Here are a few reasons to pick up a copy of The Guardian on Wednesday. Find these stories and much more when you grab a copy of The Guardian on Wednesday.⁣ ⁣

Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga is facing competition within his party as he struggles with crumbling approval rates ahead of a general election.

Nigerian schoolchildren kidnapped from an Islamic seminary three months ago are reunited with their parents after their gunmen captors freed them from forest hideouts. The May 30 Tegina seminary abduction in northwest Niger State was one of the longest-running mass kidnappings at a Nigerian school since December when criminal gangs began to target students and pupils.

This week in Africa, elite soldiers over throw the government of Guinea's President Alpha Conde. The Islamist party which ruled Morocco for ten years suffers a crushing defeat in elections. South Africa's ex-president wins an early release from prison on health grounds, and farmers in central Nigeria flee conflict, with disastrous consequences for crops and food prices.

Seventy-five children who were kidnapped from their school in Nigeria's northwestern state of Zamfara were freed after their abductors came under pressure from a military crackdown, a state official said on Sunday (September 12). Gunmen took the students from the village of Kaya on Sept. 1, the latest in a spate of mass kidnappings from schools across the region. More than 1,100 children have been abducted since December last year. Authorities say heavily armed gangs of bandits, seeking ransom payments, are behind the abductions.

At least 50 people have been killed and dozens abducted by gunmen in Plateau state in central Nigeria, residents and a community leader said on Monday. It is the latest in a spate of attacks by armed gangs in central and northern parts of Africa's most populous nation.

An abducted Cameroonian ruling party senator appears in a video announcing her resignation and calling for anglophone independence. Regina Mundi may have been forced to read this statement by English-speaking separatist militia. Meanwhile, in Congo-Brazzaville, there are calls for the government to do more to identify and support those suffering from mental illness. And as Muslims across Africa prepare to celebrate Eid, preparations have been tainted by soaring prices.

Find these stories and much more when you grab a copy of The Guardian on Wednesday.

Nigeria's ruling All Progressives Congress has picked former Lagos State governor Bola Tinubu - described by some as a 'Godfather' figure - as its candidate for presidential elections in 2023.

The ruling coalition secured a majority in the upper house, three days after former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was shot and killed during an election campaign event.

President Macky Sall's ruling coalition has tentatively claimed victory as the opposition fears he will use a parliamentary majority to run for a third term, beyond the current term limit.

US Senator Marsha Blackburn met with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, expressing support for the island. She arrived after visiting Fiji, the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea.