Still recovering from the effects of the first battering, the southeastern African nation of Mozambique is bracing for a rare second hit by long-living Tropical Cyclone Freddy late on Friday night, a regional weather center said Tuesday.

The United Nations’ monitoring station on the Indian Ocean Island of Reunion warned that Freddy will “gradually intensify to the stage of a tropical cyclone or even an intense tropical cyclone” over the Mozambique Channel before making landfall overnight on Friday into Saturday.

Freddy is expected to intensify this Thursday as it approaches coastal Mozambique, with current windspeeds at sea averaging 110 kilometers (around 70 miles) per hour, gusts of 155 kilometers (around 100 miles) an hour, and barreling in the northeasterly direction.

It is projected to make landfall on the country’s second most populous province of Zambezia.

Freddy hammered eastern Madagascar last month before moving across the channel and slamming Mozambique, killing 21 people across both nations.

The deluge affected an approximate 213,000 people and destroyed over 28,000 homes in the Mozambican capital of Maputo and nearby provinces, according to Mozambique’s National Institute for Disaster Risk Management.

It then appeared to have dissipated before it reemerged, looping around the Mozambican Channel. It was initially destined to Madagascar for a second time but shifted course back to mainland Africa.

Bangladesh authorities are investigating the cause of a massive fire in a Rohingya refugee camp which has left 12,000 people without shelter.

No casualties have been reported, but the fire on Sunday razed 2,000 shelters after spreading quickly through gas cylinders in kitchens, officials said.

Police are investigating if the fire was an act of sabotage. One man has been detained, local media reported.

The camp in the south-east is believed to be the world’s largest refugee camp.

Most of its more than one million residents, Rohingya refugees, had fled persecution in neighbouring Myanmar.

On Monday, hundreds had returned to the Cox’s Bazar area to see what they could salvage from the ruins.

The blaze had started at about 14:45 local time Sunday (08:45 GMT) and quickly tore through the bamboo-and-tarpaulin shelters, an official said.

“Some 2,000 shelters have been burnt, leaving about 12,000 forcibly displaced Myanmar nationals shelterless,” Mijanur Rahman, Bangladesh’s refugee commissioner said

The blaze was brought under control within three hours but at least 35 mosques and 21 learning centres for the refugees were also destroyed, he added.

Photos are now emerging that show the extent of the devastation.

Many of those who lived there can be seen picking through the charred area, where only metal struts and singed corrugated roofing remains.

South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa has appointed a former mayor, Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, to the newly created position of electricity minister in an effort to address the country’s long-running power crisis.

The new minister faces two vast challenges. Power cuts of up to 12 hours a day – the government has declared a national disaster- and allegations of high-level corruption at the state-run energy giant Eskom.

The company’s former chief executive recently told the media that senior politicians were looting the firm.

Eskom is massively in debt – almost $24bn (£19.9bn) in the red.

The rolling power cuts are strangling the economy. Some say people’s fury over the blackouts might even cost the governing party ANC next year’s election.

In the cabinet changes announced on Monday evening, Mr Ramaphosa also appointed the deputy head of the ANC Paul Mashatile as deputy president.

The move was widely expected following David Mabuza’s resignation last week.

He also replaced the outspoken Tourism Minister Lindiwe Sisulu, who has opposed the president in recent months. Her position was handed to a leader of the small opposition party GOOD, Patricia de Lille.

Others who were replaced were the sports arts and culture minister as well as the minister in the presidency for women, youth and persons with disabilities

Rolling blackouts in South Africa are largely responsible for the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) shrinking more than expected, analysts say.

Official data shows a drop of 1.4% between October and December, instead of the 0.4% predicted.

The impact of the power outages was bound to have a knock-on effect on the economy. Only two days of the period from October to December were without power cuts.

Businesses have been paralysed by the disruptions and have seen production costs rise as they have to purchase contingency power.

Seven of South Africa’s 10 industries experienced a decline in the last three months of 2022. The agriculture and mining industries were the biggest victims, both contracting by over 3%.

