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Kenya's government plans to restrict access to online pornographic sites in a bid to reduce pregnancies among schoolchildren, Information Minister Joseph Mucheru has told the BBC Focus on Africa radio programme.

His comments came amid growing concern in Kenya about teenage pregnancies. Between July 2016 and June 2017, the Kenyan health ministry recorded almost 350,000 pregnancies in the 15 to 19 age group.

He has ordered the communication regulator to see how children and teenagers can be blocked from watching pornographic sites, Mr Mucheru said.

The government would not want to "condone" children and teenagers accessing pornophrapy online, even if it was not linked to pregnancies.

Read more: Is teenage pregnancy in Kenya really on the rise?

Image source, Confidential - supplied to CAR

Weapons exported from the European Union (EU) have reached different sides in South Sudan’s civil war despite a longstanding EU embargo, a four-year investigation by UK researchers has found.

A Conflict Armament Research (CAR) report shows how Sudan and Uganda have been used to transfer military supplies and equipment into the country, where conflict erupted in 2013 killing tens of thousands of people and driving four million people from their homes.

Both countries are key sponsors of the latest peace agreement, signed in September, and there are plans for them to contribute peacekeeping soldiers to a regional protection force in South Sudan.

James Bevan, from Conflict Armament Research, said in a statement:

Other findings in the report include:

• South Sudan arranged for the Ugandan government to provide “end-user assurances for purchases of weapons and ammunition from EU-exporting states”
• Commercial intermediaries and individuals are identified - in one case, a network of companies, with affiliates in Israel, Uganda and the US, exported a military aircraft from America which was then supplied to the national army, “along with a European-made surveillance aircraft”
• Sudanese and Chinese-manufactured weapons were secretly delivered to opposition fighters by air and land via Sudan
• Reveals failed efforts by opposition fighters from Europe-based arms dealers and a turboprop aircraft from US and Somali businessmen.

Conflict Armament Research says 99% of ammunition found by it researchers came from China – some of it legally supplied, some illegally via Sudan.

One of the report's conclusions reads:

The researchers have also published searchable photographic and identification records of all of the weapons and ammunition documented in South Sudan accessible online at www.itrace.com, external.

Milton Nkosi
BBC Africa, Johannesburg

Image source, AFP

US star Oprah Winfrey has urged young South Africans to never give up on their dreams.

She was speaking at an event in South Africa's famous Soweto township to celebrate the life of anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela, 100 years after his birth.

In a speech repeatedly punctuated by applause, Winfrey cited Mandela as an inspiration, pointing out that 27 years in prison had denied him the opportunity to raise his children but he had still managed to raise a nation.

She added:

She recalled that Mr Mandela had once invited her to live with him, saying:

Mandela was South Africa's first black president, and died in 2013 at the age of 95.

Image source, EPA

Several thousand opposition supporters have marched through Zimbabwe's capital, Harare, to protest against the deepening economic crisis, and to demand that a transitional government run the country following President Emmerson Mngangwa's victory in disputed elections in July.

Addressing the crowd, defeated presidential candidate Nelson Chamisa said Zimbabweans had not expected living conditions to deteriorate after the ousting of long-serving ruler Robert Mugabe last year.

He said:

The protest was the first since a deadly crackdown by the security forces on opposition supporters who rejected Mr Mnangagwa's victory in the poll as fraudulent.

Mr Chamisa called for the formation of a transitional government to map the way forward, adding:

Image source, EPA

BBC World Service

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The leaders of Chad, Nigeria, Niger and the Central African Republic are meeting in the Chadian capital, N'Djamena, to discuss the worsening security situation in areas under attack by Boko Haram militants.

The one-day summit will examine ways to bolster the capability of the Multinational Joint Task Force fighting the Islamist insurgents.

The president of Benin - whose country contributes troops to the force - has also been invited.

The UN estimates that more than two million people have been displaced by the crisis in the Lake Chad region, as a result of violent conflict, climate change and extreme poverty.

BBC Sport

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Senegal replaced Tunisia as the highest ranked African national team when the monthly statistics were released by football's world governing body Fifa on Thursday., external

The Teranga Lions rose from second place in the rankings following their 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying victory in Equatorial Guinea earlier this month.

Tunisia lost away to Egypt in the same competition, and were also beaten at home by Morocco in a friendly.

Mauritania, who qualified for the Nations Cup for the first time in their history, were among the African teams to go up in the rankings.

They rose by three places in the world and are just outside the top 20 African nations.

Read the full BBC story here

Cheris Avila now stars in midfield for Kenya's women's football team. However her football ability helped her secure an education earlier in life.

