President Mugabe has finished speaking, ending his address by saying:

He has warned dissenting war veterans, a faction of whom last week withdrew their backing for the 92-year-old leader, that they would be punished.

He urged the war veterans to choose new leaders and urged them to be careful, saying “the enemy is trying to divide us”.

The president blamed the West for these divisions and masterminding the splits, in particular the British and US embassies.

He also threatened protesters with jail, as the country did not want violence.

Pastors of new churches also came in for criticism, and he warned they were just after money unlike established churches which built missions.

He also warned his supporters against the likes of Evan Mawarire - the pastor behind the #ThisFlag social media campaign that denounces the government's management of the economy.

He ended with usual gusto:

Zimbabwe's President Mugabe is addressing his supporters outside the Zanu-PF headquarters. His speech is making reference to the country's struggling credentials - these tweeters say he has criticised his "cowardly" Francophone contemporaries:

After several hours of waiting, the thousands of people gathered at the headquarters of Zimbabwe's ruling party have what they were waiting for - an address from President Robert Mugabe:

Although the state broadcaster says most of those in the crowd are war veterans, the BBC's Brian Hungwe say it is mainly members of Zanu-PF's youth and women's leagues.

A Twitter account that reviews media content from Zimbabwe has been tweeting some of Mr Mugabe's speech.

The 92-year-old leader is addressing last week's letter from the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans' Association, which said the group was withdrawing its backing for him.

Pressure on Mr Mugabe is growing, with factions in Zanu-PF openly fighting to succeed him and protests about the failing economy.

Read more: What is behind the protests

Patience Atuhaire
BBC Africa, Kampala

It’s not the traditional sound of willow on leather today in Kampala, where a cricket tournament for blind and visually impaired children is under way in the Ugandan capital.

The ball has a rattle inside it so the children know when it's coming towards them.

Their coach also claps to let the bowler know in which direction to throw the ball.

The teams competing are from two schools in the city’s Mukono district and they are preparing for the country’s Disability Sports Gala later in September.

It is rare to find sports organised for people with disabilities here.

Innocent Tumwesigye, the general secretary of the Uganda National Paralympic Committee, says that there is hardly get any support from the government.

But making sports inclusive - starting with schools - is a way to change society's attitudes.

A 36-year-old woman has told Human Rights Watch how she was raped in Burundi's capital Bujumbura last October:

The rights group has interviewed more than 70 rape victims in the Nduta refugee camp in western Tanzania. The camp is sheltering 140,000 Burundian refugees.   

Members of Burundi ruling party's youth wing have repeatedly gang-raped women since a wave of political protests last year, it said (see earlier post).

The majority of those targeted, it says, were family members of people thought to be from the opposition:

A politician for South Africa’s governing African Nation Congress (ANC) has been shot dead ahead of next week's local elections.

Nceba Dywili was “gunned down.. while dropping off an ANC volunteer” in the Zwide township of Port Elizabeth, the IOL news website quotes his tearful mother as saying, external.

The city's Herald newspaper tweeted a photo of him out campaigning to retain his position as an ANC councillor.

The BBC’s Karen Allen says he was campaigning in the highly contested Nelson Mandela Bay area.

The circumstances of the shooting are still being determined.

More than 12 candidates have been killed during this election campaign and Police Minister Nkosinathi Nhleko has set up a task team to investigate the violence.

Brain surgeons are gathering in Cape Town in South Africa in what has been called, external the largest-ever gathering of neurosurgeons.

They are expected to discuss advances in stroke treatment and the genetic aspects of brain tumours. 

For the young brain surgeons, it seems the weather is distracting them from giving thought to craniopharyngioma.

Craniopharyngioma, incidentally, is a type of brain tumour.

Karen Allen
BBC southern Africa correspondent, Johannesburg

Fifty seven Malawian children have been rescued in South Africa by what the authorities believe was a group of child traffickers. 

Three Malawian nationals were arrested in North West province, when the police stopped their vehicle which was speeding. 

The children were found in the back of the windowless delivery van.

The police tweeted these photos:

The youngsters aged between 11 and 21 are believed to be from one of the poorest regions of Malawi. Most of them were boys - 18 were girls - and they are all now in a safe house. 

South Africa's acting police chief Khomotso Phahlane says it is not clear whether the children were being trafficked for labour or sexual exploitation.

Each child had received a sum of up to $170 (£130) with promises of more in the future, he said.

The three accompanying adults are now in police custody, having been charged with trafficking offences. 

Image source, AFP

The UN Security Council has extended its mission in the Central African Republic (CAR) until November 2017, maintaining numbers at 10,750 troops and 2,080 police.

CAR has experienced religious and ethnic unrest for several years.

The extension comes after France announced earlier this month that it was pulling out its last 350 remaining soldiers sent to quell violence in December 2013, the AFP news agency reports.

