Image source, Getty Images

Germany's cabinet has approved the deployment of eight helicopters and 350 more soldiers to Mali as part of the UN peacekeeping mission there, Reuters reports, external. 

The aircraft, which comprise both attack and transport helicopters, will replace Dutch ones.

After the deployment, which must be approved by the German parliament, the European nation will have 1,000 troops in Mali, out of the total peacekeeping force of 15,000. The UN mission is overseeing a 2015 peace deal between the Malian government and rebels.

Image source, Getty Images

Zimbabwean blogger Takura Zhangazha, external has fired back at the "appalling disdain" with which he says European football clubs and international media treat the Africa Cup of Nations. 

In a piece published on Africa Blogging, external, he says the sports media treat the tournament as "inconvenient" and an "unnecessary aberration" interrupting the football season in Europe, where many of Africa's best players ply their trade.

The tournament, hosted by Gabon, kicks off on Saturday.

Umaru Fofana
BBC Africa, Freetown

In what appears to be the clearest indication yet that the Gambian president is stepping down, Yahya Jammeh has appointed a mediator general to help resolve the political impasse in the country. 

In a nationwide address, he assured all of a peaceful resolution saying he'd instructed the justice ministry and parliament to come up with an amnesty law to avoid any "witch hunt". He called all to forgive each other, especially the political class.

See earlier post for more details

Image source, AFP/Getty

Emmanuel Igunza
BBC Africa, Addis Ababa

Image source, Google

At least one person has been killed and nineteen others injured in an explosion in a hotel in the northern Ethiopian city of Gondar. 

It was not immediately clear who was behind Tuesday night's blast but police have linked the attack to months of violent demonstrations in the Amhara region. 

This is the second explosion in a week in the restive area after a grenade attack in the city of Bahir Dar last Wednesday. 

Earlier this week, Ethiopia's prime minister said a state of emergency declared last October had helped restore calm in the country after more than a year of protests in the Oromia and Amhara regions, where people say they have been marginalised economically and politically. 

Human rights groups say hundreds of people have been killed and thousands arrested since protests began in November 2015.  

Read more: Are Ethiopian protests a game changer?

People in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, have been tweeting about deteriorating living conditions there. Tweets speak of long power cuts in cold weather, lack of water, hours-long queues to withdraw cash and cancelled school classes.

The BBC's North Africa correspondent, Rana Jawad, says the political and military scene in Libya remains fractured, despite a UN-brokered agreement that formed a presidency council, which includes a prime minister and several deputies.

The proposed unity government has so far been rejected by the parliament that sits in Eastern Libya. And the presidency council itself is deeply divided, with members either jostling for greater powers, boycotting it, or having resigned from it.

The Gambia's President Yahya Jammeh has insisted that his country must wait for the supreme court to rule on who won last month's election.

It follows a court announcement on Tuesday that the court would not be able to convene before May, when the Nigerian judge appointed to lead the panel of judges is available.

In a speech on Gambian TV, Mr Jammeh also denounced "foreign interference" in the wake of the election - which the election commission said had been won by opposition candidate Adama Barrow - and said he had appointed his own mediator "in this trying period".

Mr Jammeh said he and his party the APRC had rejected the election result because of anomalies that "could not be explained".

He said only the supreme court could now appoint someone president:

Mr Jammeh also denounced what he called an "unprecedented level of foreign interference in our election and internal affairs and a sustained smear campaign, propaganda and misinformation".

He accused the UN and regional body Ecowas of taking "hasty" resolutions over the election.

Mr Jammeh said the government would "ensure the supremacy of the rule of law and the constitution in the next few days" - an apparent reference to the approaching end of his term in office on 18 January and the stated intention of Mr Barrow to proceed with his inauguration the following day.

The governor of Borno state in Nigeria, Kashim Shettima, has strongly criticised UN agencies and other NGOs working to provide humanitarian services to people displaced by the Boko Haram insurgency. 

