MTN moves to secure assets in Nigeria

It is not known how many of the reptiles remain at large. So far, 27 have been captured after they escaped from a commercial breeding farm earlier this week.

The pandemic has transformed way we consume and experience fashion. The latest Paris Fashion Week was entirely digital. For the first time in the event's history, proceedings kicked off with the work of students from the Paris-based French Institute of Fashion (IFM), who see their creations through the prism of cultural and political significance. Meanwhile in Johannesburg, South African designer Thebe Magugu is dedicated to reviving the "blaxploitation" cultural movement of the 1970s.

South African University bosses say that there's little chance that student debt could ever be written off. As the cost of edcation in the country mounts, so does frustration. Scotland's University of Aberdeen will give back a looted sculpture to Nigeria. And the Black Mambas are a pioneering all female, Morrocan American football team giving it their all on the pitch.

The head of France's central bank has said he expects the French economy to recover from the pandemic slump by the middle of 2022. The bank is expecting the economy to grow by 5.5 percent this year, after a slump of more than 8 percent in 2020. The April lockdown is also having a limited effect on economic activity, according to the bank's latest report. Meanwhile, French industry is suffering from shortages of key materials such as semiconductor chips, wood and metals, which may cause consumer prices to rise.

After Recep Tayyip Erdogan fired a hawkish Central Bank governor and installed a like-minded critic of high interest rates, the new governor is expected to fulfill the president's wishes for lower interest rates.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa tells FRANCE 24 that the situation in Gaza reminds him of the apartheid era in his own country, with Israeli actions against the Palestinians evocative of an apartheid state. He said South Africa stands by the Palestinians but urged both sides to sit down and negotiate as was done in South Africa in the early 1990s.

South African NGO helps youth through weightlifting.

Walking among the remains of her shop, which was looted during unrest in South Africa, Thandi Johnson says that she has "nothing left", despite troops being deployed in an attempt to prevent the destruction caused by thousands on the streets. The unrest erupted on the 9th of July after ex-president Jacob Zuma started serving a 15-month term for snubbing a probe into the corruption that stained his nine years in power.

The European Central Bank has said it is taking the next step toward launching a digital version of the euro. The move comes amid a boom in crypto and other digital currencies.

Aerial shots of people looting warehouses and buildings gutted by fire in Durban as the death toll in South Africa's unrest rises to 117. The country has called up its army reserves in a bid to quell looting that has stoked fears of shortages and dealt a crippling economic blow. of looters in Durban

The Biovac Institute reached a deal with Pfizer to prepare and deliver vaccine doses for the continent. It comes amid an increase of cases in Africa, where just 2% of the population have received a first dose.

South Africa's top court denies an application by Jacob Zuma to rescind his 15-month jail sentence. In a scathing rebuke, it accuses the former president of "litigious skullduggery". Also, virologists believe that a new treatment approved by the US FDA is a cure against Ebola. And more than 400 trucks sent by the UN to the Tigray region of Ethiopia have disappeared. The World Food Programme says that's having a direct impact on its humanitarian response in the area.