Catherine Byaruhanga
BBC Africa, Kampala

Image source, AFP

Former police chief Kale Kayihura has come forward to deny he has been arrested amid conflicting - and confusing - reports.

Reports of his arrest began to circulate on Tuesday, shocking some Ugandans, who saw him as being too powerful to ever be arrested.

But now the government-owned New Vision newspaper quotes General Kayihura himself as saying he is not under arrest.

Gen Kayihura has been seen as one President Yoweri Museveni’s most powerful backers. He joined the president’s rebel force in the 1980s before it seized power more than 30 years ago.

He then worked his way up the army ranks, commanding operations in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo, until he was appointed police chief.

But according to human rights campaigners, his time in office was marred by the violent clampdown on protests and allegations of torture.

Gen Kayihura has always denied any wrongdoing and said he was simply maintaining law and order.

Before his sacking in March, General Kayihura held control over domestic security.

Several of his allies have since been arrested - including senior police officers accused of colluding with neighbouring Rwanda to kidnap one of President Paul Kagame’s former bodyguards seeking refuge in Kampala.

There has been a shake up of the police force since his removal from office.

The government is under pressure to get a handle on security in the country following several high profile killings and increased media reports of kidnappings and murders.

The suspension of a South African official for saying Johannesburg was "a friend of Israel" is a serious threat to democracy, a campaign group has said.

South African Friends of Israel lashed out at the decision to suspend Mpho Phalatse, the city's health member of municipal council (MMC), by Mayor Herman Mashaba after a video of her speaking at one of its events at the weekend went viral.

The reaction, it said in a statement, external, was "hysterical", posed a "serious threat to democracy in our country", as well as being "a clear attack on our Christian and Jewish community, as well as other minority religious communities".

"It is a sad day when elected officials are not free to attend events of their choosing, and express their personal religious or political views," the statement added.

Ms Phalatse has since said she was speaking in her personal capacity, and not as a representative of Johannesburg.

However, Democratic Alliance politician Mr Mashaba's decision to remove her, made at a council meeting on Sunday, was greeted with chants of "Free Palestine" by African National Congress (ANC) members, while the Economic Freedom Fighters have called for her dismissal, according to The Sowetan, external.

Piers Edwards
BBC Africa Sport

Image source, Reuters

Taking the 2026 World Cup to Africa could help stem the tide of emigration from the continent, claims Confederation of African Football (Caf) president Ahmad Ahmad.

The Malagasy, who took charge of Caf last year, was speaking ahead of today’s decisive vote as Morocco look to beat off a joint bid from Canada, Mexico and the United States.

“The situation now [is that] all the young people in Africa want to go outside the continent,” Ahmad told BBC Sport.

“I believe that if we have this World Cup, and eight years to prepare it, most of them will want to stay in the continent because it keeps some hope in the continent.

“We need the hope that football can bring to the continent. When I was elected, I said that football was not only a game – it means many things for us in Africa.”

Fifa’s 200-plus members will vote in the Russian capital Moscow on whether to back the Moroccan or North American bid, although there is the slim possibility the tournament could go elsewhere if neither bid receives enough votes.

Ahmad, who was swift to back Morocco’s campaign after it was launched last August, found his comments echoed by Senegal’s 2002 World Cup star El Hadji Diouf.

“Morocco’s is the bid of hope and it can be a solution for the young people who always want to go to Europe to find a job – Morocco is going to open its doors,” said the Morocco 2026 bid ambassador.

Diouf expressed his hope that Africa would show unity by voting en masse for the Moroccan bid, but that is unlikely with several nations set to back the North American option.

One African representative, who wished to remain anonymous, said his country would be voting against Morocco in protest at the North Africans’ annexation of Western Sahara.

The victor is set to be announced shortly after 0935 GMT.

Image source, AFP

A former Nigerian governor has been sentenced to 14 years in jail after "diverting" $3.2m (£2.4m) meant for his state's ecological fund during his time in office.

Joshua Dariye, who is currently a senator, was found guilty of corruption while the governor of Plateau State between 1999 and 2007.

The judge, sitting in the capital Abuja, described his actions as a “brazen act of systematic looting”, Nigerian newspaper Vanguard reports, external.

Two weeks ago, the former governor of neighbouring Taraba state, Jolly Nyame, was also sentenced to 14 years in prison for corruption.

Morocco will today find out whether it has been chosen as the location for the 2026 football World Cup.

The country, which has promised a "European" World Cup in Africa, is considered the underdog in the fight to host the contest.

It is competing against a combined 'United Bid' by the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

Africa Live will be keeping an eye on proceedings throughout today, so check back for the latest.

