Thousands of troops have been deployed to South Africa's flood-ravaged KwaZulu-Natal province where residents are still searching for the missing more than a week after torrential rains began.

South Africa is grappling with one of the biggest natural disasters in the country's history. Floods killed more than 400 people and destroyed thousands of homes.

In an interview with FRANCE 24, the EU's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said that the bloc "will continue" providing military support to Ukraine, while taking care not to become a "belligerent" in the conflict. Speaking to Europe Editor Catherine Nicholson, Borrell added that he expects the EU to eventually impose a total ban on imports of Russian oil in a bid to reduce the Kremlin's ability to finance its war in Ukraine.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has held a phone call with South Africa's Cyril Ramaphosa about the war in Ukraine, but Pretoria has still stopped short of condemning the Russian invasion. Also, Nairobi says it will host talks between the Congolese government and rebels that have been terrorising parts of eastern DR Congo. The announcement comes after leaders from across East Africa met in Kenya to discuss the crisis. Plus, our correspondents report on how park rangers in Burkina Faso are facing the twin threat of poachers and jihadists.

Helicopters and sniffer dogs joined search and rescue teams on the ground, looking for bodies after heavy rains caused flooding , close to Durban in South Africa on Tuesday

Citing legal concerns, the club has suspended the 26th edition of its human rights reporting award. Hong Kong's national security laws have stifled free press in the former bastion of democracy.

Four Argentine friends will cycle 10,500 kilometres from South Africa to Qatar to support their country at the World Cup in November, an initiative that will also lead to 10,500 new trees being planted in their homeland.

While the official threshold for a COVID wave has not yet been reached, South Africa is facing a surge of infections driven by omicron sub-variants.

The latest installment in a scathing report into the presidency of former South African leader Jacob Zuma says that he played a critical role in the plunder of state entities. About 880 million euros worth of contracts for the Eskom power utility are thought to have been shadily awarded.

Cyril Ramaphosa was widely seen as the saving grace of South Africa's ruling ANC party when he became president in 2018. But his credibility with the working class and the poor is falling.

After struggling through the early years of the pandemic to get enough Covid 19 vaccinations, Africa's first factory to produce the doses says it may have to stop because it hasn't had enough orders. A former Congolese policemen gets a death sentence for murdereing a rights activist in 2010. And sanctions on Mali have hit Senegalese neighbouring towns. Within one month of the embargo exports to Mali have fallen by close to a quarter.

The egg-sized white diamond was sold for $21.75 million at Christie's in Geneva. It was billed as the largest of its kind to go under the hammer.