Image source, .

A video of supporters of Burundi's President Pierre Nkurunziza singing about impregnating female opposition supporters has caused outrage and been condemned by the government. 

The two-minute long video shows young men from the party's youth wing - Imbonerakure -singing in the local Kirundi langauge:

The government has condemned the video, criticising the use of ''inappropriate language" which ''does not conform with moral standards nor with party ideology".

The statement says party disciplinary officials are investigating to identify those responsible and says early findings suggest there was an "external hand". 

The BBC's Prime Ndikumagenge in Bujumbura says it is the first time the party has taken such a stand despite the youth league having long been accused of violence and harassment against opponents of the government.              

The song is being taken seriously by the opposition and women's organisations as incitement to rape as the Imborenakure have been blamed for acts of sexual violence in the past. 

Burundi has experienced instability since Mr Nkuruziza refused to give up power at the end of his term in April 2015. 

Read:Is Burundi on the verge of return to ethnic conflict? 

Seven people are now reported to have died in a car bomb attack on a restaurant in Mogadishu.

Witnesses told Reuters that the blast had destroyed the cafe and damaged another one.

"So far we have carried seven dead people from the blast. Casualties may rise," ambulance service director Abdikadir Abdirahman said. 

Police said the blast took place near the compounds housing the security and sports ministries.

At least 10 people were also wounded in the blast, officials said.

No group has so far said it was behind the attack, but bombings are frequently carried out by Somalia's al-Shabab militant group, which has threatened a "vicious war" against the country's new government. 

Congolese President Joseph Kabila says delayed elections will take place but there is no date for them yet.

He is addressing MPs in Kinshasa and the BBC's Catherine Byaruhanga is in the city following his speech:

Image source, RTNC TV1

Democratic Republic of Congo President Joseph Kabila has arrived at the People's Palace in the capital Kinshasa where MPs are gathered to hear a long awaited speech in which he is expected to comment on the stalled peace process. (see earlier post) 

These images are from the state broadcaster:

Image source, RTNC TV1

Image source, RTNC TV1

A British filmmaker has described how he was kidnapped in Sudan and then passed to the Sudanese government, who took him to a notorious prison in the capital Khartoum and tortured him, accusing him of being a spy.

Mr Cox entered Sudan from Chad with a Sudanese colleague, Daoud Hari, aiming to investigate allegations that the Sudanese government had used chemical weapons on civilians in the Darfur region .

But in an account of his ordeal, Mr Cox wrote in the Guardian newspaper, external that once inside the country the filmmakers were informed that they were being hunted after the government put a bounty on their head.

They were kidnapped by an armed group near the Jebel Marra mountains and chained to a tree in the desert for a week before being transferred to Kobar prison in Khartoum, where they faced torture.

In a statement, external , Mr Cox said:

Channel 4 News editor Ben de Pear said:  

We have just come across a chart flow showing several projections of the likely fate of South Africa's President Jacob Zuma, who is facing growing calls to resign. 

It explains several scenarios that could lead him to be forced out of office but even then, the odds are heavily stacked in his favour:

Martin Patience
BBC News, Nigeria correspondent

Image source, EPA

Health workers in Nigeria have started a mass vaccination programme to try and stop an outbreak of meningitis. 

More than 300 people have died of the disease since late last year.

Health workers are focusing their efforts on the north-western state of Zamfara – the centre of the outbreak.  

Nigeria’s Centre for Disease Control says 500,000 vaccinations will be administered.  

Health officials say they are almost 3,000 suspected cases of meningitis. So far the most affected group of victims has been children aged five to 14.  

One official told the BBC that the response to the outbreak was hampered by a shortage of vaccine doses.  

The predominant strain of meningitis causing this outbreak is type C, which is unusual in Nigeria.

Beleaguered South African President Jacob Zuma will be breathing easy today after an influential body within the ruling ANC party, the National Working Committee, rejected calls for him to step down after sacking Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan. 

The party's Secretary General Gwede Mantashe told a media briefing that there had been an "irretrievable breakdown of the relationship" between Mr Zuma and the former finance minister. 

Mr Mantashe also said that MPs from the ruling party would not support a motion by opposition parties to impeach the president:  

Several leaders have called on Mr Zuma to step down following a string of reported corruption scandals and ethical breaches.

His deputy Cyril Ramaphosa said in a recent speech that the country was ready for renewal and criticised "greedy and corrupt people". 

Mr Zuma has survived several previous attempts to remove him from office. 

Image source, Getty Images

A dog saved many lives at a wedding party in Maiduguri by attacking a teenage female suicide bomber who was sneaking into the ceremony, Nigerian army radio reports.

Both the dog and the suicide bomber were killed when the teenager detonated her bomb as she fought to get away from the dog, Lafiya Dole FM said. 

Police said the dog belonged to a resident in the neighbourhood where the wedding was taking place.

Image source, Google

MPs in the Democratic Republic of Congo have gathered at the Palais du Peuple (People's Palace) in the capital Kinshasa ahead of an expected speech by President Joseph Kabila. 

Mr Kabila is expected to comment on a stalled peace deal brokered by the Catholic church which requires him to appoint a prime minister from the opposition. He is also expected to step down before the end of the year.  

The BBC's Horaci Garcia has snapped these photos from the event:

DR Congo has faced months of political instability following pressure from opposition parties who are against Mr Kabila's rule, leading to violent protests on the streets. 

The government is also fighting militias on several fronts with the central province of Kasai experiencing a surge in violence following deadly attacks from both sides. 

