Helene C. Stikkel, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons 1937 Olusegun Obasanjo, Nigerian general and politician who twice served as President of Nigeria, was born.
Sources: Encyclopaedia Britannica ; Vanguard
Birth
Ceiling of Debre Birhan Selassie church, Gondar, Ethiopia. Photo: Rod Waddington, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence · Source
On this day: March 5 in African history
Real events, births and milestones from Africa and the diaspora.
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.
Sources: Studia Historiae Ecclesiasticae (SciELO South Africa) ; BBC News
Birth
Lula Oficial, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons 1954 João Lourenço, who later became the third President of Angola, was born.
Sources: Embassy of the Republic of Angola in the United States ; ANGOP - Agência Angola Press
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
Corrected in September 2026 · see what changed
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.
Sources: Al Jazeera ; Encyclopaedia Britannica
Death