The police in Dar es Salaam have been giving updates on the kidnapping of billionaire Mohammed Dewji, who was taken as he was entering a hotel to go a the gym.

Regional police commissioner Paul Makonda.has told journalists that Mr Dewji had no security detail with him and drove to the gym on his own.

Will Ross
Africa editor, BBC World Service

Image source, Walta TV

Several hundred Ethiopian soldiers and the country's prime minister have done press-ups together after they marched into the compound of his office.

They wanted to see Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to demand a salary increase.

The situation, with some of the soldiers armed, caused concern. Some of the roads in the area were closed and the internet was temporarily switched off.

The soldiers, from an elite unit, were allowed into the sprawling grounds of the Mr Abiy's office.

But when he came out to meet them he was not impressed that some had caused alarm by bringing their weapons.

So he ordered the offenders to do 10 press-ups.

The smiles on the photos suggest it all passed off amicably, although we do not know if this unusual direct action will lead to the pay rise they were requesting.

You can see a short video of the press-ups here:

Athuman Mtulya
BBC Africa

East Africa’s richest man, said to be Africa’s youngest billionaire, Mohammed Dewji, 43, has been kidnapped in Dar es Salaam, police say.

Mr Dewji, who is a fitness enthusiast, was kidnapped by four masked men outside a swanky hotel gym in an affluent neighbourhood of Tanzania's commercial capital, where he was going for his routine morning workout.

According to Dar es Salaam Regional Commissioner Paul Makonda, two of the attackers are believed to be foreign nationals.

He also said three people have been arrested in connection with the incident.

Authorities are yet to establish the motive for the kidnapping and where they are keeping the businessman.

Environment Minister January Makamba, a friend of Mr Dewji, tweeted that he had spoken to Mr Dewji’s father and the family confirmed that he had been kidnapped.

Mr Dewji, locally known as Mo, is credited with turning his family business from a wholesale and retail enterprise into a multi-billion dollar pan-African conglomerate.

Forbes estimates that he is worth $1.5bn (£980m).

Thursday's African proverb:

Image source, Getty Images

Click here to send us your African proverbs.

Welcome to the BBC Africa Live page where we'll be keeping you up to date with stories from around the continent.

BBC Africa Live
Farouk Chothia

That's all from BBC Africa Live for now. You can 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 Wednesday's proverb:

Click here to send us your African proverbs.

And we leave you with this photo from Stone Town in Zanzibar:

The ex-wife of former Liberian President Charles Taylor has denied torture charges in a court in London, the Press Association reports.

Agnes Taylor, 52, was arrested in the UK more than a year ago, and appeared in court via video link from Bronzefield prison.

She pleaded not guilty to seven charges of torture and an eighth charge of conspiracy to torture, PA reports.

She is accused of committing the crimes during Liberia's civil war 28 years ago.

Charles Taylor is serving a 50-year sentence in a UK prison for supporting rebels who committed atrocities in neighbouring Sierra Leone.

He served as Liberia's president from 1997 to 2003, when he was forced into exile.

An Egyptian military court has sentenced four militants to death in connection with the killing of 20 police officers.

The court heard the accused were members of a branch of the Islamic State group, and that they had been involved in a series of attacks last year.

Sixteen other defendants were given life sentences.

Hundreds of Egyptian policemen, soldiers and civilians have been killed in jihadi attacks in recent years.

Will Ross
Africa editor, BBC World Service

Image source, Getty Images

A British priest who was accused of sexually abusing a man when he worked with the Catholic Church in South Africa during the 1980s has apologised.

On Tuesday William Segodisho told a press conference in South Africa that Father William MacCurtain had repeatedly sexually abused him when he was a teenager staying in sheltered accommodation in Johannesburg.

He said he wanted the priest to stand trial in South Africa.

In a statement William MacCurtain, 84, said he deeply regretted the pain he had caused Mr Segodisho and apologised to him unreservedly.

A statement from the Catholic Jesuit order said Father MacCurtain was suffering from a number of chronic medical conditions and was in a Jesuit nursing facility in the UK.

