We talk to ADAMA GAYE, former ECOWAS director of communications, and journalist and Chatham House consulting fellow, PAUL MELLY about the West African bloc’s future as Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali form their own breakaway group. Adama tells us the 15 member ECOWAS is facing a ‘death threat’ because of the loss of three of its founding countries. Senegal’s new president BASSIROU DIOMAYE FAYE is given the job of trying to woo them back to the clan. Has he been given a fool’s errand?

Zimbabwe’s best-known journalist and activist, HOPEWELL CHIN’ONO tells us about his campaign to get young people to register to vote. We ask him whether there’s an appetite in Zim to follow the lead of Kenya’s Gen Z after their protests succeeded in getting a much-hated bill withdrawn. Hopewell spells out the repressive conditions under which Zimbabwe’s young people live. Daddy Hope himself has been jailed at least 3 times merely for doing his job and exposing corruption.

Education minister, CONRAD SACKEY tells us about an app he’s rolling out in Sierra Leone’s schools to get accurate information about both students and teachers. He’s found more than half the teachers on the government’s payroll of participating schools were more absent than their pupils! The app is called Wi De Ya – We are Here in Krio. Hear me have a go at Wi De Ya.

On day one KEIR STARMER dropped the controversial policy of sending those who’d entered the country unofficially to Rwanda. His Foreign Secretary, DAVID LAMMY, has promised to ‘re-engage’ with Africa. PATRICK speculates (intelligently, of course) about what that could mean for the continent.

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