Kenya's high court has extended an order barring the government from hiring 500 doctors from neighbouring Tanzania, a local TV station reports.

The government initiated the move to address a shortage of medical professionals and also to deal with effects of a three-month doctors' strike that paralysed public hospitals nationwide. 

The doctors union has opposed the move saying that the government should instead hire 1,000 local physicians who are unemployed. 

Kenya's Daily Nation reported in March that Tanzania produces more medical doctors than it can absorb, external in its hospitals.  

Algerian political parties have agreed to show female candidates' faces after some posters displayed blank avatars instead, the state news agency says.

Parties in Bordj Bou Arreridj Province had been showing hijabs surrounding blank spaces alongside photos of male candidates.

On Tuesday the election authorities gave parties two days to display photos or be removed from the vote.

An official said the practice was illegal.

Read the full story

Image source, .

Seventeen more mass graves have been found in the Democratic Republic of Congo's central Kasai region bringing the total found since last August up to 40, the UN says.

The region has been the "scene of clashes between soldiers and members of a local militia knosn as Kamuina Nsapu", the statement adds.

The government is fighting to put down a rebellion that began after a regional chief was killed.

Both sides have been accused of committing human rights violations.

UN investigators heard that at least 74 people, including 30 children, were killed in fighting at the end of last month.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said the DR Congo government should take "meaningful steps, which to date have been lacking,  to ensure that there is a prompt, transparent, and independent investigation to establish the facts and circumstances of alleged human rights violations and abuses perpetrated by all parties, and other abuses of justice".

Image source, AFP

Read more about the events in Kasai.

Niger's Minister of Higher Education Mohamed Ben Omar has been removed from his position after a violent wave of student protests hit the capital Niamey, the AFP news agency reports.

Students have been demonstrating since 10 April and have been involved in violent clashes with security forces. 

The incidents resulted in the death of one student in circumstances that are still unclear.  

The removal of Mr Omar was among several conditions students have put forward for talks with the government over their movement. 

A government spokesman said his removal as education minister was "necessary fo the return of calm within the higher education sector".

But Mr Omar remains a member of the cabinet in a different capacity. 

Image source, AFP

The US has praised the African Union's efforts to find peace in South Sudan.

The US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley made the comments when she met the new head of the African Union commission Moussa Faki Mahamat in New York, a US government statement says.

She "encouraged him to lead efforts to seek justice for victims of the country’s civil war", the statement adds. 

The legal team of Zambian opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema has asked a court in the capital, Lusaka, to "discharge" treason charges against him, his United Party for National Development (UNDP) has tweeted.

The charge sheet failed to properly explain how Mr Hichilema had plotted to overthrow the government, and was probably drawn up by someone who had never drafted a treason charge before, the lawyers said. 

The UNDP is tweeting the arguments they are presenting to the magistrate:

South Africa's new Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba has been trying to reassure investors and the ratings agencies that his policies will not be a radical transformation from the past, the Reuters news agency is reporting.

Mr Gigaba was appointed after President Jacob Zuma sacked Pravin Gordhan as part of a major cabinet reshuffle at the end of last month.

That move led to two global ratings agencies downgrading South Africa's debt to junk status.

Mr Gigaba has been speaking on the eve of an overseas trip where he is set to meet investors and officials from the International Monetary Fund.

He said that there were no plans to nationalise the country's banks or mines.

This was a direct riposte to comments made by one of his advisers Chris Malikane, who said that a radical transformation of South Africa's economy, external was needed.

The finance minister also stressed that there would be continuity with Mr Gordhan's policies. 

Image source, AFP

Prime Ndikumagenge
BBC Africa, Bujumbura

Image source, AFP

Burundi's government should repatriate some 800 women and girls who were trafficked to the Middle East last year to work in conditions similar to slavery, a local rights group has said. 

Only 30 have so far been repatriated, including one who was sexually abused in Saudi Arabia and who was now confined to a wheelchair, the National Observatory Against Transnational Crime said in a report. 

More than 820 women and girls were trafficked last year, mainly to Saudi Arabia and Oman, it added. 