See previous post

Manuel Toledo
BBC Africa

Image source, Getty Images

We've asked our followers on BBC Africa's Facebook page to suggest a new nickname for the Squirrels, Benin's football team.

The Benin Football Federation (FBF) says it is looking for a nickname that is respectable and evocative.

Well, these are the suggestions we've received:

Others have suggested nicknames such as the Giant Slayers, the Egrets of Benin, the Dragons of Benin, the Voodoo Boys and even the Snails of Benin Republic, the Cockroaches, the Fleas, the Bedbug Termite Warriors and the Microbes - names the Squirrels, no doubt, won't be impressed with.

Other users are saying that Benin is not the only country that should change its national team’s nickname.

Muligisa Isaac says that "Uganda should change from the humble crested Cranes to something evocative" and Lodrick Kenneth Makhubele from Zambia argues that the Squirrels is actually "a far better name" than South Africa's Bafana Bafana, which in Zulu literally means "The boys, The boys".

Mbonambi Cat Sibusiso from South Africa agrees, and George Sejaphala Tumi, from Ghana, suggests that Bafana Bafana should be renamed the Rhinos.

And what do you think? Which other teams should change their names? Please leave your suggestions on BBC Africa's Facebook page:

Image source, AFP

About 75 decomposed bodies have been found in a mass grave in a former stronghold of the Islamic State (IS) group in Libya, an official has been quoted by AFP news agency saying.

The bodies were discovered in an agriculture area west of Sirte, the coastal city's municipal council spokesman, Mohamad al-Amial, told AFP.

IS captured Sirte - the birthplace of former leader Muammar Gaddafi - in 2015 being driven out the following year by rival forces.

Mr Amial said the grave had been found a few days ago, and the bodies were thought to be of IS members, AFP reported.

Sirte was heavily bombed by Nato forces during it campaign to oust Col Muammar Gaddafi. It was also badly hit by fighting after his overthrow and death in 2011.

Mohamed Fajah Barrie
BBC Sport, Freetown

The Confederation of African Football (Caf) has called off Sierra Leone's back-to-back Africa Cup of Nations qualifying matches with Ghana.

Caf said the matches were cancelled as Sierra Leone did not meet conditions for the lifting of the Fifa-imposed suspension of the country's FA.

Fifa acted because of sanctions imposed on the SLFA President Isha Johansen and General Secretary Christopher Kamara.

They have denied any wrongdoing and Fifa demanded their reinstatement.

Read the full BBC story here

Image source, Alamy

Around the world, the illegal wildlife trade is having a devastating effect on many species of animal. Targeting profits made by those involved could help protect them.

Animals - both dead and alive - are being bought and sold on an industrial scale as food, pets, medicines and even ornaments.

The trade affects a huge range of species from great apes to helmeted hornbills, but arguably none more so than the pangolin.

These unusual-looking creatures are prized in some countries for their meat and scales and are thought to be the world's most trafficked mammal, with about 100,000 a year snatched from the wild and sent to Vietnam and China.

Global attention is often focused on species such as elephants and rhinos - and in many countries the populations of these animals has plummeted. In Tanzania, for example, elephant numbers fell by 60% from 109,000 in 2009, to just over 43,000 in 2014, according to government figures, external.

The hidden driver behind this trade is a basic one: the pursuit of profit.

Read the full story here

Louise Dewast
Kinshasa, DR Congo

Image source, Reuters

The authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo have introduced new measures to ensure people comply with efforts to contain the deadly Ebola virus.

Health workers in the city of Beni will now be able to get police escorts when taking bodies for burial.

Last week, mourners attacked three Red Cross volunteers who insisted on the swift removal of bodies.

The health ministry also says medical workers and traditional healers will be banned from practising any form of medicine if they fail to immediately refer all suspected Ebola cases to the official treatment centre.

A total of 118 people are thought to have died during this latest outbreak.

Oluwashina Okeleji
BBC Sport

Image source, Getty Images

The Benin Football Federation (FBF) would like to change the name of its national team from the Squirrels to something evocative and respectable.

