Image source, AFP

Malawi's President Peter Mutharika has dismissed calls by activists to resign over allegations he received a kickback from a $4m (£3m) a government contract, news agency Reuters reports.

The country's anti-graft body, the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), has been investigating a $4m police food supply contract awarded to Pioneer Investments, a firm owned by businessman Zameer Karim, who has denied any wrongdoing.

A leaked ACB report published by Malawi's two main newspapers said the businessman deposited $200,000 into an account belonging to the ruling party and of which Mr Mutharika is the sole signatory, Reuters reports.

The ACB said that its leaked report is not final.

Mr Mutharika, 77, has called the allegation "fake news" and says it is intended to malign his name ahead of elections next year.

The main opposition Malawi Congress Party (MCP) has supported calls for Mr Mutharika's resignation, saying, "He needs to resign and call for early elections".

BBC World Service

Image source, Getty Images

The authorities in Burkina Faso have banned small-scale mining for the next four months in an attempt to reduce deaths during the rainy season.

Last week, at least four people died when their mine collapsed due to heavy rains.

Miners have been told to close the mines or face heavy sanctions.

Nearly half a million Burkinabés rely on artisanal mining to make a living.

Many of them mine for gold.

Political activist Amjed Farid explains what life is like for people like him in Sudan, and why he speaks out against the government.

Video produced by Trystan Young and Mark Sedgwick.

Image source, Unknown

Campaigners say Belgium has taken a step towards acknowledging its dark colonial history by renaming a city square after the assassinated Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba.

Hundreds cheered as "Bastion square" in Brussels' largely Congolese neighbourhood of Matongé was officially renamed "Patrice Lumumba square" in a ceremony at the weekend. Some of Patrice Lumumba's relatives were there.

Belgium, the former colonial power, has apologised for playing a role in his death.

Several speakers at the event criticised the fact that elsewhere in the city statues to Belgium's King Leopold II are still visible, despite the brutality of his rule over Congo in the late 19th and early 20th Century.

A Belgian campaign group tweeted these photos showing the new plaques, saying that it was important to insert African historical figures into public spaces because it made their legacy "visible and timeless" for future generations.

Mr Lumumba was deposed with the backing of Western governments - including its former colonial master Belgium - just months after coming to power in 1960.

He was then handed over to his enemies, and murdered in detention in January 1961.

The US and Britain have also been accused of being complicit in the murder of the former Congolese prime minister who had close ties with the Soviet Union.

“By inaugurating this square, we’re not repairing the past, we’re not closing a chapter of history,” said Philippe Close, the mayor of Brussels. “Today, by inaugurating this square, we forget nothing."

South Sudan's President Salva Kiir and his rival, rebel leader Riek Machar, have signed an agreement to try to end five years of civil war.

Teacher Obieny Deng Agok, who fled South Sudan in 2015 to escape the violence, says that despite its recent trauma he he has high hopes for the country's future:

A South African woman is recovering in hospital after being discovered alive in a mortuary fridge.

The woman was taken to Carletonville morgue, in Gauteng province, having been declared dead by paramedics following a road accident.

Ambulance companyDistress Alert said she had shown "no form of life",, externalSouth Africa's TimesLive website reports.

But when a morgue worker returned to check on the body in the fridge, he found the woman was breathing.

An official has confirmed to the BBC the woman is now being treated in hospital after being referred by forensics officers. She has not been named.

An investigation into the incident is being carried out, but Distress Alert operations manager Gerrit Bradnick said there was "no proof of any negligence" on his company's behalf.

Mr Bradnick told TimesSelect she was one of several people involved in a car accident, external which left two others dead on Sunday, 24 June.

It is also not the first time this has happened in South Africa. Seven years ago, a 50-year-old man woke up screaming in an Eastern Cape morgue. In 2016 another road accident victim, from KwaZulu Natal, was declared dead, external, only to be found breathing the next day.

He died five hours after the discovery.

Image source, AFP

The Mauritanian president, Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, has said an attack on the headquarters of a West African regional force on Friday has exposed serious security failings.