She was top scorer at an under-14s tournament, and the organiser offered to pay for her school fees.

Without it, she says her parents would not have been able to afford to send her to high school.

Time is running out to vote for your BBC African Footballer of the Year 2018. Have your say at bbc.com/africanfootball. Voting closes on Sunday 2 December.

Gunmen have shot a senior police officer at his home in Cameroon's main English-speaking city, Bamenda, respected local journalist Peter Tah has tweeted.

Separatists are suspected to have been behind the attack but there is no independent confirmation of this, he adds.

Mainly French-speaking Cameroon is the latest African state to be hit by conflict, with some English-speaking Cameroonians taking up arms to demand an independent state in the North-West and South-West.

Read: Red Dragons and Tigers fight for independence

Osob Elmi
BBC News

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Salif Keita, one of Africa's biggest musical stars, is giving up making albums so he can spend more time fighting the stigma that some fellow albinos in Africa face, his wife has told the BBC.

Coumba Makalou Keita said the 69-year-old had made the decision after completing his last album Un Autre Blanc (Another White), which was released earlier this month.

Mrs Keita runs the musician’s Salif Keita Global Foundation, set up to support people with albinism in their home country of Mali and other African nations, and she says her husband wants to spend time promoting its work.

People with albinism - a genetic condition leading to a lack pigment in their skin - are hunted down in several African countries, including Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania because of the belief that potions made from their body parts can bring good luck and wealth.

Mrs Keita told the BBC:

The foundation is based in the US, but provides grants for health services and legal assistance for those at risk of persecution - and distributes hundreds of tubes of sunscreen, sunglasses and hats each year.

Mrs Keita said:

When he is in the process of making an album, it eats up a huge about of his time, she says.

“He writes and composes all his own music.”

Image source, Getty Images

Born into an aristocratic Malian family, Keita - known as “the golden voice of Africa” - has dedicated much of his music to promoting the rights of people with albinism.

Mrs Keita said:

He launched the album in the town of Fana, 126km (78 miles) east of Mali’s capital, Bamako, where a five-year-old girl with albinism, Ramata Diarra, was ritually killed and beheaded in May.

He dedicated the concert to Ramata - and the shocking murder prompted him to take his activism more seriously.

Keita has been a fighter since he was young - disowned by his father for choosing music as his career he has become one Africa's most influential musicians with his unique style of blending a range of local African music with popular genres such as jazz, rhythm and blues.

His wife says his retirement from album making won’t mean he’ll stop performing altogether, but it will give him more time to concentrate on another of his surprising interests - farming.

Seven Indian nationals are being held captive in western Ethiopia by local workers demanding their salaries, media reports say.

The seven work for an Indian firm building roads in Ethiopia.

Local staff have allegedly held the seven for the last five days because they had not been paid salaries, the Ethiopia Observer reported.

One of the seven, Chaitanya Hari, was quoted by India's The Hindu newspaper as saying:

Another captive tweeted:

The company has not yet commented.

Tesfalem Araia
BBC Tigrinya

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Legendary Ethiopia long distance runner Haile Gebrselassie says the job of heading the Ethiopian Athletics Federation gave him high blood pressure.

After serving just more than two years of a four-year term, he resigned from the post earlier this month after some athletes expressed dissatisfaction with his leadership, and refused to shake hands at a medal ceremony.

“When I came to this positon, there were challenges that needed to be addressed. My motivation was to satisfy the athletes and respond to their questions. If I can’t do that why stay there?” he told BBC Africa Sport.

“I committed my knowledge, energy, time, and money for this purpose to the extent it caused me [high] blood pressure. There is none in our family with blood pressure,” he added.

Commenting on the doping scandals that have hit some East African athletes, he said:

Haile won two Olympic gold medals in Atlanta and Sydney, smashed records, and won many championships.

He retired from running in 2015.

Image source, Getty Images

Several Maasai rites of passage are to be protected by the UN's cultural body, Unesco, which has declared them "intangible cultural heritage in need of urgent safeguarding".

Inclusion on the list attracts international support and co-operation thereby helping communities to conserve their cultural practices and traditions.

Three male rites of Kenya's Maasai community are to be given protected status, external - they are Enkipaata, the induction of boys leading to initiation, Eunoto, the shaving of the 'warriors' - known as morans - that paves the way to adulthood, and Olng’esherr, the meat-eating ceremony that marks the end of moranism and the beginning of eldership, Unesco said.

It added:

Also listed by Unesco as "in need of urgent safeguarding" in Thursdays' announcement are a form ofEgyptian hand puppetry , externaland Algeria's water measurers, known as foggaras, external.