Les Ecureuils, translates into English as The Squirrels, was coined in the 1960's - apparently to reflect a small nation aiming to climb high.

But the country's football governing body feels that it is time for a change in order to reflect the team's ambitions.

"There is no need to pretend that the national team's nickname of "Squirrels" is liked by all parties involved in the team set up," an FBF statement read.

"The name given to the national team must resonate with the population and reflect our strong ambitions in the sporting world," it added.

Read the full story here

Image source, AFP

Tunisia's parliament has approved a law to criminalise racist speech and incitement to hatred, in a move aimed at protecting the mainly Arab nation's black population, AFP news agency reports.

"This is a very important turning point in the history of Tunisia, equivalent to the abolition of slavery," the head of the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights, Messaoud Romdhani, was quoted as saying.

"It's a giant step, but there's still a lot of work to be done to make this law a reality in a society where there is racism against the 10% of black Tunisians and sub-Saharan Africans who suffer from insults and sometimes violent attacks," Mr Romdhani added.

In August, a woman from Ivory Coast was assaulted after she responded to insults, AFP says.

Under the law, a person convicted of using racist language could be sentenced to a year in prison and and fined about $350 (£265).

The law was passed with the backing of 125 MPs. One voted against it and five abstained, AFP reports.

Julius Obwona is a Ugandan ranger who faces danger every day to protect the wildlife in Murchison Falls National Park in the north-east of the country.

He's recently been awarded the Tusk Wildlife Ranger Award, external for putting his life on the line for more than two decades.

He's been talking to BBC Newsday's Lawrence Pollard about his motivation and the changes that he's seen to the survival rate of the animals in this park over the past 20 years.

Wazir Khamsin
BBC Africa, Nairobi

Two non-Muslim high school teachers were killed on Tuesday night when an explosive device was thrown at their house, setting it on fire, in the Kenyan town of Lafey in north-eastern Mandera County, police say.

Police reservists engaged the attackers - believed to be from militant Islamist group al-Shabab - who then fled.

Police are now hunting for the attackers.

Situated on the Kenyan-Somalia border, Mandera county has experienced regular attacks targeting non-locals, many of whom are non-Muslims, working in the area.

Earlier this year, four quarry workers were killed by suspected al-Shabab militants in Mandera county.

The attack comes amid protests by the teachers’ union against the hiring of non-local teachers in the region.

Image source, AFP

Leading fast-food chains in Zimbabwe have shut their doors as the cash crunch in the country worsens - just two months after President Emmerson Mnangagwa won elections.

KFC put up notices at its branches in the capital, Harare, and the second city, Bulawayo, saying they would remain closed "during these difficult times" until further notice.

"This is due to the fact that we are unable to source stock from our suppliers as they require US dollars. We are doing everything possible to resume trade as soon as possible," the notice said.

St Elmos pizza outlet said it had shut its branches for the same reason, adding that it would use the time to do some deep cleaning and repairs:

Chicken Inn ran out of chicken, external on Tuesday, and it was unclear when they will get supplies again, the state-run Chronicle newspaper reported.

Some phramacies were also shut in Bulawayo, it added.

Last week, Zimbabwe's Financial Gazette newspaper reported that many retail shops were running out of some essential goods because of foreign currency shortages.

Zimbabwe abandoned its own currency in 2009, adopting the use of foreign cash, including the US dollar.

The government issued its own version of dollars called "bond notes" in 2016 to ease the continuing cash shortage, but they have rapidly lost their value.

Read: Hustling for cash

Low income countries spend on average just 0.5% of their health budgets on mental health, according to the World Health Organization.

In Ghana, that means there is just one psychiatrist to treat every 1.2m people.

Many people with mental health problems therefore turn to "prayer camps" and traditional healing centres for help. Despite a government ban, many of these institutions use chains to restrain their residents., external

A BBC investigation has found that, in one case, a prayer camp is now putting those with mental health issues in cages.

Reporter: Sulley Lansah

Producer: Annie Duncanson

Filming and editing: Christian Parkinson