In the meantime, click here to read a piece on BBC Sport weighing up the two sides' chances, or watch our interview with Morocco bid chief Hicham El Amrani below:

Image source, AFP

Egypt has been ranked the safest country in Africa - coming higher than both the UK and US - according to a new poll.

The Gallup Global Law and Order report placed the North African country at 16 out of 135 countries on its annual list, which measures people’s sense of personal security and their personal experiences with crime and law enforcement.

It scored 88, placing it on the same level as countries like Denmark, Slovenia and China.

Crisis-hit Venezuela was ranked the most dangerous, with South Sudan considered the least safe country in Africa, just ahead of Afghanistan.

The East African nation is followed by Gabon, Liberia and South Africa, one of the continent's most popular tourist destinations.

Gallup’s questions revolve around confidence in local police, safety at night, cases of theft, robbery and assault.

Across sub-Saharan Africa, just 60% of people polled told Gallup they were confident in the local police force, rising to 68% across North Africa and the Middle East.

Meanwhile, Rwanda scored highest on the continent when it came to safety at night, with 88% of people saying they would be happy to walk about after dark.

Our African proverb of the day:

Click here to send in your African proverbs.

Welcome to BBC Africa Live, where we will bring you the latest news and views from around the continent.

BBC Africa Live
Dickens Olewe

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

A reminder of today's wise words:

Click here to send in your African proverbs.

And we leave you with this photo of players and officials of the Nigerian national football team at Mineralnye Vody International Airport in Russia.

Image source, AFP

Emmanuel Igunza
BBC Africa, Addis Ababa

Protesters have been out for a second day in northern Ethiopia to express their opposition to last week's surprise announcement that the government would handover disputed border territories to Eritrea.

Reports say they were chanting slogans and carrying twigs to express their opposition to the decision.

They say implementing it would be disrespectful to thousands of people who died during the 1998 to 2000 border war with Eritrea.

Political parties in the north have also opposed the new policy.

The protests are, however, unlikely to affect the decision, which has been welcomed in other parts of the country.

Ethiopia’s new Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has not given an implementation timetable but said withdrawing troops from the border region would help restore diplomatic relations with Eritrea and also end years of psychological suffering of soldiers.

Eritrea is yet to officially comment on Ethiopia’s decision.

Read: Ethiopia offers Eritrea chance to end Africa's longest war

Image source, AFP

Judges at the International Criminal Court have ordered the release from detention of the former vice-president of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Jean-Pierre Bemba.

His conviction on war crimes charges was overturned last week.

Mr Bemba had been given an 18-year sentence in 2016. But judges ruled that he could not be held criminally responsible for crimes committed by his troops in the Central African Republic.

He will be freed in Belgium, where his family lives, the court order said.

Profile: Jean-Pierre Bemba, DR Congo's ex-rebel and vice-president

A South African athlete who was attacked with a chainsaw by unknown assailants in March can now walk without crutches.

Mhlengi Gwala underwent surgery and has been recovering following the brutal attack near the University of KwaZulu Natal in his home town of Durban.

He had been doing triathlon training when he was attacked.

Assailants held him at gunpoint and tried to cut his legs below the knees then left, leaving him to crawl to a road for aid.

He told BBC's Focus on Africa that he was convinced that he would lose a leg.

"The doctors said they cut through 80% of everything, only 20% was holding my foot," Mr Gwala said.

A crowdfunding campaign was launched in response and raised more than $53,000 (£39,000) for his medical treatment.

"Things are going back to normal. I was scared to start training, but now I’m feeling much better than before. Today, I started walking without crutches," he is quoted as saying.

Doctors said that the 26 year-old triathlete’s full recovery could still take as long as two years because of the damaged in the nerves.

Fellow athlete Sandile Shange said he was proud about Mr Gwala’s progress.

"I cycled [for] 30 mins today, I was averaging 30 km per hour (18 miles per hour)" Mr Gwala told the BBC of his experience cycling for the first time since his accident.

He posted a video of his recovery on Instagram:

Jose Tembe
BBC Africa, Maputo

At least four people were killed on Monday in Mozambique's Nangade district in the northern province of Cabo Delgado.

A report by independent Mediafax news site, external says assailants armed with machetes and firearms attacked the village of Changa at midnight.

An unnamed source told the Mediafax several houses were also burnt down.

The incident happened less than two days after security forces arrested three jihadists, and less than a week after security was beefed up in the region - which has been hit by violence blamed on Islamist militants.

Mediafax noted in its reporting that last week's attack in the Quissanga district was much further south, and given the distances involved, it is unlikely that the same group was responsible for both the Quissanga and the Nangade attacks.

It added that US oil and gas company Anadarko has started evacuating staff from the northern Palma district.

