One person has died after a plane crashed north of the capital, Pretoria, according to a private emergency medical service.

It is thought that 20 people were also injured.

A cartoon of Asterix and TinTin has captured people's imaginations on social media ahead of the France v Belgium World Cup semi-final on Tuesday evening in Russia:

But it's important to note that many players in both teams have African connections.

France has 14 players in the squad who would be able to play for an African country, according to Fifa rules. Two French players have siblings who do so.

Belgium has eight players of African parentage - with either one or both parents hailing from the continent.

Read more: Who should Africa back at the World Cup?

Cameroon is to hold presidential elections on 7 October, President Paul Biya confirmed by decree on Monday, ending speculation about whether polls would go ahead in the violence-stricken nation.

But AFP reports that lawmakers last week approved a bill postponing parliamentary elections until 2019.

English-speaking areas of western Cameroon are gripped by an armed insurgency, and at least 160,000 people have fled their homes according to the UN, external.

President Biya has yet to say whether he will bid for another term in office. The 85-year-old is now Africa's oldest and longest-serving president having come to power in 1982. In 2008, Cameroon’s parliament passed an constitutional amendment allowing Mr Biya to run for another term in 2011.

AFP reports that the main opposition, the Social Democratic Front (SDF), has already designated its candidate, Joshua Osih.

It says other declared candidates include Akere Muna, a lawyer and former vice-president of Transparency International, and Maurice Kamto, head of the Movement for the Rebirth of Cameroon (MRC).

Image source, AFP

In June, it emerged that only 3% of new voters registered since the start of the year are from the country's Anglophone regions, although English speakers account for about 20% of Cameroon's population.

People interviewed by the BBC on the streets of Bamenda on Tuesday in the Anglophone North-West region, have spoken of their unease.

"Elections are not a priority, the priority is the pacification of the country," said one person.

Another person told the BBC: "If people do not vote, this would benefit the regime."

Thousands of residents of a large informal settlement in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, have vowed to fight the demolition of their homes to make way for a highway.

Nearly 20,000 families in Kibera have until Monday 16 July to leave their shacks, which the government believes have been built illegally.

The government says it owns the land in question and no-one will be compensated.

Schools and businesses are amongst those served with eviction notices.

Ben Ooko, the founder of community organisation Amani Kibera, says he is disappointed that he was given only two weeks to move.

He told the BBC’s Ferdinand Omondi that the government was being insensitive.

Some of the buildings to be demolished include Amani Kibera’s fashion school for young women and a library where school children study.

Sarah Bisebe, who runs Egesa Children Centre – a school for the less fortunate children - told the BBC her eviction notice was slipped under the door at night.

She is concerned if evicted the children at her centre may no longer get an education.

The authorities say the $20m (£15m) dual carriageway being built through the heart of Kibera is intended to ease traffic in the west of the city.

Jose Tembe
BBC Africa, Maputo

Suspected Islamist militants have beheaded eight people in Mozambique’s province of Cabo Delgado - the latest of such killings.

Two attacks are reported to have taken place over the weekend.

Private paper O Pais says the village of Macanga in Palma disctrict was raided on Saturday. An unspecified number of houses were also burnt down, it says.

According to Mediafax, the second incident happened on Sunday in the village of Mbau in Mocimboa district.

Three of the four victims, a farmer and two fishermen, were attacked by the raiders on the banks of the Messalo River.

The farmer was planting maize when they struck. The two fishermen were preparing hooks for their lines.

An Islamist militant group has carried out sporadic attacks in the region in the last year.

It is believed to be making millions of dollars from selling timber and rubies.

Known locally as al-Shabab, the group was formed in 2015 as a religious organisation and has no known links to the Somali jihadist group of the same name.

Read more: How smuggling barons nurtured jihadists

Louise Dewast
BBC Africa, Kinshasa

Image source, Reuters

The Democratic Republic of Congo has postponed a long-awaited visit to the country by the UN chief and head of the African Union Commission – six month ahead of contentious elections.

