Zimbabwe's main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has warned that his supporters will take to the streets if his demands for free and fair elections are not met, the BBC's Shingai Nyoka reports from the capital, Harare. 

Addressing his supporters on the outskirts of the central business district, Mr Tsvangirai accused the state of undermining the right of Zimbabweans to vote in next year's presidential and parliamentary elections, when he and his Movement for Democratic Change will once more try to end the long rule of President Robert Mugabe.

Previous elections have been marred by violence, intimidation and allegations of widespread rigging.

Zimbabwe's #ThisFlag movement pastor Evan Mawarire also addressed the crowd, saying Zimbabweans were longer afraid.

A court threw out charges of subversion against the pastor in July, 

Mr Mawarire has been at the heart of a social media campaign denouncing the government's management of the economy.   

Read: Flag fury in Zimbabwe

Richard Hamilton
BBC News

On World Water Day, the United Nations children's agency, Unicef, is warning that around 600 million children across the world will be living in areas with extremely limited water resources by the year 2040. 

For decades experts have warned about the impact of water shortages. In 1985, then-UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali famously said "the next war in the Middle East will be fought over water, not politics".

This new report by Unicef, entitled Thirsting for a Future, external , paints an equally cataclysmic picture. 

It looks at the threat to children from depleted supplies and the ways climate change will intensify that threat. 

Warmer temperatures, more severe weather, rising sea levels, increased floods, droughts and melting ice will all affect water availability and sanitation. 

Image source, AFP

Nick Rees, one of the authors of the report, says that increasing industrialisation and urbanisation are draining water resources worldwide and that conflicts are also threatening children's access to them. 

This is turn forces them to drink unsafe water exposing them to diseases such as cholera and diarrhoea. 

Thirty-six countries - from as far afield as Afghanistan to Somalia - are currently facing high levels of water stress, which occurs when demand outstrips supply. 

Unicef says that governments need to plan ahead for changes in water availability and the effects of climate change.

Businesses, it says, need to prevent pollution and communities should explore ways to diversify water supplies and increase their capacity to store this precious resource. 

Hundreds of Nigerian protesters are gathering outside the offices of human rights group Amnesty International in the capital, Abuja, for a third day, reports the BBC's Chris Ewokor.

The members of the Global Peace and Life Rescue Initiative are demanding that the organisation leaves Nigeria as they say the human rights watchdog is biased against the Nigerian military.

They say that Amnesty investigations into the behaviour of the army is aimed at demoralising the soldiers while they are engaged in trying to defeat the Islamist militant group Boko Haram.

In its annual report Amnesty says the military continue to "carry out arbitrary arrests, detentions, ill-treatment and extrajudicial executions of people suspected of being Boko Haram fighters".

Today sees the end of the protesters 72-hour deadline for Amnesty to go. It is not clear what will happen if the organisation does not leave.

As life in parts of Somalia is beginning to return to some sort of normality after years of violence, people are beginning to delve into the country's musical heritage, OkayAfrica website, external reports.

It highlights the work of Nicolas Sheikholeslami who in 2015 pulled together a compilation of Somali music before the conflict.

He has now teamed up with the Ostinato record label to release another collection.

OkayAfrica says the music reveals "an untold history of the Somali music belt, which stretches from Djibouti to Hargeisa, all the way down to Mogadishu. Somali culture transcends artificial borders and groupings".

Enjoy!  

Opposition activists are protesting in Zimbabwe's capital, Harare, to demand that the electoral commission be disbanded and that next year's presidential poll be surpervised by the United Nations, African Union and the Southern African Development Community, reports the BBC's Shingai Nyoka from the scene. 

The activists, protesting under the banner of the National Election Reform Agenda (Nera), said the government and commission had failed to implement electoral reforms, and the poll was already being rigged. 

Main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai is to address the protesters shortly.

He is expected to run against President Robert Mugabe, in power since independence in 1980, in the elections. 

Mr Tsvangirai's previous attempts to dislodge Mr Mugabe, 93, from office failed.     

The young sons of a mother held in prison in Rwanda have written to the country's president asking for her to be released.

Violet Uwamahoro from Leeds was arrested on Valentine's Day after travelling for a family funeral.

The youth worker, who is five months pregnant, is charged with sharing state secrets and organising armed groups.

Her husband Faustin Rukundo said his wife is being victimised because of his role as a political activist.

He is involved with the  Rwandan National Congress, external  opposition group.  

Mrs Uwamahoro's children, Samuel, aged eight, and David, 10, have written to Prime Minister Theresa May, and Rwandan president, Paul Kagame, in a bid to help their mother.

They have also sent her Mother's Day cards, telling her how much they miss her.

Read the full BBC story here

Germany says it will deport two men born in the country but whose parents are foreign - the first such case in German history.

The men, a 27-year-old Algerian and a 22-year-old Nigerian, were arrested last month on suspicion of planning a terror attack.

