Two white South African farmers have pleaded not guilty to charges of kidnap, assault and attempted murder after being accused of pushing a black man into a coffin and threatening to burn him alive.

Willem Oosthuizen and Theo Jackson, both 28, were arrested last year after a video of the alleged incident as widely circulated on social media.

Image source, YouTube

The two men told the court that they caught Victor Mlotshwa with stolen goods on private property and wanted to scare him to prevent further problems, the News24 news site reported, external.

Mr Mlotshwa told reporters at the time that he had been walking home through the men's farm, which is near Middelburg, 162km (100 miles) north-east of Johannesburg, when he was kidnapped and accused of trespassing.

"There's a pathway through the farm to the township where I live and many of us walk through there. I tried to explain to them why I was there and they just kept beating me," he said.

"They threatened to pour petrol on me, I pleaded for mercy and they wouldn't listen."

He said he was kept tied up for hours.

"I have nightmares about that day. It traumatised me."

Read: South Africa awaits its golden age

Wanyama wa Chebusiri
BBC Africa

The body of a senior Kenyan electoral commission official, Chris Musando, was found along with that of an unidentified woman on the outskirts of the capital, Nairobi, police have said.

Both bodies - discovered in Kikuyu suburb - have now been taken to a mortuary in Nairobi.

Mr Musonda was an IT guru, who was spearheading the rolling out of the system that is to be used for voter identification and transmission of election results during next week’s general election.

The body of the ICT manager of Kenya's electoral commission, who went missing on Friday, has been found.

Kenya's Star newspaper, external is reporting that Chris Musando's body, which is now in a city mortuary, has one of its arms missing.

Mr Musando was last seen on Friday night and his abandoned car was found at the weekend at a car pak in the capital, Nairobi.

His death comes jahad of Kenya's 8 August general election, which sees incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta facing seven challengers, including former Prime Minister Raila Odinga.

Rangers in Malawi are taking on the mammoth task of moving hundreds of elephants into safer national parks.

The animals have suffered a sharp decline in recent years due to poaching and loss of habitat.

Video journalist: Nancy Ibrahim

Kennedy Gondwe
BBC World Service, Lusaka

The Zambian authorities have arrested three Chinese nationals for the alleged illegal possession of 25 rhino horns.

They were arrested along with two Zambians.

Ministry of Tourism and Arts spokesperson Sakabilo Kalembwe said investigations are also under way about another Chinese national who was allegedly caught with 11 rhino horns at South Africa's Oliver Tambo International airport after transiting through Zambia.

“We are getting concerned when we have foreign nationals who are coming here as investors, yet engaging in illegal activities,” he said.

Poaching in Zambia is rampant with China being one of the major destinations for ivory and rhino horns.

Image source, Getty Images

Read more: Would a legal market for rhino horn deter poachers? - BBC News

A South Sudanese man, who calls himself a billionaire, has posted a video on Facebook, external showing him rolling on a bed covered with what he says is a million dollars' worth of $100 bills.

In the eight-minute video Lawrence Lual Malong Yor Jnr talks about how he is donating the money to a church in Kenya's capital, Nairobi, and he says that he is also giving money to the Red Cross in Kenya and neighbouring South Sudan.

You can see him rolling around on the bed of notes, which he says is in a presidential suite, and he also covers himself with the money.

Image source, Lawrence Lual Malong Yor Jnr

Mr Malong, who is also known as the Young Tycoon, does not talk about how he made the money, but is heard complaining that people criticise him for showing off about his wealth but fail to mention his charitable donations.

He says there is nothing wrong with talking about wealth and cites US President Donald Trump as someone who is not embarrassed about how much money he has.

"I'm like Donald Trump," he says.

The UK-based Daily Mail, external reported that last year Mr Malong posted another video on Facebook showing off about his lifestyle.

It described him as the step-son of a South Sudanese general.

BBC Monitoring
The world through its media

An earthquake of magnitude 5.4 in eastern DR Congo is being reported by the Goma-based French-language Mishapi Voice Radio. It says no casualties have been reported but many houses have been damaged. Areas affected are Butembo, Kasindi and Kirumba north of Goma, in Nord Kivu province.

Reporter Kasereka Mahinda said: "It was a violent one. I am in Butembo; some houses cracked. It was a 5.4 magnitude earthquake and happened at around 09:04."

An Irish navy vessel rescued 109 migrants off Libya's coast on Sunday, following a request from the Italian Maritime Rescue Co-Ordination Centre.

Image source, Irish Defence Forces

The LÉ William Butler Yeats took four hours to rescue the migrants off Tripoli, before providing food and medical treatment, the Irish navy said.

