Robert Misigaro
BBC Africa

A Burundian head teacher has been sentenced to five years in prison after disguising himself as a student and attempting to sit a national exam on another person's behalf last week.

Benjamin Manirambona, who heads Butere Technical College, is also banned from teaching or holding public office for a decade.

Manirambona said he was taking the electronics exam on behalf of a soldier who wanted the grades to qualify for university.

The soldier promised to pay Manirambona on his return from Somalia, where he is serving with the Burundian peacekeeping force.

He admitted to the deception after police burst into the examination hall.

His two accomplices, school accountant Eric Nkurunziza and teacher Lazard Nihezagire, have been sentenced to two years in prison and are banned from holding public office for five years.

In Burundi, students taking important public exams are sent to sit them in other schools. This explains why Manirambona was not recognised by other people in the exam hall.

• Read more: Head teacher busted sitting student's exam

Image source, DMI

When Marieta was just a year old she developed a high fever and became unwell.

Her family thought she had fallen under a curse that in parts of rural Burkina Faso is believed to happen when a bird flies over a child sleeping outdoors.

Her father, Tibandiba Lankoande, spent most of his money on traditional remedies but this didn't work and on the sixth day she fell into a coma.

"That's when I heard a message on the radio explaining how to recognise the signs and symptoms of malaria," he recalled.

"If I hadn't heard that radio message she wouldn't be alive today."

The radio messages were part of a huge trial led by Development Media International (DMI), which sought to find out whether mass media could have an impact on people's health.

• Read the full story here

Louise Dewast
Kinshasa, DR Congo

Image source, Getty Images

Health workers in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo have started using a new experimental treatment for Ebola.

The vaccine, named mAb114, was developed in the US and has proved 100% effective on monkeys. It was developed using antibodies from a survivor of a 1995 outbreak in DR Congo.

Congolese scientific and ethics committees approved the use of the vaccine - and they are currently assessing four other experimental treatments.

This comes nearly a week after 3,220 doses of another experimental Ebola vaccine rVSV-ZEBO was made available in North Kivu province.

These treatments could be a game-changer - but there are major challenges in the fight against Ebola.

There is an active conflict in the the east of the country and the population is highly mobile.

The epicentre of the current outbreak is in Mabalako in North Kivu province.

Fifty-seven people are believed to have been infected with the virus - of whom 41 have died, external.

Image source, Getty Images

Fifa has issued ultimatums to Nigeria and Ghana that they both face bans from global football for "undue influence" in the affairs of their governing bodies.

Nigeria's ban could begin with immediate effect if the Nigeria Football Federation "offices are not handed back to the legitimate NFF executive committee under president Amaju Pinnick".

The issues in Nigeria come after a recent court case recognised Chris Giwa, who is currently banned by Fifa, as the NFF president.

Giwa has been protesting the result of elections held in September 2014 that saw Pinnick installed as NFF president.

• Read more on this story here

Ugandan musician-turned-MP Robert Kyagulanyi, also known as Bobi Wine, has been arrested today following violence at a campaign rally both he and President Yoweri Museveni attended yesterday.

Opposition protesters threw stones at the presidential convoy and security forces intervened. Mr Kyagulanyi's driver was shot dead, and the MP believes that he was the intended target.

The MP's wife, Barbara Kyagulanyi, has told the BBC she last heard from her husband at 03:00 (00:00GMT) when he told her he was fine and in hiding.

She insists their driver was not shot during clashes between opposition supporters and security forces. Instead, she says her husband and his aides were at their hotel in Arua when the police moved and started shooting.

The police's version of events differ. We will bring you updates on their joint security press conference now under way.

Mbali Sikhosana
BBC News

Gloria Kente had been working for the family in South Africa for three years when her employer's boyfriend began hurling racial abuse at her.

Although her life was far from perfect, until that point she made ends meet with the little wage she received and the love she had for her employer's kids.

The abuse started with verbal insults: "fat, lazy" and the "k word" - an offensive and illegal derogatory term used to denigrate black people, rarely spoken out loud in South Africa.

It can be argued that the country's domestic workers form the backbone of the country, keeping the home going and looking after the children.

And yet abuse - and low pay - remains rife across the nation.

There have been barely any cases brought to court since Ms Kente's fight four years ago - possibly because they know speaking out comes at a cost.

After Ms Kente won her case, she couldn't find work. "People feared I would report them," she says.

Luckily, that was when the South African Domestic Services and Allied Workers Union (SADSAWU) stepped in, offering her a job.

• Read the full story here

Image source, Getty Images

In 2020, Burundi will join a growing number of African countries to have banned plastic bags.

