Global demand for giant African land snails is growing. Measuring up to 25cm in length and 700g in weight, some are kept as pets, while others are used for cosmetics and food.

Farmers in Nigeria are taking full advantage of their popularity.

Africa Business Report visited a snail farm just outside Lagos to meet these creatures and learn more about them.

Image source, Daily Nation/Facebook

World Vasectomy Day is being marked in Kenya's capital Nairobi - featuring men having the snip on stage in operations broadcast live on Facebook, external by Kenyan news organisations.

Some 150 men were due to undergo the procedure at an event at the Kenyan National Theatre, reports said. Photos and videos were shared under the hashtag #AnActOfLove.

The male sterilisations are being promoted by the organisation World Vasectomy Day, external as a safe and reversible method of family planning.

It was set up by US film director Jonathan Stack, who has six children.

The vasectomies were performed by a team of Kenyan specialists and international experts as part of a day-long event.

BBC Monitoring
News from around the globe

A female Somali musician has released a song titled "Donald Trump", urging the president-elect to accept the Somali-American community. 

Prior to his election, Mr Trump drew criticism after he warned that Somali immigrants in Minnesota were "joining Isis and spreading their extremist views". 

Pop musician Deeqa Afro, whose real name is Deeqa Adan Muse, was born in Ethiopia and lives in Sweden.  

She also urges the immigrant community not to be fearful about the new president, in the song posted on YouTube by Stockholm-based Bulqaas Studio on 13 November:

There are about 85,000 people of Somali ancestry in the US.

During his campaign, the president-elect pledged to ban Muslims from entering the US due to security concerns. Somalis are predominantly Muslim.

Image source, AFP

The song, which has been also been shared on Facebook and Twitter, has elicited mixed views from hundreds of commentators. 

On YouTube, Ayan Hashi holds a grim view, saying, "I am sure you will all be deported, no law can stop that man [Trump]." 

Other commentators hold the same view, with Oubi Love, saying: "Just come back to your country of birth. America belongs to Donald Trump."

Ahmed Abdi wonders: "Why are you concerned with US constitution, Donald Trump has a right to deport immigrants."

But Ahmed Hassa takes a more optimistic tone: "This song will give many Somalis in the US hope."

His sentiments are echoed by Hodan Abukar, who muses: "No one can force you to go back, so enjoy life in America."

On Facebook, Seno Rita is pessimistic and warns that "America doesn’t belong to Somalis".

Read: What Trump didn't say about Africa 

Rana Jawad
BBC North Africa correspondent, Tunis

Image source, Getty Images

One of the last two remaining districts in Libya's second city Benghazi, to be held by Islamist militants, last night fell to forces loyal to General Khalifa Hefter, who is with the government based in the port city of Tobruk.

Guwarsha was a heavily contested area and is where some of the worst and most destructive battles took place.

This now leaves Ganfouda district, where armed Islamist fighters are still holed up and where some families are trapped. 

It has been besieged for months by troops, a move heavily criticised by rights groups who say civilians are suffering and having to cope with indiscriminate bombing.

The battle for Benghazi started over two years ago, following a wave of assassinations and bombings targeting the police, army officers and anti-militia activists. 

Armed units have been battling several groups, including Ansar al-Sharia and multiple other Islamist militias allied to the Shura Council, a loose grouping of Islamist organisations. 

Some members of Ansar al-Sharia, which is linked to al-Qaeda, have since also fought under the banner of the so-called Islamic State group.

Read more: 

Why is Libya so lawless?

Guide to key Libyan militias

A leading organiser of today's anti-government protests in Zimbabwe says armed men - some in police uniforms - beat him with irons bars and drove him to a remote location where they debated whether to kill him.

In an interview with the BBC's Shingai Nyoka at a hospital in the capital, Harare, Patson Dzamara said his attackers eventually left him naked:  

Mr Dzamara said he was abducted after being with a group of people who were organising an anti-government protest for today in the capital, Harare. 

As they were leaving Mufakose township at 01:00 this morning several vehicles cut them off, and he was then taken away and beaten up, he said.  

Mr Dzamara added that he was "not discouraged" by what happened and would continue to campaign for a "new Zimbabwe". 

Mr Dzamara and other activists have called for a protest over a wide range of issues, including moves to introduce what the government calls bond notes because of a shortage of money.  

A Kenyan university graduate who took to the streets with a placard offering her services to employers in a bid to land a job has succeeded in her quest, the Standard, external newspaper reports.

