Pumza Fihlani
BBC News, Johannesburg

Imprisoned abaThembu King Buyelakhaya Dalindyebo has been admitted to a private hospital in East London for an undisclosed illness, according to reports in South Africa. 

This is his second hospital stay in recent weeks, as the king was earlier taken to a local hospital following a hunger strike. Reports at the time said he was suffering from chronic ulcers and depression. 

According to the New Age newspaper, the Department of Correctional Services says his condition “deteriorated” shortly after he was meant to leave hospital at the weekend. 

King Dalindyebo comes from the same abaThembu clan as Nelson Mandela. 

He recently began a 12-year prison sentence for kidnapping, assault and arson after several legal attempts to overturn his conviction. 

The case against him was related to a dispute he had with some of his subjects about two decades ago.

Image source, AFP

Gabon has recalled its ambassador to Paris after French Prime Minister Manuel Valls appeared to question the legitimacy of President Ali Bongo's election in 2009, Reuters news agency reports. 

Responding to a question about whether Mr Bongo had been elected democratically, Mr Valls told a French TV on Saturday that "No, not as I understand it."

Gabon's Interior Minister Pacome Moubelet Boubeya said on state television on Sunday that the government was seeking clarification of Mr Valls' remark. 

"We are surprised and shocked by the words of Manuel Valls when our two countries have such excellent relations," he added.

Image source, Getty Images

President Bongo was elected in 2009 after the death of his father, Omar Bongo, who had ruled the oil-rich state since 1967. 

The opposition disputed the result at the time. Mr Bongo is expected to seek a second seven-year term in August.

Gabon has twice before temporarily recalled Ambassador Germain Ngoyo Moussavou in recent years, although each time he has been reinstated.

The diplomatic spat between the two  countries started after a French probe into the origins of the Bongo family's wealth.

About 14 million people are facing hunger in southern Africa because of a drought that's been made worse by the El Nino weather pattern, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) says.

The WFP says Malawi is the worst-affected country where 2.8 million people or 16% of the population are expected to go hungry, followed by Madagascar and Zimbabwe.

"With little or no rain falling in many areas and the window for the planting of cereals closing fast or already closed in some countries, the outlook is alarming," it added.

Image source, AFP

Image source, AFP

The German government says North African countries cannot expect German development aid if they are unwilling to take back failed asylum seekers.

Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel said he was sending that message to North African leaders. Migrants from North Africa were blamed for many attacks on women in Cologne on New Year's Eve.

Germany may soon list Algeria and Morocco as "safe countries of origin".

Police detained 40 North African men in Duesseldorf on Saturday.

Police in the city, about 50km (30 miles) from Cologne, targeted North African gangs suspected of pickpocketing, mugging and drugs offences.

Read the full article on BBC news

Sixteen Kenyan soldiers who survived Friday's attack in Somalia have returned to the capital, Nairobi, the respected Daily Nation newspaper reports., external

Injured soldiers had been flown back on Sunday.

The Kenyan soldiers were attacked by al-Shabab militants at their base in el-Ade. They are in Somalia as part of the African Union Amisom force.

Defence Minister Raychelle Omamo described the soldiers as "a group of heroes", the Daily Nation reports.

She added that more soldiers are being sent for "search and recovery" operations.

Image source, AFP

Tulanana Bohela
BBC Africa, Dar es Salaam

Tanzanian police have arrested more than 80 Ethiopian immigrants crammed into the back of a lorry heading for the southern town of Mbeya, towards the Tanzania-Malawi border.

Most of the migrants were dehydrated and in a bad condition, Iringa regional police commander Peter Kakamba said.

Tanzania and Malawi have become key staging posts for people fleeing drought and conflict in Ethiopia and Somalia and trying to reach South Africa.

Image source, AFP

Late last year more than 100 illegal Ethiopian migrants were rounded up on their way to South Africa.  

