Flamboyant Nigerian Senator Dino Maleye has tweeted that heavily armed police officers have raided his home in the capital, Abuja:

Earlier today, police released the senator after arresting him as he tried to board a flight to Morocco.

It is not clear why he is being targeted, but last month police said he was wanted for questioning over allegations that he had given weapons to kidnappers.

An Egyptian army operation against militants in northern Sinai has left more than 400,000 civilians in urgent need of humanitarian aid, campaign group Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said in a report.

For well over two months severe restrictions have been imposed on the movement of goods and people, and residents say they're enduring shortages of food, medicine, gas and other essentials.

HRW said what is happening borders on collective punishment.

President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi has ordered his troops to use "brute force" against the threat posed by Islamic State militants in Sinai.

The US's first black President Barack Obama will deliver the annual Nelson Mandela lecture in South Africa's main city, Johannesburg, on 17 July to honour the centennial of the anti-apartheid icon's birth, the Nelson Mandela Foundation has said.

The foundation's chief executive, Sello Hatang, said the foundation had been looking for someone with "an Africa heritage" to deliver the address.

"We thought who can [better] represent the legacy of Madiba than the person who we believe took on the baton when he became president of his own country," Mr Hatang said, referring to Mr Mandela by his clan name.

The lecture will focus on "creating conditions for bridging divides, working across ideological lines, and resisting oppression and inequality", the foundation added in a statement, external.

Mr Hatang told AFP news agency that Mr Mandela was "elated" when Mr Obama was elected in 2008 "because he saw it as a moment in American history".

"We hope that it will again be a significant moment for the two legacies to join," he said.

Mr Mandela became South Africa's first black president following the end of the racist system of apartheid in 1994.

He spent 27 years in prison for fighting for the freedom of black people.

Mr Mandela died in 2013 at the age of 95.

Several politicians have taken to social media to say that the controversial Nigerian senator Dino Melaye, arrested this morning at Abuja airport, has been freed.

His spokesman, Gideon Ayodele, confirmed to the Premium Times that he had been been released after several hours, external.

He was stopped when trying to fly to Morocco on business because of an Interpol alert issued by the Nigerian police.

Mr Melaye is often referred to as the “singing senator” as he likes to take to social media to mock his political opponents in song.

Image source, AFP

Thousands of demonstrators have taken to the streets of Madagascar's capital, Antananarivo, two days after a similar protest was broken up by the police, leaving two people dead and several seriously injured.

The protesters carried the victim's coffin to a public square where they continued to denounce new electoral laws.

Supporters of the opposition politician and former President Marc Ravalomanana say the legislation aims to block him from running in this year's elections.

On Sunday, President Hery Rajaonarimampianina described the protests as a coup.

Rugby players Frank Wanyama and Alex Olaba, who play for the Kenyan Harlequins club, have denied charges of gang rape.

They have been granted bail set at 500,000 Kenyan shillings ($5,000, £3,580) each.

The two are accused of a raping a singer in February, who made the allegations on social media, Kenya's Daily Nation newspaper reports, external.

Kenyans on Twitter then launched a campaign asking the authorities to investigate.

The next hearing was set for 16 May.

The woman who is set to become the seventh wife of South Africa's ex-President Jacob Zuma has been forced to resign from her job at She Conquers, a non-governmental organisation, local media reports.

Nonkanyiso Conco's "affiliation" with Mr Zuma - 52 years her senior - was contrary to the organisation's campaign to “empower young women in every phase of their lives”, and to end reliance on sugar daddies, She Conquers' leadership said in a statement quoted by Daily Maverick news site, external.

Ms Conco, 24, gave birth to Mr Zuma's child last week, in what staff at a private hospital in the coastal city of Durban described as a "VIP delivery".

Mr Zuma, 76, currently has four wives, including one from whom he is separated, and more than 20 children.

A fifth wife took her own life in 2000, and a sixth one - who was his preferred presidential successor - divorced him in 1998.

Ms Conco was forced to resign as the national treasurer and communications officer of She Conquers, a campaign to tackle HIV among young women, gender-based violence and high rates of teen pregnancy.

“As young girls, we are lured and used by people with power who use their position to take advantage of us,” She Conquers' deputy chair Leonora Mathe was quoted by Daily Maverick as saying.

“As a campaign, we promote economic empowerment and self-dependency of young women to eliminate the concept of reliance on ‘blessers,’” she added, using a South African word to refer to sugar daddies.

Ms Conco has not yet commented on the criticism, but she had submitted a resignation letter to the organisation, Daily Maverick reported.

