Stories

Watching the super-heavyweight boxers during my lunch break at McDonald’s, I was inspired to train for Rio and be a world champion. Suddenly my life began. In the summer of 2012, it felt as if everyone in London was watching the…

The daring prison break, the celebrity girlfriend and the escape across borders had all the elements of a fictional thriller. But in some ways that tempting description serves to glamorise and trivialise what South African rapist and…

BBC Arabic reporter Mohamed Osman has lived in Sudan for his entire life. When fighting broke out between rival military factions last month, he initially stayed to report on the conflict but in the end it became too dangerous. He reflects…

In the aftermath of the sprinter’s death at the age of just 32, her USA teammate remembers a talented athlete who did things her own way The post-race glory photo-op is a time honored tradition, an occasion for athletes to get their hit…

Kenyan preacher Paul Nthenge Mackenzie has appeared in court following the discovery of scores of bodies in a remote forest. He is accused of encouraging followers to starve themselves to death - hundreds of relatives are now wondering…

By the mid-1950s, the singer Harry Belafonte had taken the lead role in an Oscar-nominated film, Carmen Jones; reached No 1 with his album Calypso, which helped find a mainstream audience for that musical style and became the first album…

Christian Ally Moussa did not tell anyone that he had decided to get in a small boat to make the 350km (220-mile) trip across a treacherous stretch of the Indian Ocean between Madagascar and the French island of Mayotte. He was…

Charles Collins was looking forward to his next match in the Sudan Premier League when fighting broke out in the country on 15 April, turning the city where he lived into a war zone. The 28-year-old Nigerian footballer, who plays for…

The death of a well-known actress, killed in cross-fire in the north of Khartoum, has shocked residents of Sudan's capital. But she is just one of many civilians still in the city who are paying with their lives as the fighting continues…

At just 20 years of age, Madusu Koroma already has plenty to grapple with in life. Not only did she inspire her country at last year's Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, narrowly missing out on a bronze medal in the wrestling, the Sierra…