Forty illegal immigrants from Ethiopia were found dead after they suffocated inside the truck transporting them in central Tanzania in 2012.

Image source, SA Presidency

South Africa's President Jacob Zuma says, external he "regrets" making an error about the size of the continent.

Last month, he was criticised for telling a group of business people that "Africa was the biggest continent on earth".

At the time, one online news site, Enca, external, called it a "geography lesson fail" and highlighted the negative comments directed at Mr Zuma.

Today, more than five weeks later, Mr Zuma's office points out that he was wrong and notes that Asia is the world's largest continent.

Image source, AFP

For the record - in terms of population - the statement cites the following UN figures:

• Asia - 4.4 billion people
• Africa - 1.2 billion people
• Europe  - 737 million people
• Latin America & Caribbean - 634 million people
• North America - 358 million people
• Oceania - 39 million people

Asia also comes out top in terms of land mass.

Matthew Kenyon
BB Africa Sport

Image source, Getty Images

Ghanaian International defender Daniel Amartey is on the verge of joining the Premier League side Leicester City.

Amarte's current club, Danish side FC Copenhagen, has agreed to sell him to the English side who are currently joint top in the Premier League. 

"It is part of our strategy as a club... to develop players to a level where they get so attractive that clubs from the biggest leagues will buy them for large sums of money," FC  Copenhagen CEO Anders Horsholt said in a statement.

Amartey, who played 63 games for FC Copenhagen, is expected to agree personal terms with Leicester before the deal is completed.

Some Ugandans have been using the hashtag #1986pictures to talk about what they were up to when President Yoweri Museveni first became head of state.

He is now running for a fifth term in office in elections due next month.

For some, it's an opportunity to send cute baby pictures:

Others have managed to show off a groovy 1980s look:

While many others - in fact most Ugandans - were not born in 1986.

Sammy Awami
BBC Africa, Dar es Salaam

Tanzania's government has permanently banned the weekly Kiswahili tabloid Mawio for alleged incitement of violence. 

The decision comes only few days after the lifting of a ban on the regional English newspaper The East African, which was banned early last year. 

Minister of Information Nape Nnauye said Mawio's reporting style contravened the Newspaper Act. 

The law has for a long time been criticised as outdated and restricting the freedom of expression. 

The law gives the minister of information power to suspend or even ban a newspaper.

The Media Council of Tanzania (MCT) says it has been disappointed by the ban.

"We had hoped that the new government would have chosen a different approach in dealing with the accused faulty media, but looks like nothing has changed", says MCT Executive Secretary Kajubi Mkajanga.

Prime Ndikumagenge
BBC Africa, Bujumbura

At least three people were killed and six others injured after a heavy downpour last night in Mutambua district, near Burundi's capital, Bujumbura.

The national broadcaster reported that about 90 houses were destroyed. 

A road to a hydro-power dam located in the same area was also damaged.

Image source, AFP

A controversial plan by the Ethiopian government to expand the capital, Addis Ababa, is set to be scrapped after a key member of the ruling coalition withdrew its support.

The expansion plan sparked deadly violence in the central-southern state of Oromia, which surrounds Addis Ababa.

Rights groups say that at least 150 protesters have died and another 5,000 have been arrested by security forces. Similar protests in May 2014 left dozens of protesters dead.

Rejection of official plans by government members is unprecedented in Ethiopia as explains BBC Monitoring's Mathias Muindi in this piece.

A survivor of the terror attack in Burkina Faso, which saw at least 29 people from nine different countries die, has spoken about the moment he was shot.

Alassane Baguian, an American citizen, said that he had no idea that he would survive and feared that he would become "a dead man".

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb has said it carried out the attack, which began on Friday night.

The BBC's Thomas Fessy, spoke to him from his hospital bed in the capital Ouagadougou.

The government in the Democratic Republic of Congo says it wants to prosecute militia leader Germain Katanga, who has already been convicted by the International Criminal Court, the AFP news agency is reporting.

