Ahmed Mohamed Abdi
BBC Monitoring

Image source, Getty Images

South Sudan's President Salva Kiir has called on his exiled former deputy and rebel leader, Riek Machar, to return to the country, saying he will guarantee his safety and protection, the Netherlands-based Radio Tamazuj website reports, external.

Mr Machar fled the country in July 2016 after heavy clashes between his forces and troops allied to President Kiir.

In the past, Mr Kiir and several other South Sudanese officials ruled out the return of Mr Machar, saying it would re-ignite fighting in the war-torn country.

The South Sudanese leader may have finally bowed to pressure from the regional bloc, IGAD, the AU and western nations to reach out to his rival to end the country’s devastating civil war.

Will Ross
Africa editor, BBC World Service

The burials have taken place in northern Nigeria of more than 50 people who were killed by an armed gang in a remote area of Kaduna state on Saturday.

After several attacks in the area communities set up local defence forces for protection.

One of these volunteers in Gwaska in the Birnin Gwari area - the scene of Saturday's violence - said the gunmen had tried to attack four times because the village had refused to allow the armed gang to settle in the area and sell stolen cattle in the market.

Kaduna state officials say the military has promised to deploy several hundred soldiers to protect the area.

Kennedy Gondwe
BBC News, Lusaka

Image source, Dikina Muzeya

One of Zambia’s top universities has urged female students to stop visiting the library "half-naked" because it distracts male colleagues.

The University of Zambia - located in the capital, Lusaka - has stuck notices around its library urging female students to dress modestly.

Image source, Dikina Muzeya

“It has come to our attention that some female students dress half-naked as they use the library, a situation which is disturbing the male students,” reads the notice.

“We therefore advise the female students to dress modestly as you use university facilities. Modesty is the way to go!”

Some female students disagreed.

“If your mission of going to the library is to study, why should you start looking at other things like a female’s legs?” third-year student Dikina Muzeya told the BBC.

“Just concentrate on your books, that’s all.”

But Killion Phiri, a male student, agreed with the decision of the authorities.

“You know how attractive women bodies are. How can you concentrate on studying when someone walks in a mini skirt or a tight dress. You’ll start thinking about other things and you won’t concentrate.”

Alex Duval Smith
BBC Africa, Dakar

Senegal's capital, Dakar, has been taken over by artists and art collectors who have gathered from all over the world for the month-long Dak'Art contemporary art fair.

Dak'Art is city-wide - 300 venues, artists from more than 30 countries, agents, curators and collectors from all over the world.

On the side wall of a house in a residential street, British mural artist Helen Bur has painted a very realistic portrait of a green-clad Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, Fela's mother.

A disused court room was taken over by French-Beninois photography duo Laeila Adjovi and Loic Hoquet, who won the biennale's top award,the Grand Prix Leopold Sedar Senghor.

Their series of photos showed a winged woman breaking free:

Image source, Leila Adjovi

It is intended to represent Africa breaking free from the way the continent is portrayed in the media.

The work perfectly fits the theme of the biennale, The Red Hour, as explained by the event's director, Simon Njami:

"The Red Hour is like the d-day for me. There's a lot of challenges ahead. If we don't make the right choices now it might be too late. The choices are not only regarding contemporary art. They're regarding ecology and politics. For me art is just a huge metaphor of our humanity."

Togolese sculptor Sadikou Oukpedjo told me that the event has changed his career.

"The art fair means you don't have to go elsewhere to launch your career. Before, we went to the galleries. Now they come to us."

He has fashioned sections of tree trunks to make sculptures of imperfect humans:

The event, which takes place every other year, is the main showcase on the continent for visual art by living African artists.

Many of the visitors at the 13th edition of the fair say the event itself has made some wrong choices. Artists complain of their works having arrived late or of power cuts and poor public information.

Nevertheless, Dak'Art remains one of Africa's key art events - a showcase for new talent and a springboard on to the global art scene for the continent's contemporary artists.

Image source, Getty Images

Somali poet Nacima Qorane, who was arrested in January for advocating Somaliland reunite with Somalia, has been released after being pardoned by Somaliland's president, her lawyer has said.

In April a court in the self-declared republic of Somaliland sentenced Qorane to three years in jail for bringing the state into contempt.

She had been released without conditions after her family appealed to the president for a pardon, her lawyer Mubarak Abdi Ismail told BBC Somali.

"I am happy. She is happy," he added.

During her trial the prosecution said Ms Qorane - who is from Somaliland - had labelled the breakaway state a "region" and "insulted and defamed" its government.

Somaliland seceded from the rest of Somalia after the overthrow of long-serving ruler Siad Barre in 1991.

