Image source, EPA

Athletics Kenya has issued a statement on the failed drugs test of Olympic marathon champion Jemima Sumgong.

The body said it would issue a comprehensive statement once investigations had been completed, but said the failed drugs test would be "shocking and disappointing if true".

More than 20 inmates have fled Gbarnga prison in central Liberia, local reports say. At least one officer was seriously injured in the escape, the New Dawn newspaper, external reported.

Officials in Bong County have declared a curfew, with motorcyclists told to be off the streets by 21:00 and pedestrians by 22:00.

Gbarnga prison suffers from overcrowding, according to the Front Page Africa website.

Image source, Google

Protesters took to the streets in major South African cities calling for President Jacob Zuma to step down after the sacking of a respected finance minister. Thousands marched in nationwide demonstrations in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban and the capital, Pretoria.

Thomas Naadi
BBC Africa, Accra

Lawyers in Ghana have condemned the violent attack on a court in Kumasi by youths believed to be affiliated with the ruling party. 

Since the beginning of the year, vigilante groups said to be affiliated to the ruling party have gone on the rampage, seizing state property and attacking public officials.  

Ghana’s national security minister Albert Kan-Dapaah says the existence of vigilante groups poses a serious threat to state security and they must be dealt with in accordance with the laws of Ghana.

Eight of the Kumasi court invaders have so far been arrested and all those freed have handed themselves in to the authorities. 

The BBC's Milton Nkosi has been reporting live for the BBC News Facebook page outside the ANC headquarters in Johannesburg. 

Supporters of President Jacob Zuma have been surrounding the building, saying they want to protect it from opposition groups who are "planning to do something wrong". 

He spoke to one supporter, who liked the president's promises for radical socio-economic transformation. His policies "scare the hell out of the white monopoly capitalists", he said.   

On attempts to force Mr Zuma to step down, he said:

South Africa's credit rating has been cut to junk status by ratings agency Fitch. 

It follows a similar move by S&P Global on Monday, which means the country has now been downgraded by two of the three major ratings agencies.

Because of this, many international investment funds, under their owns rules, will be unable to lend to the South African government by buying its bonds, which are glorified IOUs.

Fitch cited the recent political instability prompted by a cabinet reshuffle for the decision.

It downgraded the country's sovereign debt rating from BBB- to BB+, but kept the outlook stable.  

In a statement, external , it said:

Archbishop Desmond Tutu has joined protests calling for President Jacob Zuma to step down.

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate and anti-apartheid campaigner was pictured with his wife outside the Cape Town retirement home they are staying in.

His foundation has shared photos and a quote from the 85-year old, who is a fierce critic of the president:

• Profile: Archbishop Desmond Tutu
• Archbishop Tutu in his own words

BBC Monitoring
News from around the globe

Image source, AFP

President Salva Kiir has acknowledged that the world’s youngest nation faces a famine that has left almost half of the population in dire need. 

President Kiir issued a statement through his information minister, Michael Makuei, at the State House in the capital, Juba, yesterday.

"I passionately desire to share with each and everyone of you that once more our country is struck yet again by another national challenge, that of famine and poverty," said part of Mr Kiir’s statement.

Last month, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres accused the South Sudan government of refusing to express any meaningful concern about the estimated 100,000 South Sudanese suffering famine, the 7.5m in need of humanitarian assistance and the thousands more fleeing due to insecurity.

President Kiir also urged South Sudanese to donate money to famine relief efforts.

His statement comes ahead of the Great South Sudan Run, which aims to raise money to tackle the country's many challenges.

The race begins on Sunday and will be attended by six athletes from neighbouring Ethiopia led by the legendary runner Haile Gebre-Selassie as well as three other athletes from Kenya.

Read more: Why are there still famines?

Image source, Getty Images

Senegal's Liverpool forward Sadio Mane is set to miss the last seven games of the season with a knee injury.

Mane, 24, was taken off after colliding with Leighton Baines in  Saturday's 3-1 home victory over Everton.