Mr Shettima said the agencies appeared to be spending the bulk of their funds on their own overheads and personnel costs rather than on the people they are purporting to help. He referred to aid workers flying in by helicopter to inspect toilets and riding around in "flashy bullet-proof jeeps". Only eight of the 126 agencies active in Borno were providing useful services, he said.

Mr Shettima did single out for praise the work of the World Food Programme, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the Norwegian Refugee Council, the Danish Refugee Council, the International Organisation for Migration and the UNHCR.

Read more via the link below.

The senior civil servant at the British Foreign Office has tweeted this image of a name card at a dinner hosted by the Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Khartoum on Tuesday.

There seems to have been some confusion about the position held by "Mr Edwin". Is he a spokesman or a spook (spy)?

Investment banker Ken Ofori-Atta has been appointed finance minister in Ghana following last month's elections, Bloomberg reports.

Mr Ofori-Atta, 57, was executive chairman of Accra-based investment bank Databank Financial Services for 12 years until 2012 and served as fundraising director during the New Patriotic Party's successful election campaign.

Read more via the link below.

BBC Monitoring
News from around the globe

A South Sudanese woman, Akuja de Garang, is among the people who have been recognised in the Queen's Birthday Honours list 2016.

Akuja, team leader of Girls Education South Sudan (GESS) programme, an initiative funded by the UK to support girls’ education, has been awarded an MBE for the significant contribution she has made to the development of South Sudan, Catholic Radio Network, external reported. 

On learning of her award Ms de Garang said: “This is wonderful. More so for the GESS programme and the people of South Sudan.”

The BBC's Emmanuel Igunza has tweeted about a blast at a hotel in the Gondar area of Ethiopia.

Nigeria's former President Goodluck Jonathan did not receive kickbacks from a $1.3bn deal involving oil giants ENI and Shell which is under investigation in Italy, his spokesman said on Tuesday. 

In a statement, Mr Jonathan said he had not been "accused, indicted or charged for corruptly collecting monies" linked to the 2011 deal for an offshore oil block in Nigeria.

His spokesman also said - "for the umpteenth time" - that Mr Jonathan did not hold assets outside Nigeria.

Italian prosecutors late last month released court documents that outline criminal proceedings against the two oil majors and 11 people, including senior executives from the companies, AFP news agency reported.

Mr Jonathan, who left office in May 2015, and Diezani Alison-Madueke, his long-time oil minister who was also the first female president of Opec, do not feature on the list. 

But the prosecutors alleged in court papers that they played a key role in the deal in which $466m went to remunerate Nigerian government officials, including Mr Jonathan and Ms Alison-Madueke. 

No formal charges have been brought and the parties usually have 20 days to respond to a preliminary investigation report before any formal prosecution. 

Businesses in Morocco have been told they can no longer sell, produce or import the burka.

Letters announcing the ban gave 48 hours to get rid of stock, according to reports.

There was no official announcement from the government, but unnamed officials told outlets the decision was made due to "security concerns". It is unclear if Morocco is now intending to ban the garment outright.

Hassan Alaoui in the capital Rabat told the BBC World Service that there was some uncertainty about why the burka would be banned when it wasn't something he'd seen women wearing:

Read the news story here

James Copnall
Africa editor, BBC World Service

Image source, AFP

'Impunity on a staggering scale' - that's how Amnesty International describes justice or the lack of it in the Central African Republic, as the country tries to get back on its feet after a devastating civil war. 

The rights group says people who are suspected of committing war crimes during the conflict - including murder and rape - are evading investigation and arrest. 

In some cases, Amnesty says, they are living side by side with their victims. It is calling for major investment to rebuild the justice system, and to help set up a Special Criminal Court.

The first steps to establish the court have already been taken, but Amnesty says more needs to be done, including providing funding and foreign judges. 

The situation in the Central African Republic remains extremely fragile, and there are frequent outbreaks of violence. 

Although UN peacekeepers have helped arrest nearly 400 suspects for crimes linked to the civil war, many others remain free, heightening insecurity - and the sense of injustice many people feel.

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