President Pierre Nkurunziza issued a decree on Monday prohibiting the "manufacture, import, storage, sale and use of all plastic bags and other plastic packaging", according to a presidential order seen by the BBC.

It will come into effect in 18 months' time, allowing for "the disposal of current stocks and orders already placed".

There could be some exemptions "for biodegradable plastic bags, bags and plastic materials used in medical services, and in industrial and pharmaceutical packaging", the decree read.

More than 40 countries around the world have banned plastic bags, including Morocco, Rwanda and Kenya.

According to a 2018 UN report, policies to combat plastic waste have had mixed results. In Cameroon, plastic bags are banned and households are paid for every kilo of plastic waste they collect, but still plastic bags are being smuggled in.

• Read more: 50 nations 'curbing plastic pollution'

BBC World Service

Image source, Retuers

The Malian opposition leader, Soumaïla Cissé, says he will reject the forthcoming results of Sunday's presidential run-off against incumbent President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta.

Speaking yesterday in the capital, Bamako, he said there had been fraud during the poll and called on Malians to rise up:

Election observers from the AU however say voting has been carried out "in acceptable conditions" with "no tangible element" of irregularities, AFP news agency reports. While the EU has yet to present its preliminary findings, AFP quotes observers as saying no "major incidents" have occurred in any of the 300 polling stations they visited.

It is the second time that former finance minister Mr Cissé, 68, is facing incumbent President Keïta, 73, in a presidential run-off vote.

Security has been a key concern because jihadists, Tuareg separatists and ethnic clashes have left the country chronically insecure. Despite taking extra precautions, Sunday's vote saw one poll worker killed and hundreds of stations closed due to insecurity.

Jose Tembe
BBC Africa, Maputo

Mozambican police have named the suspected ringleaders of an Islamist group, which has carried out a spate of attacks in the northern coastal province of Cabo Delgado since October 2017.

Abdul Faizal, Abdul Remane, Abdul Raim, Nuno Remane, Ibn Omar and a fifth suspect known only as Salimo, was named by Mozambican police commander Bernardino Rafael on Monday.

They are believed to be a mix of Mozambicans and foreign nationals. Investigators have previously said that the Cabo Delgado insurgents consisted of young people recruited locally or from neighboring Tanzania and Kenya.

The real reasons of the insurgency is still unknown. What is clear is that this group of terrorists have so far killed around 200 people and burnt more than 400 homes.

Image source, AFP

• Read more: How Mozambique’s smuggling barons nurtured jihadists

Pumza Fihlani
BBC News, Pretoria

Image source, Gallo

South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa has launched a programme to remove all pit latrines from the country’s public schools, following the deaths of two 5-year-olds which shocked the nation.

Speaking at the launch of the Sanitation Appropriate for Education (Safe) – programme, in the capital Pretoria today, President Cyril Ramaphosa said it was unfortunate that the initiative came about as a result of tragedy.

In March this year, 5-year-old Lumka Mkhethwa drowned in a pit latrine at her school in the Eastern Cape. She was the second known case to die in this manner - in 2014 Michael Komape also died after falling into a school toilet in the northern province of Limpopo.

Earlier this year, President Ramaphosa pledged to eradicate pit latrines from all schools by the end of 2018, but the education department now says the timeline for the project is two years.

About one in five South African schools have pit latrine toilets.

Many are made from cheap metal, are shoddily built and left uncovered.

The Safe project will be funded in partnership with business and civil society groups including the Nelson Mandela Foundation and Unicef.

Image source, Corbis/Getty Images

What are pit latrines?

Pit latrines, sometimes called long-drop toilets, are a type of toilet that collects faeces in a hole in the ground. They are classed as basic sanitation.

Yet an estimated 27% of South Africans do not have access to even basic sanitation, external, according to the charity Water Aid. That is slightly lower than the global average of one third.

The UN defines basic sanitation as:

• a flush or pour-flush toilet linked to a piped sewer system
• pit latrines with a slab, septic tank or ventilation
• a composting toilet.

BBC Monitoring
The world through its media

Image source, AFP

Authorities have arrested around 10 people after an alleged "failed coup attempt" a fortnight after a constitutional referendum paved the way for President Azali Assoumani to extend his stay in power.

The suspects in custody include several soldiers and a prominent author, Said Ahmed Said Tourqui.

A public prosecutor has called them "a very impressive enterprise of terrorists" and local press says police searches came up with ammunition and cash.

Mr Assoumani's camp overwhelmingly won the referendum's 'yes' vote, which was met with a violent opposition boycott.

Vice-President Ahmed Said Jaffar, who denounced the plans for a constitutional referendum, was stripped of most of his duties in July during a cabinet reshuffle.

