On this day: January 31 in African history

All-Pro Reels, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons

Doug Williams led the Washington Redskins to victory in Super Bowl XXII, becoming the first African American quarterback to start, win, and be named MVP of a Super Bowl.

Sources: Washington Commanders ; Andscape (ESPN)

Federal Bureau of Investigation, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons

A Scottish court sitting in the Netherlands convicted Libyan agent Abdelbaset al-Megrahi for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.

Sources: Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service ; Federal Bureau of Investigation

Fuel spilled from an overturned tanker at Sachangwan near Molo, Kenya, ignited as crowds gathered to collect it. About 95 people died at the scene and the toll kept climbing as the injured died in hospital; the Red Cross put the final figure at 140, and a review of hospital records by a visiting American burn team counted 131. More than 200 people were injured. It came three days after a supermarket fire in Nairobi, which the Red Cross said killed at least 29 people and which the same burn team put at 46 once hospital deaths were counted.

Sources: Capital FM (Kenya) ; International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (via ReliefWeb) ; Eplasty (peer-reviewed; authors from the Johns Hopkins Burn Center)

Corrected in September 2026 · see what changed

Max Koot Studio, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons

Fatou Bensouda, Gambian lawyer who served as Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court from 2012 to 2021, was born.

Sources: International Criminal Court ; Al Jazeera

Adelaide Tambo, South African anti-apartheid activist, politician, and wife of ANC leader Oliver Tambo, died at age 77.

Sources: The Guardian ; The Independent

Somali Government, CC0, Wikimedia Commons

Abdirizak Haji Hussein, Somali politician who served as the country's fourth prime minister, died at age 89.

Sources: The Minnesota Star Tribune ; MPR News