Nigeria, Ethiopia, Iraq.
Today's three stories you should know.
Nigeria
Two Nigerian TikTok stars have been sentenced to a whipping and a fine for making fun of a regional governor on the platform. Mubarak Isa Muhammed and Muhammed Bula posted a video to TikTok and Facebook in which they mocked Abdullahi Ganduje, governor of the northern state of Kano, over allegations of corruption and sleeping on the job. Prosecutors said the pair had defamed the governor and that the video could have caused a breach of the peace. They were sentenced to 20 lashes each, fined 10,000 naira ($23), and ordered to clean the court premises for 30 days. TikTok is hugely popular in Nigeria and poking fun at government officials is not unusual.
More from BBC here.
Ethiopia
The Ethiopian government and Tigrayan forces have opened a special hotline as they try to implement a peace agreement, the African Union’s chief mediator Olusegun Obasanjo has said. The warring sides last week agreed to a cessation of hostilities after two years of war that is estimated to have killed tens of thousands of people, forced millions to flee their homes and led to widespread hunger. Having agreed the deal in South Africa, representatives of both groups are now in Kenya’s capital Nairobi to iron out how the agreement on paper will translate on the ground.
More from Al Jazeera here.
Iraq
An American aid worker has been shot dead in Baghdad, police sources told the Associated Press news agency. The unnamed man was killed while driving through the city’s central Karrada district. No group has claimed responsibility and police say they have yet to establish any motive. Killings of foreigners are extremely rare in the Iraqi capital, though rockets are still occasionally fired at the US embassy.
More from the National here.