Africa Eye - Episode Guide

Thousands of women across West Africa have been enslaved by a centuries old practice called "trokosi". Girls are forced to live and work with priests in religious shrines, for the rest of their lives, to "pay" for the sins of family members. Although the practice has officially been banned in Ghana, it's still happening there and in other parts of West Africa but on a smaller scale.

Twenty years after she was freed from this practice, Brigitte Sossou Perenyi goes on a journey to understand what trokosi really is and why her family gave her away.

A heroin-based drug cocktail called nyaope is destroying young lives in South Africa's townships. Our reporter Golden Mtika finds an old family friend, Jesus, addicted to the drug and scavenging in an open sewer. While Jesus goes into rehab, Golden goes in search of the dealers who bribe the police and push the drug. But will Jesus get clean?

For six years the Kenyan army has been fighting the Somali Islamist militants Al Shabaab. As part of an exclusive investigation, the BBC has discovered that Kenyan women are being abducted and trafficked as sex slaves to Al Shabaab camps.

Anne Soy meets women who have managed to escape from the camps, and an Al Shabaab insider who reveals for the first time how vulnerable women are captured and imprisoned.

In Nigeria, thousands of young people are addicted to codeine cough syrup – a medicine that's become a street drug.

The Nigerian senate estimates that 3 million bottles of codeine syrup are drunk every day in just two states – Kano and Jigawa.

But who makes this syrup? And who sells it to Nigeria's students?

The people of rural Kenya have spoken of the night runners for generations. They're said to be villagers possessed by a demonic spirit which compels them to scare and terrorise their neighbours at night.

But no one really knows who the night runners are or what motivates them. For BBC Africa Eye, reporter Tom Odula investigates the enigma of the night runners, shining fresh light on the reality behind the myths, and revealing exclusive footage of night runners in action. Please be aware that there are disturbing images in this piece.

Everyone in Uganda is entitled to free medicine to combat killer diseases like malaria. Despite Government efforts to improve access to essential medicines, a significant number of people have to use private facilities because of frequent stockouts.

BBC Africa Eye headed undercover to expose one of the reasons why there is shortage of life saving drugs – medicine theft by medical professionals.

In 2016 Gambians showed the world the power of democracy when they removed President Yahya Jammeh through the ballot box. Now there are concerns the new President Adama Barrow may also try and cling to power.

Sports Betting has exploded across Africa. But are the betting companies playing it straight? Do the punters really understand the odds they're up against? And who is getting rich from the thrill of the beautiful game?

BBC Africa Eye follows one young football fan on a journey across Uganda, to find out what happens when global companies target some of the poorest and most vulnerable people on the continent.

After gathering dozens of testimonies, Africa Eye sent undercover journalists posing as students inside two West African universities to capture footage of sexual harassment.

BBC Africa Eye uncovered an illegal network that lures women to India from Africa, where they are then forced into sex work to satisfy the demands of the many African men living in Delhi. The women are mostly from Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, Tanzania and Rwanda. One woman, Grace, who was trafficked from Kenya, agreed to go undercover.

Africa Eye investigates the impact of the deadly coronavirus in Mathare, one of Kenya's poorest slums. As the pandemic looms, heavy-handed policing leads to violence and a series of tragic deaths. Reporting from Mathare's corona frontline, local journalist Elijah Kanyi asks: is the cure deadlier than the virus?

An underworld of quack doctors and conmen have been exploiting the coronavirus pandemic and making money selling fake coronavirus cures. Investigative reporter Anas Aremeyaw Anas goes undercover in Ghana, exposing a Covid-19 scam said to be worth thousands of dollars.

There are increasing fears for food security in East Africa, with mounting evidence of a new wave of desert locusts. Earlier in the year, billions of the insects destroyed crops across the region, with the UN warning a second generation would be even more destructive. Now, despite international efforts, those fears appear to be coming to pass. When the first wave hit, Albert Lemasulani gave up his life to fight the swarms, leaving his family, his goats and his newborn son behind to try and prevent a plague.