The planned wedding has been at the centre of much media publicity, and has got tongues wagging in South Africa:

Will Ross
Africa editor, BBC World Service

A senior US government official is making a rare visit to Eritrea - a country which is under sanctions over alleged ties to Islamist militants.

The acting Assistant Secretary for African Affairs, Donald Yamamoto, is to meet government officials at a time when the Eritrean authorities are seeking support to end the UN sanctions, which include an arms embargo.

The UN Security Council imposed the sanctions in 2009 after an investigation found that Eritrea was supporting armed groups in neighbouring Somalia, including al-Shabab.

Eritrea has denied the links.

Image source, AFP

Kennedy Gondwe
BBC News, Lusaka

Image source, Thomas Nsama

Rodger Federer is on a visit to Zambia and has presented the president with a tennis racket, which the Swiss tennis champion then signed at Edgar Lungu's request.

He arrived in the capital, Lusaka, on Sunday as part of a tour for his charity.

“I am happy to be here. I have a heart for Africa with my mum being South African,” Federer said.

His foundation promotes education and has been working on projects in Africa for 11 years, he added.

The tennis star told President Lungu that he wanted to use sport to improve early childhood education.

It's not clear if the president can play tennis, but State House does have a tennis court:

Image source, Thomas Nsama

Image source, Kirsten Whitefield

A court in South Africa has thrown out a bid by a family to claim about 3m rand ($240,000; £170,000) in damages from the education department after their five-year-old drowned in his school's pit toilet in 2014.

Judge Gerrit Muller ordered that two of Michael Komape's siblings be paid 6,000 rand each for general medical expenses.

He rejected the bigger claim for "constitutional damages", local media reported.

The family blamed the education department for the death, saying the toilets at the school in a village in northern Limpopo province were dilapidated and not fit for use.

They sued for trauma, grief, medical expenses, funeral costs and lack of earnings.

The education department challenged the compensation claim, saying the boy's death was an accident, and not caused by negligence or "unconstitutional conduct" on their part.

The five-year-old's death caused outrage in South Africa, with many people raising concern about the lack of proper facilities at schools more than 20 years after minority rule ended.

The boy's mother, Rosina Komape, told the court that the head teacher called her on 20 January 2014, saying her child was missing.

She said a child in the same class told her he had fallen into the toilet.

Mrs Komape said she "could see his whole arm but could not see the rest of his body" and then she fainted.

Her son's death left her traumatised, and she lost her job, she added.

Image source, AFP

Detained Egyptian photojournalist Mahmoud Abu Zeid, widely known as “Shawkan”, will be awarded Unesco's World Press Freedom Prize, the UN cultural body has announced.

Shawkan has been in jail since 14 August 2013 when he was arrested while covering deadly clashes in the Egyptian capital, Cairo between security forces and supporters of ousted President Mohamed Morsi.

Maria Ressa, head of the prize's jury, said in a statement:

The prize, to be awarded in Ghana next week, recognises a person or organisation that has made an outstanding contribution to the defence or promotion of press freedom, especially in the face of danger.

According to the AFP news agency, Egypt's foreign affairs ministry responded that it regretted that "an organisation with the status of Unesco would honour a person accused of terrorist and criminal acts".

Two football fans are due to appear in court in South Africa's coastal city of Durban on charges of public violence and destruction of property following riots at a match on Saturday.

Fans invaded the pitch after one of South Africa's most famous teams, Kaizer Chiefs, lost 2-0 to Free State Stars in the Nedbank Cup semi-final, leaving a security guard seriously injured.

Police were forced to use tear gas and stun grenades to quell the riot.

The violence has caused outrage in South Africa, with many people condemning it on Twitter:

Controversial Nigerian senator Dino Melaye says he has been arrested at the international airport in the capital, Abuja, as he tried to fly to Morocco.

The senator, who represents Kogi West constituency, tweeted that he had been going to the North African country for an official engagement:

On Instagram he posted a photo of himself waiting to be questioned, with the words, "Stopped from travelling and under arrest. No retreat no surrender. Talk we must."

Nigeria’s Punch newspaper reports that the aircraft was about to take-off when policemen asked passengers to disembark, external.

It is not clear why he has been detained, but last month police said he was wanted for questioning over allegations that he had given weapons to kidnappers.

The Premium Times is reporting that he may be on an Interpol list, which he is why he might have been stopped from travelling, external.

The flamboyant senator is often in the headlines, last year appearing in a music video about his lavish lifestyle.

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