Helene C. Stikkel — Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons 1937 Olusegun Obasanjo, Nigerian general and politician who twice served as President of Nigeria, was born.
BirthOn this day — March 5 in African history
Real events, births and milestones from Africa and the diaspora.
We are adding a source to every entry in this archive. 2 of 6 on this page carry one so far. The rest were written before per-entry citations were recorded, so if you intend to rely on one, check it independently until its source appears here. See our sourcing methodology.
Helene C. Stikkel — Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons 1937 
Khamenei.ir — CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons 1936 Canaan Banana, theologian and the first President of Zimbabwe, was born.
Birth
Lula Oficial — CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons 1954 João Lourenço, who later became the third President of Angola, was born.
Birth
Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons 2012 Tropical Storm Irina crossed western Madagascar and then drifted south down the Mozambique Channel. Seventy-seven people were killed across Madagascar, Mozambique and South Africa, and the storm damaged schools, clinics and houses in Gaza and Maputo provinces.
Sources: ReliefWeb ; NASA Earth Observatory
DisasterA suicide bomber drove a car into the Luul Yemeni restaurant in Mogadishu, killing at least 20 people and wounding about 30. Al-Shabaab claimed the attack the same day.
Sources: Al Jazeera ; Anadolu Agency
Politics
RomanDeckert — CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons 2016 Hassan al-Turabi, influential Sudanese Islamist politician and theorist, died.
Death