A reminder of Tuesday's wise words:
The tortoise wants to dance but has no waist."
And we leave you with this photo from Instagram user Grace Aloyce taken with friendly turtles in Tanzania:
A reminder of Tuesday's wise words:
The tortoise wants to dance but has no waist."
And we leave you with this photo from Instagram user Grace Aloyce taken with friendly turtles in Tanzania:
The leader of a student protest movement in Kenya has been shot dead, local media reports.
Evans Njoroge, the secretary-general of Meru University students' union, was reportedly taking part in a demonstration against high fees and bad conditions when he was killed.
According to Kenyan newspaper The Star, running battles had been taking place between students and police since the university shut its doors at the start of the month.
Eyewtinesses have alleged to a number of outlets that Mr Njoroge was shot by police.
However, neither the university nor the police were willing to confirm the death, the Nation newspaper reports.
Attempts to reach the university and local police by the BBC have also failed.
A pupil at the school in Dapchi, northern Nigeria, where 110 girls were abducted by Boko Haram militants last week has told the BBC how she managed to escape.
I saw them with my own eyes. They blocked school gates so we tried to climb over the fence."
It was at this point that she fell and hurt her arm.
There were three cars at the gate and they asked us to get in, saying they would help us. Some of us when it and some of us refused. The gunmen shot at the gate and were firing into the air."
She says she turned back into the school and ran west towards another town.
She told BBC Newsday about the ordeal alongside her father, who described seeing his daughter's "shaken" state when he was reunited with her. His first thought was that she had been bitten by a snake until he heard what had happened.
No matter what security is put in place I honestly don’t think I can go back to this school. I have a lot of friends who went missing.
At first… I couldn’t go to sleep... I was very much shaken. But I feel better now."
BBC Africa, Maputo
Officials who ignored warnings over a dangerous rubbish dump in Mozambique's capital city will be prosecuted following the deaths of 17 people.
The Maputo city attorney’s office says it is currently investigating the circumstances which led to the collapse of the Hulene rubbish dump.
The dump collapsed following heavy rains, leaving more than 150 families homeless, five injured and 17 - including a two-year-old - dead.
Maputo city municipality had been warned about the dangers the dump posed to human life and about the need for its swift closure.
Prosecutor Celia Sambo said they were considering whether the municipality should be held responsible criminally, civilly or administratively.
“Maputo city attorney’s office carried out a series of diligence to collect data. We are collecting data and in the end when we have all necessary and complete information, we’ll definitely know who to hold responsible, and what kind of responsibility to attribute to the entity," she said.
However, given the fact the municipality had been warned about the dangers posed by the Hulene dump and the urgent need to close it, lawyers say the municipality should be brought to book.
BBC Africa, Abuja
More than a week after the Dapchi school girls’ abduction, Nigerian army and police now involved in a very public argument over who should have protected girls.
The row has become a major talking point in the local media: with more than 100 girls still missing, they say security agencies should be focusing on finding them - not having a fight over whose responsibility it was to keep them safe in the first place.
The girls were taken from their boarding school during a raid by Boko Haram militants on 19 February, and have not been seen since.
The Nigerian army has now admitted withdrawing troops shortly before the abductions happened, but claimed it formally handed over to the Nigeria police division located in Dapchi.
However, the Yobe State Police Commissioner Sumonu Abdulmaliki hit back - saying the claim of a handover was “untrue".
He said the military had categorically not informed them of the withdrawal.
It is not clear if it is a common practice for the army to hand over the security of an area to the police.
A woman has died after being attacked by a lioness at a South African game reserve.
The attack took place at a lodge in Hammanskraal, north of Pretoria.
A Netcare 911 spokesman told local media:
"Reports from the scene allege that a 22-year-old female victim was attacked and mauled by a lioness.
"When Netcare 911 paramedics arrived at the scene bystanders had initiated CPR. Tragically the victim had sustained severe injuries and she died at the scene."
South Africa’s Rekord newspaper says police are at the scene.
It is unclear whether the young woman was local or a tourist.
The Nigerian government has set up a committee to probe the circumstances which ended with the abduction of 110 girls from a school in Dapchi, the privately owned Premium Times reports.
