Image source, Fellipe Abreu

The Grande Hotel in Mozambique's coastal city of Beira opened in 1955 - and was one of Africa's most luxurious hotels.

Since then it has acted as a political prison and is now home to 3,500 squatters - some of whom fled fighting during the civil war.

Journalist Fellipe Abreu visited the building, once dubbed the "Pride of Africa":

Image source, Fellipe Abreu

Image source, Fellipe Abreu

See more of his stunning photos in this gallery: Squatters of Mozambique's Grande Hotel.   

Rwanda is pressing for the extradition from France of a Catholic priest accused of inciting the 1994 genocide which killed some 800,000 people, Rwanda's New times newspaper reports, external. 

Officials raised their demand for the extradition of Father Wenceslas Munyeshyaka in talks in Rwanda's capital, Kigali, yesterday with prosecutor Serge Brammertz, who is mopping up genocide cases investigated by a now-defunct UN tribunal. 

Image source, AFP

He promised to press France to extradite the pastor and another accused, who fled Rwanda after the genocide, the newspaper reports.

Judicial officials in France dropped charges against Father Munyeshyaka last year, saying there was a lack of evidence to prosecute him. 

The UN tribunal, which tried genocide suspects, failed to secure his extradition in 2007, with a French court ruling that the arrest warrant was invalid.

The hashtag #StarbucksSA has been trending in South Africa as the US coffee giant opened the door of its first coffee franchise in sub-Saharan Africa this morning.

A journalist tweeting from the upmarket Johannesburg shopping centre captured the sense of excitement for those wanting to taste their first cup of Starbucks coffee:

"We've been queuing for 12 hours, since 7:30 last night and we wanted to be the first customers at Starbucks, and we were," 19-year-old student Mohamed Mala told the AFP news agency.

Here's another happy customer:

But not everyone was so impressed:

And a stand-up comic put it into perspective:

Image source, AFP

Nomsa Maseko
BBC Africa, Johannesburg

A judge-led commission of inquiry has exonerated South Africa's President Jacob Zuma from facing more than 700 charges of corruption and racketeering related to the biggest purchase of arms after apartheid ended in 1994. 

The commission - chaired by Justice Willie Seriti - found no evidence of bribery in the deal, after a four-year investigation.

Image source, AFP

In 2005, Mr Zuma was sacked as deputy president after his financial adviser Schabir Shaik was found guilty of trying to solicit bribes for him from a French arms company.  

Mr Zuma always denied any wrongdoing, and criminal charges against him were dropped. 

After he became president in 2009, he appointed a commission to investigate the arms deal. 

At a press briefing earlier today, Mr Zuma said there was no credible evidence placed before the inquiry to prove the multi-billion dollar deal was dodgy. 

This is despite the fact that some crucial witnesses refused to testify at the commission, describing it as a whitewash.

The US ambassador to the UN is in Nigeria to show solidarity with the government in its efforts to defeat militant Islmaist group Boko Haram, the BBC Abuja bureau reports. 

Samantha Power was expected to attend a rally organised by the Bring Back Our Girls group, which is spearheading the campaign to secure the release of more than 200 girls abducted from a boarding school in the north-eastern town of Chibok last April. 

Image source, AP

Ms Power, accompanied by military officials, has already visited Cameroon and Chad, two other states targeted by Boko Haram.

The Associated Press news agency reports that the instability in Libya has also been discussed - with neighbouring Chad's President Idriss Deby ruling out helping the US install the new unity government in the North African state. 

Image source, Reuters

Fifa's ex-leader Sepp Blatter has described how Swiss government officials wanted him to help in efforts to get Burundi's football-loving President Pierre Nkuruziza to step down after protests against his rule broke out last year, the respected World Soccer magazine reports, external. 

The claim is set out in his autobiography Sepp Blatter: Mission & Passion, Fussball, co-authored with loyal script-writer Thomas Renggli and which has just been published in German in Switzerland.

Last May, Swiss Foreign Minister Yves Rossier asked Mr Blatter to offer Mr Nkurunziza an "ambassadorship"  of the world football governing body, the book as says, according to the magazine. 

Mr Rossier made the request after being prompted by the US, but the plan fell through because he had other issues on his plate, Mr Blatter is quoted as saying. 

Image source, afp

Mass protests broke out in Burundi last April after Mr Nkuruniza announced that he would seek to extend his 10-year rule in elections which he subsequently won.

Mr Blatter, a Swiss national, officillaly stepped down as Fifa president in February after the US launched an investigation into corruption in world football. 

Read more: President Nkrunziza's football club is called Hallelujah FC.

