Hope his wx radar was not on the blink ?
I sincerely hope not. In July / August the African ITCZ is at its most northerly extent and operating without a functioning weather radar would be bonkers.
Air France did exactly that and flew straight into convective activity that resulted in such severe damage to a 744 (F-GITF) en-route from JNB-CDG that it eventually had to land in Marseille. 30 injured, 1 of those later died. The aircraft was repaired and at age 22 is still flying for AF.
http://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=144312
Coincidentally the event occurred about 30 miles North of Ouagadougu in Burkina Faso.