Yemane Nagish
BBC Tigrinya Service

Ethiopia's state of emergency (SOE) has finally been lifted - but what does it mean for the people living in the country?

Here is a short list to give you an idea:

• You can have a party without asking permission

Among the rules brought in was one banning public assembly, gatherings and moving in a group - not to mention demonstrations - without express permission. You can now, in theory, do all these things without asking for the okay beforehand.

• You can stay out as late as you want

A curfew running from dusk til dawn was imposed on major projects, factories, farms and governmental institution has also been lifted.

• Police can't arrest you without a warrant

The SOE allowed officers to arrest or search anyone without a court warrant upon any suspicion.

• You can write what you want

The law had prohibited publishing or distributing writings or showing gesture or making message public through any medium that causes riot, disturbance and suspicion or grievance among people.

Thousands of supporters of Zimbabwe's main opposition party, Movement for Democratic Change, have marched through the capital, Harare, to demand reforms ahead of elections on 30 July.

This was the first MDC-organised demonstration in Harare since long-serving ruler Robert Mugabe was ousted from office, and replaced by his one-time deputy Emmerson Mnangagwa.

MDC leader Nelson Chamisa - who is expected to run against Mr Mnangagwa - led the marchers.

The police gave permission for the march to go ahead - something which was rare during Mr Mugabe's presidency.

The MDC denounced the electoral commission.

They say it is too close to the ruling party, and too many of its staff are linked to the military.

Mr Mnangagwa has pledged that the election will be free and fair. He has invited European Union observers to monitor the poll.

This is the first time in 16 years that the EU will do so, signalling an improvement in relations with Zimbabwe's government since Mr Mugabe was forced out of power.

A Muslim group in Nigeria is calling on musician Falz to withdraw his video for the single 'This is Nigeria' within seven days and apologise to Muslims.

“It is a hate video... It is an assault on the self-dignity of every Muslim," said Ishaq Akintola, the head of the The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC), in a statement.

Falz' video is inspired by the stark and powerful imagery of US rapper Childish Gambino's 'This is America' clip, which launches a scathing and at times humorous attack on police violence, racism and gun crime in America.

Image source, CHILDISH GAMBINO/YOUTUBE

'This is Nigeria' moves the concept to the West African nation. Falz lists the ills he sees in Nigeria, including those at the top of society benefitting from political and financial corruption while young people struggle to make a living.

Image source, FALZ/YOUTUBE

MURIC said it objected to the presence of girls wearing hijabs doing the shaku shaku dance. Falz has defended the characters, saying they represent the abducted Chibok girls.

The group also criticised the use of a character at the start of the video who is "dressed like a Fulani man" and "suddenly abandons his traditional guitar and beheads a man”.

“The video manifests ethnic bias against Fulanis while it ignored the criminal activities of ethnic militia of the Middle Belt who have also massacred Fulanis and rustled their cattle in their thousands," MURIC said.

The song also includes the lyric: "Fulani Herdsmen still they slaughter, carry people they massacre."

Deadly conflicts between Fulani herdsmen and farmers in central Nigeria have claimed hundreds of lives in recent months.

BBC World Service

Image source, AFP

Egypt will start importing rice, a crop it has exported for decades.

The government has recently decided to reduce local cultivation of water-intensive crops and imposed hefty fines for illegal rice growing.

Cairo is worried that its share of the Nile water will be reduced by the Renaissance Dam, which Ethiopia is constructing upstream.

Prime Minister Sherif Ismail said his government would increase rice supplies in order to avoid any shortages in the market.

Demonstrators have gathered in Kampala to protest against a rise in the number of women being killed or kidnapped for small ransoms.

Godiva Akullo told BBC Focus on Africa radio that she and others pitched up outside police headquarters to challenge them to show that women's lives matter:

Listen to her comments in full:

Our colleague Jose Tembe has sent these photos of the damage wrought by an attack by suspected jihadists which killed seven people and injured three others.

Several homes in the district of Macomia, in Mozambique's Cabo Delgado province, were charred or flattened. A burnt-out truck can also be seen.

Image source, .

Image source, .

Image source, .

Will Ross
Africa editor, BBC World Service

Seven people have been killed by suspected jihadists in northern Mozambique and dozens of homes set on fire.

The police say the victims were killed using machetes and they believe it was the same group that beheaded ten people last month.

Since October, a group known locally as al-Shabab has carried out several attacks in Cabo Delgado province. But there is no evidence to suggest that they are directly linked to any foreign jihadist groups.

