A senior adviser to the Democratic Republic of Congo's President Joseph Kabila says he accepts opposition leader Felix Tshisekedi's victory in heavily disputed elections, Reuters news agency reports.

"Of course we are not happy as our candidate lost, but the Congolese people have chosen and democracy has triumphed," Barnabe Kikaya Bin Karubi told Reuters.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, AFP

Opposition candidate Felix Tshisekedi has been declared the provisional winner of last month's presidential election in the Democratic Republic of Congo, with almost 39% of the vote.

Mr Tshisekedi, who's leader of the country's largest opposition party, told cheering supporters that he would serve as president of all Congolese.

But the man who had led the opinion polls, Martin Fayulu, has rejected the result, calling it an electoral coup.

He asked where Mr Tshisekedi's votes had come from and called on election observers, including the Roman Catholic church, to publish the real results.

Our proverb of the day:

Click here to send us your African proverbs

Welcome to BBC Africa Live where we will bring you the latest news and analysis from around the continent - including the historic declaration of an opposition candidate as the "provisional winner" of the fiercely contested presidential election in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

BBC Africa Live
Clare Spencer

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.

A reminder of today's wise words:

Click here and scroll to the bottom to send us your African proverbs.

And we leave you with this enigmatic picture by Congolese photographer Nzaou Robert

Thomas Naadi
BBC Africa, Accra

Ghana’s Supreme Court has issued an arrest warrant for the CEO of gold dealership Menzgold, Nana Appiah Mensah, for alleged fraud by "false pretense".

Menzgold allegedly promised customers a return of 7.5% monthly on gold they deposited with them - way above the international average, reports Ghana's privately owned My Joy Online, external.

But customers said they didn't receive the promised money and on Tuesday more than 100 of them protested outside the Menzgold office in the second city, Kumasi.

The protesters, wearing red and burning tyres, were demanding their money back.

Image source, Hafiz Tijani

Image source, Hafiz Tijani

Mr Appiah Mensah, popularly known as NAM 1, has not yet commented.

He is currently out of Ghana and his whereabouts are unknown.

People in the Democratic Republic of Congo are bracing themselves for the result of the presidential election, which was held on 30 December.

The latest indications are that provisional results will be now be released at about 22:00 GMT.

The electoral commission, which had summoned journalists to its headquarters, has told them to return at 23:00 local time.

An al-Jazeera journalist is circumspect about whether the results will be announced then:

The electoral commission was meant to publish results last Sunday but said it needed more time.

Anti-riot police have been deployed in the capital, Kinshasa, reports the BBC's Louise Dewast from the city.

There are widespread concerns that a contested result could spark unrest.

The country's powerful church has called for calm and is asking the authorities to reflect the will of the people in the results.

Russell Padmore
BBC News business correspondent

Image source, Getty Images

Uganda expects to select a company to build a new major road between the capital, Kampala, and Jinja by the end of year.

The £1.5bn (£1.17bn) highway project, which will form part of a regional transport link in East Africa, will be constructed in a public-private partnership.

Uganda will consider four bids, including submissions from Strabag of Germany and China's Communications Construction Company.

The 95km (59-mile) road will be the first built in the country using a public-private partnership (PPP) model, which means the contractor awarded the contract, will design, build and operate the route for 30 years, earning profits by charging tolls before handing it back to the state.

The highway will connect Kampala with Jinja, an industrial town in the east. But it will also be part of a regional transport route connecting the coast of Kenya to landlocked Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan, as well as the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

The Ugandan government has said construction of the road would cost about $1bn, with the contractor paying $600m and the state contributing $400m.

An additional $500m will be needed to fund acquisition of land, debt financing and operating costs.

Projects financed through PPP have run into problems in the region in the past, over government guarantees and arrangements to share revenues.

A church leader has told the BBC that the crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo will be over once the presidential election results are released.

BBC Africa editor Fergal Keane tweets:

The delayed results for the 30 December are now expected later on Wednesday, the AFP quotes the electoral commission as saying.

Tanzanian President John Magufuli has ordered the central bank to create a gold reserve, reports the AFP news agency.

"We should start buying gold, the central bank must invest in this," Mr Magufuli is quoted as saying in the main city, Dar es Salaam.

"We must have our reserves in dollars but also our reserves in gold, because gold is money."

The move is part of his drive to better control mineral exports, AFP adds.

Mr Magufuli is reported as saying that mineral smugglers considered Tanzania to be "an immense country brimming with minerals, with gold, with everything, but a territory of people who are asleep".

In 2017 the Tanzanian government gave Gold miner Acacia a $190bn (£149bn) bill for what it said was unpaid taxes for understating its gold exports - something Acacia said was untrue.

Image source, Acacia mining

The Democratic Republic of Congo's voting supervisors signalled they would issue results later on Wednesday from last month's presidential election, the AFP news agency reports.

"Publication of provisional results from presidential elections, Wednesday 9 January," said a large banner placed in the press room of the Independent National Election Commission (Ceni), where journalists are expected later.

Mohanad Hashim
BBC Africa

Two opposing camps have taken to the streets of Sudan's capital, Khartoum, and its twin city Omdurman.

Several hundred people gathered in Green Square to pledge their support and allegiance for embattled President Omar al-Bashir, who is facing the strongest popular challenge to his nearly 30 years in power.

The crowd was mostly made up of ruling party personnel and civil servants bussed in to cheer the 75-year-old leader.