The UN announced yeasterday that it had discovered 23 mass graves since March.

Read more:DR Congo unrest: Why are police in Kasai being decapitated?

Image source, Dutch Government

Juba has summoned the Dutch ambassador demanding an apology following remarks attributed to the Dutch Minister for International Trade and Development Cooperation Lilianne Ploumen, who allegedly called South Sudanese leaders "bastards". 

“The leaders of South Sudan are bastards who starve their own people,” she told Dutch TV station RTL4 this week. 

The Dutch minister was speaking during a nationwide campaign which has seen the Dutch government and the public donate tens of millions of euros to Unicef and Dutch NGOs as they struggle to address four major famines.

Sammy Awami
BBC Africa, Dar es Salaam

Image source, Google

Nine people are missing and 44 have survived after their fishing boat sank off the East African island of Zanzibar.

Makarani Mohamed, the acting director of criminal investigation, told the BBC that the search and rescue operation is still under way:

“We understand that the accident was caused by heavy wind and waves which caused the boat to capsize,” he said.

Survivors told rescuers that at least 53 passengers set off for fishing yesterday afternoon when the ocean was calm. 

But the weather changed at about 09:00 local time (06:00 GMT), stirring up heavy ocean waves which caused their boat to overturn

He said he hasn’t seen any of his colleagues since the accident happened

Fishing is a major economic activity in the island of Zanzibar but many boats operate with faulty parts, leading to frequent accidents

In 2011 more than 200 people died after their overload ferry sailing from Unguja to Pemba capsized off the islands.

A car carrying explosives has rammed into a cafe in Mogadishu near the compounds housing the security and sports ministries, killing three, police have told Reuters news agency. 

"A suicide car bomb hit a small restaurant near the sports and youth ministry. So far we have confirmed three civilians died," police officer Nur Aden said.

The influential National Working Committee within South Africa's ruling African National Congress party has been holding a meeting to discuss calls for President Jacob Zuma to resign.

The country's biggest union, Cosatu, a former president and ANC party veterans have all called on Mr Zuma to step down.

However the ANC Youth League has held a rally in support of Mr Zuma.

ANC Secretary General Gwede Mantashe is now speaking to journalists.

Mr Zuma made a sudden reshuffle to his cabinet that has been widely criticised, particularly the sacking of respected finance minister Pravin Gordhan. 

State broadcaster SABC is llivestreaming the event:

There has been a blast near the Ministry of Internal Security in the Somali capital Mogadishu.

We will bring you more details as they come in.

The Gambia's ex-president, Yahya Jammeh, flew out of the country in January and into exile in Equatorial Guinea. 

There's very little we know about what he's been up to since then - or even where exactly he's been staying. 

Journalist Colin Freeman has been investigating his movements for Foreign Policy magazine. 

He spoke to BBC's Newsday presenter Matthew Kenyon about Mr Jammeh's life of luxury in exile:

A second earthquake in days struck the southern African nation of Botswana early on Wednesday, the US Geological Survey says.

It was reported to be very shallow, only 10km and is believed to have been unlikely to have caused much damage, the statement says.

It came two days after a strong 6.5-magnitude tremor in the same remote region of the country. 

Image source, BGCI

There are only six Karomia Gigas trees left in Tanzania, putting it among the world's rarest trees according to a new survey.

About 300 species have been identified as critically endangered as they had fewer than 50 individuals remaining in the wild.

They are among 60,065 species of trees in the world, according to a comprehensive study of the world's plants by Botanical Gardens Conservation International (BGCI).

The organisation compiled the tree list by using data gathered from its network of 500 member organisations.

It hopes the list will be used as a tool to identify rare and threatened species in need of immediate action to prevent them becoming extinct.  

Image source, BGCI

The data revealed that Brazil was the nation with the greatest number of tree species, home to 8,715 varieties.

Tanzania - home to the Karomia Gigas tree - had 1,755 species while Malawi - whose national tree, the Mulanje Cedar, is also critically endangered - has 724 species.

Apart from the polar regions, which have no trees, the near-Arctic region of North America had the fewest number of species, with less than 1,400.

Another fact to emerge was that more than half of the species (58%) were only found in one country, suggesting that they were vulnerable to potential threats, such as deforestation from extreme weather events or human activity.

Read the full story here

Image source, OFFBEAT SAFARIS

A Kenyan man has pleaded not guilty to charges of killing Tristan Voorspuy, a British military veteran, last month as he inspected his farm in the Laikipia region in northern Kenya, the Reuters news agency reports.

Samson Lokayi said he had nothing to do with the murder. "I have not killed anyone", Reuters quotes him as saying.

Mr Lokayi first appeared in court in March but the court proceedings were postponed because he does not understand Swahili or English, the languages used in court. 

Kenya's security forces have been trying to bring normalcy in the Laikipia region after armed herders looking for pasture for their animals raided private farms with some looting and torching property. 

Read:Are Kenya ranch invasions driven by drought or politics?

Image source, Getty Images

Benin's National Assembly has narrowly rejected a proposal by President Patrice Talon to hold a constitutional referendum seeking to limit his successors to a single six-year term in office. 

President Talon was elected a year ago, saying he wanted to shorten presidential terms to combat complacency. He needed the approval of three-quarters of the National Assembly to go ahead with the referendum - but fell three votes short. 

President Talon's efforts to reduce presidential terms contrasts with some other African leaders - such as in Rwanda, the Republic of Congo and Burundi - who have extended them in order to stay in office.