On Sunday the Mozambican police said they had killed nine insurgents in the same area and prevented an attack on a village.

Image source, BSIP/Getty Images

Four people have been arrested in Tanzania after nine lions were poisoned in the Serengeti National Park.

Wildlife officials had discovered the carcasses over the weekend.

The Serengeti is believed to be home to around 3,000 thousand lions.

Last month in neighbouring Uganda, eleven lions were found dead from suspected poisoning at Queen Elizabeth National Park.

It's thought people living in the area poisoned the lions after they had attacked and killed their cattle.

Louise Dewast
Kinshasa, DR Congo

Has the election campaign season kicked off already in DR Congo?

Possibly, if this video is anything to go by.

What looks like it could be a political campaign video for the Democratic Republic of Congo's President Joseph Kabila is circulating on social media.

Using catchy music and a slogan, the video created by governing party members praises President Kabila for pacifying the country, developing infrastructure and the economy, among other perceived accomplishments.

It describes him as being "indispensable for Congo".

"We wanted to pay homage to a young man like us," Adam Chalwe, a party official and youth coordinator for the presidential majority, told the BBC.

Mr Kabila was 29 when he became president in 2001.

"He has accomplished a number of things and we wanted to thank him for everything he has done - there will be more to come," Mr Chalwe added.

Posters showing Kabila as a presidential candidate have also appeared in the capital Kinshasa, drawing criticism from opposition leaders.

President Kabila's mandate expired in December 2016 having reached the constitutional limit of two terms in office.

Since then elections have been repeatedly delayed.

A constitutional clause has allowed him to stay in power until the elections - which are now scheduled for December 2018.

In recent weeks, rumours have been spreading about whether he will seek to extend his tenure.

BBC Sport

Image source, Getty Images

Uganda football captain Denis Onyango has said that the Cranes' French coach Sebastien Desabre should be given time to find a winning formula.

Onyango was talking on Ugandan TV after defeats to Niger and Central African Republic in recent friendlies.

"The coach is trying to build his brand of football and it's not easy to change players' mentality immediately," the goalkeeper told NTV.

"It always takes time for a new coach to adjust in a new job. We should give the coach time.

"It is tough times for us and the coach Desabre,"

Desabre took charge of Uganda in December, taking over from Milutin 'Micho' Sredojevic who quit to join South African Premier League side Orlando Pirates.

• Read the full BBC story here

Milton Nkosi
BBC Africa, Johannesburg

Image source, AFP

Two suspected rhino poaching kingpins have been arrested in South Africa in what is being seen as a major breakthrough in the fight against the illegal trade.

The South African men - aged 37 and 38 - were believed to have been operating from the world famous Kruger National Park.

They have appeared in court on charges of illegally buying four rhino horns.

South African National Parks CEO Fundisile Mketeni welcomed the breakthrough, saying: "We’re in a campaign to save our wildlife. We have a strategy and come 2019, we want to see the number of rhino killed annually to under 400.”

The number of rhinos killed in 2017 was 1,028.

But the problem goes beyond rhino poaching. A total of 47 elephants have already been killed this year for their tusks.

Patience Atuhaire
BBC Africa, Kampala

About 20 women - joined by a few men - have been protesting outside the police headquarters in Uganda's capital, Kampala, against women being kidnapped, sexually abused and killed.

In a petition, the protesters said that more than 30 women have been killed in the past year, and police should act decisively to solve the killings.

"Ugandan women cannot continue to live in fear," the petition said.

Favour Nunoo
BBC Pidgin, Accra

Barely 24 hours before the release in Ghana of undercover journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas' documentary on alleged corruption in football, a governing party Ghanaian MP has launched a tirade against him, accusing him of taking bribes and evading taxes on his private businesses - allegations seen by supporters of the reporter as an attempt to smear him.

“We have to hang Anas for the evil things he has done to Ghanaians in the course of his investigations, which he has used to amass wealth in Ghana,” the New Patriotic Party's Kennedy Agyapong said on Adom FM radio station.

Although Anas appears in public wearing a face mask, the MP has published pictures on TV, claiming they are images of the journalist and his crew.

Mr Agyapong urged the public to attack them if they came across them.

The Ghana Journalist Association (GJA) has condemned the death threats to Mr Anas.

His expose on football corruption has led to the arrest of Ghana's football boss and the first vice-president of the Confederation of African Football (Caf), Kwesi Nyantakyi.

More details of alleged corruption are expected to feature in the documentary Number 12 when it premiers in the capital, Accra, on Wednesday.