Image source, Reuters

This was the president's first public address in Khartoum since the anti-government protests began in the northern town of Atbara on 19 December.

The president appeared on stage with his wife Wedad Babkier standing a few steps behind him.

He repeated his accusations that outsiders were behind the protests and praised the army and security forces for their “humane” handling of the demonstrators.

The president also held up Syria as a warning, saying instability would make them refugees.

Meanwhile, across the Nile from Khartoum in the city of Omdurman, the largest anti-government demonstration so far is taking place.

Activists posted videos and images of their marches:

Running battles have been going on with the security forces, who have fired live ammunition and tear gas to try and block the protesters from reaching parliament.

Nigeria's military has released an editor of the respected Daily Trust newspaper after detaining him on Sunday over an article about a planned offensive to recapture territory lost to militant Islamists in the north-east in recent weeks.

Uthman Abubakar had been treated "courteously" during his detention, but his mobile phones and laptop were still with the military, Daily Trust editor-in-chief Mannir Dan-Ali said in a statement.

"They told him that they needed time to finish the forensic checks they are carrying out on the equipment,” Dan-Ali added.

Abubakar is the newspaper's regional editor in the north-eastern city of Maiduguri, the epicentre of the Boko Haram insurgency.

Image source, Daily Trust

The military defended the raids on the Daily Trust's offices in Maiduguri and the capital, Abuja, saying the newspaper had "undermined national security".

The newspaper condemned the raids as "unlawful".

The Daily Trust reported on Sunday that the military was planning an offensive to retake control of the fishing town of Baga and other towns, external captured by a Boko Haram offshoot, the Islamic State's West Africa Province (Iswap).

Dan-Ali said the military had also not returned the computers and laptops seized from the newspaper's Abuja office.

Ten-year-old South African Sibahle Zwane is a maths whizz who has become famous on social media for doing incredible arithmetic challenges.

He first gained fame when he was filmed answering complex maths questions from a local policeman.

He even knows the answer to 78,000 x 550.

Watch:

Remember this picture of Gabon's coup plotters from earlier this week?

Image source, AFP

It's taken from this video of soldiers in Gabon taking over the state radio station and urging other soldiers and civilians to "rise up" against the ruling government.

The attempted coup was quickly foiled, but the image has left a lasting impression.

One Togolese tweeter notes that people have been mocking up their own versions of the photo:

Image source, Egypt Ministry of Antiquities

An ancient Egyptian artefact illegally smuggled out of the country has been returned after being displayed at an auction hall in London, officials say.

It was retrieved following searches of international auction websites, Egypt's ministry of antiquities said.

Steps were then taken to stop the sale and withdraw the listing, the ministry added in a Facebook post.

It is not clear how or when the relic, a cartouche of King Amenhotep I, was originally smuggled out of the country.

Read the BBC News story for more.

The presidents of South Africa and Zambia - Cyril Ramaphosa and Edgar Lingu respectively - have held talks about the situation in the Democratic Republic Congo.

Their meeting came amid growing concern that unrest could erupt in DR Congo, following tightly contested presidential elections on 30 December.

The electoral commission has been under pressure from the opposition and local observer groups to release the much-awaited results (see earlier post).

The South African government has tweeted a photo of Mr Ramaphosa's meeting with Mr Lungu:

Image source, Getty Images

Footballer Mohamed Salah believes hosting the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations will revitalise league football in Egypt.

It was announced on Tuesday that the North African country would host the tournament in June as original hosts Cameroon were to slow in their preparations.

"It's the right time for Egypt - as we have to be clear - our league is not a top league in Africa at the moment," said Salah after being crowned 2018 African Footballer of the Year.

"I'm sure this is going to be the start for us to be back."

The tournament will also see fans return to stadiums Egypt in large numbers for the first time since 2012.

"The fans are going to be back in the stadium, and everything is going to be back like before," the Liverpool striker enthused.

Salah received his 2018 Confederation of African Football (Caf) Player of the Yea award at a ceremony in Senegal on Tuesday evening.

His dancing on stage has caused some hilarity on social media:

Another tweeter, @FancyFreddo, added: "They get Mo Salah to do a traditional African dance from the complete other side of Africa. He looks so awkward."

And @StillMagic10 tweeted the video, saying: "When your family forces you to dance at a wedding."

Read more on the BBC Sport website.

Rwandan model and actress Alexia Mupende was killed on Tuesday evening at her father's house.

The 35-year-old showcased Rwanda’s clothing brands on the international scene.

Preliminary reports suggest she died after being stabbed by a domestic worker, Rwanda's private pro-government paper the New Times reports, external.

It has emerged that she was due to get married next month and wedding invitations had been sent out, it says.

Private Ugandan paper the Daily Monitor adds, external that Ms Mupende lived in Kenya, where she was born, Uganda and Rwanda.

It says she did her primary and secondary school education in Kenya and Uganda respectively before moving to Rwanda, where she studied Business Information and Technology.

Image source, AFP

At least 100 camels have died after after drinking contaminated water, reports Kenyan newspaper The Nation, external.

The newspaper adds that the event has plunged the entire village in Marsabit County, near the Kenya-Ethiopia border, "into mourning".

The camels drank water from an abandoned well, veterinary officer Dr Shanda Guyo told The Nation.

He added that samples of the water were being tested to ascertain the exact cause of the deaths.