Katanga was serving out his sentence in a prison in the capital, Kinshasa, and was due to be released today.

Justice Minister Alexis Thambwe Mwamba told AFP that he would not be leaving prison.

He is wanted in DR Congo for different crimes to the ones he was convicted for at the ICC.

Last month, the New York-based group Human Rights Watch said he was wanted for crimes committed in 2005, external, and called for a speedy judicial process.

Image source, AFP

At least four worshippers were killed in a suicide bombing at a mosque in northern Cameroon, a security source said, the AFP news agency reports.

The attack took place in the village of Nguetchewe in an area regularly targeted by Nigeria's militant Islamist group Boko Haram. 

"The toll of this attack is four dead and two injured," the source, who was at the scene of the attack, told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Twelve people were killed in a similar attack five days ago.

Bashir Sa'ad Abdullahi
BBC Africa, Abuja

Nigeria's military says it is searching for militants who attacked oil installations in the Niger Delta region over the weekend. 

Reports from the oil-producing area say fighters, believed to be loyal to former militant kingpin, Government Ekpemupolo, alias Tompolo, were behind the attack.

The attacks were said to be in protest against an arrest warrant issued for their leader by a Lagos court last week. 

But they denied any involvement in the attack.

Tompolo is accused of diverting 34bn naira ($170m; £120m) in the course of signing lucrative security contracts with government agencies to protect their interests in the Niger Delta, which he denies.

He was one of the most important figures in the region until he agreed to an amnesty deal in 2009.

Groups under his control were accused of kidnapping expatriate oil workers and attacking key oil facilities, crippling production of the country's biggest export. 

Image source, AFP

Martin Vogl
Madagascar

Image source, Pascal Danthu, CIRAD

A team of scientists say they have identified one of the oldest baobab trees in Madagascar, external, saying it's around 1,600 years old.

It belongs to the Adansonia rubrostipa species of baobab - or Fony baobab - and is nicknamed “the grandmother”.

It’s actually made up of three stems fused together. The other two stems are younger than the oldest part.

Baobabs are among the oldest trees to have been dated in Africa.

Six of the nine known species of baobab can only be found in Madagascar. 

Sammy Awami
BBC Africa, Dar es Salaam

The Tanzanian Communication Agency has suspended the licences of six television and 21 radio stations for failing to pay regulatory fees.  

The agency says that it issued a payment notice to 40 stations last July, but only 13 have paid the fees, hence the order for the remaining 27 stations to stop broadcasting.

But the Media Council of Tanzania (MCT) has criticised the decision saying the move infringes the public right to information. 

Speaking to the BBC, MCT Executive Secretary Kajubi Mukajanga said stopping the stations from broadcasting is simply depriving people of important information. 

He said there could be other ways to force the stations to pay the fees.

The Sahara Media Group, which owns three of the affected stations, has denied allegations that they have not paid the fees. 

Image source, AFP

Kenya's wounded soldiers returning from Somalia after Friday's attack features on the front pages today.

The Standard, external features a pledge from the army:

The Daily Nation, external runs with a break down of what actually happened on Friday:

Image source, EPA

Burkina Faso and Mali have agreed to work together to counter the growing threat of Islamist militants in West Africa, Burkina Faso's prime minister Paul Kaba Thieba said, Reuters news agency reports.

The two countries also agreed to share intelligence and conduct joint security patrols.

The announcement followed the meeting between the prime ministers of the twp countries on Sunday, two days after al-Qaeda-linked militants killed 28 people in an attack on the Splendid Hotel in Burkina Faso's capital, Ouagadougou.

"There is a very strong political will on the part of the two states to combine our efforts to fight terrorism," Mr Thieba said, Reuters reports.

Twenty-two people were killed in November when militants attacked the luxury Radisson Blu Hotel in Mali's capital, Bamako.

Read: Al-Qaeda in North Africa

Al-Murabitoun militant group