Lucy Williamson
BBC's Paris Correspondent

Image source, Getty

France's last World Cup win in 1998 triggered a national debate over French identity, after the slogan Black-Blanc-Beur (Black, White, Arab) was coined to describe the multi-ethnic team.

It was a striking development, because discussing race or religion is officially considered irrelevant to French identity - even frowned upon.

The French state collects no data on the ethnic origins of its citizens; a way of underlining the principle that all are equal, and equally French.

The reality is somewhat less "colour-blind", though, according to many of those who come from immigrant backgrounds, and especially from France's former colonies in Africa. They say many areas of French life - such as getting a job - are more difficult with an immigrant name or a non-white face.

France's colonial past has left uncomfortable divisions here; divisions which have been exacerbated by city planning around its major cities, and - some would say - a Republican ideal that is often seen as rooted in France's white Christian history. The recent debate around the place of Islam has highlighted these tensions again.

The national squad is still a rare symbol of multicultural France, but 20 years on from their last World Cup win, the image of a team from many different backgrounds has triggered less focus on French identity here and more wry comment on the country's current stance on immigration.

Read more: Trevor Noah defends World Cup joke

Kenyan officials have displayed 18 horns from nine endangered black rhinos in a bid to allay fears that they were killed by poachers.

The Kenyan government said the deaths of the rhinos, which had been described as a disaster by conservationists, was caused by drinking water with high concentrations of salt.

The saline water caused the rhinos to drink more and led to their eventual salt poisoning.

The Minister of Tourism and Wildlife, Najib Balala, told reporters that all the horns had transmitters and electronic chips, proving that they came from the dead rhinos.

They were part of a group of rhinos that were relocated to Tsavo East National Park.

Transporting wildlife is used by conservationists to help build up or bring back animal populations.

Image source, Getty Images

The lawyer for the man sentenced to 20 years in prison on terrorism-related charges in Senegal says he will appeal against the ruling.

Alassane Cisse said he was "outraged" by the sentence given to Makhtar Diokhane, in the biggest mass trial of suspected militant Islamists in the Muslim-majority state known for upholding a moderate version of Islam.

"I will immediately appeal this ruling. I have no intention of letting Matar Diokhane stay in prison for 20 years," Mr Cisse added.

Prominent lmam Alioune Ndao was acquitted on charges of being a financier of "terrorism", but was given a suspended prison sentence for illegally possessing weapons.

Welcoming the ruling, his lawyer Moussa Sarr said:

See earlier post for more details

Image source, Getty Images

A senior member of South Africa's governing African National Congress (ANC) will be privately prosecuted on charges of animal cruelty after dozens of animals and birds allegedly died of hunger on her farm - and surviving pigs were forced to eat dead pigs, campaign groups have said.

More than 160 animals had to be put down after "absolute cruelty" was witnessed on the farm of Thandi Modise in 2014, a spokeswoman for the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty of Animals (SPCA) is quoted by South Africa's Eyewitness News site as saying.

Lobby group AfriForum's lawyer Monique Taut tweeted that the SPCA had found the carcasses of "pig, sheep, goat, goose and duck" on the farm, and "some of the surviving pigs had to feed on pig carcasses to survive".

Ms Modise - who is the chairwoman of the South African parliament's upper chamber - has not yet commented on the move to prosecute her.

When the allegations first surfaced, Ms Modise was quoted as saying that the farmer manager had been away because of a family emergency when the alleged neglect of the animals took place.

“I am not a farmer. I am trying to farm. I am learning. But if you are a woman and you are learning you are not allowed to make mistakes,” the IOL news site quoted her as saying, external.

About 85 pigs had been found starving on the farm, and they had been feeding off the carcasses of 58 dead pigs, local media reports said at the time, external.

South African law allows a private prosecution when the state's National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) refuses to charge someone.

In April, the NPA reversed its decision not to charge ex-President Jacob Zuma's son with culpable homicide after AfriForum said it would bring a private prosecution against him.