The trip by Antonio Guterres and his AU counterpart Moussa Faki Mahamat was cancelled this week as it was “untimely” but they would be welcomed at a “time convenient for all”, the government said.

A separate visit from the US ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, was also delayed.

Observers say President Joseph Kabila is a discreet man who doesn’t like public meetings.

Many in the capital, Kinshasa, see the delays as a sign of further uncertainty about the polls – but the UN brushed aside concerns about the postponement.

International and regional powers are pressing for free and fair elections on 23 December – which are to take place two years after President Kabila’s term in office expired.

While he is meant to step down, Mr Kabila has not made a formal announcement that he will not be seeking another mandate.

Presidential hopefuls are due to announce their candidacy by 8 August. The authorities have repeatedly said elections will go ahead as planned and that the president will respect the constitution.

At a recent event in Kinshasa, a representative from the US embassy told a crowd:

"I think President Kabila can become a hero in Congolese history, which he will do in shaping, in December of this year, the first peaceful, credible and democratic transfer of power from his country."

A diplomatic source told the BBC the postponement was a sign of DR Congo’s isolation - so it seems all official visits are likely to be off until Mr Kabila announces his intentions.

Jose Tembe
BBC Africa, Maputo

A 10-year-old albino boy has been abducted from his home in northern Mozambique.

People with albinism in Mozambique are often hunted down because of the belief that potions made from their body parts can bring good luck and wealth.

Pires Ernesto said his son was kidnapped in the early hours of Monday morning, while he was on a night shift.

The kidnappers dug a hole in the wall of his house in the city of Lichinga in Niassa province and went straight to the bedroom, where his four children were sleeping.

Only his albino son was taken away, he said.

Niassa police spokesperson Alves Mate said the matter was under investigation and officers were being helped by the National Criminal Investigation Service (Sernic).

An emergency medical service in South Africa has tweeted that first reports suggest that 20 people have been injured in the plane crash north of Pretoria.

It says the crash is in Woonderboom, where there is an airport usually used for light aircraft.

A plane has crashed in South Africa near the capital, Pretoria.

Several photos of crash scene have been tweeted:

Private ambulance service Emer-G-Med has tweeted that there are multiple patients at the scene, external.

VAR, which stands for video assisted referee, has provoked both praise and controversy at the 2018 World Cup, so what is its future in Africa?

Sport Africa takes a closer look, with some help from Nigeria's World Cup squad:

Alhassan Sillah
BBC Africa, Conakry

Tens of thousands of Guineans of all ages have been protesting in the capital, Conakry, against the 25% rise in the price of fuel.

The pump price went up last week as the government said it could not afford to subsidise the imports further and was meeting an International Monetary Fund (IMF) obligation to remove them.

Protesters want the price to go back to its original price of 8,000 Guiean francs ($0.88, £0.67) a litre.

Jeremiah Ogbodo, also known as Swanky Jerry, says he's dressed a former president and many celebrities.

The Nigerian designer gave BBC Africa his top styling tips:

Milton Nkosi
BBC Africa, South Africa

Hundreds of people turned up for the #100MenMarch in South Africa’s capital, Pretoria, calling for an end to violence against women and children.

Femicide – the killing of women – in South Africa is said to be five times higher than the global average.

Chants of "no means no" were heard throughout the city at today's protest.

The marchers signed a pledge to "break the culture of violence" and lit a symbolic torch:

Politicians and celebrities were among the crowd, who then gathered on the lawns of the Union Buildings, where the president’s office is located.

Police Minister Bheki Cele told police recruits, who had also joined the march, to take reports of abuse seriously:

Image source, AFP

Ruthless and brutal attacks on civilians in South Sudan by government forces and their allies may amount to war crimes, the UN says.

A report documented attacks in April and May in opposition-controlled areas in Unity state.

It says at least 232 women and girls were raped, including children as young as four.

UN human rights monitors say victims told them how government troops would storm into villages and start shooting at fleeing civilians.

A 14-year-old girl from Thonyor Payam in Leer County said:

UN human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein called on the government to bring those responsible to justice:

Tens of thousands of people have been killed during the five-year civil war - and a third of the population displaced.