In Somalia, two young doctors are in the fight of their lives. As the coronavirus begins to claim its first victims, they volunteer in the capital's only designated Covid-19 ward. Despite their bravery, people are dying because the hospital lacks vital medical equipment. Officially, fewer than 100 Somalis have been killed by Covid-19. But BBC Africa Eye goes to one of the city's main cemeteries, where the gravediggers tell a different story.

An Africa Eye undercover investigation reveals that some staff in Ghana's hospitals have been selling vital PPE for personal profit. More than 2,000 medical workers in Ghana have been infected by coronavirus since the outbreak began. The country has faced a severe lack of essential protective equipment like face shields, masks and suits. Our investigation shows how some medical workers are profiteering at the expense of their colleagues.

An explosion in Lagos, Nigeria rocked the city to its core. 23 people were killed, and a girls' boarding school totally destroyed.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, the country's state-owned oil firm, said the blast in March occurred as a result of a truck that hit gas cylinders near one of its petroleum pipelines.

Private investigators are thriving in Kenya. With police widely mistrusted, many people are turning to private detectives to solve crimes. None is more famous, or controversial, than Jane Mugo. She claims to have solved hundreds of cases, catching cheating husbands with secret cameras and putting more than 70 criminals in jail for murders and kidnappings.
But do Jane and other private eyes play by the rules?
This is the inside story of the woman known as "Kenya's Spy Queen."

A seven-strong group of homeless street dancers in Nairobi, who call themselves the Street Family Dance Crew are determined to overcome the desperate hardships of street life and make their names as celebrity dancers. Film-maker Nick Wambugu follows them for two years on their quest to find fame and fortune.

Their journey is fraught with obstacles as they endure hunger and destitution, bust-ups with police, family troubles, and the crisis of the Covid-19 pandemic. This is a film about hope and ingenuity, resilience and courage, as the boys find ways to survive and keep dancing - hoping, against all the odds, that they will break through and hit the big time.

Abductions, beheadings, and the burning of homes have become the calling cards of a secretive and brutal group of insurgents in Cabo Delgado, Northern Mozambique.

Since 2017, they have carried out hundreds of raids, causing an unknown number of deaths and forcing more than 700,000 people to flee for their lives.

Little is known about the real reasons for the insurgency. Who are these men and what do they want? By tracking the insurgents' movements on the ground and online, Africa Eye investigates how and why Mozambique has become southern Africa's latest terrorism hotspot.

Unlocking secrets from Africa's biggest banking data leak, BBC Africa Eye reveals how millions of dollars of public funds ended up in the private bank accounts of businesses based in Democratic Republic of Congo and owned by family and associates of former President Joseph Kabila. The programme also raises serious questions about unexplained transactions through an official account for the office of the Presidency when Joseph Kabila was in power.

How much did the former President know?

The Black Axe are one of the most feared and powerful organised crime groups in the world. The highly secretive mafia – referred to as a "cult" in Nigeria – have been accused of countless murders and are estimated to earn millions of dollars through internet fraud. But who is behind them? Are politicians involved? BBC Africa Eye has been investigating. Reporter Peter Macjob is on a journey to meet the Axemen face to face.

When COVID-19 pandemic hit Kenya, cases of gender-based violence exploded. But a combination of fear, stigma and a lack of trust in the police mean the majority of cases are never reported. It has been described as Kenya's ‘hidden epidemic'.

Africa Eye reporter Tom Odula investigates the deep-seated roots behind the violence, discovers the trauma behind the shocking statistics, and explores the police and government inaction that leaves survivors with little hope of justice.

Kush - a cheap, new, illegal drug high is taking the youth of Sierra Leone to a dark place. Young people driven mad. Young people killing themselves. Young people harming themselves and others. Psychiatric wards are filling up with Kush cases and police are battling to win the war against the drug.

With Kush use spreading like wildfire, with ever-younger users being exposed to it, Africa Eye reporter, Tyson Conteh, investigates the drug and asks whether Sierra Leone can stop the march of this dangerously addictive high?

Dozens of people were killed in clashes with government forces across the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2016. They were protesting President Joseph Kabila's decision to postpone elections for another two years.

Africa Eye follows the leading members of a non-violent citizen group called La Lucha, who campaign for political reform in DRC and for Kabila to step down. But will their call for free and fair elections ever become a reality?