Overall the South African economy grew by 2% in 2022, but is still well below the 5 to 6% target band that economists say will make a dent in the country’s 33% unemployment rate.

Dozens of people have fallen sick in coastal villages in the Philippines after a major oil spill from a sunken tanker.

The MT Princess Empress was carrying 800,000 litres of industrial fuel oil when it sank off the coast of the Oriental Mindoro province last week.

That oil has since reached the shores of several nearby fishing villages, coating beaches in black sludge.

Residents have reported experiencing cramps, vomiting and dizziness.

Clean-up workers deployed to the affected village of Pola have also reported feeling ill, local media reported.

Breathing fuel oil vapours can cause symptoms such as nausea and headaches, while skin contact may cause itchiness and blisters.

Philippines authorities have declared a state of calamity for the affected areas in the province and imposed a fishing ban until the spill is cleaned up.

But the ban has a huge impact on the livelihoods of many locals in the area. More than 18,000 fishermen across 60 villages have been barred from the water, local authorities said.

Philippines’ tourism ministry has also raised concerns about the spill tainting waters at popular diving destinations including the Verde Island passage and Apo Reef in Mindoro and World War Two shipwrecks in Palawan.

Some 36,000 hectares (88,958 acres) of coral reef, mangroves and sea-grass are also at risk from the spill, marine biologists say.

Oil can kill corals or impede their growth. It can also poison or suffocate wildlife, which further disrupts food chains and ecosystems.

The Philippines Coast Guard has been trying to contain the spill for over a week – since the ship sank on 28 February. They have also deployed oil spill booms and sprayed chemicals in efforts to control the spread.

Authorities said on Monday they believed they had located the ship, which had moved from the spot it sank at last week.

It is not yet clear what caused the Philippine-flagged vessel to sink in rough seas. All 20 of its crew were rescued by a passing cargo ship before the vessel went down.

Experts say authorities are verifying how much oil is left inside the tanker, and how to pump the remainder out and prevent further leaks.

The tanker’s owner, RDC Reield Marine Services Inc., has contracted two local agencies for the clean-up.

Timbuktu is a historical and still-inhabited city in the West African nation of Mali. Situated 20 km (12 mi) north of the River Niger on the southern edge of the Sahara Desert serving as a gateway, the town is the capital of the Timbuktu Region, one of the eight administrative regions of Mali.

Founded in the 5th century, the economic and cultural apogee of Timbuktu came about during the15th and 16th centuries. Most people think of Timbuktu as the remotest place on earth.

Others even think of Timbuktu as being a legend or place which existed only in people’s imagination. Timbuktu was founded by the Tuareg Imashagan or Kel Tamasheq in the 11th century.

The Kel Tamasheq roamed the desert during the rainy season in search of grazing lands for their herds and camels. During the dry season, however, they camped a few miles from the Niger river in search of water and grass for their livestock.

Whenever the desert becomes green, the Tuareg will leave their heavy goods with an old Tamasheq women called Tin Abutut who shortly thereafter became a warehouse or a depot for commercial goods transiting from the desert. The city of Timbuktu has taken its name from this famous black lady.

However, Timbuktu flourished as a result of its strategic position. It is here in Timbuktu that African merchants from Djenne traded with the Kel Tamasheq nomads and the Arabs from the north. The Kel Tamasheq and the Jenne Merchants were the first settlers of Timbuktu.

The Adobe structure of the houses in Timbuktu was the product of African and Arabs architecture. Trade and knowledge were at their height. The capture and destruction of the empire of Ghana by the king of Sosso cause a mass exodus of scholars from Walata to Timbuktu.

Most tourists visit Timbuktu between November and February when the air temperature is lower. In the 1980s, accommodation for the small number of tourists was provided by two small hotels: Hotel Bouctou and Hotel Azalaï.

Over the following decades the tourist numbers increased so that by 2006 there were seven small hotels and guest houses, but with the terrorist attacks and kidnapping of tourists, the number was lowered to only around 500 in 2011. Still, this town is one of the most amazing that there are on the planet Earth.