That's all from BBC Africa Live today. Keep up-to-date with what's happening across the continent by listening to the Africa Today podcast or check the BBC News website.

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And we leave you with this photo of a welcoming party in Cameroon.

Gbolahan Macjob
BBC News

The Swiss government has already paid out about $700m (£238.6m) of the “Abacha loot” to Nigeria over the course of the last decade, a Swiss diplomat has old the BBC.

The final balance, totaling $321m, will be paid in installments in the next two to three years, according to a Swiss diplomat, Roberto Balzaretti added.

A tripartite agreement stipulating the terms was signed on Monday in Washington at the Global Forum on Asset Recovery GFAR by the Swiss government and Nigeria, as well as the World Bank.

Mr Balzaretti, the head of the Swiss delegation at the forum, said the money will be transferred to the Bank of International Settlement in Basil, and in to the Nigerian government account.

He told the BBC:

Read the full story here.

Zimbabwe suffered a disruption to both internet services and landline phone calls today, the state-run Herald newspaper reports, external.

The disruption was blamed on a tractor cutting cables on the South African side of the border, and municipal employees severing cables while doing work in a suburb of the capital, Harare, it reports.

Cyber Security Minister Supa Mandiwanzira denied allegations that the government had cut internet services.

The newspaper quoted him as saying:

Image source, AFP

A detained activist on hunger strike in Morocco was has been rushed to hospital, cutting short his court appearance in the commercial capital, Casablanca, one of his lawyers has said, the AFP news agency reports.

Unemployed Nasser Zefzafi was attending a hearing with 53 co-defendants when he said he "felt faint", Abdessadek El Bouchtaoui told AFP.

The judge stopped the hearing.

Mr Zefzafi, 39, emerged as a leading figure of Al-Hirak al-Shaabi, or the "Popular Movement", which was at the centre of protests against unemployment and corruption in Morocco's northern Rif region in 2016.

He was arrested in May after allegedly interrupting a cleric at a mosque, and calling on people to stage further protests, AFP reports.

He and about 30 other detainees embarked on a hunger strike last Wednesday.

Amid high unemployment it is thought that as many as 2,000 teenagers are homeless in Mozambique's capital, Maputo.

But some have turned their lives around - partially as a result of Armadura Gym.

The BBC's Kim Gittleson has been there to meet some of the gym's employees, most of whom used to live on the street, and speaks to the keep-fit entrepreneurs who have offered the young people a way out of poverty.

Mary Harper
Africa editor, BBC World Service

A spokesman for the governor of Nigeria's south-eastern Imo state, Rochas Okorocha, has defended the appointment of his sister to the post of commissioner for happiness and couples' fulfillment - the first such position in the West African state.

There was nothing unusual about the appointment of Ogechi Ololo as Mr Okorocha always wanted to make people happy, the spokesman said.

Image source, AFP

The appointment has created quite a stir on social media, with some single people in Imo state saying they feel marginalised:

This is not the first time Mr Okorocha has made a controversial decision.

He spent more than $1m (£740,000) of public funds on statues of African leaders, including one of the South African President Jacob Zuma.

He has also been criticised for spending vast sums on a Christmas tree, said to be one of the largest in the world.

See earlier post for more details

Namibia and Tunisia have been censured in a blacklist of 17 countries listed to be operating tax havens, says a report published by the European Union (EU), the UK-based Guardian reports., external

Another 47 countries have also been given notice.

The report estimates that $679bn (£506bn) is lost to tax avoidance every year.

The EU is, however, yet to agree on sanctions to be imposed on the blacklisted states but has encouraged member countries to draw up their own plans.

Namibia was the only country on the list that did not respond to inquiries by the EU’s tax experts, the Guardian reports.

Pierre Moscovici, the European commissioner for economic and financial affairs, described the publication as a vital “first step”.

He said:

Robert Misigaro
BBC Africa

Burundi is trying to revive its tourism industry by restoring some of its best tourist draws.

Among them is Bururi forest in the south of the country, home to waterfalls, thermal basins and inhabited by a variety of primates and rare birds.

