Literary win for Nigerian writer

Segun currently lives in London

Nigerian writer Segun Afolabi has won the $15,000 (£8,530) Caine Prize for African writing for his short story Monday Morning.

Afolabi has written for a number of literary magazines, including the Edinburgh Review and London Magazine.

The panel of judges called the writer's work "poignant".

The Caine Prize has been awarded on five previous occasions, and is considered a major prize in African creative writing.

Afolabi was shortlisted up against writers from Uganda, Sudan, South Africa and another Nigerian.

The writer, who has worked for the BBC, is to publish a collection of short stories next Spring and a debut novel in 2007.

Based in London, he told the BBC he felt pleased but "slightly wierd" to have won the prize - and said he would use the money to take a year off work to devote himself to writing.

The prize can be awarded to an African writer who has been published on the continent or elsewhere.