The rescued migrants were then transferred to the Italian Coast Guard. It was the new vessel's first humanitarian search and rescue mission since being deployed on 14 July.

On the same day a government motion was passed in the Dáil (Irish parliament) to allow the Irish Defence Forces to join in on Operation Sophia in response to the EU's ongoing migrant crisis.

The multilateral EU navy operation was set up in 2015, aimed at targeting vessels to stop gangs from human trafficking, mainly through Libya.

Image source, Irish Defence Forces

Image source, AFP

South Africa's influential Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini has said that God sometimes speaks to him, and he has to "cough it out" to the nation, the local IOL news site, external has reported.

The monarch made the claim at a glittering gala dinner held on Saturday in Nongoma, his seat of power in KwaZulu-Natal province, as part of celebrations to mark his 69th birthday.

He was showered with gifts including wine, cattle and horses, IOL reported.

It quoted him as saying:

According to the news site, he added that God sometimes told him to pray for certain people and to put his hand on them to heal them:

King Zwelithini also called on his subjects to donate towards building a church that his grandfather had foretold:

The king also complained that the Zulu rural household was one of the poorest, despite the fact that the government had allocated it an annual budget of more than 50m rand ($3.8m; £3m), IOL reported.

The dinner was attended by high-profile guests, including US pastor Bishop Justice Jones of Global Justice Ministries and South African Air Force chief Lt-Gen Fabian Msimang, according to the news site.

A large commercial poultry farm in Zimbabwe has been hit by avian flu for a second time this year, the state-owned Herald newspaper, external reports.

The earlier outbreak killed 7,000 chicken and another 140,000 were slaughtered as a preventative measure, the BBC's Shingai Nyoka says.

The Herald quotes the head of the ministry of agriculture, Josphat Nyika, as saying that the farm had already been under quarantine and that will now be extended for three months "until the disease is completely resolved".

Mr Nyika added that "every effort is being made to prevent infection from escaping" the farm.

Last month, Zimbabwe banned the importation of poultry products from neighbouring South Africa following an avian flu outbreak, Reuters news agency reports.

Image source, AFP

Last week's statement from Nigeria's army which incorrectly reported that all the civilians targeted in an ambush by Boko Haram militants were rescued was "most regrettable, external", an army spokesman has said.

Initially, the army had said that nine soldiers died, external in the rescue attempt following the attack on a convoy last Tuesday in the north-east of the country.

Later, there were reports that at least 40 people had died and several others had been kidnapped.

Three of those taken appeared in a Boko Haram video that was uploaded at the weekend.

In his latest statement, head of army public relations, Brig-Gen Sani Kukasheka Usman, said that "the error in the statement was not deliberate".

"We have strived to keep the public informed of our activities with no intention of distorting any fact," he added.

The army now said that it has recovered 21 bodies, but it is not clear if this figure includes the nine that it spoke about last week.

Nigeria's army is currently battling Islamist militants Boko Haram in north-eastern Nigeria. In the past year, the group has lost a lot of territory but continues to carry out bomb attacks, ambushes and kidnappings in the region.

Image source, Getty Images

Somalia's militant Islamist group al-Shabab says it has killed 39 African Union (AU) troops in an ambush on their convoy in the Lower Shabelle region, Reuters news agency reports.

The AU failed to give casualty figures but said on its Twitter account that "a lot of damage was inflicted on the enemy while our troops took fatalities".

Lower Shabelle deputy governor Ali Nur told Reuters that 23 AU troops and a Somali soldier were killed in Sunday's ambush.

A senior member of Kenya's electoral commission, Chris Musando, has been missing since Friday, although police have found his vehicle in a car park in the capital, Nairobi.

Nairobi County Police Commander Japhet Koome said the vehicle had been dusted for fingerprints, and police were trying to trace the movements of Mr Musando - the head of IT at the commssion, Kenya's privately owned Daily Nation newspaper reports, external.

Mr Koome added:

Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta is seeking a second term in the general election due on 8 August. He is facing a strong challenge from veteran opposition leader Raila Odinga.

Read: Decoding Kenya's election

Police in Nigeria's commercial hub, Lagos, are expected to bring more than 40 men to court today after they were arrested for alleged acts of homosexuality at the weekend.

The men were detained at a hotel in Lagos' Owode Onirin area, the Punch newspaper, external reports quoting a police spokesman.

Olarinde Famous-Cole added that the hotel had been "cordoned off while the investigation is carried out”.

Read more: Where is it illegal to be gay? - BBC News

Our African proverb of the day:

Click here and scroll to the bottom to send us your African proverbs.

Welcome to BBC Africa Live where we will bring you the latest news from around the continent.