The starting gun for Zimbabwe's election campaign has been fired 18 months early, says columnist Farai Sevenzo

And the person who fired it was a 39-year-old pastor called Evan Mawarire:

Image source, AFP

Last month, the cleric called for Zimbabweans to re-own their flag, to stop wishing they lived in another country, and to force the politicians to answer questions on their lack of accountability and corrupt ways without fear.

People started airing their frustrations using the hashtag #ThisFlag.

They say they will refuse to bribe policemen, they will watch and circulate tales of corruption.

Farai predicts Zimbabwe's vote will be one where citizen apathy may well be a thing of the past.      

For the first time a female team has won at the game of fantasia. 

It is a Moroccan sport where horse riders shoot guns on horseback and the most-synchronised team wins.

But the BBC's Sahar Zand reports that women are still banned from the national competition:  

South Africa's police have reached a financial settlement with prominent rapper Khuli Chana after he sued them for wrongly shooting him in 2013. 

The story is featuring prominently on South Africa's TimesLive news site:   

Image source, TimesLive

Chana, whose real name is Khulane Morule, suffered minor minor injuries when he was shot near the main city, Johannesburg. Police mistook his luxury sedan for that of kidnappers they were pursuing, the eNCA news site , externalreported at the time.  

Details of the financial settlement have not yet been revealed, but the rapper told TimesLive, external that his legal battle with the police had ended: 

Tanzania’s semi-autonomous archipelago of Zanzibar has introduced a pension scheme for all citizens aged 70 and over.

It is the first fully funded state pension in East Africa.

Each pensioner will be entitled to 20,000 Tanzanian shillings ($9, £6) a month.

Campaigners have welcomed the move and say it will lead to a huge improvement, not just in the lives of the elderly - considered to be among the poorest in society - but for the rest of the country as well.

Watch Sammy Awami's video about the pioneering scheme:

BBC Monitoring

Algerian media outlets are marking the death of the leader of the Polisario Front, Mohamed Abdelaziz as the country declares eight days of mourning.

The Arabic hashtag #Algeria_condoles_WesternSahara was among the trending hashtags yesterday following the announcement of Mr Abdelaziz's death by the Polisario Front, which is demanding that Morocco gives Western Sahara independence.

Image source, AFP

Meanwhile, Moroccan media outlets said that Mr Abdelaziz's death was "no surprise" and that Algeria, "which is suffering from its own leadership crisis" because President Abdel Aziz Bouteflika is ill, would delegate its security and military authorities to choose the Polisario Front leader's successor. 

Uganda has imposed new terror charges on five men who were acquitted last week on charges related to the 2010 bomb attacks in the capital, Kampala, police have said. 

They had "allegedly created documents and materials" while in prison "to facilitate, assist or engage co-conspirators to undertake terrorist acts", police added in a statement. 

The five, who include Ugandans and Kenyans, were rearrested immediately after their acquittals over the 2010 bombings which killed 74 people when a restaurant and rugby club were targeted.

Another five were sentenced to life in prison for their role in the attacks, carried out on behalf of the Somalia-based Islamist militant group al-Shabab. 

Image source, AP

We said in our 12:35 post that there is an unconfirmed report that the alleged mastermind of the Garissa massacre has been killed.

He was referred to as Mohamed Dulyadayn in the post but he has many aliases. 

Mohamed Dulyadin is the name he is best known by. It means ambidextrous in the Somali language.  

One of his other aliases is Mohamed Kuno.

The Kenyan government named him as the alleged mastermind behind the 2015 Garissa University College assault by militant Islamists and put a $215,000 (£145,000) reward for his capture:

Image source, Kenyan interior ministry

Read more about the man in his BBC profile.   

Image source, AP

Signals likely to have come from the black boxes of the EgyptAir plane that crashed last month have been detected, Egyptian investigators say.

A statement said they were picked up by a French vessel searching the Mediterranean Sea.

There were 66 people on board when the Airbus A320 crashed on 19 May while flying from Paris to Cairo.

It vanished from Greek and Egyptian radar screens, apparently without having sent a distress call.

Read more on the BBC News website.

A huge treasure trove of fossils, including of some species that have not been documented by palaeontologists before, have been found in South Africa, reports the local News24 site, external.

It says the fossils from over 300 million years ago are excellently preserved.

The fossils were found when rocks were cut during construction work on the N2 highway near Grahamstown, in the south-east of the country.

Palaeontologist Robert Gess told the news site that the fossils allow them to trace a broader picture of the ancient coastline.

A Voice of America journalist has tweeted that the alleged mastermind of the massacre of 148 people at Garissa University in Kenya may have been killed:

We have not yet confirmed the report and we will bring you more details as soon as we have them.

