Africa Daily BBC World Service

You’ve gone to the grocery store and bought your week’s supplies… so can you imagine receiving your change in sweets, chocolates and other small items?
That’s the situation in Zimbabwe where a shortage of US dollars – and a plummeting Zimbabwean dollar – has now led the government to introduce a new currency pegged to gold.
The Zimbabwean dollar has already lost three quarters of its value this year.
But will this latest move work any better than other attempts by the government to stabilise the economy in the past?

Earlier this month, the goalkeeper of Spanish third-tier team, Rayo Majadahonda, went into the stands to confront a fan who allegedly racially abused him. Cheikh Sarr, a black man originally from Senegal, said he heard an elderly man join others as they made monkey gestures. But what took many people by surprise was the Spanish football federation’s decision to slap the player with a two-match ban for the confrontation.

It’s not the first time European football has been rocked by a racism scandal. Last year, seven people were arrested for a similar incident against Real Madrid and Brazilian star Vinicius Junior. Samuel Eto’o, who is now the Cameroonian football federation’s president said, he too faced discrimination when he was still playing for Barcelona in Spain.

Nigeria’s Samuel Chukwueze, Ghana’s Iñaki Williams and Mouctar Diakhaby of Guinea, are among European-based African players who’ve also faced racism. So, what will it take to end racism in European football?

Presenter: Alan Kasujja
Guests: Evelyn Watta, vice president of the International Sports Press Association and veteran British-Nigerian broadcaster Osasu Obayiuwana

Ghana and Ivory Coast, responsible for over 60% of the world's cocoa supply, are suffering from catastrophic harvests.

Illegal gold mining, climate change and a devastating virus have formed a perfect storm. Over 590,000 hectares of cocoa plantations have been affected according to Ghana’s cocoa marketing board Cocobod.
Meanwhile, shoppers who indulged in Easter treats in the United States found the cost of chocolate had increased by more than 10% on last year, according to data from research firm NielsenIQ.
BBC Africa Daily’s Alan Kasujja spoke to BBC's Nicolas Negoce about the specific challenges faced by cocoa farmers in the region.

Yesterday, Africa Daily heard from two Sudanese men about how a year of war has forever changed their lives.
But the impact is also being felt beyond Sudan’s borders: South Sudan’s oil industry – its main income generator – has been heavily impacted because routes to the coast for export have been cut off. Chad and South Sudan are hosting hundreds of thousands of refugees each. And in border areas, armed groups have been growing more active and refugees report extortion, brutal attacks and murder.
In response, many regional leaders have attempted to bring the leaders of the two warring parties together for talks: military chief General Abdel-Fattah Burhan and General Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, the commander of Rapid Support Forces, who is more commonly known as Hemedti. But mistakes and perceived insults mean little has been achieved from their efforts.
So can African countries do anything to stop the conflict?

On April 15th last year, fighting broke out between the leaders of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and a powerful paramilitary group know as the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

As the conflict escalated millions fled for their lives. According to the United Nations World Food Programme, around 18 million people in Sudan are facing food insecurity – a situation likely to worsen because of failed harvests.

In Darfur, now mostly in the hands of the RSF, whole cities have emptied out as civilians faced targeted attacks and rapes based on their ethnic group, and there have been countless atrocities committed by both sides throughout the country.

Today on Africa Daily, Alan Kasujja speaks to a man who has just been reunited with his elderly mother and younger brother after they crossed the desert to reach him in Egypt, and to the BBC’s Mohanad Hashim, who is himself Sudanese.

This month marks ten years since the kidnapping of the Chibok girls in north eastern Nigeria when militants abducted nearly 300 girls. Most of the girls have either been freed or escaped but dozens remain unaccounted.
In the years since, kidnapping for ransom - for profit- by criminal gangs has also become the norm, even in places like trains or in the capital Abuja, which used to be considered relatively safe.
In today’s episode Alan Kasujja speaks to a woman who was kidnapped twice on her way home from work, and hears more about the approach by Nigerian police to kidnappings.
Some listeners may find some of the descriptions of kidnapping in this episode distressing.