The country has been riven by more than 20 coups since independence in the 1970s.

Kennedy Gondwe
BBC News, Lusaka

Zambia's main opposition party has condemned the government's move to introduce a daily tax of $0.03 (£0.02) on all internet based calls, calling them "visionless".

"We wonder who told them that Zambians are using these avenues for free because all we know is that subscribers are already taxed for using social media platforms each time they buy data bundles," Percy Chanda of the United Party for National Development said.

At present, Zambians pay for internet calls through bundles or wi-fi.

The government says research shows that 80% of citizens use WhatsApp, Skype, and Viber to make phone calls.

Image source, AFP

Image source, AFP

Seven out of the 10 least liveable cities in the world are in Africa, according the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) annual survey.

The league table ranks 140 cities on a range of factors, including political and social stability, crime, education and access to healthcare.

Nigeria's largest city, Lagos, was ranked 138 - two slots ahead of the bottom of the league table which is held by Syria's war-torn capital, Damascus (140).

It was closely followed by Zimbabwe's Harare (135), Libya's Tripoli (134), Cameroon's Douala (133), Algiers in Algeria (132) and Senegal's Dakar (131).

Johannesburg gained the rank of 86, making it the most livable of African cities.

The annual report says cities in the Middle East, Africa and Asia account for the ten-lowest scoring cities where "violence, whether through crime, civil insurgency, terrorism or war, has played a strong role".

Listen to the decision-making that went into making the list:

Catherine Byaruhanga
BBC Africa, Kampala

One person has been killed and 30 others arrested following violence in northern Uganda ahead of a parliamentary by-election.

Police say opposition supporters threw stones at President Yoweri Museveni’s convoy as he left a campaign rally in the town of Arua. Security officers then intervened and the resulting clashes left one person dead.

The image of the bloodied body of a young man slumped over in a car quickly spread on social media in Uganda.

He was the driver of one of the country’s most charismatic political leaders, Robert Kyagulanyi, who is also a popular musician known as Bobi Wine.

Image source, AFP

Mr Kyagulanyi was at the end of a contentious election campaign in Arua town, which has seen him and President Museveni support opposing candidates.

But there’s scepticism over the police’s account that the president’s convoy came under attack because it is highly guarded. Bobi Wine's supporters believe he was being targeted.

Dozens of people have been arrested including two journalists.

The authorities are looking for Bobi Wine who left the scene of the clash.

The parliamentary by-election is due to be held on Tuesday.

The previous MP Ibrahim Abiriga was shot dead in June and his apparent murder has not yet been resolved.

BBC Monitoring
The world through its media

Image source, Getty Images

The Zambian government is to introduce a tax on internet phone calls in a bid to protect jobs in the telecommunications sector.

The 30 ngwee ($0.03; £0.02) daily tariff will be charged through mobile phone operators and internet providers, government spokesperson Dora Siliya said after a Monday cabinet meeting.

She said the increase in online phone calls was coming at the expense of traditional providers such as Airtel, Zamtel and MTN.

That research indicted that 80% of Zambian citizens were using Whatsapp, Skype and Viber to make calls, she added.

The tax comes weeks after Uganda implemented a social media tax to boost government revenue and to end "gossip" on WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter.

It is not yet clear when the tax will come into effect.

Ponder our proverb of the day:

Image source, De Agostini/Getty Images

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

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

A reminder of today's wise words:

Click here to send us your African proverbs.

And we leave you with a picture of a woman taking a stroll in Mauritania's capital, Nouakchott:

Image source, AFP

South Sudan has been listed as the most violent country to deliver aid to for a third time in a row, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) has said.

One in three of the 158 major violent incidents against aid operations that took place last year occurred in the East African nation.

About 100 aid workers have lost their lives since the civil war broke out in December 2013, with 24 aid workers dying of gunshot wounds last year.

Sudanese staff have borne the brunt of the attacks.

They often work in the hardest-to-reach locations, which can also be the most dangerous, NRC says.

Syria, Afghanistan and the Central African Republic were listed the next most dangerous, followed by Nigeria and Somalia.

Jan Egeland, the secretary-general of NRC, said the organisation was "cautiously optimistic" about the recent signing of a ceasefire deal between President Salva Kiir and his rival, Riek Machar.

A top official of Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu-PF party has shared a video of the party's lawyers failing to submit court papers to defend the election of Emmerson Mnangagwa as president.

The constitutional court was closed, presumably because the country was marking Heroes Day.

The opposition MDC Alliance alleges that the ruling party stole the election, but Mr Mnangagwa has said that he won fairly.

The court has 14 working days to decide the case.