Africa Eye exposes dodgy driving licences and dangerous vehicles on Kenya's killer roads.

For hundreds of millions of Africans, Christianity is the cornerstone of their existence. But an explosion of rogue pastors exploiting the trust and belief of their followers for profit and power has led to a fight for the soul of Christianity in Africa.

Africa Eye reporter Peter MacJob travels to Uganda to meet the new religious movements rejecting Christian conventions, the traditional pastors working hard to maintain their flocks, the families who have suffered tragic losses at the hands of rogue pastors, and those who have abandoned religion altogether. With charlatans and con men preying on the faith of millions, what is the future for believers in Uganda and across Africa?

t's estimated thousands of Africans were among more than five million refugees fleeing the Russian invasion of Ukraine. As they tried to escape the carnage, many Africans were treated like second class citizens. Reports of discrimination at Ukraine's western borders were widespread with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees acknowledging racist treatment. BBC Africa journalist, Peter Okwoche, was at the Polish border reporting on the African experience days after war broke out. In the weeks which followed he also spoke to many Africans still caught up in the conflict. Did they make it to safety? Africa Eye investigates.

In February 2020 a shocking video began to circulate on Chinese social media. A group of African children are being instructed, by a voice off-camera, to chant phrases in Chinese. The kids repeat the words with smiles and enthusiasm — but they don't understand that what they're being told to say is "I am a black monster and my IQ is low." The clip ignited outrage in China and beyond. But no-one ever answered the crucial questions: Why was this filmed? Where was it shot? Who made it? These questions send BBC Africa Eye reporters Runako Celina and Henry Mhango on a journey into a Chinese video-making industry that exploits vulnerable children across the continent.

Impoverished families in Tanzania are being tricked into giving up their disabled children by human traffickers. Promised a better life, the children are instead smuggled into Kenya and forced to beg, often for years. Africa Eye goes undercover to expose the traffickers trading in human misery and helps one young victim escape his captors.

In north western Nigeria ultra-violent bandit gangs raid villages, attack drivers, abduct schoolchildren, and kill anyone who resists. But who are these men, and what do they want? A new documentary from BBC Africa Eye talks us into the heart of Nigeria's worst security crisis, and brings us face to face with some of the most feared bandit leaders in Zamfara state.

Africa Eye follows one woman's personal journey in search of the father she has never known, exploring a reality shared by over a third of Kenyans, who grow up without at least one biological parent.

In June 2022, shocking videos started circulating online, showing violent clashes between African migrants and Moroccan border guards. They were filmed on a tiny piece of land where Morocco meets Spain – a gateway into Europe – and show the bodies of African migrants being thrown to the ground, beaten and crushed. Twenty-four people died in the incident, and many more are still missing. Africa Eye verified dozens of videos, collected testimonies from survivors and gained exclusive access to the border infrastructure to piece together the most comprehensive investigation into the tragedy and ask – was it preventable?

Three years ago, BBC Africa Eye's Nancy Kacungira reported on the plight of three young women, Mercy, Scovia and Esther who left their homes to find jobs as domestic workers. Commonly referred to as ‘housegirls', the film chronicled their hard lives and illustrated how being employed as a domestic worker can sometimes lead to mistreatment and even abuse.

Now Nancy is back and catching up with the three young women to find out how their lives have changed since she last saw them. From babies to boutiques to back to school, Nancy discovers how each former domestic worker has overcome difficulties and embraced their new lives.

‘What Is Eating My Mind' is an insightful and deeply personal story of living with bipolar disorder in Kenya, where the issue of mental health is often taboo.

A joint investigation between BBC Africa Eye and Panorama has uncovered widespread sexual abuse on farms which supply some of the UK's most popular tea brands including PG Tips, Lipton and Sainsbury's Red Label. Women in Kenya say they've been forced into sex by their managers while working on plantations which have been owned for decades by two British companies.

The Seychelles is known as a tropical paradise with a multi-million-dollar tourist industry. But beyond the 5-star hotels and azure beaches is a country in turmoil. Based on population, Seychelles has the biggest heroin problem in the world with around 10% of Seychellois dependent on the drug.

