Image source, AFP

Ethiopia's Prime Minster Hailemariam Desalegn has admitted that the voices of nearly half the population have not been heard in the country's parliament, the AFP news agency reports.

The statement comes after an unprecedented wave of anti-government protests culminating in Sunday's declaration of a six-month state of emergency.

He was speaking after meeting Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Ethiopia's President Mulatu Teshome spoke on Monday about changing the voting system.

Currently, Ethiopia has a first-past-the-post constituency system and in last year's election the governing coalition and its allies won every single seat.

 AFP quotes Mr Hailemariam as saying:  

The protests in the Oromo and Amhara regions of the country have in part been about alleged political and economic marginalisation.

The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has chosen Guinean diplomat Francois Lounceny Fall as his new representative for Central Africa, the Jeune Afrique newspaper reports., external

The new envoy will take over from Abdoulaye Bathily in early November. 

Mr Bathily, a Senegalese academic turned politician and then diplomat, handed in his resignation to Mr Ban, saying he wants to focus on his bid for the chair of the African Union Commission. 

The UN representative for Central Africa is based in Libreville, Gabon, and is the secretary general's spokesperson on issues relevant to the region. 

The new envoy, Mr Fall, is a former Guinean prime minister.

Image source, AFP

Image source, Nigeria Government

Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari handed over two aircraft from the presidential fleet to the air force last night.

The president's spokesman posted the pictures of the handover on Facebook, external. 

Last week spokesman Garba Shehu said they would put an advert in the newspaper to find buyers for another two of the presidential jets. 

This latest giveaway brings the number of presidential aircraft down to six from 10.

It is part of a campaign to cut down on "waste".

Image source, Getty Images

Malawians on Twitter have been using the hashtag #BringBackMutharika to discuss where their head of state has gone.

President Peter Mutharika left for the UN General Assembly meeting in New York on 15 September and hasn't been heard from since making his speech there on 21 September.

On Monday, the government dismissed rumours about his health following his extended stay in the US, and said that spreading false rumours was a criminal offence. 

It has now issued a statement saying that he will be back on Sunday - a month after he left - after seeing to "various government businesses".

Prime Ndikumagenge
BBC Africa, Bujumbura

The government of Burundi has announced that it's suspending every form of co-operation with the UN's office for human rights.

The announcement was made by the government spokesperson Philipe Nzobonariba on the state broadcaster.

Mr Nzobonariba said the UN office will now need to discuss with the government any activities before it deploys any staff.

On Monday, the ministry of foreign affairs banned three UN investigators from entering the country after they accused the government of gross human rights violations.

There has been concern over the state of human rights in the country during the recent political crisis that was sparked by President Pierre Nkurunziza's declaration that he would run for a third term in office.

Image source, AFP

French Senegalese artist Delphine Diallo has created these portraits of girls in Dakar, Senegal who live in a safe-house:

Image source, Delphine Diallo

Image source, Delphine Diallo

Image source, Delphine Diallo

Image source, Delphine Diallo

The women and girls have gone to the safe house because they were victims of domestic and sexual abuse, exploitation, trafficking or have been living on the streets. 

Ms Diallo created the portraits for the charity Save the Children to mark the International Day of the Girl.

The government in Mali has closed down the operations of mining company Randgold Resources over an outstanding tax bill of more than $75m (£61m), BBC Afrique reports. 

The BBC's Alou Diawarra in Bamako says last-minute talks have been initiated by Randgold, with little hope of reaching a deal. 

The mining company proposes to pay a little less than half of the overdue bill, but the Malian government wants at least half of the money it is owed. 

Image source, AFP

Germany's Chancellor Angel Merkel has now moved on to the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa, as she continues her visit to Ethiopia.

She's there to open a new building - named after Tanzania's first President Juilus Nyerere - for the AU's peace and security council which Germany helped to fund.

The BBC's Emmanuel Igunza is there and says Mrs Merkel has spoken at length about several conflicts on the continent including Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia and Libya.

The AU has a series of photos on its Flickr page, external showing the building under construction:

Image source, AU

A BBC reporter at South Africa's Wits University in the main city Johannesburg has shared this short film of what she's seen on campus this morning:

This comes a day after police and private security clashed with protesting students.

The protesters are demanding free university education, and Wits, along with other universities, has been shut in recent weeks.

The government has said that the universities can raise the fees by a maximum of 8%, and the Wits University authorities wanted classes to continue saying that most students want to get back to learning.

The BBC's Victoria Phenethi, who is also on campus, has told us that the situation is not as tense as yesterday and classes are continuing.

She adds that a helicopter is flying over head and the police are moving protesters away.

Image source, Getty Images

Chad, Niger, Central African Republic, Mali and Somalia have been ranked at the top of an index of countries listing the hardest place to be a girl.

The report, called Every Last Girl, ranks countries based on schooling, child marriage, teen pregnancy, maternal deaths and the number of women in parliament.  

The study by Save the Children says girls in Somalia as young as 10-years-old are forced to marry men much older than them.

The report says girls also suffer during humanitarian crises such as the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone where the shutting down of schools led to an estimated 14,000 teen pregnancies.  

Read more on the BBC News website

A BBC reporter in South Africa has been tweeting comments by the head of South Africa's National Prosecuting Authority Shaun Abrahams regarding the court summons for Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan:

The charges relate to when Mr Gordhan was head of South Africa's revenue service (Sars).

