Image source, AFP

A 17-year-old South African girl is in police custody after apparently stabbing to death a man who tried to rape her as she was on her way to a tavern in the early hours of Sunday morning, police say.

Police doing routine patrols found the man’s body with multiple stab wounds on the road in Sofaya Village in northern Limpopo province, police added.

South Africa's News 24 site , externalquoted Lieutenant Colonel Moatshe Ngoepe as saying:

Sammy Awami
BBC Africa, Dar es Salaam

A Tanzanian woman with albinism who lost her arms in an attack is now running a weaving business.

In 2008, Mariam Staford Bandaba was viciously attacked by a machete-wielding gang who tried to kill her and sell her remains for witchcraft.

She escaped with her life, but only just.

The attackers chopped off one of her hands - the other had to be amputated in hospital.

This meant she could no longer earn money working in farming.

"I couldn’t do almost everything. I spent my days just sitting idle, sleeping, and very much provided for almost everything," she told me.

But years later, a Canadian and American charity, Under the Same Sun, organised for her to go to Canada where she was fitted with prosthetic arms.

When she returned to Tanzania she enrolled in training in weaving.

Six months ago, Mariam got a weaving machine which she’s been using to weave sweaters, scarves and other outfits.

"The prosthetic arms have not only given me an opportunity to work and start earning my own income but has also restored in me a sense of empowerment," she said.

Shares in London-listed Acacia Mining have fallen more than 8% after Tanzanian media reported a government investigation team had accused the company of operating in the country illegally, Reuters news agency reports.

Image source, AFP

Pope Francis has given Nigerian priests 30 days to pledge obedience to him and accept a bishop appointed for their diocese - or risk being suspended, the Associated Press news agency reports.

The pontiff met on 8 June a delegation from the Ahiara diocese in south-eastern Nigeria, where priests have been refusing to accept the 2012 appointment by then pontiff, Benedict XVI, of the local bishop, Peter Okpaleke.

Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano reported yesterday that Pope Francis was acting "for the good of the people of God" by threatening to suspend the priests from the ministry if they did not pledge in a letter, by July 9, "total obedience" and accept Bishop Okpaleke's appointment.

The Vatican issued only a short statement on the 8 June meeting, describing the situation in the diocese as “unacceptable”, the Catholic Herald reported, external.

The protests were motivated by the fact that Bishop Okpaleke is not a local priest, it added.

The newspaper quoted the Pope as saying that every priest of the diocese must write a letter to him by 9 July asking for forgiveness and "must clearly manifest total obedience to the Pope” - or else he would be suspended and would lose his office.

Pope Francis said he was taking a tough line because "the people of God are scandalised. Jesus reminds us that whoever causes scandal must suffer the consequences”, the Catholic Herald quoted the Pope as saying.

Kenya has seized six men suspected of planning an attack sponsored by the al-Shabab militant group from neighbouring Somalia, the head of Kenyan police says, reports Reuters news agency.

"The six had been dispatched from Burhanche in Somalia by their commanders to launch attacks in Kenya," Joseph Boinnet, the inspector general of the police, is quoted as saying in a statement.

The captured men were being interrogated to establish the extent of the entire network, Mr Boinnet said.

Police also seized assembled explosives, four suicide vests and bomb-making materials such as TNT.

He added that two of the suspects were Kenyans and the others were Somali nationals.

Image source, AFP

Read: Who are al-Shabab?

Stephanie Hegarty
BBC Africa, Lagos

Image source, Nigeria police

Police in Nigeria say they have caught the head of a well-known kidnapping ring in the commercial capital, Lagos.

The suspect, known as Evans, has been accused of high-profile kidnappings of several traditional rulers and wealthy businessmen, demanding millions of dollars in ransoms.

Nigerian police say that after an “intense gun battle that lasted several hours” on Saturday night, they captured the notorious kidnapper.

In a statement released yesterday, they said they hunted the suspect down to his “criminal den”, a house in an upmarket part of Lagos. He attempted to escape from the roof but was captured.

He was paraded alongside six of his suspected commanders and a haul of rifles, pistols and double-barrelled shotguns.

Evans was first declared wanted in 2013.

Police allege he has confessed to 13 counts of kidnapping.

The arrest comes amid concerns of an increase in kidnapping in Lagos.

Earlier this year, the governor of the state announced that kidnappers could face the death penalty.

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