BBC World Service

The Egyptian military has reported further success in a campaign launched last week against Islamist militants in the Sinai peninsula.

It said another 12 militants had been killed and almost 100 others arrested.

Reporting restrictions imposed by the Egyptian authorities mean the figures cannot be verified.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has ordered the military to defeat Islamists in the region by the end of this month.

He gave the order in November after a gun and bomb attack on a mosque killed more than 300 people.

The IS Sinai affiliate, Sinai Province, has said it carried out many deadly attacks, mostly targeting the army. It also claimed the downing of a Russian airliner in October 2015, killing all 224 people on board.

Formerly known as Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, the group first appeared in September 2011 and rebranded itself with an IS pledge of allegiance in November 2014.

The group generally targets Egyptian security forces in northern Sinai but also claimed an attack on a tourist site in southern Sinai in April of last year.

Abdullahi Abdi
BBC Africa, Nairobi

Image source, Getty Images

Nine people - including one young boy - have been arrested on suspicion of hunting and selling tortoises in the self-declared republic of Somaliland.

Somaliland’s environment minister Shukri Hajji Ismail told reporters six rescued tortoises - some so large they were too heavy to carry - were being looked after at the ministry, according to privately-owned Radio Risala, external., external

“Nine people were arrested," he said. "One of them is a young boy who was sent to collect the money. The rest are men.

"We have six tortoises at the ministry now. Some of them are so big that they could not be carried by grown men.

"People seem convinced that the bigger the tortoise, the better the price. We have not caught any potential buyers…

"We understand there are people in this world who eat tortoises, frogs and snakes.”

Last month, several Somali regional authorities warned against the hunting of tortoise amid a rising demand for the reptiles in the country.

The tortoise is one of the world's most endangered animals.

Nikky Okyere, who came to the UK from Ghana, has become the go-to barber for English Premier League players from Africa.

So what's his secret? Our BBC Africa colleagues join him on home visits to his clients to find out:

Meanwhile, Okyere's shop in Camberwell, south London, has become a platform for dancers and musicians to launch their careers:

Video journalists: Genevieve Sagno and Mark Sedgwick

Anne Soy
BBC Africa, Nairobi

Image source, AFP

Ethnic clashes in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s east have forced thousands to flee to neighbouring Uganda.

People have been crossing Lake Albert - which sits on the border - in their thousands after attacks intensified in Ituri over the last week.

There are fears the attacks may herald a return to massacres witnessed in the area nearly 20 years ago, when tens of thousands were killed.

One man said his four children were killed and houses in his village in Ituri burned down.

Another father wept as he identified the body of his three-year-old who drowned when their canoe capsized in the lake.

The Hema and the Lendu ethnic groups of the DR Congo have had historical rivalry over land.

More than 400,000 people were displaced during violent clashes between 1999 and 2003.

The latest flare-up has also affected a third ethnic community, the Bagegere.

The violence could further destabilize the troubled mineral-rich eastern region of the DR Congo.

BBC World Service

Image source, AFP

The aid agency, Oxfam, is due meet a British government minister later to put its case for continuing to receive millions of dollars a year in taxpayer funding, after revelations of sexual misconduct by some staff.

Britain's international development secretary has warned the charity could lose state backing unless it can show how it will prevent similar problems in future.

Last week it emerged that some of its workers used prostitutes in Haiti following the earthquake there seven years ago.

There are now allegations of similar behaviour in Chad, with a former staff worker telling British newspaper The Observer, external that women believed to be prostitutes were repeatedly invited to the Oxfam team house. Another source said a senior member of staff had been fired for his behaviour in 2006.

Roland van Hauwermeiren, who has since been embroiled in a sexual misconduct scandal in Haiti, was head of Oxfam in Chad at the time, the report adds.

A report in The Times newspaper [paywall] says, external Oxfam knew of concerns about the conduct of two men caught up in the Haiti scandal before they were appointed.

BBC World Service

The leadership of South Africa's governing ANC is expected to call for the resignation of President Jacob Zuma when it meets later.

Yesterday, the party's new head, Cyril Ramaphosa, issued an ultimatum to Mr Zuma - to stand down voluntarily or be forced out by the party's executive committee.

If he defies the demand, Mr Zuma will face a vote of no confidence in the South African parliament.

The president, who denies multiple corruption charges, is believed to have been negotiating the terms of his departure behind the scenes.

• Africa Live will be following this story throughout the day so keep checking back for the latest updates.

Image source, Reuters

Ishaq Khalid
BBC Africa, Abuja

Image source, AFP

More than 1,000 suspected Boko Haram militants will appear before judges in Nigeria today, as the largest mass trial in the country's history resumes.

The accused, some of whom have been held for years, are expected to be arraigned before the civilian courts at a military facility in central Nigeria's town of Kainji.

The decision to hold the cases in public comes after human rights groups, including Amnesty International, criticised secret hearings during the first phase of the trials last October.

On that occasion, 45 people were sentenced to between three and 31 years in prison. More than 400 other Boko Haram suspects were discharged for lack of evidence.

The trials were halted for four months to enable the authorities finish investigations on the Boko Haram suspects, according to Nigeria’s Justice Ministry.

Thousands of other suspected militants being detained in other facilities across the country are also expected to be tried later.

More than 20,000 people have been killed and millions of others displaced in Nigeria and other countries in the Lake Chad region since Boko Haram started its insurgency in 2009.

Read: Who are Nigeria's Boko Haram Islamist group?

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