Mr Abrahams responded to accusations that the charges were politically motivated:

Image source, SPL

The malaria death rate in sub-Saharan Africa has declined by an estimated 57% since 2000, according to new data published in the New England Journal of Medicine, external.  

That's from 12.5 deaths per 10,000 population per year in 2000 to 5.4 in 2015.

The four countries with the highest rates of malaria deaths in 2000 - Burkina Faso, Mali, Sierra Leone and Mozambique - all saw large declines by 2015.

Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates writes in his own blog, external that encouraging children to sleep under bed nets, spraying insecticide inside homes and on stagnant water and a new drug artemisinin which gets rid of parasites in the bloodstream, could all have contributed.

The researchers also used a new way of mapping malaria, which Mr Gates said can help countries work out where to send health workers. 

Image source, AFP

The International Criminal Court (ICC) is holding its first public hearings into compensation, focusing on child soldiers recruited in the Democratic Republic of Congo by former warlord Thomas Lubanga. 

Lubanga was the first war criminal to be convicted by the court in The Hague. He was sentenced in July 2012 for his role as a military commander of a rebellion who waged a deadly war in the DR Congo's Ituri province from 2002 and 2004. 

The reparation hearing for Lubanga's victims is seen as another milestone for the ICC.

The sum of $1.12m has been allocated to the case by the Trust Fund for Victims, an independent body set up under the treaty that established the court.

Matthew Davies
Editor, BBC Africa Business Report

South Africa's Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan says he’s been ordered to appear in court on 2 November in relation to the establishment of a tax service surveillance unit set up a decade ago when he ran South Africa's revenue service. 

Meanwhile, the country's top state prosecutor has denied that there was any "political mischief" behind the investigation into Mr Gordhan. 

That was the way Mr Gordhan described it in an interview a week ago.

This morning, the finance minister has been at a business seminar and said: "It looks like we are in a bit of excitement going forward."

On the markets, the rand has fallen in value by about 3.5% this morning.

Image source, AFP

Image source, AFP

A witness at the trial of Ivory Coast ex-First Lady Simone Gbagbo, who is facing charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, told a judge the defendant distributed arms that were used in the war which followed her husband's 2010 defeat in the polls, the AFP news agency reports. 

Mrs Gbabgo has been on trial since May 2014 and the proceedings in her case resumed on Monday after being postponed for several weeks.

The witness, in his sixties, alluding to a massacre which took place in an Abidjan suburb during the conflict told the court: 

The witness however admitted he did not see it happening personally, prompting Simone Gbagbo to counter as quoted by AFP: 

The trial in Abidjan, Ivory Coast's main city continues.   

The Reuters news agency is reporting comments that the German Chancellor Angela Merkel is making as she starts her trip to Ethiopia.

Her trip comes two days after a state of emergency was declared following months of anti-government protests.

Mrs Merkel has said that protests must be allowed and the police response should be proportionate, Reuters reports.

It adds that she said that opposition groups need to be included in the political process.

On Monday, Ethiopia's President Mulatu Teshome told parliament, where no opposition party is represented, that the electoral system needs to be altered so that non-government MPs are elected.

Image source, Reuters

Burundi has banned three UN investigators from entering the country after they accused the government of gross human rights violations.

The investigators said in a report, external last month that thousands of people had been tortured, suffered sexual abuse or disappeared during political violence.

A letter signed by Foreign Affairs Minister Alain Aime Nyamitwe said Pablo de Greiff of Colombia, Christof Heyns of South Africa, and Maya Sahli-Fadel of Algeria were no longer welcome in Burundi.

Speaking in New York on Monday, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric urged Burundi to continue to co-operate with the investigators.

"It's critical that Burundi and every other country co-operate fully with UN human rights mechanism and that is including working with those representing it," he said.

Read more on the BBC News website.

Image source, AFP

South African police barricaded students into Wits University buildings, used pepper spray and tear gas inside these buildings yesterday, according to a statement released by the Student Representative Council. 

The statement adds that this is "illegal according to policing standards".  

"Yesterday our campus once again resembled a war zone," adds the statement.

It goes on to complain that the student representatives' council's request to suspend classes, and have a meeting between students and management instead, were ignored:  

The statement insists that students will continue to demand free education.

Wits spokesperson Shirona Patel says the next 10 days are crucial in saving the academic year.

The suspension of 2016 academic year would jeopardise at least 30,000 students, she says.

So far things are looking normal at the university this morning and students have been seen attending classes, a BBC reporter says.

South Africa's Eyewitness news is reporting that Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan has summoned by police over fraud allegations.

It reports that it is in connection with an alleged payout made to an employee of South Africa's revenue service (Sars) when Mr Gordhan was in charge.

He has been under investigation in connection with other issues at Sars.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel will bring up human rights on her trip to Ethiopia today, the AP news agency is reporting.

She is on the third leg of her African tour which has seen her visit Mali and Niger.

AP quotes a German government spokesperson saying that she will "of course clearly address human rights" issues.

Mrs Merkel's visit comes two days after a six-month state of emergency was declared in the country.

This was in reaction to months of anti-government protests in which rights groups estimate that more than 500 people have died.

Protesters are complaining about political and economic marginalisation. Ethiopia is frequently criticised for its poor human rights record.

The German leader is also set to address migration issues.

Image source, Reuters