BBC World Service

• Special forces in Iraq say they have recaptured all the neighbourhoods they were ordered to seize from so-called Islamic State in the eastern half of Mosul.
• The boss of Samsung, South Korea's biggest business, is in detention while a judge decides whether he will be arrested on bribery charges.
• A series of earthquakes has struck central Italy in areas still recovering from a devastating tremor in August.

Efrem Gebreab
BBC News, Dakar

I’m just back from the Gambian embassy here in Senegal's capital, Dakar, which looks very quiet.

There is speculation that The Gambia's President-elect Adama Barrow, who is currently in Senegal, might take his oath of office at the embassy tomorrow.   

But I couldn’t see any preparations going on for a possible inauguration - should that be the plan. 

A member of staff at the embassy told me he could not comment on such rumours but said I was welcome to come back again tomorrow to "wait and see". 

A picture of a plane said to belong to The Gambia's beleagured President Yayha Jammeh is being shared on social media with some people saying it has been "readied", "fueled" and "pilot alerted" about a potential take off. 

A journalist with the UK's Guardian newspaper in The Gambia says the plane has been parked there for a week:     

Mr Jammeh has refused to step down after losing the 1 December election to opposition candidate Adama Barrow, who is in neighbouring Senegal, and has vowed to be sworn in tomorrow. 

The West African regional body Ecowas has threatened to use force to remove Mr Jammeh if he does not leave office.

BBC Monitoring
News from around the globe

Image source, AFP

Tensions are high in Ethiopia's north-western cities of Gondar and Bahir Dar ahead of the Ethiopian Orthodox church Epiphany (Timket) celebrations that begin this evening and end tomorrow evening, the Amsterdam-based opposition Ethiopian Satellite TV has reported.

It added that residents in the two cities, both tourist attractions and places of historical interest, were refusing to join in the celebrations, saying they were still mourning the killing of some 400 people by government forces during protests that rocked the two cities and other parties of Ethiopia in the past year.

The government blamed the violence on "terrorists" trying to destabilise Ethiopia.

Timket celebrates the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River and its best known for its ritual reenactment of baptism.   

Gondar and Bahir Dar residents have resolved to celebrate the festival indoors fearing a repeat of the deadly violence during Irecha, an Oromo cultural festival, in Bishoftu on 2 October 2016. 

Following this incident, the government has deployed a large number of soldiers in the area.

Local and international bodies have also noted the tension in Gondar and Bahir Dar cities ahead of tomorrow's Ethiopian Orthodox Epiphany celebrations.

The Command Post, formed by the government after it declared a state of emergency, in a statement warned residents ofGondar that some "destructive forces" might launch an attack during the celebration.

On 17 January the British Foreign Commonwealth Office issued a travel advisory on its Twitter account:

Nigerian musician William Onyeabor, who has died aged 70 (see earlier entry), was notorious for turning down interviews during his career.

After releasing albums in the 1970s and early 1980s he gave up music completely and became a successful industrialist.

According to the record label Luaka Bop, he was simply referred to as “the chief” in his hometown of Enugu as he was known for having created many opportunities for the people in his community. 

And it was Luaka Bop who managed to track him down again a few years ago as the New York record company wanted to issue a collection of his works.

This search for the reclusive funk pioneer became the subject of documentary film Fantastic Man , externalreleased in 2014.

In a Facebook post today LuakaBop said , externalOnyeabor “would never speak about himself and for a long time refused many of the interview requests that came his way. Having become born again in the latter part of life, he only wanted to speak about God”.

But BBC Six Music did managed to chat with him about two years ago, when he revealed that he’d never played his music live, didn’t drink alcohol and admired the baritone voice of Jim Reeves.

You can hear the whole interview here:

BBC Monitoring
News from around the globe

Nigeria's central bank has banned financial institutions from using Bitcoin and other virtual currencies, saying they could be used in money-laundering and terrorism, the Premium Times newspaper reports.   

There are hundreds of digital currencies but Bitcoin is the most widely known and used digital currency. It is currently trading at one bitcoin for $900 (£730).

A statement from the banking sector regulator advised banks to ensure that they "do not use, hold, and transact in virtual currencies (VC)", the Premium Times reports. 