The girls were abducted last Monday by suspected Boko Haram militants. The army and police have traded the blame over who was responsible for the security of Dapchi during the attack.
A 12-member committee was announced in a statement by the information minister, Lai Mohammed, this afternoon.
The committee, which will be chaired by a military officer of the rank of major-general, includes people from the Nigerian armed forces, intelligence agencies and police, as well as government officials.
BBC World Service
An Egyptian court has sentenced one of the country's top singers to six months in prison over a comment she made about the River Nile.
The singer Sherine was not in court and can appeal the sentence.
She was charged with spreading fake news over a joke she made at a concert last year when a fan asked her to perform one of her most famous songs, Have You Drunk from the Nile?
She warned her audience they'd catch the waterborne disease, Bilharzia, if they did.
Sherine has since apologised, but Egypt's musicians union has since banned her from performing in Egypt.
BBC Africa, Johannesburg
South Africa’s governing African National Congress (ANC) says it will back a motion brought by the radical opposition Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) on land expropriation without compensation.
EFF leader Julius Malema led the debate in parliament this afternoon.
He told MPs: “The time for reconciliation is over. Now is the time for justice.
"If the grandchildren of Jan Van Riebeeck have not understood that we need our land, that over and above it’s about our dignity then they have failed to receive the gift of humanity. We do not seek revenge.
“Land must be expropriated without compensation for equal distribution.”
The ANC agreed with the motion.
Minister of Water and Sanitation Gugile Nkwinti said they would vote in support of the motion.
“The ANC unequivocally supports the principle of land expropriation without compensation as moved by the EFF," he said.
“Let us do away with this narrative that land was stolen, as if our people were asleep when land was taken. It was taken through brutal wars of colonialism.”
However, South Africa's largest opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, disagreed with their stance.
They warned “land expropriation without compensation cannot be part of the solution”.
A 2017 land audit report by the department of land reform states 72% of farm land is owned by white owners, followed by coloureds (people of mixed race) at 15%, Indians at 5% and blacks at 4%.
In last week’s State of the Nation Address, President Cyril Ramaphosa said while he supports land to be taken without pay, he would not agree to a “smash and grab” policy.
The debate sets in motion the process in which parliament will vote to amend the constitution. The committee is expected to meet on 30 August.
BBC Africa, Dakar
Security is tight in the neighbourhood of Ouaga 2000 as the military tribunal gets under way. This morning, members of victims’ support groups were gathered in front of the court bearing signs demanding justice.
A total of 84 soldiers and civilians are charged with assault, murder, treason and undermining state security in the process of staging an attempted coup on 16 September, 2015. On that day, elements of the old presidential guard tried to overthrow the transitional government put in place after the fall of long-time ruler Blaise Compaore.
Among the defendants are two high profile generals - General Gilbert Diendere, who was head of the presidential guard and Djibril Bassole, a former foreign minister.
The two, who are accused of masterminding the failed coup, were cheered by their supporters as they arrived at court around 08:00 GMT. Thirteen defendants did not turn up, among whom 10 are on the run, according to the prosecutor.
In court, defence lawyers questioned the competency of the military court to try the case.
Human rights organizations see the trial as a “live test for the credibility” of Burkina Faso’s judiciary. Others fear that any irregularity in the judicial process could compromise reconciliation.
Women in Ghana have been warned against a growing trend for taking pills during pregnancy to lighten the skin of their unborn babies while they are still in the womb.
Medical experts say these illegal drugs can cause birth defects, including damage to limbs and internal organs.
Ghana's Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) says using Glutathione pills for this purpose is dangerous, adding it wants "the general public to know that no product has been approved by the FDA in the form of a tablet to lighten the skin of the unborn child”.
The practice is growing in Ghana, according to the FDA, with pills often smuggled into the country inside luggage at airports in large quantities.
Although comprehensive data has not yet been gathered, the body says market surveillance and stakeholder activity have helped to reveal the trend among women crosses socio-economic divides.
Security agencies and police are working together to arrest and prosecute companies and individuals in possession of the illegal tablets.
Ghana hit the headlines last month when candidates for jobs in the immigration service were disqualified from the recruitment process if they bleached skin or stretch marks, for fear they might bleed during the "strenuous" training.