Duduzane Zuma was involved in a car crash which left two people dead in 2014.

Image source, Reuters

Ethiopian journalist Addisalem Hadigu has met his daughters Asmera and Danait in Eritrea for the first time in 16 years.

He was among many families kept apart by decades of war and conflict between neighbours Ethiopia and Eritrea.

They were reunited in scenes of tearful joy and relief after the first commercial flight between the two nations in 20 years landed in Eritrea's capital, Asmara.

Read the full BBC story here.

A Nigerian entrepreneur is helping young people take control of their sexual health, cheaply and anonymously.

Image source, Loon

A network of giant balloons will soon bring internet access to remote regions of rural Kenya.

Google's sister-company Loon has announced its first commercial deal: partnering with Telkom Kenya to deliver connectivity to the region.

The firm's antennae-dangling fleet will ride the wind high above parts of the African country.

But experts have warned that the partnership could lead to a communications monopoly.

Read the full BBC story

Image source, Getty Images

The man regarded as the ringleader of a militant Islamist cell in Senegal has been sentenced to 20 years in prison by a court in the capital Dakar, following the biggest trial of suspected jihadists in the West African state.

Makhtar Diokhane was described in court as the brains behind a cell which sent boys to Nigeria, Mali and Libya to receive training from militants.

The main accused - Alioune Badara Ndao, who is a prominent imam in Kaolack city in central Senegal - was acquitted of being an "apologist" and financier of "terrorism" but was given a suspended one-month prison sentence for illegally possessing weapons, reports BBC Afrique's Khady Lo from Dakar.

Fourteen other suspects were acquitted.

Mainly Muslim Senegal has never been attacked by militant Islamists, and follows a moderate version of Sufi Islam. Sufi sects wield enormous influence in society.

However, government officials have in recent years expressed concern that militant Islamists were trying to gain a foothold in the country.

Image source, Getty Images

South Sudan's President Salva Kiir says he's ready to accept a peace deal that would end years of civil war in the world's youngest country.

The agreement being negotiated with his rival Riek Machar would give the country five vice presidents, and covers power sharing and security.

A permanent ceasefire was signed last month. At a swearing-in ceremony of his foreign minister, President Kiir said nobody should be left out of the government.

South Sudan descended into conflict in 2013, two years after becoming independent. Tens of thousands have been killed and more than four million people displaced during the civil war.

Once a month Hope Ogbologugo hosts a Death Cafe in Nigeria's commercial capital Lagos, where people gather to eat cake, drink tea and discuss death.

She told BBC Africa's One Minute Stories what inspired her to start the group.

Video Journalist: Angelica Jopson

Image source, Getty Images

Newly released US intelligence documents showed that the FBI continued to investigate South Africa's anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela as a potential "communist menace" even after his release from prison in 1990, a Washington-based group which sued to obtain the papers said.

Property of the People, which released the papers to mark 100 years since Mr Mandela's birth, said:

Former US President Barack Obama gave a rousing speech in South Africa on Tuesday to celebrate Mr Mandela's life,calling on people to be inspired by him at a time when the "politics of fear, resentment, retrenchment" were rising.

Mr Mandela became South Africa's first black president in 1994, and advocated reconciliation with white people who had for decades enforced the racist system of apartheid in the country.

You can read more abut the documents by following the link on Property of the People's Twitter account:

Image source, Getty Images

Ethiopia has appointed its first ambassador to Eritrea in two decades.

Redwan Hussein, a former ambassador to Ireland and communication minister, had become Addis Ababa's representative in Asmara, Ethiopia's state-linked Fana Broadcasting Corporate reported on its website.

It is another stage in the rapidly improving relations between the two neighbours after fighting a border war.

On Wednesday, commercial flights between the two nations resumed.

On 9 July, the Ethiopian and Eritrean leaders, Abiy Ahmed and Isaias Afwerki respectively, signed a declaration ending the "state of war".