Image source, AFP

Wildlife officials in Uganda are still hunting for a leopard which snatched and ate the three-year-old son of a ranger at the popular Queen Elizabeth National Park on Friday night, AFP news agency reports.

Elisha Nabugyere had followed his nanny outdoors at the unfenced staff quarters of a safari lodge in the park, when the leopard grabbed him.

"The maid was not aware the child followed her. She heard the kid scream for help. She intervened but it was too late. The leopard had vanished with it in the bush and a search was mounted until we got the skull the next day," Uganda Wildlife Authority spokesman Bashir Hangi said.

"The hunt is on with the intention of capturing the leopard and removing it from the wild because once it has eaten human flesh, the temptations are high to eat another human being, it becomes dangerous," he added.

Kenya will launch its first locally-made satellite into space on Friday.

The satellite will help with weather forecasting, and observe farming trends and monitor the country’s coastline, reports Capital FM, external.

The 10cm cube nano-satellite will be shot up about 4,000kms from earth from the Kennedy Space Center in the US.

It was built by engineers at the University of Nairobi with support from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, which paid for the 100m Kenyan shillings ($1m; £740,000) satellite reports the Nation, external.

The university has tweeted the plans for the day of the launch:

It has an estimated lifespan of between 12 to 18 months, Capital FM adds.

Will Ross
Africa editor, BBC World Service

Image source, Getty Images

A two-day conference has started in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, focusing on the environmental damage caused by charcoal production.

The United Nations says every 30 seconds a tree is cut down to make charcoal in Somalia, which not only makes land more susceptible to drought and floods but also helps fund conflict.

The UN estimates that charcoal exports are worth more than $100m (£74m) a year and some of that profit goes to Islamist militant group al-Shabab.

Kenyan peacekeepers have been accused of facilitating illegal charcoal exports through Kismayo port.

DJ Cuppy, the Nigerian Afrohouse DJ, has told BBC Newsday that having a rich father actually makes her work harder.

Florence Ifeoluwa Otedola, who started out as DJ Cupcake because of her love of the sweet treat, is the daughter of oil magnate Femi Otedola.

Newsday's Alan Kasujja pointed out to her that she doesn't have to work that hard as she is already rich. But she insisted her father is her inspiration to work:

"I've seen him never get comfortable, he still gets up at 5am".

"I feel like that actually makes me want to hustle"

Listen:

A number of British ice cream producers are understood to be considering whether to stop buying vanilla extract because of the soaring cost.

Julie Fisher, who founded artisanal ice-cream maker Ruby Violet seven years ago, told the BBC vanilla was off the menu in her London-based outlets "for the foreseeable future" because she can't afford the thousands of pounds it would cost.

The price has quadrupled in just a few months, commodities analyst Julian Gale told the BBC.

A kilogram of vanilla pods now sells for more than £440 ($600), making it more expensive than silver.

Madagascar produces 80% of the world's vanilla but decreased its production after a cyclone in March last year damaged a lot of plantations.

It is anticipated a synthetic flavouring called vanillin will now be more widely used across industries trying to avoid escalating costs.

Read more on the BBC website

Image source, Reuters

Egyptian authorities have finished their quest to discover a secret chamber in the tomb of Tutankhamun - concluding that it does not exist.

Previously, officials said they were "90% sure" of a hidden room behind the wall of the boy king's famous 3,000-year-old tomb.

One theory suggested it could have been the tomb of Queen Nefertiti - who some think was Tutankhamun's mother.

New research, however, has concluded the chamber simply is not there.

Read the full BBC story here

Image source, Getty Images

Tunisia's Islamist Ennahda party has claimed victory in the country's first municipal elections since the 2011 uprising which sparked the so called Arab Spring.

Exit polls show that its secularist rival, Nidaa Tounis, is 5% behind. Both parties make up Tunisia's ruling coalition. The Tunisian prime minister, Youssef Chahed, described the poll as an important step that would complete the move towards democracy.

Turnout stands at just under 34%.

Commentators say voters are disillusioned with a lack of economic progress. Tunisia currently has an inflation rate of around 8% and unemployment stands at more than 15%. The government's new austerity budget was met with a wave of protests earlier this year.

Four men accused of stealing a car in South Africa inadvertently drove it straight to prison.

Cape Town law enforcement spokesman Wayne Dyason said the alleged robbers were being chased by police when they drove it into Pollsmoor Prison - where anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela was once jailed.

"They got out and ran into the grounds of the prison where they were arrested," Mr Dyason was quoted by South Africa's News24 site as saying. , external

The Cape Town ETC news site , externalbranded them the city's "dumbest criminals".

But Mr Dyason suggested that they were extremely dangerous, saying that when police did a check, they found the four had about 35 cases of murder, attempted murder, theft and possession of illegal firearms pending against them.

News 24 has published a photo of the car on Facebook:

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