It said the move was meant to protect the integrity of Nigeria's financial systems and to protect people:

Nigeria's move is not dissimilar to other countries that view digital currencies with suspicion.

Despite the state of emergency in The Gambia, and parliament extending President Yahya Jammeh's rule for another three months, President-elect Adama Barrow seems pretty confident in this tweet that his inauguration will go ahead tomorrow:

At the moment he's in Senegal, after leaving the country over the weekend to meet African leaders who support him in his bid to assume office after winning elections last month.

But it is not clear how Mr Barrow's will take place given Mr Jammeh's position (see earlier posts).

Read more: Adama Barrow - from estate agent to president

Image source, AFP

Nigeria has confirmed that a warship is heading towards The Gambia as a "training" exercise as regional countries prepared for a possible military intervention, the Associated Press new agency reports.

President-elect Adama Barrow, currently in Senegal, is due to be sworn in tomorrow, but President Yahya Jammeh wants the results of last month’s election annulled and is refusing to go (see earlier reports).

Yesterday Reuters reported that West African countries were preparing a joint force to intervene militarily if Mr Jammeh does not go – quoting Nigerian military sources.

Now AP is quoting Nigerian navy spokesman Capt Dahun Jahun as saying that his country's air force was contributing 200 supporting troops for the standby force for The Gambia.

He said 11 pilots, 11 crew members and 80 “supporting troops”' had already been deployed. 

Read more: Gambia political crisis: What happens next?

Image source, William Onyeabor/Facebook

Nigerian funk and synth pioneer William Onyeabor has died at the age of 70, a post on his Facebook page says, external.

He died after a brief illness in his home in the south-eastern city of Enugu.

The post, written by the Luaka Bop music label, goes on this describe his amazing career:

The BBC's Tomi Oladipo remembers one of William Onyeabor's best-known tracks when he was growing up:

It’s very busy at the international airport in The Gambia as European countries issue travel warnings following President Yahya Jammeh’s refusal to step down.

A state of emergency has been declared, and yesterday the parliament extended his term for three months - even though today should be his last day as president following elections last month which he lost (see earlier entry).

The BBC’s Umaru Fofana is at the airport and snapped some of the queues as Thomas Cook said it was evacuating about 1,000 tourists on package holidays.

Image source, BBC Sport

About 1,600 Dutch citizens are also to be flown home from The Gambia today, reports the BBC’s Anna Holligan from The Hague.

The travel firms TUI and Corendon are sending a total of eight flights to collect them.

Image source, AFP

Lightning killed six people at a funeral in Zimbabwe as they sheltered under a tree to escape torrential rain, the country’s state-run Herald newspaperreports, external.

Heavy rains have hit the drought-ravaged country in recent days.

Police spokeswoman Charity Charamba is quoted as saying that the six men were killed on Sunday in Binga, in the north-west, and others were injured in the strike and taken to hospital.

She added:

She urged people not to shelter under trees or walk on open ground during a thunder storm, as lightning usually strikes the tallest object, adding:

Paramilitary police have left their base at the port in Abidjan, Ivory Coast's main city, and started firing in the air and ordering companies to close, a witness has told the Reuters news agency.

Someone has tweeted what appears to be some footage of the shooting from the port.

The gendarmes then moved out of the port area and blocked a major road in the city's Treichville neighbourhood, halting traffic and sending residents fleeing, Reuters reports.

Yesterday paramilitary forces in several cities across the country shot in the air in what seemed to be a dispute over money.

It comes afterthe government began paying army soldiers who mutinied earlier this month a bonus of $20,000 (£16,000) each.

The gendarmes are believed to be demanding a similar payment.

The government agreed to pay off mutinous soldiers - for the most part former rebels who helped President Alassane Ouattara come to power in 2011, and were then integrated into the army.

This seems to have provoked jealousy among those who were not part of the deal agreed on Friday.

Image source, AFP/MSF

Human Rights Watch in Nigeria says the government should compensate those at a camp for displaced people in the north-east that was mistakenly bombed by military jets on Tuesday.

At least 52 people have been killed and more than 200 injured.

The attack took place near the border with Cameroon, where the military is engaged in what it calls its final push against Boko Haram.