Image source, AFP

• In 1999, the South African government announced its largest-ever post-apartheid arms deal, signing contracts totalling 30bn rand ($5bn; £2.5bn) to modernise its national defence force
•  The deal involved companies from Germany, Italy, Sweden, the UK, France and South Africa
• But allegations of bribery over the deal dogged the governments of both President Jacob Zuma and one of his predecessors, Thabo Mbeki
• Mr Zuma’s former financial adviser Schabir Shaik was convicted in 2005 of corruption over the deal. He was found guilty of trying to solicit a bribe from Thint, the local subsidiary of French arms firm Thales, on behalf of Mr Zuma - then deputy president
•  Shaik was released on parole after serving just over two years on health grounds.  
•  Another official, Tony Yengeni, who was the chairman of parliament's defence committee at the time of the deal and the chief whip of the governing African National Congress (ANC), was convicted of fraud in 2003. He was also freed on parole after serving five months of a four-year sentence  
• Mr Zuma was also charged but the case was dropped before he took office in 2009
• The South African commission of inquiry into a multi-billion dollar deal started in 2013
• President Zuma announces today that after the inquiry no further charges are to be brought (see 10.13 post).

Charlotte Attwood
BBC Africa

I have just received a call from the spokesman for Riek Machar, South Sudan's rebel leader.

Mabior Garang said a plane has taken off from Gambella in Ethiopia to South Sudan's capital, carrying some of their soldiers and Simon Gatwech, their chief of staff.

This has been seen as a key obstacle to Mr Machar's arrival in Juba (see 10:03 post) as the rebel leader has insisted he needs to travel with his security detail and crucially his chief of staff.

The spokesman said this was "a breakthrough" but also said that Mr Machar would not be travelling today. 

Image source, AFP

This relates to an investigation into corruption over a major arms deal that was negotiated by South Africa’s government in the late 1990s.

It’s still a waiting game for South Sudan as rebel leader Riek Machar is yet to arrive in the capital, Juba.

He was supposed to come on Monday to take up the post of vice-president in a unity government to end the civil war.

Both sides accuse the other of being to blame for the delay.

The alleged sticking point concerns the troops and heavy weapons travelling with Mr Machar’s chief of staff.

There are reports of part of Mr Machar’s civilian party boarding a plane for Juba this morning from Ethiopia as this journalist tweets:

Image source, EPA

It was an exciting African Champions League match in the Tunisian coastal city of Sousse last night between local side Etoile du Sahel and Nigeria's Enyimba.

The Tunisians won the game 3-0 but it went to penalties because of Enyimba's 3-0 first leg advantage.

The Nigerian side won the shoot-out 4-2, and go through to the group stage.  

One photographer captured a green laser beam – which can distract players on the pitch and even damage their eyes, but are ubiquitous in North African clubs. 

Image source, EPA

For more on last night's other matches: Mazembe knocked out by Wydad

Nearly 40 people have been charged in The Gambia for arranging a protest last week to demand electoral reform, court officials have said, Reuters news agency reports. 

The High Court said that 18 of the 37 have been charged on Wednesday with assembling unlawfully, rioting, inciting violence and interfering with vehicles, it reports. 

At least 50 people were arrested after the demonstration on Thursday in the tiny West African state, according to the main opposition United Democratic Party (UDP). 

Image source, AFP

Three people, including senior party member Solo Sandeng, are feared dead, the opposition has said. 

Fifteen were released on Tuesday, but the rest remain in custody, UDP sources are quoted by Reuters as saying.

The Gambia is due to hold elections in December, with President Yahya Jammeh expected to run for office again. 

He first took power in a coup in 1994.

Emmanuel Igunza
BBC Africa, Addis Ababa

Image source, AFP

Ethiopian troops have surrounded an area in South Sudan where more than 125 children abducted by armed attackers last week are suspected to be held,  a regional official has told local media. 

Gatluak Tut, an administrator in Ethiopia's Gambella region, said the children would be rescued soon and reunited with their families, nearly a week after they were seized by South Sudanese men who carried out a cross-border raid.  

Ethiopian troops have been conducting a massive military operation against the Murle attackers, saying they have already killed 60 of them and arrested several others. 

Meanwhile, hundreds of residents took to the streets in Gambella town early this morning in a peaceful demonstration to urge the government to do everything it can to rescue the children and enhance their security. 

On Wednesday, flags across Ethiopia were flown at half mast as the country started two days of mourning for the 208 people killed in what was one of the deadliest attacks along the border of Ethiopia and South Sudan in recent times. 

Ethnic communities along the border have often clashed over land and cattle, but the scale of this attacked has shocked many people.  

Image source, Hadra Ahmed

Image source, AFP

An army colonel has been shot dead by unknown attackers in Burundi's capital, Bujumbura, the local SOS Medias Burundi group has reported. 

Col Emmanuel Buzubona was killed, along with a motorcycle rider, yesterday in a northern neighbourhood of the city, it reports. 

He is the latest of several army officers killed in Burundi since President Pierre Nkurunziza survived a coup attempt and mass protests following his decision last year to extend his decade-long rule.  

Read more about Burundi's tit-for-tat killings

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