A gun and a flag of the so-called Islamic State were found at their homes during police raids in the central city of Gottingen.

But the men have never been charged.

The criminal proceedings were dropped because police never established whether the suspects had planned to carry out an attack. Police say the two men are "dangerous".

Read more on this from BBC News.

Image source, Reuters

French judicial sources say that prosecutors have called for the case against French soldiers accused of child sexual abuse in the Central African Republic to be dropped.

The assaults allegedly took place between December 2013 and June 2014 at a camp for displaced people near the airport in the capital Bangui.  

They were first revealed by the Guardian newspaper, external in 2015.

But in January, investigating judges found no evidence to warrant further investigation of the six accused soldiers.

The final decision about the case rests with the prosecutor's office, which now appears to want to close the case.

Image source, AFP

AFP news agency is reporting that former Democratic Republic of Congo Vice-President John-Pierre Bemba has been ordered to pay a fine of 300,000 euro ($323,500; £260,000) for bribing witnesses at his war crimes trial.

This is in addition to the one-year prison sentence he has been given for the crime. 

 AFP quotes Judge Bertram Schmitt as saying that Bemba must serve the sentence consecutively to an 18-year-term he is already serving after being convicted of war crimes related to conflict in the Central African Republic in 2002 and 2003. 

Former Democratic Republic of Congo Vice-President Jean-Pierre Bemba has been given a one-year sentence by the International Criminal Court for corruption to add to the 18 years that he is already serving for war crimes.

He was found guilty of trying to influence witnesses in his war crimes trial.

Milton Nkosi
BBC Africa, Johannesburg

South African police have arrested three men following an investigation into the weekend burglary at the office of the chief justice Mogoeng Mogoeng.

Police boss Khomotso Phahlane told journalists that "various items, including unlicensed firearms and fake identity documents, were seized during the operations". 

In the burglary on Saturday, 15 computers containing confidential information about the country’s judges were stolen.

The theft raised suspicion because it came a day after the Constitutional Court delivered a judgement that was critical of the government.

But the police chief said there was no evidence that this was related.

The three men are expected to appear in court later today.

Meanwhile there has also been a suspicious break-in at the home of the former social development director-general Zane Dangor. 

Police are investigating if the two incidents are linked.

Image source, AFP

Ugandan police have launched a manhunt for four Flying Squad officers accused of shooting dead a three-year-old girl, and wounding her mother and a man at a village in the central Mityana district on Monday. 

A police statement said the four officers were not on "official assignment" when they allegedly murdered Viola Nakuwuka and injured her mother, Diana Nabakooza, and 23-year old Ivan Kito in Buluma village.

The motive behind the shooting is unclear, and the accused or their lawyers have not yet commented.

The police statement added: 

The incident was as "highly regrettable", police would pay for the treatment of the wounded, the statement said.

Uganda's police chief has posted the full statement on his Twitter account: 

Anna Holligan
BBC News, The Hague

Image source, AFP

Former Democratic Republic of Congo Vice-President Jean-Pierre Bemba is due to be sentenced by the International Criminal Court (ICC) after being found guilty of bribing witnesses. 

Bemba is currently serving an 18-year jail term for war crimes and crimes against humanity. 

Last year he and four close associates were convicted of corruptly influencing witnesses and falsifying evidence in that trial. 

It was the first corruption trial in the ICC's history. 

The court heard that Bemba had masterminded a witness corruption network from inside his prison cell. 

His team used secret phones and coded language to bribe, coach and manipulate at least 14 key witnesses who came to give evidence.

The former vice-president's lawyer, his legal case manager, a fellow politician and a witness for the defence were found guilty of more than 100 combined charges. 

They face up to five years in prison, a fine or both. 

The ICC hopes this case will send a message to others, that those who seek to hamper the pursuit of justice will be punished. 

The hearing is due to begin at 10:00 GMT.

Read: Bemba in profile

Naziru Mikailu
BBC Abuja editor

At least four people have been killed and 18 others wounded in bomb blasts at a camp for displaced people and a residential neighbourhood in Nigeria's north-eastern city of Maiduguri, police say. 

Residents told the BBC they head three loud explosions -  two at the camp and one in the neighbourhood, both close to the Muna motor park.

Suspected suicide bombers linked to militant Islamist group Boko Haram are said to have carried out the blasts, but there is no confirmation of this. 

Image source, AFP

A man has been charged in Kenya with hacking into the country's revenue authority and stealing four billion shillings ($39m; £31m). 

Alex Mutunga Mutuku, who is accused of electronic fraud, pleaded not guilty, Kenya's Daily Nation newspaper, external reports.

The prosecution alleges that he is part of a wider network that is stealing money from several high profile Kenyan institutions and companies.

According to the  Standard newspaper, external  State Prosecutor Edwin Okello said:

Image source, AFP

Today’s African proverb: 

Image source, AFP

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