Ahmed Mohamed Abdi
BBC Monitoring, Nairobi
Sudan has appointed a new army chief and announced a reshuffle of the country's military leadership not long after similar changes to the intelligence services, the state-owned Sudanese News Agency (Suna) reports.
The reshuffle might be an indication that the president is consolidating the support of Sudan's two most powerful organs as he nears the end of his second and last term in office.
"Broad changes in the leadership of the armed forces and Lt General Kamal Abdel Ma'ruf [appointed as] Chief of the Joint Staff," reads a breaking news caption on the SUNA website [in Arabic].
The Sudanese president recently carried out a reshuffle in the security sector, appointing a new head of the national intelligence and security and a new deputy.
Some high-ranking officials within the ruling party have called for amendment of the constitution to allow President Omar al-Bashir to run for a third term in office in the 2020 elections.
An administrative official was kidnapped over the weekend in Cameroon's English-speaking region in the second case of its kind in a fortnight, state media has reported.
The man was reportedly seized by armed men near Batibo, around 40km (25 miles) from the city of Bamenda, in the same area where another local official was kidnapped on 11 February.
Cameroon Radio Television (CRTV) said the latest victim is the regional representative for social affairs for the north-west region. Regional police officials told CRTV they had found his burnt-out vehicle.
An armed group of English-separatists, the so-called Ambazonia Defence Forces (ADF), have claimed responsibility for kidnapping both men.
Earlier this month, its leader posted on social media "you kill my people, we'll chase you to the gates of hell" after the abduction of Namata Diteng, who is deputy head of the Batibo district.
Dozens have been killed in Cameroon's anglophone region since October following a violent government crackdown on protests against the mainly French-speaking government.
The Nigerian army says it has rescued more than 1,100 civilians from the clutches of Boko Haram militants.
It announced the rescues in a press release on Tuesday, revealing more than 600 people were saved in one operation along the Nigeria-Cameroon border.
Another 700 were rescued from a series of villages, the army said.
The statement comes as the army finds itself under fire for removing soldiers from checkpoints around Dapchi shortly before Boko Haram attacked the town and kidnapped 110 girls.
On Monday it was announced they were throwing resources at the hunt for the girls and their abductors.
However, many are questioning how the abduction was allowed to happen in the first place.
BBC World Service
A police officer in the Democratic Republic of Congo has been jailed for life for shooting dead an opposition protester in the north-western city of Mbandaka.
The policeman is said to have killed the protester as he was walking home after a demonstration.
The protester is one of two people were shot dead by the security forces during recent opposition protests backed by the Catholic Church.
There have been months of demonstrations against President Joseph Kabila who has stayed in office despite his mandate expiring in 2016.
At least seven people have been killed in a fight which reportedly broke out after a Christian girl converted to Islam in north-west Nigeria.
The fight in Kaduna State also left at least 15 people with injuries after homes were torched.
An eyewitness told BBC News Pidgin that trouble started after a Christian girl from Gwari converted to Islam because of her boyfriend.
The witness said this provoked some Christian youths in the area.
Other reports suggest tensions between the two faiths had been simmering for some time.
However, Kaduna State Police Command Muktar Aliyu told BBC Pidgin while they have arrested 10 people in connection with the incident, officers are still investigating the cause of the fight.
“We cannot confirm that the fight started because someone converted to Islam or whatever religion," he said.
"People have a right to convert to any religion they want, it’s not supposed to start a fight.”
He said measures had been taken to stop it spreading from Kasuwan Magani, which is 36km from the state capital, to other areas.
Kenya's outgoing attorney-general has surprised many by saying the country "has no plans" to withdraw from the International Criminal Court (ICC), reports the Daily Nation.
It comes five years after Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta accused the court of "race hunting" on behalf of its benefactors and being a tool to oppress Africans.
But Attorney-General Githu Muigai has now reportedly said at an event at Strathmore University in Nairobi:
Kenya sees the ICC as an institution that ought to be having a constructive engagement with Africa. We ought to have a conversation of equals where issues are resolved with no acrimony."
President Uhuru's comments in 2013 sparked an African onslaught against the ICC.
