Jose Tembe
BBC News, Maputo

Image source, AFP

At least 600 women and girls have been kidnapped and enslaved in the last three years by militants in Mozambique northern province of Cabo Delgado, a report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) says.

The IS-linked militant group - known as Al Sunnah wa Jama'ah (ASWJ) or al-Shabab - forced younger, healthy-looking, and lighter-skinned women and girls in their custody to "marry" their fighters, who enslave and sexually abuse them, the rights group report says.

Some of the abductees have been sold to foreign fighters for between $600 to $1,800 (£452 to £1,350). Others have been released after their families paid ransom, while another group has been freed following a military offensive led by government troops and regional forces.

HRW called on the militants to release those still being held.

The rights body conducted its investigations between August 2019 and October 2021, its findings are based on interviews of former abductees, their relatives, security sources, and government officials, as well as media reports.

Vumani Mkhize
BBC Africa Business

Image source, get

South Africa’s gross domestic product has shrunk by 1.5% in the third quarter, ending a period of four consecutive quarters of tentative growth.

The looting and unrest that rocked parts of the country in July had a direct bearing on the contraction.

The civil unrest saw many businesses in the KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng provinces come to a complete standstill, decimating economic activity.

The biggest contributors to the drop in GDP are trade, manufacturing and agriculture.

Household spending is also constrained and is exacerbated by record unemployment which is at 35%.

Current economic activity is only at 2016 levels, a clear indication of the devastating effects the Covid-19 pandemic has had on the economy.

The Confederation of African Football refutes rumours that the venue and dates of next month's Nations Cup in Cameroon could change.

Authorities are calling the incident a "shooting spree", in which the killer also took his own life.

Emmanuel Igunza
BBC News, Nairobi

Image source, AFP

Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed says the "enemy will be destroyed soon" while announcing the recapture by federal troops of areas previously held by Tigray rebel forces.

Speaking on the front line, he said the rebel Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) fighters had sustained serious casualties when the government recaptured strategic towns in Amhara region.

But the TPLF say they strategically withdrew from the areas.

Just a few days ago, the rebel fighters said they were marching to the capital Addis Ababa and on the cusp of victory.

Mr Abiy says government troops have retaken strategic towns in Amhara and Afar region that had been held by rebel forces for more than a month.

Dressed in military fatigues, he said many TPLF fighters had surrendered as his troops continued the operation to liberate more towns.

It is believed that the use of drones and a massive recruitment of soldiers have turned the tide in favour of the government.

The year-long conflict has created a huge humanitarian crisis with thousands killed and at least eight million people in urgent need of assistance.

Image source, Reuters

President Cyril Ramaphosa has revealed that he was at end of “patronising” and “disrespectful” phone calls from European officials alerting him of a travel ban after South Africa reported the discovery of the a new Covid-19 variant in the country, news site EWN reports., external

"The European leaders said: 'I am sorry to tell you we are banning travel, thank you, goodbye'," Mr Ramaphosa recounted in a speech on Monday in Senegal's capital, Dakar.

He added there was no attempt to hear South Africa's point of view about the Omicron variant.

“We as Africans are respectful. We have always been - and maybe that is where our mistake is and why we were colonised in the way we were colonised because we respect too much, and we say 'respect us as well'," Mr Rampahosa said.

EU Council chief Charles Michel, who was also present at the Senegal Peace and Security Forum event, did not address Mr Ramaphosa's comments but said suggesting there was medical apartheid in the handling of the pandemic was “dramatic”.

Jose Tembe
BBC News, Maputo

More than two million people in Mozambique are at risk of acute hunger, the government has said.

This is more critical in the jihadist-hit northern province of Cabo Delgado where 932,136 people are at risk.

Maputo city has the lowest number of people at risk at 58,242.

The UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation and the World Food Programme had earlier warned of a rise in acute food insecurity between August and November.

The UN estimates that around 1.4 million people could face food insecurity in the far north.

The situation may become critical due to the violence caused by the insurgency and recurrent natural events, it says.

Abdi Dahir
BBC Monitoring, Nairobi

The Somali electoral commission has nullified the election results for two parliamentary seats in the South West state after claims of rigging.

Former parliamentary speaker Mohamed Osman Jawari was blocked from competing for one of the seats whose results were nullified.

The election implementation team said it was also investigating more cases of election irregularities in the central Galmudug state and would soon make a decision.

Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble lauded the decision by the election commission to nullify the results for the contentious seats, according to state-owned Somali National TV.

The opposition presidential candidates have said they will resist the ongoing electoral process in the country.

The alliance of opposition candidates, which includes two former presidents and a former prime minister, recently said it will boycott and resist the ongoing parliamentary elections in the country, alleging corruption and fraud.

Bernard Bankukira
BBC Great Lakes

Image source, Twitter/Arthémon Ndayisaba

Many prisoners are feared dead after a fire broke out in the main prison in Burundi's capital, Gitega, on Tuesday.

Images shared online show bodies of people thought to be prisoners.

Authorities in Burundi haven’t yet released any details about the incident.

A journalist from a private media house located near the prison says firefighters entered the prison, but a big part of the facility had already been burnt.