In the wake of the pandemic, reports emerged from Uganda of a 300% increase in girls aged 10 -14 becoming pregnant. Sexual violence has been further fuelled in the north by the traumatic legacy of a 20-year insurgency led by notorious warlord Joseph Kony and the Lord's Resistance Army.

This is the story of a country where the path to womanhood can bring pain, trauma, and even death. A country where children can be left motherless because of the ancient traditions of Bondo - a Sierra Leone secret society which cuts out female genitals as part of centuries old rite of passage ceremonies. FGM – female genital mutilation – is woven so deep into the female fabric of Sierra Leone, most women there have had their genitalia cut. No-one really knows how many have died as a result.

When Nigeria passed some of the toughest anti-homosexuality laws in Africa, the internet became a place for the LGBT community to connect with others more safely – until criminal gangs went digital too.
Africa Eye investigates how members of the LGBT community in Nigeria are targeted by criminal gangs who pose as potential dates on popular apps, only to extort, beat and even kidnap them.
This crime is so prevalent it even has a name: Kito. Africa Eye speaks to dozens of victims who have been ‘kito'd', and meets the activists, and even law enforcement officers, who are using the very tactics of the blackmailers to fight them back.

On 6 September 2022, in Northern Ghana, four children were taken, at gunpoint, from their home in the middle of the night.
They were brought to a hotel, photographed, washed and fed. At sunrise, they were relocated to a shelter. Their families were left in the dark as to where and why.

For the American charity coordinating the raid, it was a successful mission to rescue child slaves.
For the families, it felt like a kidnapping leaving them bewildered and traumatised.
What really happened to these children?

With a trail of WhatsApp messages, secret filming, and a journey to some of the remotest areas of Ghana, Africa Eye brings you the story of what happens when good intentions go horribly wrong.

Across Africa, the elderly have traditionally been cared for by their families. Now, with life expectancy increasing, many Africans are turning to care homes for help. Are the elderly getting the care that they need?

BBC Africa Eye goes undercover at a Kenyan care home to investigate allegations of mistreatment, theft and neglect.

A network of anti-migrant groups has emerged across South Africa. The groups blame illegal migrants for the state of the country's economy, lack of housing and an explosion of drug abuse. But their critics accuse them of being violent vigilantes who target some of the country's most vulnerable people.

BBC Africa Eye gains rare access to Operation Dudula, South Africa's most notorious anti-migrant group, as they take to the streets and fight for political power.

In Gabon, it's the dream of most young footballers to play internationally. But, in 2022 a long serving coach for youth national teams admitted to charges of raping, grooming, and exploiting young players. He faces up to 30 years in prison. BBC Africa Eye's Khadidiatou Cissé travels to Gabon to investigate one of the biggest sexual abuse scandals in the history of football. She speaks with victims and eyewitnesses who reveal a shocking culture of sexual abuse and despair, with claims that many people knew, and many stayed silent. We follow a coach who, at personal risk, is determined to bring about change. Fifa are facing accusations of failing to take effective action over the sexual abuse scandal.

BBC Africa Eye revisits some of Nairobi's poorest neighbourhoods to find out what impact the broadcast of the 2020 investigation ‘The Baby Stealers' had in the fight against child trafficking in Kenya.
What happened to the main targets of the investigation and how much have things really changed since?

Corporal punishment in Kenyan schools has been banned for over twenty years. Yet teachers are beating their students on a daily basis and the consequences can be fatal.
BBC Africa Eye's Tom Odula goes on a journey to investigate the extent of the problem and what can be done to address it.

An estimated seven women die every day from unsafe abortions in Kenya.
BBC Africa Eye investigates the battle for abortion rights in a country where unregulated terminations are a leading cause of maternal deaths, claiming the lives of over 2000 women each year.

A VHS tape of a preacher performing ‘miracles' changes two teenagers' lives forever.

Trapped in TB Joshua's church in Lagos, his disciples are drawn deeper into his abuse.

Joshua's church guest house collapses, killing 116 people. Could this disaster expose him?

The Mayor of Freetown, Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr, has won international plaudits for addressing many of the issues facing the capital of one of Africa's poorest countries. But as she bids for re-election for a second term, she finds herself on the front line of a democratic crisis.