Kenyan MPs voted to withdraw from the ICC that year, followed by South Africa which began the process of withdrawing from the court in 2016.
Both Mr Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto were charged by the ICC in connection with post-election violence in 2007-08 - charges that were later dropped.
Attorney-General Githu Muigai resigned from office two weeks ago, after six years in the post.
Justice Paul Kihara Kariuki is expected to step into the role.
The number of refugees killed during protests against food cuts in Rwanda has risen to 11, the United Nation's refugee agency has said.
The UNHCR said eight refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) in Karongi town, in the west, while another three died in Kiziba camp.
Rwandan police said on Friday five people had died during Thursday's violence, which also left officers and aid workers injured.
It is not entirely clear how the refugees died.
The altercation came two days after thousands of people walked almost 15km (10 miles) from the Kiziba refugee camps to the UNHCR offices, angry at a cut in food aid.
The World Food Programme (WFP) has been forced to cut the amount it gives refugees twice in the last six months.
The first cut of 10% came in November, followed by 25% in January.
The UNHCR said in a statement on Monday it plans to resume its activities in the camps, which is home to more than 17,000 people, today.
A Kenyan government minister has warned chiefs and leaders who use "primitive" community resolution to deal with rape cases will be jailed.
Fred Matiang’i hit out at the practise of "maslaha" after it was reported to have been used in the case of a 15-year-old girl who had been gang raped in Wajir County, Nairobi News reported.
According to The Citizen, the interior cabinet secretary was "visibly irked" when he spoke about the issue, promising to jail anyone who did not prosecute alleged rapists to the full extent of the law.
What kind of parents are we if we allow our daughters to be raped. This nonsense has to come to an end. It is primitive to resort to maslaha.”
Rape carries a life sentence in Kenya.
BBC World Service
A groundbreaking genetic study of living and extinct elephants has confirmed the existence of two separate African species.
It found the African forest and African savannah elephants have not interbred for nearly half a million years - despite living in close proximity.
The earliest Homo sapiens fossil remains ever found date back only 300,000 years.
The research found multiple instances of interbreeding - or gene flow - between different extinct species such as the woolly mammoth.
Scientists say the data gives a clue as to how interbreeding helped mammoths live across varied environments for so long.
Only 500,000 elephants remain in the wild and 50,000 die every year from poaching.
BBC News, Johannesburg
President Cyril Ramaphosa promised a fresh start for South Africa.
But his new cabinet is more of a balancing act than a radical shake-up.
He’s brought back some key figures who had been pushed out of government because – it’s widely believed – they’d tried to fight the corruption that flourished under former President Jacob Zuma.
The crucial finance ministry will now be considered in safe hands under Ntlanthla Nene.
Elsewhere allies have been rewarded, others given second chances, and a few key rivals in the ANC brought in.
President Ramaphosa and his governing party have much to prove before elections next year if they’re to convince South Africans that a reshuffle of mostly familiar faces can address the country’s formidable challenges.
The world through its media
Eight Nigerian soldiers are reportedly missing after suspected Boko Haram militants ambushed an army convoy in the north-eastern state of Borno.
The New York-based Sahara Reporters website said three other soldiers were injured in the attack, which happened on the Damboa-Sabon Gari Road in Borno on 26 February.
The wounded soldiers have reportedly been moved to a medical facility in Biu town, southern Borno, for treatment.
The website quoted military sources as saying that the militants had escaped with an army gun truck.
The attack comes amid a major military operation to rescue hundreds of girls abducted by Boko Haram from a government boarding school in the neighbouring Yobe State on 19 February.
Anyone who lives in a city is used to the odd traffic jam.
However, a traffic jam caused by a Boeing 737 being pulled through the streets is not an everyday occurrence.
But this is what residents in Johannesburg, South Africa, woke up to this morning:
The plane is being moved almost 40km (25 miles) from Jet Park, in the east, to Fourways Mall, in the north, where it will form part of the new Kidzania theme park.
Which is all very exciting for children, but far less exciting for commuters, who have been questioning whether a Tuesday is the best time to move such a large item:
Kidzania is far from the first attraction to reuse an old plane.
