Kenyan gambling outfit SportPesa says it is pulling out of sponsoring sports teams in the country because of a new finance measure imposing a large tax on betting companies.

Its CEO has been tweeting from a press conference in the capital, Nairobi, this morning:

The new law, beginning in January 2018, will introduce a 35% tax on the betting companies' revenue (less the prize money pay out). They also have to pay corporation tax on profits.

SportPesa currently supports the Kenyan premier league, individual football and rugby teams and several other sports.

But the company says that its backing of European teams such as Everton and Hull City will not be affected.

In recent years, SportsPesa has emerged as one of East Africa's major gambling companies.

Image source, AFP

The Indian Ocean island of Reunion may not have the same tourist pull as its close neighbour Mauritius but still attracts thousands of visitors every year.

Yet shark attacks have forced the authorities to swimming and surfing on most of the island's beaches, which has seriously affected on local businesses.

From Reunion, Africa Business Report's Jason Boswell has more:

Tweeters have been reacting to the Tanzanian president's remark that girls who get pregnant should be expelled from school.

They have been using the hashtag #arudishule which means "she should go back to school" to object to this:

President John Magufuli said on Thursday that schoolgirls who become mothers will not be allowed to go back to school after giving birth.

"After calculating some few mathematics she’d be asking the teacher in the classroom ‘let me go out and breastfeed my crying baby,'" reasoned President Magufuli.

In fact, this is currently the law in Tanzania but he appeared to be reacting now because of pressure from NGOs to change the law.

"These NGOs should go out and open schools for parents. But they should not force the government [to take back the pupils]," he said.

The story has hit the front pages of the country's newspapers:

This Swahili language newspaper says: "John Magufuli tells rights bodies they are speaking 'nonsense'".

Chimpanzees in Uganda may have changed their hunting strategy in response to being watched by scientists, research suggests, external.

While studying the animals, researchers documented very different hunting habits of two closely neighbouring chimp "tribes".

"Sonso" chimps hunt in small groups for colobus monkeys, while those from the "Waibira" troop hunt solo and catch "whatever they can get their hands on".

The findings show how sensitive chimp society is to human presence.

Lead researcher Catherine Hobaiter, from the University of St Andrews, said the Waibira group's behaviour might have changed to a more "opportunistic" strategy because those chimps were much less used to the presence of human scientists.

Read more on this story.

Gunmen have attacked a bank in the town of Elwak in Mandera County, north-east Kenya, killing at least three people including one police officer, says the county commissioner.

Gun shots can still be heard in the area, a local reporter says.

The mayor of South Africa's city of Tshwane has said that he wants to build a wall to separate a community of home owners from an informal settlement, EWN reports., external

Mayor Solly Msimanga's move follows violence on Wednesday between residents of the two areas, News 24 adds, external.

It reports that petrol bombs destroyed homes in both communities.

EWN says that the homeowners said that people in the informal settlement should be evicted as they had taken the land illegally.

The Tshwane area includes the capital, Pretoria.

Image source, AFP

Image source, AFP

Botswana's former President Ketumile Masire has died at the age of 91, the government has announced., external

Sir Ketumile, who led Botswana for 18 years from 1980, has been praised for cementing stability in the country and laying the foundations for its economic success, the AFP news agency reports.

He also got involved in trying to resolve regional disputes, including supporting the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa.

South Africa's High Commissioner to Botswana, Mdu Lembede, is quoted by the SABC, external as saying the former president not only backed the anti-apartheid movement but also supported other struggles in Namibia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique.

After stepping down in 1988 to make way for Vice-President Festus Mogae he worked as a mediator in a number of conflicts including in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Botswana's government has announced three days of national mourning.

BBC World Service

Image source, EPA

A new study says that safe burial practices introduced by the Red Cross during the recent Ebola outbreak in three West African countries probably saved thousands of lives.

Around 29,000 people were infected with Ebola, almost all in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, between 2013 and 2016.

The research, published in the journal Plos Neglected Tropical Diseases, suggests the work of the Red Cross volunteers potentially prevented an extra 10,000 secondary cases of Ebola.

Read more on the BBC News website.

Image source, Science Photo Library

An argument between the UK and Mauritius over disputed Chagos Islands will be referred to the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

The UN General Assembly voted by 94 countries to 15 that The Hague should examine the Indian Ocean islands' legal status.

The former British colony used to be part of Mauritius but was detached in 1965.

Families were forced to leave the Chagos Islands in the 1960s and 1970s to make way for the US Air Force base on one of the islands Diego Garcia, which is leased until 2036.

Mauritius, which gained independence from Britain in 1968, argues that the UK broke international law when it separated off the islands before granting Mauritius its independence.

Read more on the BBC News website.

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