In the past week, a campaign on social media with the hashtag #IamAnas has seen many Ghanaians taking pictures of themselves with improvised masks on their faces in solidarity with the investigative journalist.

Image source, Télévision Tunisienne 1

Tunisia's World Cup team has admitted to the BBC that their goalkeeper faked injury during two friendly matches so that his tired teammates could break their fast.

Head coach Nabil Maaloul told the BBC:

In warm-up matches against Portugal then Turkey, goalkeeper Mouez Hassen pretended to be injured at sundown, when the fast comes to an end.

As he lay on the pitch receiving medical treatment, his teammates rushed to the sidelines to drink water and snack on dates. In both matches they bounced back to finish 2-2.

Ramadan will be over by the time World Cup warm-ups finish and the tournament begins in earnest.

• Read the full story here

Kenyan education minister Amina Mohamed has sacked the board of Moi Girls School following reports that one of the students was raped in an attack on Saturday, says the privately-owned Daily Nation new site.

The headteacher is also reported to have resigned from the school in Kenya's capital, Nairobi.

Former students of the school held a protest outside its gates on Monday.

Students say three men entered the girls' hostel and sexually assaulted one of the girls while two others managed to escape.

Image source, AFP

South African Airways CEO Vuyani Jarana has accepted a 100,000 rand ($79,000; £59,000) challenge from the Free Market Foundation (FMF) on his ability to make the state-owned airline profitable in three years’ time, the local fin24 news site reports, external.

Mr Jarana has promised to pay the money from his own pocket if he loses the “bet”. The money will go to charity, fin24 adds.

FMF executive director Leon Louw had earlier said he was willing to wager MR Jarana 100, 000 rand that his turnaround plan would fail, and the airline would not report a profit by 31 March 2021.

Supporters of Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change Alliance have assembled in the capital, Harare, for a peace march.

The demonstrators will march on to the offices of the electoral commission to hand in a list of demands for free and fair elections ahead of the 30 July polls.

Some are holding placards referring to alleged voter fraud in Zimbabwe's previous general election in 2013, urging extra scrutiny of the polling stations and the voter roll this time around.

One man was seen holding a sign reading "no to military junta," presumably in reference to the army's intervention last year which forced Robert Mugabe to resign as president and cleared the way for his successor Emmerson Mnangagwa.

As leader of the ruling Zanu-PF party and acting president of Zimbabwe, Mr Mnangagwa is seeking victory in July's elections to cement his democratic mandate to rule.

Our colleague Shingai Nyoka sends these photos from the scene:

Image source, Shingai Nyoka/BBC

Image source, Shingai Nyoka/BBC

Image source, Shingai Nyoka/BBC

Image source, Shingai Nyoka/BBC

Image source, Shingai Nyoka/BBC

Image source, Shingai Nyoka/BBC

Image source, Shingai Nyoka/BBC

Will Ross
Africa editor, BBC World Service

At least nine people have been killed and several more wounded in three suicide bombings in the city of Diffa in the south-east of Niger, close to the border with Nigeria.

Two of the suicide bombers were young women and the targets included an Islamic school.

Although no group has yet said it carried out the attacks, militant Islamist group Boko Haram has frequently targeted Diffa.

The area had, however, been relatively calm for several months until the bombings late on Monday evening.

Image source, AFP

South African news site Times Live reports, external that the estranged wife of former President Jacob Zuma, Nompumelelo Ntuli-Zuma, is fed up with allegations that she had plotted to kill him.

The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) told her 18 months ago that she was a suspect in an alleged plot to poison Mr Zuma.

The NPA has now sent the case back to the elite Hawks for further investigation, Times Live says, despite the fact that the body "still has no solid case against her".

The news site adds that the content of the affidavit Ms Ntuli-Zuma gave to the Hawks at the start of their investigation remains a "closely guarded secret".

Image source, AFP

Ethiopia's parliament has voted to lift the state of emergency which was imposed in February and was supposed to last for six months, reports BBC Amharic's Kalkidan Yibeltal from the capital, Addis Ababa.

This follows a cabinet decision on Saturday to end the state of emergency.

No MP opposed the decision, but eight abstained from the vote.

The move is a further sign that the situation in Ethiopia is improving after almost three years of anti-government protests which led to hundreds of deaths and saw tens of thousands imprisoned.

Ethiopia's new Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed, has made healing ethnic and political divisions his key priority, and since he came to power in April thousands of prisoners have been released.