The Latest Breaking News from RFI

On the back of Glastonbury, a team of young performers from northern Benin, in West Africa, took their message of female empowerment to another prestigious festival in England – the Womad World of Music, Arts and Dance.

This week on The Sound Kitchen you’ll hear the answer to the question about the Southern African Economic Partnership Agreement. There’s a California travelogue, the “Listeners Corner”, and “Music from Erwan”. All that, and the new quiz question, too, so click on the “Play” button above and enjoy!

Locals in Grande Comore island mobilised to rescue a 10-ton baby humpback whale stranded near the port of Moroni. With rudimentary means but much effort, they managed to keep the baby whale alive until it could move back into the Indian Ocean.

Aminatou Ibrahim scoops water from the floor of her seven-square-metre hut at the Dana camp site for internally displaced people in Maroua, in Cameroon’s Far North Region. It’s become a familiar routine. Like some 500 others at the camp who have fled inter-ethnic violence, Aminatou lives in a makeshift hut.

The American singer-songwriter Sixto Rodriguez went from oblivion to a career renaissance after his music developed a cult following in South Africa. He passed away on Tuesday at the age of 81.

This week on The Sound Kitchen, a special treat: RFI English listeners musical requests. Just click on the “Play” button above and enjoy!

The African Union, European Union and United Nations expressed concern on Friday over the detention of Niger's elected president, Mohamed Bazoum, who was ousted by members of his military guard on 26 July. He has been held at the presidential palace ever since, where he is reportedly cut off from…

Music historians agree that the birth of hip-hop culture happened on 11 August 1973 in an apartment in the Bronx, a New York City borough. Since then, the movement has gone through five decades of intense renewal and influenced a plethora of musicians around the world – including in France.

Leaders of the West African bloc Ecowas are meeting for an emergency summit in Nigeria on Thursday, after their ultimatum to soldiers who have seized power in Niger was ignored. Meanwhile the junta, which continues to detain the elected president, said it had formed a new government.