Anadarko is the operator for Area One of the Rovuma Basin, off the Cabo Delgado coast, where huge reserves of natural gas have been discovered.

Read: How Mozambique’s smuggling barons nurtured jihadists

Wanyama Chebusiri
BBC News

Another high school in Kenya has been closed indefinitely after hundreds of girls walked out of the institution to protest against alleged sexual harassment by a male teacher.

Local media reports that more than 700 students of Maasai Girls High School, located 68 miles (110 km) southwest of the capital, Nairobi, marched out of the school early Tuesday morning.

The students allege a male teacher had asked for sexual favours and attempted to assault one of them.

On Monday, Moi Girls High School in the capital re-opened a week after it was closed after a student claimed she had been raped.

Image source, PA

A British health tax, known as the immigration health surcharge (IHS), is preventing a Kenyan nurse from reuniting with his family in the UK.

The tax requires migrant workers and their dependents from outside the European Economic Area (EEA) to a pay an annual fee of £200 ($268) each.

It was introduced in 2015 to boost funding for the National Health Service (NHS) and as a way to discourage health tourism.

BBC Africa Ashley Lime looks into the law, which Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has called "morally questionable" for foreign nurses "to pay".

Read the full story on the BBC website.

The "Siinque" is a stick that is handed down from generation to generation of women.

It offers protection to women and is part of an ancient system of governance of Ethiopia's Oromo people.

BBC Africa went to find out more:

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov used Mohamed Salah for "political capital" by being pictured with the Egypt star, says an anti-discrimination chief.

Egypt's World Cup base is in the former war-torn republic of Russia, where Kadyrov's regime has been criticised for alleged human rights abuses.

Piara Powar of Fare Network said Fifa had made a "big mistake" in allowing Chechnya to host a training base.

Kadyrov defended his human rights record to the BBC earlier this year.

Speaking in January, he insisted all reports of extrajudicial killings and torture of gay people in Chechnya were "made up".

Read the full story on the BBC website.

Image source, AFP

Kenyans on Twitter are reacting to a story in one of the main newspapers that a group of Zambian lawmakers are in the country to get tips on how to fight corruption.

Cartoonist Victor Ndula captured the views of many in this caricature:

The report says eight Zambian lawmakers met officials of the Ethics And Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC), a body which has been constantly criticised for going after "small fish" and ignoring the elites who perpetrate the biggest scams.

An EACC official, Mwaniki Gachoka, is quoted as saying, "We are sharing experiences on fighting corruption and promoting ethics."

Zambian MP Garry Nkombo, who is leading the delegation, said they were studying best practices in managing corruption in governance,Kenya's The Star newspaper reports., external

Transparency International listsZambia, externalas having a lower corruption score in the public sector compared toKenya., external

Kenyan media has been awash with reports of corruption in the government, one the latest being the alleged theft of 8bn Kenyan shillings ($78m; £59m) from an agency set up to deal with youth unemployment.

At least 40 civil servants have pleaded not guilty for their role in the corruption scandal.

A data visualization site recently tweeted a video montage of 40 corruption scandals reported in local media since 2013:

Alex Duval Smith
BBC Africa, Dakar

Health workers in Burkina Faso have come up a novel form of industrial action. They are working this week by refusing to take payments from patients.

The protest, which started on Monday, is proving most successful in small clinics where health workers take payments themselves.

It's a different story in the country's hospitals where cashiers take a fee of 1,500 CFA ($2;£2) from all patients apart from pregnant women and children under the age of five.

Nevertheless one relative of a patient at Ouagadougou’s biggest hospital, Yalgado Ouedraougo, told the BBC’s Simon Gongo that she had avoided paying.

Aissata Ouedraogo said: ‘’We've been free receiving treatment. Since this morning nurses and doctors are coming to see the sick. It's really good. It allows us to save money for other things.’’

This is the latest in a series of actions this year by the National Union for Human and Animal Health Workers.

The union claims the government is being too slow to honour an agreement made in March 2017 to settle pay, recruitment and promotion grievances.

Prime Minister Paul Kaba Thieba says workers are undermining Burkina Faso's budget and trying to sabotage the government's health policies.

Darod Farah
BBC Monitoring

Seven people have died in a boat accident in a village in Somalia's southern Lower Shabelle region.

The accident happened while the boat was transporting people from Afgoye town to Awdhigley town.

A resident of Raqiley village told the media the boat with 20 people on board had capsized while approaching the village.

Several people managed to swim ashore, while others were rescued.

The resident said seven people had gone missing, and it was later confirmed they had drowned.

The deputy district commissioner of Lower Shabelle, Abdifatah Hajji Abdulle, said investigations into the cause of the accident had already commenced.