At least three people were killed in the attack in Mali, where five African countries have joined forces against violent Islamist extremists.

The G5 Sahel force - made up of troops from Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad, Mauritania and Niger - is backed by France. A UN force of almost 14,000 peacekeepers is also present in Mali.

President Aziz was speaking at an African Union summit being held in the Mauritanian capital, Nouakchott, which French President Emmanuel Macron is also attending.

Mr Aziz said the force was not at all happy with the outside help it was getting, and that the doors of the UN seemed to be closed.

The AU summit will focus on corruption and security issues.

• Read more: Why the Sahara is terror's new front line

Milton Nkosi
BBC Africa, Johannesburg

One of former South African President Jacob Zuma's sons has died.

Vusi Nhlakanipho Zuma, who was born in 1993, was the youngest son of Mr Zuma and his late wife Kate Mantsho.

He died on Sunday night after a short illness, reports say.

A source close to the former president told the BBC that Mr Zuma was "very distraught over the passing of his son”.

Vukile Mathabela, the media liaison for the 76-year-old former head of state at the presidency, confirmed the news of the death to local media outlet News24. He also said that details would be released later today, once a family spokesperson is appointed.

US civil rights activist Jesse Jackson posted his condolences on Twitter, saying that he is “sending prayers” to the Zuma family.

BBC World Service

The authorities in Mali say an attack on a military patrol in the north of the country has killed at least four civilians and wounded more than 30 other people, including eight French soldiers.

Officials said the attack in the city of Gao involved a car bomb explosion followed by gunfire.

More than 3,000 French troops are stationed in the Sahel region.

They work with soldiers from five West African countries to try to rid the region of violent Islamist militants.

On Friday, at least three people were killed in a suicide attack on the headquarters of the West African regional force in Mali.

Residents of South Africa's Northern and Western Capes have woken up to thick snow, amid warnings of an intense cold front passing through the region.

"Snow, very cold temperatures, windy and rainy weather are to be expected" until tomorrow, says the South African Weather Service, external.

People are sharing photos of the unseasonably cold weather on Twitter:

Sophia, the famous humanoid robot, has finally met Ethiopia’s prime minister after her lost body parts were found.

A bag containing some of the robot was lost at Frankfurt airport last week, which led to the cancellation of a press conference scheduled to take place on Friday at the Ethiopian National Museum in the capital, Addis Ababa.

We don't yet know what was discussed in today's meeting, but we do know that Sophia isn't pre-programmed with answers. Instead, she uses machine learning and responds by reading people's expressions.

Designed by Hong Kong firm Hanson Robotics, Sophia has been programmed to speak Amharic, Ethiopia's official language. She also speaks English.

Sophia was activated in 2015.

She shot to fame after becoming the first robot to gain the citizenship of a country – when Saudi Arabia gave her nationality last year.

In Malawi, several people living with albinism have decided to fight the stigma associated with the condition by running for office in next year's election.

One such candidate is Steve Burgess who hopes to be elected MP for the Malawi Congress Party, in Zomba Central district in the southern part of the country.

He says his mother loved and supported him from birth, but that that wasn't true of all his family:

Mr Burgess told BBC Newsday that society at large must learn to treat people with albinism with the same respect as any other person:

Listen to more of his interview:

Read more:

• Challenging Africa's albino stereotypes
• The albino who confronted a witchdoctor

Many Ugandans are turning to Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) to bypass a new social media tax that came into force on Sunday.

The new law imposes a 200 shilling [$0.05, £0.04] daily levy on people using internet messaging platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter and Viber.

President Yoweri Museveni had pushed for the changes, arguing that social media encouraged gossip. Critics say the law curtails freedom of expression.

A VPN gets around government censorship by redirecting your internet activity to a computer in a different country.

Now the head of the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) has said VPNs will be blocked, provoking plenty of responses online:

It's not the first time the government has cracked down on social media users.

In 2016, social media platforms were blocked in Uganda on election day to stop people "telling lies", President Museveni said.

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