Stanley Kwenda
BBC Africa

Image source, Reuters

Excitement has gripped Tanzanian football fans ahead of a friendly match between English Premier League side Everton and Kenyan top side Gor Mahia at the 60,000 seater National stadium in Dar es Salaam.

Everton players have been given near royal treatment since their arrival on Monday in the the East African nation.

England international and former Manchester United player Wayne Rooney has specially been a draw to the crowds and many are looking forward to see him in action.

The Democratic Republic Congo winger Yannick Bolasie rivalled Rooney in the popularity stakes with a band of Congolese fans on call to welcome him. They were drapped in t-shirts emblazoned with his face.

However it was Rooney who emerged as the fans' favourite.

Even the country’s vice-president, Samia Suluhu Hassan, attested to that.

“Wayne Rooney made me support Manchester United and now I don’t know what to do because he has gone back to Everton,” she said.

Rooney responded:

“Being here it has been a new experience for me and I hope the vice president will now be able to support Everton.”

Kenya's Daily Nation has used Everton's nickname to come up with a cheeky headline:

Read more on the BBC News website.

At least 12 people have been killed after two suicide bombers blew themselves up in a busy market in north-eastern Cameroon on Wednesday night.

A further 30 others have been injured.

The bombers struck an area with "restaurants, telephone cabins and kiosks", a local official told AFP news agency adding that the town had been sealed off.

Reuters news agency say no-one has said they are behind the attack yet.

Cameroon's far north region, which borders Nigeria, has seen a resurgence in attacks blamed on Nigerian Islamist militant group Boko Haram after months of relative calm, reports AFP.

Image source, AFP

The Governor of Lagos State in Nigeria has said only 600,000 of the 22 million residents in the state pay taxes, Upshot reports, external.

Upshot adds that Akinwunmi Ambode said the state did not have enough money to build shoreline protection to protect against events like last week's flood.

Mr Ambode said there is a long way to go to get people to pay tax:

Image source, Getty

The Gambia could become the first country in sub-Saharan Africa to eliminate malaria, reports Reuters.

The prevalence of the malaria parasite in children under five has plunged to 0.2% from 4% in 2011, according to the National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP).

The total number of new malaria cases in the country has fallen by about 40% in that time - to 155,450 last year down from 262,000 in 2011, NMCP data shows.

Aside from the usual control measures, such as antimalarial drugs, insecticide-treated bed nets and indoor spraying, Gambia has successfully used technology to tackle malaria, Carla Fajardo from aid agency Catholic Relief Services told Reuters.

Internet service providers have boosted bandwidth in remote areas meaning they could collect real-time data and could make decisions on the fly, Ms Fajardo said.

Gambia is aiming to achieve the milestone of having no new malaria cases by 2020, NMCP head Balla Kandeh told Reuters.

At least one person has been killed and three others have been taken to hospital in Ghana's southern town of Nkawkaw after a bus carrying players and officials of Asante Kotoko football club was involved in an accident on Wednesday night.

A statement from Ghana Football Association says the players were travelling back to the southern city of Kumasi after a match in the capital, Accra when the accident happened.

It says that it had sent a team to Nkawkaw to offer support to the team, "during this difficult time".

Its official account has tweeted a picture of those who were injured:

According to myjoyonline, external the bus had about 35 passengers made up of players and team officials.

It says that the bus is reported to have run into a slow moving lorry loaded with rice.

Asante Kotoko lost their game by a goal to Inter Allies ending their 10 game run without a defeat.

They are currently fourth on the Ghanaian league.

Image source, Retuers team

A group of Afghan school girls taking part in a robotics competition in the US have been granted visas to attend it, after their initial applications were denied, US media report.

The only two countries that were refused visas at first were Gambia and Afghanistan.

The Gambian students' travel ban was overturned last week.

Image source, Fatoumata Ceesay

A US travel ban is in place for six Muslim-majority countries, which does not include Afghanistan or Gambia. It is not clear why they were originally not given visas.

The competition organised by non-profit group First Global will see teams from 164 countries compete in a series of robotic games.

"I am most grateful to the US Government and its state department for ensuring Afghanistan, as well as Gambia, would be able to join us for this international competition this year," First Global president Joe Sestak said in a statement, external.

First Global aims to promote Stem subjects (science, technology, engineering and maths).

"All 163 teams from 157 countries have gained approval to the United States, including Iran, Sudan, and a team of Syrian refugees," Mr Sestak said. "I could not be more proud."

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