Charlotte Attwood
BBC Africa

Sudanese music star Hawa Mohammed Adam hopes the lifting of US trade sanctions means she will no longer have to travel to Egypt to receive life-saving treatment for cancer.

She was diagnosed with breast cancer last year and her extended family, friends and fans raised the money to send her to Cairo.

Her cancer initially spread because old scanning machines in Sudan had failed to detect the seriousness of her condition.

"I discovered that I did not only have one tumour, but several tumours," says the musician, who also teaches piano at the University of Sudan and is looking forward to returning to work.

"Despite the fact that that we have very competent doctors, we do not have devices, equipment and tools. We do not have anything."

The US government announced on 12 October that most economic sanctions were being lifted.

They were originally imposed on Sudan in the 1990s for harbouring fugitives such as al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden, and included the freezing of all Sudanese government assets in the US and a ban on Washington's allies trading with Khartoum.

Read the full story on the BBC News website.

A police officer and a civilian have died in clashes in Goma in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo amid protests calling for President Joseph Kabila to stand down.

Several demonstrators were also wounded, BBC Afrique’s Faida Muganga reports from the city.

Today’s strike was organised by an association of civil society groups, including the pro-democracy Struggle for Change (Lucha).

Earlier this month, the national electoral commission said an election to replace Mr Kabila, whose mandate expired last December, could not take place until April 2019.

This flies in the face of an agreement reached last year following protests over the cancelling of elections scheduled for November 2016 that the poll should take place before the end of this year.

On a visit to the country last week, the US ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, urged Mr Kabila's government to hold elections next year if it wanted to count on US backing.

Watch more about DR Congo's Lucha activists.

Image source, AFP

The widow of a Burkinabe reporter who was murdered in 1998 has welcomed the arrest of Francois Compaore, the brother of Burkina Faso's ex-President Blaise Compaore.

Francois Compaore, 63, was reportedly arrested at an airport in Paris in connection with the death on Sunday.

Norbert Zongo, the editor of newspaper L'Independant, was investigating the murder of Francois Compaore's driver at the time of his death.

His widow, Genevieve Zongo, said:

Mr Zongo and three of his friends were found dead in a burnt-out car outside the capital, Ouagadougou, with bullet wounds to their bodies. His killing triggered violent protests.

"The Zongo case is a sensitive topic for probing journalists and taboo in government circles," said the Committee to Protect Journalists on the 10th anniversary of Mr Zongo's death in 1998, external.

Francois Compaore's arrest follows an arrest warrant issued by Burkina Faso in July, on charges of "inciting murders", Mr Zongo's family is quoted as saying.

He was nicknamed the "little president" because of the influence he had in his older brother's government.

See our earlier post for more on this story.

Pumza Fihlani
BBC News, Johannesburg

Two traffic officers in South Africa are facing disciplinary action for bringing their force into disrepute after a video of them “eating money” went viral on social media.

The video shows the two officers using banknotes to pick their teeth and wipe their mouths, while loud music blares from car speakers.

The pair can be seen eating their lunch from Styrofoam containers in the car boot, which are filled with food in one half and money in the other.

The Ekurhuleni Metro Police Department (EMPD) says the employees, who were in full uniform at the time, have brought the department into disrepute and acted in an unprofessional manner.

Spokesman Wilfred Kgasago says the duo have been served with pre-suspension letters and will appear before a disciplinary committee on Tuesday.

South Africa’s Police Minister Fikile Mbalula posted the video on Twitter over the weekend, applauding reports that the pair would be disciplined:

Image source, AFP

The brother of Burkina Faso's ex-President Blaise Compaore has been arrested in France in connection with the 1998 murder of a reporter in the West African country, AFP reports his lawyer as saying.

The news agency says that Francois Compaore, 63, was arrested at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris on Sunday over the killings of journalist Norbert Zongo and three others whose burnt bodies were found in a car near Mr Zongo's home.

Burkina Faso issued an international arrest warrant for him in July, on charges of "inciting murders", Mr Zongo's family is quoted as saying.

Francois Compaore was nicknamed the "little president" because of the influence he had in his older brother's government.

Mr Zongo, editor of newspaper L'Independant, was investigating the murder of Francois Compaore's driver at the time of his death.

Francois Compaore fled Burkina Faso in 2014 when his brother's attempt to extend his 27-year rule was met with a popular uprising.

Read more: How Blaise Compaore sparked his own downfall

In a protest dubbed “Black Monday” about high number of farm murders in a South Africa, convoys of cars are protesting on motorways in Cape Town and Johannesburg.

Campaigners have urged people to wear black to show their outrage at the spate of farm killings, especially after the death of a white farmer in Klapmuts near Stellenbosch.

Last Tuesday, Joubert Conradie, 47, was shot on his farm and died later at the Stellenbosch Mediclinic.

The BBC’s Pumza Fihlani in Johannesburg says the protests are already causing racial divisions after some of the Afrikaner protesters were seen carrying the old apartheid flag.

Others point out that all races are the targets of killings in South Africa:

Image source, Alamy

Sixty people have been quarantined in Nigeria's northern Kano State after coming into contact with a suspected monkeypox patient, local health authorities say.

Kano State Commissioner for Health, Kabul Getso, said at the weekend that “one of the symptoms of the disease was noticed in the patient, but we are suspecting that the disease is more of chickenpox than monkeypox".

In an interview with BBC Hausa, he denied any suggestions he was downplaying the patient's state.

Until the results of a blood sample - sent to the capital, Abuja, for clinical verification - were returned, it remains a suspected case, he said.

Dr Getso says 11 of Nigeria's 36 state are affected by the monkeypox outbreak "and 94 persons are the victims, out of which only six are confirmed".

Earlier this month a health official in the southern state of Bayelsa was quoted as saying that the virus could be found in monkeys and all bush animals such as rats, squirrels and antelopes.

Health authorities in Nigeria have been warning the public against eating monkeys and bushmeat for the past few weeks.

Health Minister Isaac Adewole said in a recent statement that despite no known cure for the disease existing there was no cause for alarm because the virus was mild.

However, he advised the public to take preventative measures like avoiding crowded places.

The disease was part of a group of viruses that included chickenpox and smallpox, he said.

Anna Holligan
Reporter BBC News, The Hague

An Ethiopian with dual Dutch nationality is going on trial in The Hague today, accused of multiple war crimes.

Eshetu Alemu is accused of ordering the execution of 75 people in a church during the bloody purges in Ethiopia in the late 1970s, which came to be known as the "Red Terror".

The 63-year-old - an aide to the now-exiled dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam - is also accused of torture and inhumane treatment, including tying prisoners up, suspending them in mid-air and beating their bare feet with sticks.

These are the charges he had hoped to escape by going into exile in Europe. Ethiopia sentenced him to death in his absence.

Now a Dutch citizen, over the next two weeks some of the alleged victims will share their experiences in court with the hope of seeing long-awaited justice done.

Mengistu ruled Ethiopia from 1977 with an iron fist following the overthrow of Emperor Haile Selassie in 1974.

He was then himself ousted in 1991 after a series of revolts by insurgent groups.

This is a rare case for a Dutch district court.

Image source, AFP

Today's African proverb:

Image source, AFP

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

Welcome to BBC Africa Live where we'll be keeping you up-to-date with news and trends from across the continent.