The forest boasts trees as old as 400 years.

The East African nation, which has been rocked by political instability since 2015, is seeing tourism as a strong alternative source or revenue to coffee and tea exports.

Lebo Diseko
BBC News, Johannesburg

Image source, AFP

Whilst South Africa's Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa is in the lead in the race to become the next leader of the governing African National Congress (ANC), he is not home-free just yet.

He currently has a lead of around 500 branches on his main rival, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, as the party gears up for its elective conference later this month.

The catch is that some branches get to send more than one delegate to the conference, because of their size.

KwaZulu-Natal is the largest province and here, in her home province, Ms Dlamini-Zuma got 454 branch nominations to Mr Ramaphosa's 191.

The ANC Women's League and the ANC Youth League are yet to give their nominations.

Each of the party's leagues gets 60 nominations each, and both the Youth and Women's League have publicly endorsed Ms Dlamini-Zuma, the former African Union Commission chief, thus far.

And then there is the issue of "unity" nominations - where the word "unity" was written on the form instead of selecting a candidate.

There were 233 of these in Mpumalanga province, and they are being counted as abstentions.

It is unclear which way these will swing once it comes to the conference.

The vote at the conference is a secret ballot, so no-one will know who voted which way.

And equally, it makes it difficult to predict just which way delegates will go when it comes to the crunch.

See earlier post for more details

Chris Ewokor
BBC Africa, Abuja

Long queues of motor vehicles have formed at petrol stations in the capital, Abuja, and other cities amid reports of a fuel scarcity.

However, the state-owned oil company, the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, has said that fuel and other petroleum products are available.

It also said it does not intend to increase pump prices.

The company attributed the queues to panic buying by motorists.

Nigeria is the largest producer of crude oil but is unable to refine petroleum products.

It imports millions of litres of refined products daily for domestic consumption, and analysts say corruption is widespread in the industry.

Nigerians have suffered perennial fuel shortages, especially during festive periods, sometimes leaving many travellers stranded.

The charity Oxfam has been criticised in the past for its political campaigns.

Winnie Byanyima, Oxfam International's executive director, told Hardtalk's Stephen Sackur that her organisation had a duty to tackle powerlessness and because of that it was political "with a small p".

Oxfam International is currently moving its headquarters from the British city of Oxford to Nairobi, Kenya.

You can see the Hardtalk interview in full today on BBC World News and the BBC News Channel and after on BBC iPlayer (UK only).

Kenya's Standard newspaper has profiled two street children who have defied the odds to pass this year's final primary school exams, external.

It says David Ochieng and Mark Vincent, who have been eking out a living at a dumpsite in the western city of Kisumu, got 380 and 338 marks respectively out of 500.

The two boys collect and sell scrap metal, making less than a dollar a day.

The newspaper reports that the boys might not be able to continue their education because of the hefty fees they will need for secondary school.

Mark Vincent's grandfather says that he does not earn enough money to afford the boy's school fees:

John Orinda, the manager of the dumpsite where the boys spend most of their time, says that in the past eight years four street children from the dumpsite have excelled in the national examinations.

He said three are currently studying in university, while another one has joined the Kenya Defence Forces.

Image source, Getty Images

The president of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Amaju Pinnick, has said that it will now concentrate on helping the women's team.

He was reacting to criticism that the Super Falcons have not played or trained since lifting the Women's Africa Cup of Nations a year ago.

Desire Oparanozie, who scored the winner in last December's final, labelled the NFF efforts as "pathetic".

Pinnick apologised and admitted shortcomings by the federation as they focussed on the men's team.

Read the full BBC Sport story

Stephanie Hegarty
BBC Africa, Lagos

Image source, afp

The $321m (£239m) that Switzerland has agreed to return to Nigeria is just a fraction of the billions of dollars allegedly looted during the dictatorship of Sani Abacha.

But the recovery of the "Abacha loot” - as it’s now known - has become a point of pride for the government of Muhammadu Buhari.