See the BBC's story about how a passenger jet became a honey wine cafe in Ethiopia here.
BBC World Service
The King of Morocco, Mohammed VI, has undergone successful heart surgery in France.
The Moroccan state news agency said the monarch would be able to resume his duties without any restrictions.
King Mohammed, who is 54, heads the Muslim world's longest-ruling dynasty.
He was crowned in 1999 after his father, King Hassan II, died of a heart attack.
The trial of the alleged masterminds behind 2015's attempted coup in Burkina Faso is opening today in the capital Ouagadougou.
More than 80 people are due to appear in court in a trial described as a test for the country’s judiciary.
Hundreds of members of the security forces have deployed around the court for the opening of the trial.
No less than 84 defendants will appear in court, including two prominent generals, Gilbert Diendere and Djibril Bassole, close allies of former president Blaise Compaore.
Under the former regime, Gen Diendere was the head of the presidential guard.
Along with soldiers of this elite unit, he is accused of attempting to overthrow the transitional government of Burkina Faso, just one year after the departure of long time ruler Blaise Compaore.
Gen Diendere and his co-defendants are charged with treason, undermining state security and murder.
Human rights organizations in Burkina Faso see this trial as a test for the credibility of country’s judiciary.
In September 2015, elements of the old presidential guard briefly took hostage some members of the transitional government.
The coup backfired because of street protests supported by the army. At least 14 people died and more than 200 people were injured in the unrest.
Welcome back to BBC Africa Live where we will bring you the latest news and views from around the continent.
To see Monday's stories, keep scrolling down,
A reminder of Monday's wise words:
When the bird is ready to fly away, do not shake the branch."
And we leave you with this photo of an Ethiopian girl trying her hand at photography:
A UN envoy has warned that Burundi is not ready to hold credible elections, reports AFP news agency.
Michel Kafando told the UN Security Council that the ruling party and its allies remain firmly in control of political life and tensions remain high, AFP adds.
"Only the majority party and some other allied political groups are able to conduct unobstructed political activities," said Kafando.
"Such a situation cannot be suitable for the organization of credible elections," he said.
In 2015 Burundi was plunged into crisis when Pierre Nkurunziza's successful bid for re-election to a third term sparked protests by opposition supporters who said the move was unconstitutional.
BBC Afrique, Dakar
In Senegal, a case of police violence has set social media abuzz.
Last Friday, an officer was suspended for slapping a motorcyclist after a human rights activist filmed the scene and posted it on Facebook:
The video lasts 20 seconds; it has reached 300,000 views on Facebook.
It happened in the city of Ziguinchor, in the south of the country and shows a policeman in a stormy debate with a motorcyclist. Suddenly, the policeman gives the biker violent slap.
Activist Joseph Mendy filmed the incident, posted on social media and was briefly arrested.
The Minister of the Interior swiftly announced the immediate suspension of the policeman.
Human rights organisations say the video shows the tip of the iceberg of police violence in Senegal.
In August 2016 a policeman was suspended after he was filmed accepting a bribe.
Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa has called for patience in transforming the country’s economy as he marked his first 100 days in office this past weekend.
He was sworn in as the country’s head of state after a military takeover that overthrew long-time leader Robert Mugabe in November 2017.
In a video on his official Facebook page, Mnangagwa chronicles his achievements over the last three months, including scaling back the Indigenisation Act to enable investment, and cutting excise duty on petrol.
“We must of course be realistic and recognise that it takes more than 100 days to recover an economy,” he says in the two minute-long clip.
Among Mr Mnagagwa’s key pledges after taking office were fighting corruption within the ruling class and improving ties with the west.
In January, he attended the 48th World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, marking the first time Zimbabwe was represented.
Many saw this as a significant step towards ending decades of economic isolation.
BBC Minute has been speaking to Zimbabweans about the country's future.
The BBC's Seren Jones spoke to Fungi who moved back to Zimbabwe and believes Zimbabweans can come together to make the country a better place:
The Ugandan military has confirmed its soldiers killed three Somali soldiers on Saturday, reports AFP news agency.
The military accused Somali soldiers of opening fire on a military convoy carrying Uganda's peacekeeping commander which it said forced them to retaliate, AFP adds.
