Zambia's security forces have raided the home of opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema in the capital, Lusaka, forcing him and his family to retreat to a safe room, South Africa's private  Daily Maverick news site quotes him as saying. , external

Speaking to the Daily Maverick from the safe room, Mr Hichilema added that the security forces had used  "some kind of toxic gas" in an attempt to force him and his family out of there: 

Mr Hichilema accused President Edgar Lungu of trying to kill him:

Mr Lungu and the security forces have not yet commented on the allegations. 

Mr Hichilema lost to Mr Lungu last year in a tightly contested election which was marred by allegations of rigging.   

Shell has admitted for the first time it dealt with a convicted money-launderer when negotiating access to a vast oil field in Nigeria.

It comes after  emails were published showing  Shell negotiated with Dan Etete, who was later convicted of money laundering in a separate case.

Shell and an Italian oil company paid $1.3bn (£1bn) to the Nigerian government for access to the field.

Investigators claim $1.1bn was passed to a firm controlled by Mr Etete.

Shell and the Italian firm ENI agreed a deal with the Nigerian government for the rights to exploit OPL 245, a prime oil block off the coast of the Niger Delta.

The government passed on $1.1bn of the money to a company called Malabu, which was controlled by Mr Etete, according to Italian prosecutors.

Read the full BBC story here

Image source, PA

South Africa's ex-President Thabo Mbeki has called on MPs of the governing African National Congress (ANC) to act in the interest of voters - rather than their party - during next week's opposition-sponsored motion to oust the scandal-hit President Jacob Zuma, the local IOL news site reports, external . 

Mr Mbeki's call is bound to incur the wrath of Mr Zuma's supporters, who have vowed to defeat the motion during a parliamentary vote, the site says. 

Opposition parties accuse Mr Zuma of being corrupt, and say he sacked the respected Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan in order to get greater control over the Treasury.  

Mr Zuma denies being corrupt, and says the cabinet reshuffle was aimed at promoting "radical economic transformation" for the benefit of the black majority. 

Image source, AFP

Mr Mbeki said, in an article for the site, that MPs should be the voice of the people and “not the voice of the political parties to which they belong”, IOL reports.

He added that the current controversy may have given South Africa an opportunity to better define the "constitutional and moral relationship between the people and their elected representatives.” 

Mr Mbeki is a member of the ANC who resigned as president after losing the confidence of the party, led by Mr Zuma, in 2008.

Read: Knives out for President Zuma

Image source, AFP

US President Donald's Trump administration will press ahead with the sale of high-tech aircraft to Nigeria to help it fight militant Islamist group Boko Haram, despite concerns about human rights abuses committed by the West African state's military, US officials have said. 

The deal will see Nigeria buying up to a dozen Embraer A-29 Super Tucano aircraft for nearly $600m (£480m), officials added.  

The US Congress is expected to receive formal notification of the deal within weeks, and will have to approve it.

Nigeria and the US discussed the deal during ex-President Barack Obama's administration, but it did not materialise. 

Nigeria says its military campaign against Boko Haram has been gravely affected by US restrictions.

The US has sent military advisers to help Nigeria tackle the militants, but under what is known as the Leahy Law it has not been able to sell arms because of alleged human rights violations carried out by Nigerian troops, although it was not a blanket ban on all equipment sales. 

This law also prohibited other countries to sell weapon to Nigeria because of their existing agreements with the US.

Rights groups have repeatedly accused Nigeria's troops of abuses, including extra-judicial killings.  

In January, a Nigerian fighter jet mistakenly bombed a camp for displaced people in the north-east, killing dozens of people.   

Somali security forces have rescued an Indian cargo ship seized by pirates earlier this month, but the hijackers took nine of the 11-man crew when they fled ashore.

They are thought to be being held near the city of Hobyo.

The Al Kausar was one of three vessels to be hijacked after a five-year lull.

On Sunday sailors from the Indian, Pakistani and Chinese navies  freed the crew  of a Tuvalu-registered vessel which had been boarded by pirates.

The two crew members who were rescued were in a car that the pirates abandoned after they were chased, Mohamed Hashi Arabey, vice president of Galmudug state, told Reuters news agency.

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