Ruth Nesoba
BBC Africa, Nairobi

Image source, gadocartoons.com

Kenya-based cartoonist Godfrey Mwapembwa, aka Gado, has told the BBC he will be suing the Daily Nation over what he says was the unlawful termination of his contract.

Last year he went on a sabbatical following what he termed was “discomfiture with his works”.

He had just drawn a cartoon in another publication of then-Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, which he says did not show him “in a good light”.

His editor at the newspaper suggested he take some time off - he's not a full staffer but is contracted to provide cartoons until then end of July 2016.

However, last month, he was given a letter from the paper saying it no longer wanted his services.

The paper insists their parting has been amicable, but the cartoonist believes his sacking is politically motivated and says he believes the administration of President Uhuru Kenyatta has been very unhappy with his work.

Gado, who is Tanzanian, told me that the current political climate is worrying for people like him in Kenya - and the gains in freedom of speech made in the past years should be protected at whatever cost

“I am independent - I will not be told what to draw and not draw,” he said, after recounting a time when he got a call from aides of the Kenya’s deputy president unhappy about one caricature.

The cartoonist is a member of the Kenya Union of Journalist (KUJ), which has strongly condemned the recent sackings of journalists who have been critical of the establishment.

"In a span of two months, at least four senior editors have been kicked out of newsrooms on the grounds of redundancy and flimsy grounds to please those who pay the piper," a KUJ statement said last month.

Abdourahmane Dia
BBC Afrique

Image source, AFP

In Chad, civil society organisations have staged an original protest - asking people to whistle early this morning and again later tonight as a veiled method of showing their anger at the country's poor governance. 

"This civil action proposes that people whistle for 15 minutes at 05:30 local time (06:30 GMT) and again in the evening at 21:30 (22:30 GMT)," said a statement from one of the groups, which lists a series of complaints against the President Idriss Deby, who has announced he is planning to run for a fifth term in elections scheduled for April. 

"Express your anger from the comfort of your own home, without risking violence being done to you... Blow out, suffocate this dying system which is already choking you", it adds.

Image source, Mbaïhodjile Dillah Guillaume/Facebook

It's not clear how many people have taken part so far, but not everyone is convinced. 

One Chadian commenting on Facebook said he hadn't heard anything this morning, with another describing the entire protest as a "hullabaloo".

Farouk Chothia
BBC News

Image source, AP

The murder of Chris Hani in 1993 backfired on South Africa's white supremacists.

They hoped that the killing of a politician who was idolised by most black people but hated by many of their white counterparts would escalate conflict in South Africa, and open the way for them to seize power in the ensuing chaos.

Image source, AFP

But the opposite happened, as it galvanised Nelson Mandela to press South Africa's then-President FW de Klerk to set a date for the first democratic election to end centuries of racial oppression.

Mr De Klerk agreed, and power ebbed away from him with Mr Mandela becoming South Africa's first black president just over a year later.

Janusz Walus, who killed Mr Hani by shooting him at point-blank range in the chin, behind the ear and in the chest, is alive only because Mr Mandela's African National Congress party abolished the death penalty, believing that it should not do what the former regime had done - execute its enemies.  

Prominent media figures and human rights campaigners have been tweeting celebrated Kenya-based cartoonist Gado's own work to hit back against his sacking from The Daily Nation newspaper: 

The cartoon below tackles the recent re-election of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni for a fifth term, in an election which foreign observers criticised for its ""intimidating atmosphere".

The Europe director for Human Rights Watch has tweeted one of Gado's cartoons dealing with freedom of expression, linking to a detailed piece, external about the story behind his sacking.

Umaru Fofana
BBC Africa, Freetown

Image source, AFP

Police in Sierra Leone say they have received no direct orders from the UN-backed war crimes court to arrest a former leader of a pro-government militia that operated during the country’s brutal civil war.

Moinina Fofana, the former director of war for the Civil Defence Force (CDF) - known as the Kamajors - was convicted for war crimes and sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2007, backdated to the jail time he had served since 2003. 

But in March 2015 he was granted conditional early release from a Rwandan prison.

On Wednesday, Justice Philip Nyamu Waki issued a public order calling for his arrest for the alleged breach of one of his conditions.

But Mustapha Kamara, the head of the police in southern Sierra Leone, where Fofana lives, says he is not aware of any order to arrest him.