Read: Frozen in time - Eritrea's embassy in Ethiopia

Eritrea has withdrawn its troops from the border with Ethiopia, in a gesture of reconciliation, the pro-government Eritrea Press reports on its Facebook.

The BBC has not obtained independent confirmation of the report.

If the report is true, it will be a major development in the whirlwind peace process that the Ethiopian and Eritrean governments have embarked on to end two decades of hostility.

Some 80,000 people died during a 1998-2000 war between the two nations for control of the border town of Badme.

A UN-backed boundary commission ruled in 2002 that Ethiopia should cede Badme to Eritrea.

It refused, and the two countries remained in a state of "no war, no peace".

Ethiopia's new Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has promised to hand over territory, but it is unclear when this will happen or when Ethiopia will withdraw its troops stationed along the border.

Image source, Getty Images

US-based South African comedian Trevor Noah has become involved in a spat with the French ambassador to the US, Gerard Araud, over the identity of the French football team which won the World Cup.

Noah said he received a letter from Mr Araud after joking on his The Daily Show that "Africa won the World Cup".

Mr Araud wrote that "nothing could be less true". The "great majority" of the payers were born and educated in France, and were "proud of their country - France".

"The rich and various background of the players is a reflection of France's diversity," Noah quoted Mr Araud as saying, before quipping that it was in fact a reflection of France's "colonialism".

Mr Araud said that France, unlike the US, did not believe in "hyphenated" identities.

"By calling them an African team, it seems you are denying their Frenchness," Mr Araud said in the letter posted on Twitter by the French embassy:

In his response, Noah said that black people "all over the world were celebrating the Africanness of the French team - not in a negative way but in a rather positive way".

He vehemently disagreed with the view that people could not be French and African at the same time.

"Why is that duality afforded only to a select group?" he asked, adding he did not believe that "to be French you have to erase everything that is African".

"And if French people are saying they cannot be both, then I think they have a problem and not me," he added.

You can watch Noah's detailed response here:

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

Thursday's wise words:

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

Our African proverb of the day:

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And we leave you with this picture of women walking on a sandy beach in Zanzibar.

The late Nelson Mandela would have turned 100 today. Here are the key moments in his life, and a few of his most famous quotes.

Will Ross
Africa editor, BBC World Service

The campaign group Human Rights Watch (HRW) has criticised the Moroccan authorities after a journalist was sentenced to three years in prison for failing to report a security threat.

Hamid El Mahdaoui, a government critic, received a phone call from a man who said he intended to carry out attacks in Morocco.

He didn't alert the authorities, saying that as a journalist he often received calls from strangers and had dismissed it as an empty threat.

Mr Mahdaoui is already serving a one year sentence in connection with an unauthorised demonstration.

HRW has accused the Moroccan authorities of clamping down on the independent media.

Ethiopia's state-linked news site has tweeted a picture of people reunited after the historic flight from Addis Ababa landed in Eritrea's capital Asmara.

It was the first flight in 20 years between the erstwhile warring foes.

The 90-minute flight cost $800 (£600), return.

Read our news story: Roses and champagne on Eritrea's peace flight

Patience Atuhaire
BBC Africa, Kampala

Image source, Getty Images

Police in Uganda have released the first annual crime report in three years, showing a 3.3% increase in the crime rate across the country.

It says over 25,000 cases were reported in 2017, compared to over 24,000 the previous year.

There was an increase in violent crimes such as homicides as well as domestic and gender-based violence.

The report comes amidst a wave of kidnappings and killings for ransom, and especially of women, causing national concern.

More than 200 kidnappings were recorded by the police in 2017.

Though comprehensive figures for 2018 have not been officially released, there has already been more than 40 similar cases reported this year.

There is also a trend of transnational human trafficking, with 123 cases recorded in 2017 compared to 84 the year before.

The report also noted increasing incidents of Ugandans being trafficked to the Middle East, on the promise of domestic work.