With a capacity of hosting 400 prisoners, Gitega prison holds 1,539 inmates as of last month, according to the Christian Association Against Torture (ACAT-Burundi).

“Many nurses from Gitega hospital were mobilised and we saw them entering the prison to help,” he told BBC Great Lakes.

A prisoner who survived the fire told the BBC that the fire broke at around 04:00 local time while many inmates were still asleep.

The cause of the fire is not yet known.

In late August, an electric fault caused a fire in a section of the prison, but no casualties were recorded.

A profile of BBC African Sports Personality of the Year 2021 nominee Faith Kipyegon.

A story of integration from Germany, we heard from the first Black woman to win a seat in the country’s Federal parliament. Awet Tesfaiesus from the Greens Party said a racist attack on foreign looking people in bars in 2020 led her to get involved in politics.

Picture: Member of the Greens (Die Gruenen) party Awet Tesfaiesus at a constituent session of Germany's parliament at the Bundestag in Berlin. Credit: John MacDougall / AFP.

Image source, AFP

A Kenyan police officer shot dead his wife and five other people before turning the gun on himself in a shocking incident in Kabete town outside the capital Nairobi.

Neighbours say they heard gunshots in the early hours of Tuesday coming from Benson Imbasi's house.

After killing his wife, he walked out of his home and shot at seven other people. Five of them died and two are being treated at the national referral hospital, witnesses say.

Imbasi then shot himself in the neck and died on the spot, according to a police report.

The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) says the "rogue" policeman had been "wielding an AK-47 assault riffle".

It said three young men and a motorcycle rider at the local market were among those people who were killed. A body of a woman was also found at the scene.

The police have launched an investigation into the matter.

They also tweeted about the incident:

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has warned that the coronavirus Omicron variant is driving a fourth wave of infections in the country and that there's been a five-fold increase in numbers over the past week. He described the situation as “concerning”.

Professor Willem Hanekom is Director of the Africa Health Research Institute (AHRI) and current co-chair of one of South Africa’s Covid-19 variant research consortiums. He says the variant had prompted a surge in people registering for vaccinations adding: “We think the vaccines are still likely to work against severe disease and death”.

Picture: A woman receives a dose of Covid-19 vaccine following the detection of the new Omicron variant, at a vaccination station in Cape Town, South Africa. Credit: Xabiso Mkhabela/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images.

Image source, Getty Images

The United States has imposed sanctions on a Democratic Republic of Congo national and 12 companies linked to him for allegedly providing support to blacklisted Israeli businessman Dan Gertler.

The US Treasury in a statement, external said Alain Mukonda opened bank accounts and made payments into proxy bank accounts for Mr Gertler after sanctions were placed on him.

It said Mr Mukonda made 16 cash deposits totalling between $11m (£8m) and $13.5m into accounts of companies he incorporated that ultimately belong to Mr Gertler's family.

The US Treasury said it was standing by the country in fighting corruption which "fuels instability and conflict" and affects economic growth.

“Treasury is committed to supporting the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s anti-corruption efforts by going after those that abuse the political system for economic gain and unfairly profit from the Congolese state,” said Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo.

The US imposed sanctions on Mr Gertler and over 30 of his businesses in 2017 and 2018.

It accused him of using his friendship with former DR Congo President Joseph Kabila to corruptly secure lucrative mining deals. Mr Gertler denied any wrongdoing.

The sanctions were waived in the last days of Donald Trump administration.

They were however reversed in March this year following calls by Congolese and international anti-corruption campaigners.

Read more:

• Dan Gertler - the man at the centre of DR Congo corruption allegations

Wycliffe Muia
BBC Monitoring

Image source, Reuters

A Zimbabwe court has dropped charges of inciting violent anti-government protests levelled against journalist and government critic Hopewell Chin’ono.

The court said prosecutors had failed to specify how a series of tweets constituted an offence.

Mr Chin’ono, who has a large social media following, was arrested in July last year and held for several weeks in prison for tweeting in support of planned anti-government protests later that month.

Justice Siyabonga Musithu said it was “a vital requirement of the justice system that a charge must be framed in a way that does not leave an accused person guessing as to what offence they are alleged to have committed and how it was committed”.

The same court had cleared Mr Chin'ono of publishing false information in April.

He still faces trial for alleged obstruction of public justice for posting a tweet ahead of a judicial decision in November last year.

He has been freed on bail and banned from using his Twitter account to post anything that might "incite the public to revolt against the government".

The outspoken award-winning journalist has been critical of President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s governance, accusing his government of corruption and mismanagement.

BBC World Service

Image source, Getty Images

The runner-up in The Gambia's presidential election, Ousainou Darboe, has said he plans to challenge the result in which the incumbent, Adama Barrow, won with 53% of the vote.

Mr Darboe said his team was collecting evidence and would pursue the matter in court if lawyers decided there was a case.

He called on his supporters to remain calm.

Mr Darboe was one of three unsuccessful candidates who questioned the conduct of the poll, but one of them - Essa Mbaye Fall - has now congratulated Adama Barrow on his re-election.

African Union election observers said the election was conducted largely in a fair and transparent manner.

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