Manager Jurgen Klopp said he was "pretty sure" Mane needed surgery, leaving it "pretty much impossible he will play again this season".

The £34m signing from Southampton has started all but five of Liverpool's league games this campaign.

Of those, three were drawn and two were lost. The Reds are third in the Premier League table with seven games left.

Read the full story here

The members of a vigilante group who were freed from a court in Kumasi when their fellow vigilantes stormed it on Thursday have turned themselves in to police, reports say.

The men - who belonged to Delta Force, which is linked to the ruling New Patriotic Party - were freed when a 50-strong group besieged the Kumasi Circuit Court and broke into court cells. The mob also destroyed court property, My Starr Online, external reported.

The raid has shocked many in Ghana, with former justice minister Dominic Ayine saying, external Delta Force had "done the unthinkable".

The opposition NDC party of former president John Mahama meanwhile strongly condemned the attack by "government-sponsored goons".

The vigilantes were facing charges for causing trouble at a meeting of the Ashanti Regional Coordinating Council.  

Image source, Google

The Gambia's longtime opposition won an absolute majority in parliamentary elections, easily defeating the party of ousted leader Yahya Jammeh, according to official results, AFP news agency reports.

The United Democratic Party (UDP) won 31 of the 53 available elected seats in the country's National Assembly, the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) announced.

IEC chairman Alieu Momar Njai, who fled the country in January after presiding over the electoral defeat of former strongman Jammeh, announced the results.

He said that turnout was low at 42%, with more civic education needed to persuade people to come out and vote in legislative polls, AFP adds.

Mr Jammeh's APRC party won just five seats.

The UDP was one of seven parties who united to propel President Adama Barrow to power in December last year, but that coalition broke apart for parliamentary elections.

The party has long considered itself a government-in-waiting, and Barrow was UDP treasurer until resigning to become the flagbearer candidate for the coalition. 

Their victory is likely to make it easier for the new president Barrow to get a raft of promised reforms passed, with UDP leader Ousainou Darboe a personal friend and longtime ally of the president. 

A local journalist has tweeted what appears to be a copy of the declaration of results from the IEC:

Thousands of South Africans are on the streets demanding that President Jacob Zuma resign.

Here are pictures from the commercial capital Johannesburg:

Image source, AFP/Getty

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

And Durban:

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

But supporters of Mr Zuma's ANC party are also out on the streets. Some veterans of the ANC's armed wing, which dates back to the anti-apartheid struggle, have gathered outside the party's headquarters in Johannesburg to wait for the marchers.

Other supporters of Mr Zuma are also out in force in the city.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

BBC Monitoring
News from around the globe

Image source, Villa Somalia

Al-Shabab has dismissed Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo's declaration of war, a website affiliated to the militant group reports. 

"Every Somali federal government leader has threatened to wipe out jihadists in this country. Farmajo just did what his former friends have done. His statements were just to please the West but will damage his reputation if he had one," said Warfaa Kheyrdoon, an al-Shabab spokesman. 

The group had increased its capabilities since Mr Farmajo was prime minister in 2010, the spokesman said.

On Thursday Mr Farmajo said Somalia was in a "state of war" against the group, and offered a 60-day amnesty for militants who have been "misled to believe the al-Qaeda ideology". 

He also reshuffled the country's top security officials, appointing new chiefs of national security and intelligence, the commander of police and head of prison forces.

In February, the president said that al-Shabab had killed some 900 civilians in 2016. 

Prime Ndikumagenge
BBC Africa, Bujumbura

Dozens of families are being evicted from their properties to the north-east of the capital Bujumbura today to clear an area where a presidential palace is being constructed.

They were given until yesterday to have evacuated and cleared any structures that had been erected on the plot. 

Now the police is reported to have moved in to force them to do so.

The government says it has compensated families who were on 40 hectares of the 200 hectare plot where the state house will sit, but some of the families say they have not received anything.

The presidency had promised investigations to establish the truth more than two weeks ago. 