Economics graduate Rakiel Kaoka found work at the Youth Enterprise Development Fund (YEDF) in Nairobi.

The 24-year-old had attracted the attention of employers including Josiah Moriasi, CEO of YEDF, who contacted her shortly after she was seen on the Limuru Road in Nairobi.

She started work this week and reportedly told the Narobian newspaper:

Jose Tembe
BBC Africa, Maputo

Image source, Malawi bureau of standards

The Mozambican authorities say national and international laboratory tests prove that soft drinks manufactured in the country are safe.

Last month Malawi banned Frozy soft drinks, produced in the southern Mozambican city of Matola, over allegations that citric acid levels were too high. 

But after visiting the factory, two deputy ministers announced the results of the laboratory tests.

They accused Malawi of an attempt to smear their country.

Deputy Mozambican Minister of Trade and Industry Ragendra de Sousa said the government would ensure compliance with trade agreements of the Southern African Development Community:

Former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan appears to have been begged to return to power by some residents in northern Nigeria as he visited to pay his respects to the late former Sultan of Sokoto.

Some held up banners bearing the words "Come back Baba Jonathan" as he was welcomed to Sokoto to visit the family of Ibrahim Dasuki - the former spiritual leader of Nigeria's Muslims - who died on Monday at the age of 93.

The images were reported by the Vanguard, external newspaper.

Mr Jonathan handed over power to President Muhammadu Buhari last year after the latter won an election - the first time an opposition figure had won a presidential election in Nigeria since independence in 1960.

Mr Buhari has been grappling with a range of challenges facing the country and the economy has recently gone into recession.

In a tweet last week congratulating US President-elect Donald Trump on his victory, Mr Jonathan said conceding victory to his rival had taken "great self-sacrifice".

Mr Jonathan has described the late Sultan of Sokoto as a "bridge builder and father figure who was ever committed to fostering unity in Nigeria".

 At least six Zimbabwean activists were abducted and beaten up ahead of today's planned protest against the government, protest leader Sylvanos Mudzvova has told told AFP news agency. 

Patson Dzamara and two others were admitted to hospital after being abducted by unidentified men who dragged them out of their cars, he said.

Mr Mudzvova added that three others were missing:   

Zimbabwe's government has not yet commented on reports that security officials may be behind the abductions. 

Opposition groups had called for a protest today against President Robert Mugabe's 36-year rule, amid a growing economic and financial crisis. 

Image source, AFP

See earlier posts for more details

Naziru Mikailu
BBC Abuja editor

Image source, Reuters

Nigerian intelligence agents have raided offices of black market currency dealers accused of exchanging the naira at a rate lower than the agreed 400 naira to $1. 

One trader told the BBC that several people had been arrested by officers of the Department of Security Services (DSS) this morning in the capital, Abuja. 

The currency was floated on the international currency markets in June after previously having been set at a fixed exchange rate with the US dollar.

However the government last week ordered security forces to crack down on currency dealers in the wake of the central bank's apparent inability to stop the naira’s slide.

An Indian medical centre has offered to assist a Tanzanian man who has been told he is too tall to get surgery in his country. 

A doctor at Speedy Recovery, external medical has told the BBC they would be able to assist Baraka Elias, whom doctors in Dar es Salaam said would not fit properly in a hospital bed. 

Mr Elias, who is 7ft 4in (2.20m), said he needed hip replacement surgery after hurting himself in a fall. 

He was also told X-ray equipment was unsuitable for someone of his height.

Local media quote doctors at the specialist Muhimbili Orthopaedic Institute in the commercial capital, Dar es Salaam, confirming Mr Elias' story.   

"I'm sure Mr Elias will sigh a relief as soon as he gets to know that there's somebody in far away India trying to organise things," Dr Shaila Raveendran, who heads the Speedy Recovery Centre in India, told the BBC.  

Mr Elias is said to be the tallest man in Tanzania.

A university campus in Kenya's south-western Narok town has been closed indefinitely after students "rioted" in protest against the beating of a colleague by motorcycle taxi riders over an alleged affair, Kenyan media report.

They blocked the Narot-Bomet road on Thursday after the alleged attack by a group of "boda boda" riders on Wednesday, who are said to have discovered the student allegedly having sex with one of their wives.

The student is reported to have been admitted to hospital.

Kenya's KBC Channel 1 has filed footage of the students blocking the Narot-Bomet road.

