Tunisia is the only country in the Middle East and North Africa that experienced significant progress in press freedoms in 2015, Reporters Without Borders says. 

The campaign group's research released today says, external "many challenges remain in Tunisia but a successful transition to democracy has facilitated media reform initiatives in the past five years". 

Image source, Reuters

The report added that, in contrast, the "media landscape darkened" in Algeria where TV stations were forced to close.  

South Africa's Eyewitness News has uploaded a dramatic video on You Tube of a student apparently a suffering a panic attack at the back of a police van following clashes at Rhodes University in Grahamstown: 

The university has suspended all lectures in an attempt to diffuse the crisis which started yesterday when students - many of them topless - marched to protest against rapes on campus.

Rana Jawad
BBC North Africa correspondent, Tunis

The US has imposed a travel ban and an asset freeze on Khalifa Ghuweil, the prime minister of the Tripoli-based government which is not recognised by the international community. 

The ban also means that no American national can do business with him. 

It is the latest move by the US to support the new UN-backed Prime Minister Fayez Sarraj and his deputies as they try to gain control of Tripoli. They moved to the capital last month, and have since been operating from a naval base. 

Some armed groups in Tripoli have pledged loyalty to Mr Sarraj's government, but others still refuse to do so.  

Image source, AFP

A new news channel for Africa is launching today:

During a press conference this morning the CEO Michael Peters was asked why he chose to base the channel in Congo-Brazzaville.

Here's his answer:

Image source, Africanews

Africanews describes itself on Facebook, external as "the first Pan-African multilingual media – produced in Africa, by and for Africans."

It has been set up by Euronews, a news channel based in France.

Anthony Irungu
BBC Africa, Nairobi

The Central Bank of Kenya has announced that all 62 branches of Chase Bank will  be reopened by Wednesday 27 April.  

Chase has been closed for two weeks after it was put into receivership on 7 April.

An audit had shown the bank had loaned its directors $80m (£55m) , and its bad debts had skyrocketed to $100m.

The day before Chase closed, the central bank said “inaccurate” rumours on social media had led customers to do panic withdrawals and had caused a run on the bank.

Kenya Commercial bank will hold the largest stake in Chase and will spearhead the restructuring of the bank.

Customers will be allowed to withdraw up to one million Kenyan shillings ($10,000; £7,000) when the bank reopens.

Emmanuel Igunza
BBC Africa, Addis Ababa

Ethiopia has begun two days of national mourning for more than 200 people who were killed in a deadly cross-border attack in the western region of Gambella at the weekend. 

Flags across the country and at Ethiopia’s embassies abroad are flying at half-mast. 

Image source, Hassan Lali

Messages of condolences have also been streaming in from different countries and international organisations which have criticized the killings and the abduction of more than 108 children during the attack carried out by heavily armed men from the Murle tribe in neighbouring South Sudan. 

The Ethiopian army has said it is still pursuing the attackers with the aim of rescuing the children. 

In an address to the nation, the Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn said 60 of the attackers had been killed in the ongoing rescue mission and that his government was coordinating the military operation with the South Sudanese government.

Police have clashed with students at South Africa's Rhodes University as protests against alleged rape continue today, photos on Twitter show:

The peace deal in South Sudan is at risk after the failure of rebel leader Riek Machar to return to the capital, Juba, the monitors who brokered the agreement have warned.

He had been due on Monday to take up the post of first vice-president in a new unity government.

This is a key part of the deal aimed at ending more than two years of conflict.

The US said it was disappointed by Mr Machar's "willful decision" not to abide by his own commitments.

His team said the delay was caused by logistical and administrative issues and that he planned to return on Wednesday.

Image source, AFP

A statement from the government on Tuesday had said Mr Machar's return was delayed as "he wanted to come with an arsenal of arms... anti-tanks, laser guided missiles and heavy machine guns".

Chairman of the regional monitors, Botswana's former President Festus Mogae, urged both sides to "ensure that the spirit of reconciliation, compromise and dialogue embodied by the agreement" be protected.

Read: Men of dishonour

A Rwandan diplomat has praised Zambia's police for their efforts in ending xenophobic attacks on its nationals in the capital, Lusaka, the Lusaka Times newspaper reports.

“We are happy with the quick Police response to the attacks apparently targeted at our nationals and their properties by the Police", Abel Buhungu, the charge d’affaires at Rwanda's High Commission in Zambia, is quoted as saying

"We are also satisfied that there has been increased deployment of police presence even in areas not affected yesterday,” he added.

Image source, AFP

Police said they had arrested more than 250 people after at least 62 Rwandan-owned shops were looted yesterday and on Monday in what Zambians have described as the worst xenophobic violence seen in the country. 

The situation appears to be calm today in the nine neighbourhoods of Lusaka which were hit by the unrest,  reports the BBC's Meluse Kapatamoyo from the city.  

The riots were sparked by allegations that Rwandans were behind the ritual killings of seven Zambian in recent weeks.

Police say they are investigating the killings.

Rwandans say they are living peacefully in Zambia, and are not behind the killings.   

Several students are reported to have been arrested at a South African university following a topless protest yesterday against rape on campus, says the BBC's Pumza Fihlani in the main city Johannesburg. 

The demonstration at Rhodes University in Grahamstown in Eastern Cape province came after a list of 11 students accused of sexual assault was published on social media on Sunday.

“We demand that Rhodes University immediately take steps to address the rape culture on campus, specifically the ways in which the policies and systems in place are complicit in perpetuating it,” said a statement issued earlier this week by protesting students. 

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