A university in Nigeria has confirmed an incident where a final year student was attacked and set ablaze for refusing to join a secret society, known as cults.

The student was rescued and is being treated at hospital with serious burn wounds.

On Monday, administrators at Osun State University said that they were working with police to ensure the suspected cultists are arrested.

The university discovered the incident after the student failed to show up for exams. They contacted his parents who said he had been attacked and was being treated at hospital.

Eyewitnesses said they heard the student shout that he would not join the cult before he started screaming for help.

Violence around the cults has been the cause of a lot of concern in Nigerian universities and some schools.

Read more:

• The ultra-violent cult that became a global mafia
• Nigeria's campus cults: Buccaneers, Black Axe and other feared groups

Uganda's opposition leader Robert Kyagulanyi, popularly known as Bobi Wine, has tweeted photos of police and military outside his home ahead of planned campaigns for a by-election in Kayunga district, 55km (34 miles) north-east of the capital, Kampala.

President Yoweri Museveni is also expected to visit Kayunga to campaign for the ruling party's candidate for the district chairperson position.

The by-election is scheduled for Thursday and both the ruling and opposition parties want to show their might.

Bobi Wine has accused the police and military of attempting to block him from leaving his home:

Local media report that police and military have also been deployed to Kayunga ahead of Tuesday's campaigns.

Kayunga was previously a ruling party stronghold until the former chairperson, who died in office, was elected from the opposition.

The ruling party wants to recapture the seat and has promised to elevate the town council to a municipality, Daily Monitor newspaper reports.

Sebastian Usher
BBC Arab Affairs Editor

Image source, AFP

Tunisian President Kais Saied has announced that parliament will remain suspended until fresh elections are held a year from now.

In a national TV address, Mr Saied also laid out plans for a referendum on the constitution next year.

Ever since he froze parliament and dismissed the then prime minister back in July, the Tunisian President Kais Saied has continued to cement his hold on power while stressing that his actions have been necessary to shake a corrupt political status quo and reinvigorate the failing economy.

In a speech last month, Mr Saied talked of purifying state institutions as the only way to purify the country.

To his supporters, this remains a persuasive message - but his opponents still believe that what he has done and is doing amounts to a political coup.

Mr Saied's plan for a public consultation process to begin next month on constitutional reform will either please or further alarm each side in equal measure.

In case his message wasn't clear enough, the president has set the date for a referendum on the constitution to take place next 25 July - exactly a year on from the day he staged his dramatic seizure of full executive power.

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By thinking small vending machine firms are delivering more affordable products for Kenyan shoppers.

A French court clears Koffi Olomidé of rape but convicts him of holding four dancers against their will.

That's all from the BBC Africa Live team for now. We'll be back on Tuesday morning Nairobi time.

Until then there will be an automated service and you can find the latest updates on the BBC News website, or listen to our podcast Africa Today.

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And we leave you with this picture of a swimmer in Zanzibar taken by photographer Sam Vox

BBC World Service

Image source, AFP

An appeals court in France has cleared Congolese rumba musician Koffi Olomidé of sexually assaulting four of his former dancers, but convicted him on a separate charge.

It overturns a ruling from two years ago that had found him guilty of the statutory rape of one of the dancers when she was 15.

Olomidé, though, was given a suspended 18-month sentence for holding the dancers against their will, at a villa outside Paris between 2002 and 2006.

He was also ordered to pay them compensation.

Israel Campos
BBC News

Image source, Getty Images

A statement this weekend by Angola’s President João Lourenço that appeared to downplay the problem of hunger in the country has led to a lot of angry comments on social media.

In a short televised clip, Mr Loureço told supporters of his MPLA party that despite political opponents always complaining about hunger in the country “hunger is relative”.

Mr Lourenço was responding to the criticism that his party, despite decades in government, has failed to deal with poverty and hunger.

“There is talk of hunger and our opponents today wake up in the morning and at night singing a song: ‘Hunger, hunger, hunger.’ Hunger is always relative. The country already has a lot of food production.”

In the first six months of last year alone around 8,500 children died from hunger in Angola, according to data from the National Directorate of Public Health (DNSP), as reported by Novo Jornal, external.

That’s one of the reasons why Mr Loureço’s statements have sparked controversy.

Priest Jacinto Pio Wacussanga, the coordinator of the non-governmental organization Plataforma Sul, told the BBC that he was “shocked” by the statement.

“There is no such thing as relative hunger, there is absolute hunger in Angola,” the religious leader said.

In September this year, the UN's World Food Program estimated, external that more than 1.3 million people in southern Angola were facing “severe hunger as the worst drought in 40 years leaves fields barren, pasture lands dry and food reserves depleted”.

There is confusion over who will be coaching Zimbabwe at the upcoming Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon.

Nichola Mandil
Juba

The World Health Organization (WHO) has said that South Sudan has received in total more than half a million doses of Covid-19 vaccines – some manufactured by Oxford AstraZeneca but most from Johnson & Johnson.The donations to South Sudan have mainly come from the Covid-19 Vaccines Global Access (Covax) initiative and the US government. As a result of these donations, nearly 180,000 South Sudanese out of a population of at least 11 million have been fully vaccinated.

But almost half the doses have not yet been used and there are more to come. “We have a lot of vaccine in our hands – we already have half a million that has reached South Sudan, and by the end of this year or sometime in January, we will have approximately one million doses,” Dr Brendan Dineen, WHO’s Covax Coordinator in South Sudan said.

"We continue to request that people be vaccinated," he added.

Image source, Reuters

Some 250 dogs were shown off by their owners at this weekend's Lagos Dog Carnival where the theme was "back to school". It was the third time the festival had been held.

