The South African Department of Health has alerted the World Health Organization (WHO) to the emergence of a new variant, C.1.2. It was first detected in May and is now circulating in most of the country’s provinces and at least seven other countries, including the United Kingdom, Switzerland, New Zealand, and China.

A recent, so far unexplained, spike in deaths in Kano, Nigeria, highlights the difficulty of tracking the spread of coronavirus, especially in certain large African urban areas. Kano is regarded as Nigeria's second largest urban agglomeration, after Lagos. It is the capital of Kano state, the first or second largest in population. President Muhammadu Buhari, who has extended for another two weeks in Kano city a lockdown

This update represents violence in Nigeria and related to Boko Haram in Cameroon, Chad, and Niger from April 18 to 24, 2020.

In August, President Muhammadu Buhari ordered closed Nigeria’s land border with Benin, preventing the import of goods. The move significantly affected trade in foodstuffs. It is part of an effort to tackle smuggling and associated corruption, but also, apparently, to spur the domestic agricultural industry. On October 14, Nigeria ordered closed all of Nigeria’s borders with Benin, as well as those with all other countries, for the same reasons.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the U.S Treasury has formally sanctioned on October 10 members of the Gupta family and associates, who are members of a “significant corruption network in South Africa.” Under the sanction, all Gupta property in the United States is blocked and must be reported to OFAC.