Mausi Segun, a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch in Nigeria said, that “prompt, adequate and effective compensation” was needed:

Image source, AFP/MSF

Mali's President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita has declared three days of national mourning in a tweet following a massive suicide car bomb explosion at a military base in Gao in the north:

A Reuters reporter who arrived at the camp soon after the blast, which happened at around 09:00 local time, said he saw dozens of bodies lying on the ground alongside those who were injured.

Ambulances rushed to the scene as helicopters circled overhead, he said.

Some of fighters at the camp included members of armed groups that had signed Mali's 2015 peace agreement, the Associated Press news agency reports.

The attack on a military camp in Mali’s northern city of Gao was caused by a vehicle packed with explosives, Reuters is quoting the army as saying.

A UN source told the AFP news agency that it was a suicide attack that killed 37 people. The army has put the number at 25.

Reuters says the camp housed government soldiers as well as former rebels and pro-government militias conducting joint patrols.

There have been a number of armed groups operating in Mali in recent years – both ethnic Tuareg separatists and jihadist militants

Some 15,000 UN peacekeepers are in the country following France’s intervention in 2013 to oust al-Qaeda-linked militants from the north of the country.

The militants, who had fallen out with Tuareg rebels, were routed from the main towns but still operate from hideouts in the vast desert region.

Image source, Reuters

At least 25 people have died in an attack on a military base in northern Mali, the Reuters news agency is reporting. 

A Malian journalist has tweeted that the attack took place in Gao and that the army says others have been injured:

Image source, PA

The Thomas Cook travel agency says there are five extra flights being sent to The Gambia to help bring British tourists back home.

Two UK-based flights have already left, and the other three flights will leave later this morning.

The decision to fly them back after the UK Foreign Office changed its travel advice, saying that based upon the risk of unrest all but essential travel to The Gambia should be avoided.

The travel firm plans to bring home 985 customers from package holidays over the next 48 hours.

Another 2,500 flight-only customers will be offered the "earliest available flight" from the West African country.

A BBC reporter in The Gambia says some people will get no holiday at all:

Tourism had become The Gambia's fastest-growing sector of the economy, and it marketed to holidaymakers as "the smiling coast of West Africa".

Multiple reports say that there is an ongoing internet blockade in Cameroon and especially in the restive English-speaking region of Bamenda. 

Akamai, the US-based internet content delivery company, says there was a noted disruption of internet traffic at 20:45 GMT last night: 

Another company that offers internet services and monitors its performance has also shared a graph showing a drop in internet connections in the country:

Some people have been tweeting about the internet disruption: 

There has been tension in the north-western Cameroon following a push by the people in the Anglophone region against plans to decree the use of French language in schools and courts. 

Reports say that local leaders were arrested before the disruption:  

Image source, AFP

Legendary Egyptian goalkeeper El-Hadary made history after he came on from the bench for the game against Mali, which ended in in a goalless draw, to earn his 148th cap after first choice goalkeeper El-Shenawy's got injured.

He is widely regarded as one of Africa's best-ever goalkeepers, winning the domestic league title eight times, as well as the domestic cup and African Champions League on four occasions each.

Playing in his seventh tournament, having picked up a winners' medal in 2006, 2008 and 2010. 

El-Hadary was not fully tested, but was confidently off his line to punch the ball clear and showed good speed by sprinting out to thwart Mali forward Marega.

Image source, JUSTIN TALLIS

Day four of the Africa Cup of Nations registered the third win of the tournament as Ghana beat Uganda by 1-0. 

Ghana's Andre Ayew slotted in a penalty on 32 minutes after captain Asamoah Gyan had been pulled back. 

Ayew's goal saw him surpass his father's, Abedi Pele, record by scoring his seventh goal in the continent's tournament. 

The Ugandan Cranes created few opportunities of note and struggled against the Black Stars, who were happy to defend their lead.

Image source, Getty Images

In the second match of group D Egypt drew with Mali in a match that lacked the intensity of the earlier games played in the tournament. 

Arsenal's Mohamed Elneny wasted two first-half chances for Egypt, striking over and hitting an effort wide. 

Osmane Coulibaly headed over from close range for Mali late on.  

However, legendary Egyptian goalkeeper El-Hadary, grabbed all the headlines when he came on from the bench after first choice goalkeeper El-Shenawy's was injured.