In April 2015, al-Shabab militants shot students in their dormitories before rounding up and killing dozens more in what was the deadliest attack by the group.

Image source, AP

The Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) has said it has bombed two oil wells run by US energy firm Chevron in Nigeria's oil-rich south, in the latest attack claimed by the new militant group. 

In a tweet, it said: 

AFP news agency reports that while Chevron officials refused to comment, an industry source said: "I can confirm the attack on the two oil wells. It has resulted to a leak spilling oil into the place."

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb has said its al-Murabitun battalion was involved in an "epic battle" with "Crusader occupation forces" in northern Mali,  reports the SITE group which monitors militant Islamist activity. 

A Chinese peacekeeper with the UN force in Mali and three civilians with an explosives unit were killed in two attacks on Tuesday, the UN and China said. 

Read: Why do young Africans become jihadis?

Chemicals found in people infected with malaria can be sniffed out by dogs, a pilot study has found.  

The scientists at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine have just been given about $100,000 (£70,000) by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to do further research.

They will enlist the help of 400 Gambian children, including some who are known to have malaria, who will be asked to wear nylon socks for 24 hours.

The dogs will then be trained to distinguish between positive and negative samples, explains Wired magazine, external.

One of the researchers, James Logan, told BBC Newsday that this could potentially help prevent the spread of malaria:

 A Chinese peacekeeper was killed in a "terrorist attack" on a UN base in northern Mali, China's foreign ministry has confirmed, AFP news agency is reporting.

 "This is a grave and outrageous crime. China strongly condemns it," foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying is quoted as saying. 

"We call for the UN and Mali to carry out a thorough investigation and bring the perpetrators to justice," she added. 

Attacks in northern Mali have continued, despite French-led forces recapturing in 2013 cities and towns that had been over-run by militant Islamists linked to al-Qaeda. 

See our earlier post for more details.

Three men jailed for corruption with the flamoboyant son of Senegal's former President Abdoulaye Wade have been released, reports BBC Afrique.

Last year, a court sentenced them to five years in prison for being complicit in Karim Wade's illicit enrichment.   

Bibo Bourgi and Alioune Samba Diasse were freed on humanitarian grounds while Papa Mamadou Pouye was given a conditional release, Justice minister Sidiki Kaba said.   

Image source, AFP

Their release has fuelled speculation in Senegal about the possibility of Karim Wade, who was a powerful minister in his father's government, being released as well. 

A court ruled that he had stashed funds in offshore companies in the British Virgin Islands and Panama.  

He denied the charges. 

Famous Kenyan author Binyavanga Wainaina has received strong support on Twitter after he said he had been assaulted by a taxi driver in Berlin in Germany.

Here is a sample of the views:

A UN peacekeeper has been killed and three others wounded after their base in Mali's northern Gao city was shelled by unidentified attackers. 

The UN did not disclose the nationality of the peacekeepers, but the base is home to the Chinese contingent of the peace force in the troubled north, where both militant Islamists and Tuareg rebels operate.  

Several civilian staff were also injured, the UN mission in Mali, known by its acronym Minusma, added.

Another three people were killed in a separate attack while on a UN operation to remove landmines in the area, Minusma said. 

Read: World's most dangerous peacekeeping mission

An Australian MP for the Shoorters and Fishers party has revealed he once shot and ate an elephant while hunting in Zimbabwe, reports the Australian newspaper, external.

The revelation was made in a late-night sitting of parliament:

Robert Borsak was speaking against an animal rights groups.

You can hear Green MP Jeremy Buckingham interject with “Did you eat the elephant?”   

Mr Borsak replied that he had.  

He confirmed to the Australian that he had indeed eaten an elephant, “but not in one sitting”.

Image source, AFP

Renowned Kenyan author Binyavanga Wainaina says he has been assaulted by a taxi driver in Germany's main city, Berlin, and it left him "feeling black, dirty". 

"I feel this kind of thing is supposed to happen to somebody like me," he added in a Facebook post, external. 

Catherine Byaruhanga
BBC Africa, Kampala

Image source, Reuters

Opposition leaders have staged a sit-in at a court in Uganda's capital, Kampala, to protest against the failure of the prosecution to present their leader Kizza Besigye, who has been charged with treason, in court this morning.

The prosecution said Mr Besigye could not be brought to court because of a security threat.

The magistrate adjourned the case to 15 June to consider the prosecution's request to hear the case at a court closer to the high security prison where he is being held.

Mr Besigye was charged with treason after his Forum for Democratic Change party said it had installed him as Uganda's leader, rejecting President Yoweri Museveni's victory in February's election as a sham.