Nigeria’s president made the recovery of stolen assets a major campaign pledge and this will be one of his greatest hauls yet.

Though an agreement was signed in March on the repatriation of the money, the Nigerian ministry of justice, the World Bank and lawyers in Switzerland and in the US have been grappling over the legal complications of returning it.

Yesterday Switzerland announced that the battle was over and that the money will be returned, though it didn't say when.

It also said the World Bank must be involved in supervising how the money is spent, to ensure, it’s “for the benefit of the Nigerian people”.

The $321m went missing in the 1990s and was confiscated by a Swiss court from Abacha’s son in 2014.

See earlier post for more details

Image source, Science Photo Library

At least 36 people have died in an outbreak of listeria in South Africa, Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi has said.

A total of 557 cases had been reported, mostly in the economic hub of Gauteng, followed by Western Cape and Kwazulu-Natal.

Speaking at a press conference, Dr Motsoaledi said that while listeria is a serious disease, it can be treated with antibiotics.

The bacteria is found in soil, water and vegetation, and contaminates food sources such as animal products and fresh produce.

The disase mainly affects newborns, pregnant women, and people with weak immune systems.

The South African government has tweeted that washing hands is extremely important to prevent getting listeria:

The Kenyan foreign ministry has denied reports in local media that four citizens who were jailed in South Sudan on charges of defrauding the government are to be freed.

It tweeted that a top official had not travelled to South Sudan to secure the release:

We reported earlier, quoting the Daily Nation, that a deal had been reached between the leaders of the two countries.

The four were jailed in 2015.

Image source, Getty Images

The governor of Nigeria's Imo state, Rochas Okorocha, has appointed his sister, Ogechi Ololo, as Commissioner for Happiness and Couples’ Fulfillment.

Before her elevation to the post, she was her brother's Deputy Chief of Staff and Special Adviser on Domestic Matters, Nigeria's privately owned Punch newspaper reports, external.

Twitter users have reacted harshly to the news:

In October, Mr Okorocha was heavily criticised for unveiling a giant bronze statue of South Africa's President Jacob Zuma, despite the fact that he has been dogged by corruption allegations.

Sammy Awami
BBC Africa, Dar es Salaam

A journalist with a leading private newspaper in Tanzania has gone missing, the publication has said in a statement.

Mwananchi newspaper says Azory Gwanda has been missing for more than ten days.

Mr Gwanda was based in a small town just over 100km (about 62 miles) south of the commercial capital, Dar es Salaam.

He recently reported extensively on a series of killings in the Kibiti town by unknown gunmen targeting police and local leaders.

A statement from the newspaper says they were last in contact with Mr Gwanda on 20 November.

Since then, the statement says, he has not been reachable on any of his three mobile numbers.

His wife says four men in a white Toyota land cruiser picked up Mr Gwanda in the city centre before they searched their house.

Police say they are investigating his disappearance.

Four Kenyan citizens who were jailed in South Sudan for allegedly defrauding the government are to be released after a deal was struck between the presidents of two countries, Kenya's Daily Nation newspaper reports:

The four started serving their sentence of 72 years in 2015.

The victims say they were caught up in a war between South Sudanese business rivals, and they were not given a fair hearing.

Their families have been running a public campaign to secure their release since their sentencing in 2015, and appealed to the UN human rights agency to assist.

There are conflicting reports on their sentence, with some media reporting that they were jailed for life while others say they were jailed for more than 60 years.

Emmnauel Igunza
BBC Africa, Nairobi

A German tourist has been killed and a guide wounded in an attack in north-eastern Ethiopia, near the border with Eritrea.

Reports say the German national was in a group of tourists who were visiting the Erta Ale volcano - a popular destination for holidaymakers - when he was shot and killed.

It is not clear who carried out the attack.

The Ethiopian government says it is investigating the killing.

Image source, AFP

Local authorities say security forces have now been deployed to the area, where an armed separatist group operates.

In 2012, five tourists were killed and four others abducted after gunmen ambushed them in the area. The Afar Revolutionary Democratic Front claimed responsibility for that attack.