They were dispersed by riot police, who made 40 arrests, the channel said.

However the closure of the university campus has not gone down well with students, who say it is a way of avoiding a strike over unpaid staff salaries, the Standard, external newspaper reported.  

Image source, AFP/Getty

Nigeria suffered the third-biggest impact from terrorism in the world last year, after Iraq and Afghanistan, a report says.

Somali was the seventh most affected country, after Pakistan, Syria and Yemen, according to the the Institute for Economics and Peace's Global terrorism Index, external.

The overall number of deaths from terrorism declined by 10% last year - the first decline since 2010 - due mainly to the success of military operations against Islamist militants Boko Haram in Nigeria and so-called Islamic State (IS) in Iraq.

But with a global total of 29,376 deaths, 2015 was still the second deadliest year on record.  

The report also found:

• IS surpassed Boko Haram as the deadliest terrorist group in 2015, launching attacks in 252 cities that killed 6,141 people. 
• The number of people killed by Boko Haram fell by 18%. The group was responsible for 5,478 deaths during the year.  

However Boko Haram and IS were posing new threats as they expanded into new countries, the report said.

Boko Haram has expanded into Niger, Cameroon and Chad, increasing the number of people they have killed in these three countries by 157%, it said.

IS and its affiliates were active in 15 new countries, bringing the total number of countries where they were operating to 28. 

This expansion is why a record number of countries recorded their highest levels of terrorism since 2000, the report said. 

Read more: 

'How I almost became a Boko Haram suicide bomber'

Who are Nigeria's Boko Haram Islamists?

Image source, Getty Images

South Africa's cricket captain Faf du Plessis has been charged with ball tampering in the second Test win over Australia in Hobart.

Video footage appears to show the 32-year-old licking his finger and shining the ball while eating a sweet.

Du Plessis was charged for breaching level two of the International Cricket Council code of conduct relating to "changing the condition of the ball", externalusing an artificial substance.

He has pleaded not guilty.

Read the full BBC story here

The BBC's Shingayi Nyoka has sent us more photos of Zimbabwean activist Patson Dzamara at a medical centre in the capital, Harare, following claims that he was abducted, assaulted and dumped at a lake by suspected security officials.

She says he is in crying in pain and is being consoled by his mother. 

 Mr Dzamara had called on Zimbabweans to take to the streets today to protest against the government, as this tweet shows: 

A 38-year-old Nigerian man has been hanged for drug trafficking after being caught with 2.6kg of cannabis.

"A 38-year-old male Nigerian national, Chijioke Stephen Obioha, had his death sentence carried out on 18 November 2016 at Changi Prison Complex," the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) said in a statement. 

Obioha, who graduated in industrial chemistry from Nigeria's Benin University, had originally moved to Singapore in 2005 hoping to be a footballer.

He was arrested in 2007 by drugs officers who found 14 blocks of cannabis in a bag he was carrying and another 14 blocks in the flat he was renting, the Straits Times, external newspaper reported.

Under Singapore law, anyone caught with more than 500 grams of cannabis can be sentenced to death.   

Obioha's execution followed a lengthy legal process.

An initial appeal against the sentence was turned down in 2010.

Obioha then turned down the possibility of applying for re-sentencing after a change in the law that came into force in 2013.

On Thursday, his lawyers launched a final bid to have his sentence commuted to life in prison but that was refused by a three-judge court.   

Rights group Amnesty International condemned the execution:

A 31-year-old Malaysian man was also executed at the same time for trafficking heroin.  

Singapore executed four people in 2015, one for murder and three for drug offences, according to prison statistics.   

A leading Zimbabwean activist was abducted, beaten up and dumped at a lake near the capital, Harare, by suspected security officials last night, his colleagues say. 

Patson Dzamara's car was also torched while other activists are still missing, according to a series of tweets by their colleagues: 

The alleged abduction came ahead of today's planned protest against government plans to introduce bond notes to overcome a severe shortage of US dollars, the main currency in Zimbabwe. 

The opposition fears that the bond notes - which would be the equivalent of dollars - would once again stoke hyperinflation, and are demanding the end to President Robert Mugabe's 36-year-rule, saying he has mismanaged the economy.

The BBC's Shingayi Nyoka in the capital, Harare, says there is a strong police presence with no sign of protesters. 

She adds that Mr Dzamara is the brother of Itai Dzamara, who has been missing for about two years after being abducted in Harare. 

Read: Why Zimbabweans are spending nights outside banks

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