They were promised good jobs, but ended up doing house work in extremely difficult conditions which some of them compared to slavery, the group said.

Read: How a woman was abused by her Saudi employees

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People in Nigeria are sharing a video of what appears to be smoke filling a plane while in flight.

Some of the passengers appear calm, but you can hear the sound of people praying and chanting.

One of the clips has been taken from the Twitter account of a passenger who has also been tweeting details of what happened.

She says she was on a flight from the southern city of Port Harcourt to the commercial capital, Lagos, when the cabin started filling with smoke and people started praying.

She then says that the plane landed safely in Lagos with the emergency services on hand to help.

It is not clear exactly what happened and there are no reports that anyone was hurt.

Image source, AFP

Five Malian soldiers have been killed by suspected Islamist militants on Tuesday in the northern city of Timbuktu, BBC Afrique reports. 

According to an official statement, the soldiers were killed in a raid carried out at dawn on a camp in the remote Gourma Rharous area about 120 km (75m) from Timbuktu. 

Officials have blamed the deadly attack on what they describe as "a terrorist group". 

Ten of the attackers have reportedly been killed by French soldiers while they tried to retreat after the raid. 

French soldiers are part of a multi-national force combating Islamist militancy in the region.

Northern Mali had been taken over in 2012 by Islamist groups, which briefly imposed Sharia law before they were driven out by foreign troops led by the French army. 

Image source, KOPANO TLAPE FLICKR

Mourners will gather today for a memorial service at a local school in South Africa's capital, Pretoria, to celebrate the life of Ontlametse Phalatse who was known as the "queen of positivity", a week after she died of lung failure aged 18, news24 reports, external. 

Ontlametse captured the hearts of many South Africans for her brave battle against premature aging disorder progeria. 

She died on the eve on President Jacob Zuma's birthday party where she had been expected to be a special guest. 

Mr Zuma paid tribute to her in his speech at the party and fulfilled one of her wishes by handing over a car to the family. 

He said he was saddened by Phalatse's death and would make sure that a home is built for the family  

Read more about her.

One policeman has been killed by gunmen who opened fire on a checkpoint near St Catherine's monastery in Egypt's south Sinai, officials say.

Another three police officers were injured in the attack several hundred metres from the church entrance.

So-called Islamic State group said its fighters carried out the attack.

Located at the foot of Mount Sinai, St Catherine's is one of the oldest Christian monasteries in the world and a Unesco world heritage site.

It is part of the Eastern Orthodox Church.

Tuesday's attack comes just days after bombings at two Coptic Christian churches left 45 people dead.

The attacks have raised security fears ahead of a visit to Cairo by Pope Francis, the head of the Roman Catholic Church.

Image source, AFP

Read more from BBC News Online

An Australian court has dismissed a challenge on the eligibility of Kenya-born lawyer Lucy Gichuhi from serving as senator, Sky News Australia reports. , external

It said the challenge came too late. 

Ms Gichuhi, from the small Family First party, will now assume office as a representative of South Australia, taking over from her party leader Bob Day whose election was invalidated.

Questions about her citizenship had threatened to end her election before it even started with the Labor party saying she held a dual-nationality. 

She however said that she was "eligible to serve". 

Her lawyer said the Kenyan High Commission provided a letter stating that Ms Gichuhi was not regarded as a Kenyan citizen. 

She became an Australian citizen in July 2001 after migrating from Kenya in 1999.  

In comments after the ruling she said she was looking forward to play a part in serving Australia: 

Jane Dreaper
Health Correspondent

There has been a record-breaking achievement in distributing tablets to fight neglected tropical diseases, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation says.

The effort has ramped up since a key meeting in London five years ago.

In 2015, one billion people worldwide were treated for at least one tropical disease. Companies have donated seven billion treatments since 2012.

The World Health Organisation said improving water and sanitation was key to driving further progress.

The London meeting resulted in a pledge to control or eliminate 10 neglected tropical diseases - including guinea worm, river blindness and trachoma - by 2020.

Some 170,000 people die from one of the illnesses every year, but their biggest impact is disabling their sufferers.

Image source, Louise Gubb

Read more from BBC News Online.

Today’s African proverb:

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