Uganda's army spokesman Brig Richard Karemire told Reuters news agency that the soldiers had been blocked at a checkpoint en route to their base after providing medical assistance to people injured in Saturday's twin bomb attack that killed 38 people.
He added that there was an ongoing investigation but said that the Amisom rules of engagement allowed its soldiers to respond with fire when attacked.
However, AFP adds, Somali security official, Mohamed Ali, blamed Amisom for the incident saying that Somali soldiers had a right to stop their convoy after a lockdown was imposed in the city.
The kidnap of more than 100 girls from a boarding school in north-eastern Nigeria has become shrouded in confusion.
The initial confusion appears to have come from a teacher, who spoke to the press after the attack.
He said the militants were searching for food, and not trying to kidnap anyone. The girls, he said, had run into the bush and were hiding.
According to the BBC's Halima Umar, who is based in the capital Abuja, the government seems to have embraced this version of events, only accepting the girls had been kidnapped later on.
However, the story became more confused when different branches of government and the army began diverging in their accounts - to the extent that the girls' rescue was announced at a time when no official had acknowledged they had been kidnapped.
Angolans have been using the hashtag #acabademematar, which translates roughly as "kill me already" to pose for pictures where they are playing dead.
The poses go from glamourous...
... to dangerous:
Blogger Lunga Izata explains the photos are in protest to a range of issues from bad roads, poor hospital conditions, the high cost of living, pollution, and unemployment to the lack of schools.
"Yesterday, while longing for news that there may be a possibility of easing the country's economic crisis, I was saddened to hear that children have not been to school for five years," she writes.
Here are some more of the protest poses:
The school where 110 girls are believed to have been abducted by Boko Haram militants will remain closed, reports AFP news agency.
"The government girls school in Dapchi has not reopened. It's not feasible to reopen the school in the current situation," AFP quoted education commissioner for Yobe state, Mohammed Lamin, as saying.
"We still have over 100 girls that are unaccounted for. The other girls that were found are not in the right frame of mind to return to school. They are still in trauma," he added.
Jihadists stormed the school in the town of Dapchi in the north-eastern Yobe state on 19 February.
The attack has revived memories of the Chibok schoolgirl abduction in 2014.
Ronald Dlamini was the first black mixed martial arts champion in South African history.
But his life changed when he got meningitis and woke up after 10 days in a coma and found he had become blind.
So now he helps other blind people train themselves against attacks.
BBC Africa, Abuja
The Yobe State government is considering re-opening the Nigerian school where 110 girls were abducted last week by suspected Boko Haram militants.
But the parents of some of girls who returned home safely say their children are too afraid to return to classes after the trauma of their escape.
Parents say the authorities must put in place adequate security arrangements at the school in Dapchi in north-east Nigeria before they think of sending their daughters back to the school.
Police in Kenya are currently trying to disperse protesters in a major highway outside the capital Nairobi.
The demonstrators have reportedly been deflating tyres of vehicles travelling on the busy highway.
KTN TV station shared a video of the ongoing police operation:
The Standard news site reports that vehicles on the road have been there for close to 10 hours.
The BBC's Ferdinand Omondi has shared a picture of the disruption caused by the protest:
Our reporter says that traders are protesting against what they say is harassment by officials following a charcoal burning ban in the eastern Kitui county.
The region's governor, Charity Ngilu, has defended the ban saying that it was part of conserving the environment.
British journalist Marc Ellison has partnered with Didier Kassai, an illustrator from the Central African Republic, to document stories of victims of violence in the country.
The two co-created a graphic novel highlighting the plight of children called House Without Windows.
The BBC's Scotland service made this short film about Marc and Didier's project:
Botswana has urged the President of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Joseph Kabila, to step down.
The foreign ministry said the situation is DR Congo is particularly bad "because its leader has persistently delayed holding elections, and has lost control over the security of his country".
Read the full statement:
Government troops have clashed with opposition supporters following the refusal of President Mr Kabila to leave office.
He took power in 2001 after his father's assassination and had been expected to step down in 2016.
He has however reneged on two deals to get him to leave office.
Another deal has set December this year as the deadline for him to hand over power but opposition supporters suspect that he will not.