CAR's UN Ambassador Ambroisine Kpongo stressed that the UN mission must be “proactive” in protecting civilians, according to the Associated Press.

And the council called on CAR’s new President Faustin Touadera to urgently foster reconciliation between Muslims and Christians.

Hundreds of people are heading to the airport in the Democratic Republic of Congo's capital, Kinshasa, ahead of veteran opposition leader Etiennes Tshisekedi’s arrival today.

The BBC's Poly Muzalia in the city took these photos of the march:

The veteran politician has been in Belgium getting medical treatment for the past two years.

In 2012, Joseph Kabila was declared the winner of DR Congo's presidential elections, but Mr Tshisekedi said he was a victim of fraud - and held his own "swearing-in" ceremony.

People in South Africa are still sharing images on social media of a tornado in Tembisa, east of Johannesburg.

Many people have been left homeless, as Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality spokesperson Themba Gadebe, is quoted by IOL news as saying, external:

This morning Gauteng Premier David Makhura and Ekurhuleni's Mayor Mondli Gungubhele visited those affected by the storm:

Image source, AFP

“You’re still fired” - is the message the South Africa’s public broadcaster is sending this morning to four journalists it sacked earlier this month for speaking out against censorship at the corporation.

The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) has said it is appealing yesterday’s ruling made by a labour court that the four be reinstated.

This is the letter sent to the journalists' trade union Solidarity: 

The journalists are among eight dismissed after criticising the SABC for banning footage of violent protests.

Last week, South Africa's high court ordered the SABC to lift the ban.  

SABC argued it had taken the decision to maintain public order as the TV images might encourage others to join in.  

But critics accused it of political censorship ahead of crucial local government elections next week.  

Read more: Is SA broadcaster using apartheid tactics?

While supermodel Nykhor Paul is paid to wear clothes, on her personal Instagram account you'll mostly see her wearing the same patriotic T-shirt again and again:

She told the BBC's Megha Mohan that she is trying to use fame to make people think about the conflict in South Sudan.

She says that she believes the recent fighting is "something personal between powerful men".   

And she know has personal experience of those men she refers to.

Before her parents sent her to live with her uncle in the US from what is now South Sudan in 1998 and before she was "discovered" as a model when she was 14, she knew the recently ousted Vice-President Riek Machar and his replacement Taban Deng Gai - both of whom are part of a faction that fought President Salva Kiir during the civil war that broke out in December 2013:

Read her full interview on BBC Trending.

Kenya's private Daily Nation newspaper is reporting one of many theories about why people have been burning down schools in the country:

Image source, Daily Nation

The article quotes Education Minister Fred Matiangi as saying thwarted plans to cheat on exams have made people turn to arson:

More than 100 government secondary schools in Kenya have been set alight this year. 

Five dormitories were set alight overnight, the Daily Nation reports , external

Last week, a student told the BBC he and his schoolmates burnt down their dormitory because they felt under stress because of their heavy workload and thought they would be able to get time off school if they burnt down some buildings.

Read more: Why are Kenyan schools being torched?

Zimbabwe's state-run broadcaster says that war veterans are out today to show their support for President Robert Mugabe.

It has tweeted photos of them gathering at the ruling party's headquarters in the capital, Harare.

This comes nearly a week after a statement from the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans' Association accused the 92-year-old president of being dictatorial and egotistical.

However, analysts say, as a group, the war veterans are deeply divided over the succession battle within Zanu-PF.

Emmanuel Igunza
BBC Africa

Burundi ruling party's youth wing has been accused by Human Rights Watch of carrying out gang rapes since a wave of protests begun in the country last year.

The majority of those targeted were family members of people perceived to be from the opposition, the rights group's report says.

In one of the cases, an eight-year-old is alleged to have been attacked and gang raped by four members of the youth wing in late April last year. 

Others are reported to have been tied up, beaten and gang raped at gun or knife point, as their families and children watched. 

Some of the refugees who fled to neighbouring countries like Tanzania also said they were raped while trying to leave the country or even once they reached the camps.   

The majority of the victims identified their attackers as members of the feared youth wing who have previously been accused of killings, beatings and intimidation of opposition members.

Policemen or men wearing police uniforms have also been accused of rape. 

Burundi's ruling party has yet to respond to the allegations.

Image source, Getty

A former Somali MP was one of two suicide bombers who killed 13 people near the main airport in the capital, Mogadishu, yesterday, al-Shabab says.

The Islamist militant group named him as Salah Badbado.

The 53-year-old served in Somalia's parliament from 2004 until 2010, when he declared at a press conference he was leaving politics to join the al-Qaeda-linked group, the AFP news agency reports. 

The militant Islamist group, al-Shabab, said it was behind Tuesday's twin blasts and its target was the African Union force's headquarters.

Those killed in the blasts are believed to include security guards at a checkpoint. 

Image source, Abdulaziz Billow Ali

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