The court says his trial is to start within seven days from the day the order was issued, and if convicted he could be sent back to jail until his prison term runs out in May 2018.

It is not clear what Fofana is alleged to have done but under the terms of his release he is to live in the city of Bo and is barred from engaging in any political activity or threatening witnesses who testified against him.

During Sierra Leone’s 10-year conflict, which ended in 2002, some saw the CDF as defending civilians against rebels. 

The Ethiopian government has been ordered to pay $150,00 (£105,000) in compensation in a landmark case over a woman who was raped almost 15 years ago, according to the international human rights organisation Equality Now. 

Five men were convicted in 2003 over the attack on the woman, who was abducted and raped by the same group of men on two separate occasions when she was 13 years old.

But an appeals court subsequently overturned the men's conviction, arguing that the girl could not have been raped because she was not a virgin, though this assertion was never tested in court.

The victim was forced into signing a sham marriage contract with the ringleader of the group, after being held for a month against her will.

This supposed "marriage" had legal ramifications for the case, because under the Ethiopian penal code at the time, rapists were exempted from punishment if they married their victims. 

Faiza Mohamed from Equality Now, which filed the complaint at the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, explained the significance of the ruling:

Milton Nkosi
BBC Africa, Johannesburg

Image source, AFP

The ex-girlfriend of South African rapper Nkululeko Habedi, known as Flabba, has been sentenced to 12 years for his murder.

Judge Solly Sithole said Sindisiwe Manqele should not be granted parole until she had served at least two thirds of the sentence – eight years.

There was a collective gasp from the gallery when the sentence was announced in a High Court in Johannesburg. 

Manqele, whose head was covered in a red scarf, looked on stony faced.

She is appealing the sentence and is currently applying to extend her bail while pending the outcome of the appeal.

Flabba was a member of Skwatta Kamp, considered the pioneers of South African hip hop. 

He died a year ago after a heated row with Manqele. 

Prosecutors say she was jealous of seeing him talking to an ex-lover and stabbed him through the chest. She said she acted in self-defence.

A South African woman found guilty of kidnapping a two-day-old baby in 1997, has told the BBC she would like to maintain a relationship with the girl she stole from her biological mother.

Speaking to the BBC's Karen Allen before today's verdict, she continued to insist that she had not taken the baby from the hospital, saying she was a victim too.

The EPL football trophy has been taken on a tour of Cape Town this morning, with several journalists snapping it in front of various landmarks. 

But the big question is surely: Where will it be in 10 games' time?

London (for Arsenal or Tottenham), Leicester, maybe even Manchester? 

The South African teenage girl, known as Zephany Nurse, still considers the woman who has been found guilty of kidnapping her from hospital when she was two days old to be her "mother", according to a South African journalist who interviewed her before this morning's verdict.

Giovanna Gerbi told the BBC that the girl said she misses the woman, whom she has not been allowed to see or have contact with since her arrest last year. 

The girl has not been able to finish her final year of high school because of the huge emotional strain the case has placed on her and her family, the reporter added in an interview with the BBC's Newsday programme. 

The girl has been living with the husband of the convicted woman, who still refers to Zephany Nurse as his daughter, having raised her without knowing he was not the biological father.

He told the court that he had always believed the girl to be his daughter, and had been lied to for nearly 17 years. 

A South African peacekeeper has been killed and another wounded in an ambush on a military convoy escorting food aid trucks in Sudan’s western region of Darfur, South Africa’s army spokesman has said.

Brigadier General Xolani Mabanga said they were part of the hybrid African Union-UN peace mission (Unamid) in Sudan, and had been providing security for a shipment of World Food Programme supplies.

The soldier who was wounded in the attack was evacuated to Fashir for treatment and was now in a stable condition, he said in a statement.

Last month, South Africa's government said it planned to withdraw its contingent of troops from Darfur.

It had been contributing to the peacekeeping mission since 2008 as part of efforts to end violence in Darfur that erupted 13 years ago.

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Image source, AFP

Milton Nkosi
BBC Africa, Johannesburg

South Africa’s justice minister spokesman, Mthunzi Mhaga, has told me that the government is going to study the judgement ordering the release on parole of Janusz Walus, the man who was convicted for the shooting and killing of anti-apartheid struggle hero Chris Hani in 1993 (see 09:41 post).

