scale abductions is challenging Mr Tinubu’s government, which had promised to tackle insecurity.