BBC Sport

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The 2018 African Champions League semi-finalists, Primeiro de Agosto of Angola, came from two goals behind to beat Otoho of Congo 4-2 in a 2019 preliminary round first leg on Wednesday.

Cabwey Kivutuka and Mandala Konte scored within four minutes midway through the opening half to rattle the home side in Luanda.

Mongo Bile ignited Primeiro's revival with a goal on the half-hour and star winger Geraldo equalised before half-time from the penalty spot.

Geraldo scored again on 61 minutes to put Primeiro ahead and Democratic Republic of Congo-born Jacques Bitumba grabbed a potentially crucial fourth goal a minute from time.

Read the full story here

About 200 stalls have been destroyed by a huge fire which ripped through a market in Cameroon's main English-speaking city, Bamenda, reports BBC Afrique's Frederic Takang from the scene.

The cause of the fire at the Food Market is unclear.

The government blamed a fire at the market last year on separatists demanding independence for Cameroon's English-speaking regions. The separatists say English-speaking Cameroonians face discrimination, and are fed up of being part of a country ruled for more than 35 years by French-speaking President Paul Biya.

The government accuses the separatists of being "terrorists" threatening the central African state's unity.

Read more: The city where men are scared to wear red

Gabon's President Ali Bongo has arrived in Morocco to recuperate after a month in hospital in Saudi Arabia, the AFP news agency is quoting an unnamed Moroccan official as saying.

See previous post

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Gabon's President Ali Bongo, who has been in hospital in Saudi Arabia for more than a month, left Riyadh on Wednesday, the state-linked Saudi Press Agency reports.

The 59-year-old was seen off by the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Nizar bin Obaid Madani, it added.

On Tuesday, Sylvia Bongo said her husband would be transferred to Morocco because of a "significant improvement" in his health.

He is thought to have suffered a stroke, but no official explanation has been given of his illness.

Image source, Getty Images

Nigeria's militant Islamist group Boko Haram has started to use drones, the army has said, in a clear sign that the jihadists have become increasingly sophisticated to garner intelligence on the movement of troops.

In a statement, the army said it had noticed "daring moves" by the militants, including the "increased use of drones against our defensive positions" and the swelling of its ranks by foreign fighters.

"These potent threats require us to continually review our operations," the statement added.

This is the first time the military has confirmed reports which surfaced last year that Boko Haram has strengthened its capabilities by acquiring drones.

See earlier post: Buhari calls crisis security meeting

The Gambia's government has paid out $100,000 (£78,000) in compensation to the family of journalist Chief Ebrima Manneh who has been missing since his detention by the former regime of Yahya Jammeh in 2006, a local journalist has tweeted:

Mr Jammeh's regime had refused to implement a 2008 order of a court run by the Economic Community of Western African States to pay compensation to Manneh's family.

He was among the journalists who had become a symbol of the brutal repression the media faced during Mr Jammeh's 22-year rule, which ended with the opposition leader Adama Barrow taking office in January 2017.

It is widely assumed that Manneh is dead. Mr Jammeh's regime denied he had been detained.

Read: 'I was tortured in The Gambia'

Ishaq Khalid
BBC Africa, Abuja

Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari has called an emergency summit of regional leaders to discuss escalating attacks by militant Islamist group Boko Haram.

The summit will look at ways to strengthen the multi-national force set up regional states to fight the militants, Mr Buhari's office said in a statement.

Image source, Getty Images

The presidents of Chad, Cameroon, Niger, the Central African Republic (CAR) and Benin are expected to attend the meeting in Chad's capital, N'Djamena.

The militants have killed about 40 soldiers and abducted more than 50 civilians in north-eastern Nigeria, and seized at least 15 children in neighbouring Niger in the last two weeks.

Kenyan police helped two of their colleagues to escape by firing warning shots at anti-corruption officers who had detained them as part of an investigation into allegations that they had demanded a bribe from a foreigner, the anti-corruption commission has said.

The two officers, who work for the Directorate of Criminal Investigations, were arrested in the capital, Nairobi, on Wednesday evening in a sting operation which saw anti-corruption investigators offer them 100,000 Kenyan shillings ($975; £760), the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) said.

The officers had been handcuffed "but were rescued by their colleagues from Kabete Police Station who fired several rounds of ammunition as warning shots to facilitate the escape", the EACC added on its Twitter account.

A manhunt has been launched for the suspects, it said.

Police have not yet commented on the allegations. Twitter users, though, have been swift in their response:

That seems like a swipe at the anti-corruption commission, which announced last month that it intends to use the Bible to deter theft of public funds.

• Read more: Kenya's Bible plan to tackle corruption