After examining the ruling, the justice ministry will decide if it will appeal - but they will have to decide soon as Walus, a Polish immigrant, is to be released within two weeks.

Mr Mhaga said the government had opposed the parole because Walus had shown no remorse for the killing and because of the lack of what he called “victim-offender dialogue”.

Image source, AFP

The South African woman convicted of snatching a baby in 1997 and raising the child as her own has been refused bail by a judge in Cape Town and has been taken straight to prison.

Here are some quotes from the judgement handed down by Judge John Hlophe at the Western Cape High Court, as reported by the local News24 website, external:

"I found your evidence astonishing... Firstly, when the baby was handed over, you should have been aware that the baby still had a pin on its umbilical cord. There were no adoption papers.The circumstances were suspicious under which the baby was handed over to you.

"It is clear form the evidence that the biological parents did not give you any permission to remove the child. According to the evidence, you must have been the person who removed the child form the hospital.

"It is clear from DNA evidence that you are not the mother. One doesn’t have to be a rocket scientist to know you don’t buy babies.

"Paying 3,000 rand [$800 at 1997 exchange rates] is a fairy tale to say the least. Had it been legally adopted, the adoption would have been registered separately.

"Your story is a fairy tale... I’m absolutely satisfied the state has proven its case of kidnapping beyond reasonable doubt."

Image source, AFP

Milton Nkosi
BBC Africa, Johannesburg

Janusz Walus, the man who was convicted for the shooting and killing of anti-apartheid struggle hero Chris Hani in 1993, has won an appeal to be released on parole.

Polish immigrant Walus was found guilty, along with white supremacist Clive Derby-Lewis, for the assassination which nearly derailed South Africa’s road to a peaceful negotiated settlement to end white minority rule.

Derby-Lewis was released from prison in June last year after serving 22 years behind bars.

Chris Hani was the most famous African National Congress (ANC) leader after Nelson Mandela and he was also leader of the South Africa Communist Party.

He was shot and killed on the morning of Saturday 10 April, 1993, while picking up his newspapers on his driveway.

Walus is to be freed within 14 days.

Image source, AFP

A renowned Kenya cartoonist Godfrey Mwapembwa, known by his pen name Gado, has told the BBC he has been sacked by one of the country’s leading papers, the Daily Nation, without explanation.

He said that he had returned from a recent sabbatical to discover he had lost his job, without being given any explanation.

Gado is one of Kenya’s most popular cartoonists, often poking fun at the elite.

His website, which says he is the most syndicated political cartoonist in East and Central Africa, says , externalhis cartoons tackle “every subject from terrorism and deforestation to Aids and corruption [and] have always stirred debate”.

Image source, @igaddo

Judge John Hlophe has found the woman accused of kidnapping Zephany Nurse from Groote Schuur hospital in 1997 guilty on all three counts against her, South Africa's News24 website reports. 

The biological mother of the child burst into tears as the verdict was given, it adds.

Multiple South African media outlets are confirming the verdict on Twitter: 

David Shukman
Science editor, BBC News

Image source, AP

The mass slaughter of rhinos has increased for the sixth year in a row, according to grim new figures from international researchers.

At least 1,338 of the iconic animals were killed for their horns in Africa last year.

This is the greatest loss in a single year since an intense wave of poaching began recently.

Since 2008, as many as 5,940 rhinos have been killed although scientists fear that could be an underestimate.

The findings were compiled by researchers from the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Read David's full story here.

A judge at the High Court in Cape Town in South Africa is delivering his verdict today in the trial of a woman accused of kidnapping a newborn baby girl in 1997. 

Police accuse her of fraudulently pretending to be the girl's biological mother since snatching her from a world famous hospital in Cape Town city.

The 50-year-old woman was arrested last year after enrolling the child, named as Zephany Nurse, in a school.

Celeste and Morne Nurse, the parents of a similar-looking girl at the school, became suspicious, and alerted police.

DNA tests have proved that Zephany was their child.

Today’s African proverb: When the labourer is praised, his cutlass begins to cut more keenly. Sent by Charles “Neva Giveup”, Port Harcourt, Nigeria

Click here to send your African proverbs.

Welcome to the BBC Africa Live page, where we'll be keeping you up-to-date with developments across the continent today.