The Reuters news agency has just filed pictures of some of the pets in fancy dress.

One came in what looks like mirrored skiing goggles, while another donned a ballet tutu.

Image source, Reuters

Another was captured by photographer Seun Sanni wearing a school bag:

Image source, Reuters

"Ever since we started the Lagos Dog Carnival pet owners now take better care of their dogs," organiser Jackie Idimogu told Reuters.

"Our motto is: 'No naked dog is allowed', so owners now dress and groom their dogs better and we have also helped raise awareness on keeping dogs as pets."

Image source, Reuters

Cyril Ramaphosa started feeling unwell on Sunday and has delegated all responsibilities to his deputy.

Ishaq Khalid
BBC News, Abuja

Gunmen have attacked a local market in central Nigeria’s Plateau state killing at least eight people and wounding a number of others.

The raid happened on Sunday evening in the village of Pinau, in Wase area, where people had gathered for the weekly market.

The leader of a youth association in the area, Shafi’i Sambo, told the BBC that 12 people were shot dead during the attack including nine in the market and three others elsewhere in the village.

He says the victims included men, children and a woman.

But the chairman of Wase local government area Ado Abubakar Buba told journalists that eight people were killed, adding that more security personnel had been deployed to the area after the killings.

It’s not yet clear who carried out the attack but armed criminal gangs locally referred to as "bandits" have stepped up attacks in the country, carrying out killings and kidnappings for ransom.

Reports indicate that the area has witnessed a number of kidnappings for ransom recently.

President Muhammadu Buhari’s government is under increasing pressure to do more to end the worsening violence.

Read more: Nigeria's security crises - five different threats

BBC World Service

Sudanese security forces have fired tear gas to disperse protesters in the capital, Khartoum, demanding civilian rule.

Hundreds had gathered near the presidential palace for the latest in a series of weekly protests.

The demonstrators are opposed to the ousting by the military of civilian members of the government in October.

They've also denounced the deal last month that reinstated Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok.

Read more: How Sudan's generals betrayed my generation

Image source, Getty Images

Ousainou Darboe, the man who came second in The Gambia’s presidential election, is challenging the result in court, the Reuters news agency reports his party as saying.

The incumbent, President Adama Barrow, was re-elected on 4 December taking a 53% share of the vote. Mr Darboe got 28% of votes.

This was the first presidential poll in the country since long-time president Yahya Jammeh fled the country in 2017.

Mr Darboe and two other candidates - Mama Kandeh and Essa Mbye Faal - issued a joint statement before the final result was declared, questioning the figures.

They said they were concerned at delays and that their party agents had raised a number of issues.

"After our executive meeting on Friday with our lawyers we have decided to file a petition today at the Supreme Court," Reuters quotes Almamy Taal, who speaks for Mr Darboe's United Democratic party, as saying.

Thomas Naadi
BBC Ghana correspondent

Image source, AFP

Authorities in Ghana have said that airlines which fly unvaccinated foreign nationals into the country will be fined $3,500 (£2,600) per passenger.

Airlines also need to make sure that people fill in the required health declaration form.

The new directive which takes effect on Tuesday is intended to stop the spread of the Omicron variant of Covid-19.

The fine is aimed at strengthening the ban on foreign visitors who have not received the coronavirus vaccine from entering Ghana, which came into effect on Monday.

Ghanaian citizens and residents abroad are exempt from the ban for the next two weeks, but will be required to get jabbed upon landing at the airport.

The authorities say they are concerned about a surge of infections over the festive period.

All travellers have to provide proof of a negative PCR test result conducted within 72 hours of departure and will also be tested at the airport on arrival.

Ghana has vaccinated less than 10% of its 30 million population.

The authorities have said that next month the vaccine will be made compulsory for targeted groups including government employees, health workers and students.

In the last two weeks, Covid-19 cases recorded at the airport accounted for 60% of the total cases in the country, the authorities say.

Image source, Ugandan Army

The president of the Democratic Republic of Congo has tried to reassure people that the intervention of Ugandan troops in the east of the country will be limited, the Reuters news agency reports.

Ugandan and Congolese soldiers have been involved in a joint operation against the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) for almost two weeks.

The ADF was founded in Uganda but was forced out of the country in the first decade of the century.

A spate of bombings in Uganda attributed to the ADF triggered the Ugandan intervention.

But concerns have been raised in DR Congo as on previous occasions when Ugandan troops entered the country, they were accused of looting and human rights abuses.

"I will ensure that the presence of Ugandan troops on our soil is limited to the time strictly necessary for this operation," Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi is quoted by Reuters as saying in a state of the union address.

For its part, Uganda has said that it would stay in DR Congo for as long as it took to defeat the ADF, Reuters reports.

Read more:

• Why Ugandan troops have entered DR Congo - again

Guinea and Sudan name caretaker coaches to lead their teams at January's Africa Cup of Nations finals in Cameroon.

Image source, AFP

Early figures from South Africa, where the Omicron coronavirus variant was first identified, suggest it causes a far lower rate of serious illness and death than previous waves of the pandemic.

Shabir Madhi, a professor of vaccinology, told the BBC's Newsday programme that this was despite the fact that the new variant was far more transmissible.

He predicted that the number of people who end up in hospital would be nowhere near that of earlier stages of the outbreak.

He said there seemed to be an uncoupling of a high case rate and the number of hospitalisations and deaths.

"There is going to be some people that are going to end up in hospital and die of Covid-19. But that is not going to come any way close to what we had experienced during the course of the first three waves," he said.

The Omicron variant was first reported to the WHO from South Africa on 24 November. Countries around the world responded by restricting travel from southern Africa.

More on this topic:

• South Africans fear impact of new variant measures
• How worrying is the new Covid variant?