A ceasefire between the warring parties was agreed last month as a prelude to final peace deal.

Nigerian-British saxophonist, pianist and singer Tunday Akintan has told the BBC Newsday programme that he hasn't spoken to his father since deciding to pursue a career in music.

The 35 year old, who combines Yoruba rhythms with jazz, pop and funk to create a sound he calls "Yorubeat", avoids doing gigs in Nigeria in order to avoid his father.

Listen to him explain why:

Sally Nabil
BBC News, Cairo

Egyptian security sources say an investigation has been launched into the murder of three children in the capital, Cairo.

Their bodies were found with their throats cut in the western suburb of Giza.

Local residents have speculated that the children may have fallen victim to traffickers who trade in body organs.

But the security forces say it is too early to say what led to the killings.

Ethiopia's monopoly phone company has sent an SMS to its millions of mobile subscribers announcing lines to Eritrea are now open.

The text message reads:

This follows the historic meeting between Eritrea's President Isaias Afewerki and Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.

On Monday, they pledged to end the state of war between the two countries.

They also said that telephone communications would resume, which were cut off when the border war began in 1998.

Some people have managed to make contact with family on the other side of the border, including Ethiopian journalist Shishay Wores.

He was called by one of his brothers in Eritrea.

"For a moment my heart stopped beating, my voice was shaking and I was struggling for words. It took me a while to calm down and talk to my brother," he told the BBC.

People are also sharing jokes about receiving missed calls from 1998, including a journalist for the Reuters news agency.

Nigerian film star Chinedu Ikedieze, popularly known as “Aki”, says he has been recognised as a distinguished visitor by Miami-Dade County in the US state of Florida.

The 40-year-old Nollywood actor posted a photo of himself on Instagram with the certificate, given to him by the mayor and county commissioners, along with the the words: “When the world believed in you.”

Aki’s face is not just famous in Nigeria.

A clip from one of his movies has been turned into a comic meme, shared thousands of times on social media in many languages:

Image source, LANNON HARLEY

Scientists have discovered what they say are the world's oldest surviving biological colours, from ancient rocks beneath the Sahara desert.

The 1.1 billion-year-old pigments have a bright pink hue, but range from blood red to deep purple in their concentrated form.

The pigments are fossilised molecules of chlorophyll produced by sea organisms, Australian scientists said.

Researchers ground the shale rocks into powder to extract the pigment.

"Imagine you could find a fossilised dinosaur skin that still has its original colour, green or blue... that is exactly the type of discovery that we've made," Associate Prof Jochen Brocks from the Australian National University (ANU) told the BBC.

"These are actual molecules, the oldest coloured molecules in the world. When held against the sunlight, they are actually a neon pink."

A mining company had found the rocks in a marine shale deposit in the Taoudeni Basin in Mauritania, West Africa about 10 years ago, after drilling a hole several hundred metres deep, he said.

Read the BBC News story for more.

Emmanuel Igunza
BBC Africa, Addis Ababa

Image source, Reuters

Nine years ago, Ethiopia triggered the events that led to Eritrea being sanctioned by the UN Security Council.

But Ethiopia’s new Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has now requested that the UN lift the punitive measures against its neighbour just hours after the two countries signed a deal to end the state of war between them after two decades.

The sanctions stemmed from accusations by some East African countries that Eritrea was destabilising the region by sponsoring Somalia-based Islamist militant group al-Shabab.

The government in Asmara has always denied the allegations.

The petition, presented to UN chief Antonio Guterres in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, is likely to receive support at the Security Council, where Ethiopia holds a non-permanent seat.

Mr Guterres, who told reporters the reconciliation between the country was "illustrative of a new wind of hope blowing across Africa", added:

Ethiopia is also a strong trade and security ally of the China and US who hold veto powers at the council.

Eritrea is also set to rejoin the regional bloc Igad, which it left in 2007.

It marks a dramatic turnaround for Eritrea, considered one of the most repressive and secretive countries in the continent.

Read more:

• The story behind Africa's unfinished war