This is what the palace - being built by the Chinese - will look like:

A BBC correspondent is tweeting from the South African capital Pretoria, where hundreds of protesters have gathered at Church Square, before a planned march later to the Union Buildings, the government headquarters.

Meanwhile in Johannesburg, another BBC reporter tweets from the ANC's party headquarters, where supporters have surrounded the building. Thousands of opposition protesters have gathered in another part of the city. 

And what about protests in the country's other major cities? 

In Durban, thousands of supporters of the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) are out on the streets: 

And in Cape Town, where there are also hundreds of protesters out on the streets, traffic has been badly disrupted after roads were blocked by trucks.

The Sowetan picked up on this particularly creative protest sign from a trio of truckers:

An early downpour in the Ugandan capital Kampala this morning left homes flooded and one of the city's main roads blocked by a fallen tree, according to reports by New Vision.

Traffic was brought to a standstill after trees were felled by the strong winds.

The destruction went as far as Wankulukuku and Nuguru, areas on the outskirts of Kampala, where cars were swept away by water and crushed by trees.  

Hundreds of veterans of the ANC's armed anti-apartheid struggle and members of the ruling party's youth wing have gathered outside its headquarters in Johannesburg. 

They've been in full voice, singing struggle songs outside Luthuli House in a show of support for President Jacob Zuma, prior to several anti-Zuma marches planned across the country today.

Read more: Fallout after Zuma's 'ministerial massacre '

Image source, Getty Images

Gambian media say Thursday's elections in the country were greeted with "major voter apathy", with the US-based Freedom Newspaper website saying a "good chunk" of registered voters "failed to show up to vote on election day".

Observers said the election was one of the most "poorly attended" legislative polls the country had seen, the newspaper said.

Pierre Gomez from Banjul University told the BBC that Gambians were less interested in voting now that former ruler Yahya Jammeh had finally left.

"Now that he is gone they are not really motivated," he said. Some of the candidates were also not well known to voters, he added.

Gambian media said the main opposition United Democratic Party (UDP) got nearly 50% of the vote and got 31 seats in the 53-seat parliament.

However the party "grossly underperformed" in the capital Banjul, where it reportedly failed to win a single seat.

President Adama Barrow used to be a member of the United Democratic Party (UDP), but quit after being chosen as the opposition coalition's presidential candidate so as not to be seen as favouring one party within the grouping.  

The former ruling Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction (APRC) party got five seats and the People's Democratic Organisation for Independence and Socialism (PDOIS) also got five seats, the website said. 

The Gambian Democratic Congress (GDC) headed by Mama Kandeh won four seats. The opposition National Reconciliation Party (NRP) which has formed an alliance with the UDP also won four seats. Two independent candidates also won seats.

Analysts told the website that voting had taken place more or less along ethnic lines, with the UDP winning in ethnic Mandinka areas and the GDC winning in areas where people from the Fulani and Wollof tribes were most numerous. The APRC won in the Fonis region, where Mr Jammeh came from.

BBC World Service

Image source, AFP/Getty

The Kenyan long-distance runner Jemima Sumgong, who won the marathon at last year's Rio Olympics and the London marathon, has tested positive for a banned performance enhancing substance. 

The world athletics body the IAAF said that an out-of-competition test showed she had traces of the blood-booster EPO.

It delays the onset of fatigue, enabling an athlete to run harder and for longer. There's been no word so far about what action the authorities will take as a result of the test. 

Kenya was last year declared  in breach of anti-doping rules,  and athletes underwent special testing for Rio 2016.

The East African country was deemed "non-compliant" by the World Anti-Doping Agency, but was  reinstated before last summer's Games.

Between 2011 and 2016, more than 40 Kenyan track-and-field athletes failed doping tests.

Read the full story here

Mass marches are expected to take place in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban, Port Elizabeth, Mbombela and other cities today, South Africa's national broadcaster SABC reports, external . 

Some of the biggest rallies are being organised by the main opposition Democratic Alliance (DA). 

The party has been tweeting from its Johannesburg protest: