Image source, Reuters

The High Court in the South African city of Pietermaritzburg is under tight security as former President Jacob Zuma's lawyers urge judges to dismiss all corruption charges against him.

News site Times Live, external reports that bodyguards have been positioned at every entrance and exit of the court.

The paper says the former leader did not greet his supporters in the court gallery when he arrived, despite some of those seated there being his sons Duduzane and Edward.

Times Live says Mr Zuma walked briskly and took his seat in the front row.

His supporters are outside, singing and dancing to show solidarity with him.

In court, Mr Zuma's lawyers argued that there had been a 15-year delay in the corruption case against, and this violated his right to a fair trial.

See earlier post

BBC World Service

An investigation into a conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo has found that an alarming number of young girls were raped, abducted and forced to join a militia.

Human Rights Watch interviewed more than 50 female students and teachers from dozens of schools that were attacked in DR Congo's Kasai region between 2016 and 2017.

It says the girls were often placed on the front line in the conflict armed only with a broom or a kitchen utensil because of a local belief that the girls provided magical protection to the rest of the fighters.

At least 5,000 people were killed and more than a million displaced in the conflict between a local militia and government forces.

Thousands of people in the Democratic Republic of Congo have lined up along the road leading to the main airport in the south-eastern city of Lubumbashi, in Katanga province, to welcome back exiled opposition leader Moise Katumbi.

Mr Katumbi was the governor of the mineral-rich Katanga province for almost a decade, resigning in 2015 to prepare to run for the presidency.

However he fled the country in 2016 after falling out with former President Joseph Kabila and was later sentenced in absentia to 36 months in prison for illegally selling a property in Lubumbashi. He was acquitted of those charges last month.

Mr Katumbi attempted to return last year to contest December's presidential election but was blocked at the DR Congo border with Zambia.

He later backed Martin Fayulu, as a joint opposition coalition candidate, who lost to another opposition candidate, Felix Tshisekedi, in a controversial election.

Mr Katumbi's popularity is partly down to his job as the president of a great source of Congolese pride - football club TP Mazembe. He is also a successful businessman.

The BBC's Polly Muzalia has snapped these pictures of the crowds:

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed hosted 200 business people and representatives from several organisations for a Sunday dinner dubbed "the most expensive in the country".

Guests had to pay $173,000 (£136,000) to dine at the palace of a former emperor of the country, Menelik.

The event was held to help reach a $1.1bn fundraising target to pay for the regeneration of an area in the capital, Addis Ababa.

Beautifying Sheger Project, as it is called, involves cleaning the rivers and building recreational parks in the capital.

State-linked Fana news site tweeted pictures of the table setup, alongside models showing what the project would look like when complete.

Image source, Ethiopia Prime Minister's Office

Since coming to office Mr Abiy has been praised for his reformist agenda, which included normalising ties with bitter foe, Eritrea.

His critics, however, say that he has failed to deal with ethnic conflicts within the country which have displaced more than two million people.

Read: The leader promising the heal a nation

Image source, Getty Images

A boat carrying football players and fans has capsized in Lake Albert in western Uganda, local media reports say.

Casualty figures are unclear - the state-owned New Vision, external newspaper reports that three people have been confirmed dead, including a female goalkeeper, and more than 20 are missing, while the privately owned Daily Monitor , externalreports that 30 people are feared dead after the Sunday afternoon incident.

The passengers were travelling from Fofo in Hoima district to neighbouring Runga to play friendly matches for men and women when the engine-powered boat capsized.

The Daily Monitor quoted Sadic Nyangireki, a parish youth chairman and a businessman at Fofo, as saying the accident could have been caused by overloading and a strong wind that blew shortly after the boat left the landing site.

New Vision says about 25 people from Fofo were rescued, many of them fishermen, and rescue operations are continuing.

In 2016, about 30 footballers and fans drowned when their boat capsized on Lake Victoria.

In Uganda, young women are leaving their homes to try and find jobs as domestic workers, but for some their new lives can lead to mistreatment and abuse.

A charity in Kenya is calling for the introduction of laws to protect domestic workers, commonly referred to as housegirls, to ensure their safety.

For BBC Africa Eye, reporter Nancy Kacungira has been investigating why young women living near Uganda’s border are leaving their villages to find work in Kenya.

Twenty-five South African tourists caught up in a bus explosion that injured at least 16 people near Egypt's pyramids in Giza on Sunday will return home on Monday morning, South Africa's Department of International Relations and Cooperation (Dirco) has said.

A further three South Africans would remain in Egypt, as they were being treated in hospital for injuries sustained during the explosion, Dirco added.

A device went off close to the Grand Egyptian Museum fence as the tourist bus was passing.

It is not yet known who was behind the bombing but Islamist militants have attacked tourists in Egypt in the past.

Read: What is Egypt like?

Huong Ly
BBC Newsday

A group of eight women in rural Malawi have transformed their community's life with their solar engineering skills.

They live in the central district of Lilongwe, where there is no electricity. None of the women finished school and illiteracy has held many of them back.

The women took part in a six-month intensive training course at the Barefoot College in India’s Rajasthan state, with the help of the UK-based charity Voluntary Service Overseas.

They are now using their skills to light the way for their villages.

"It’s really amazing that with a screwdriver, I can assemble a lantern that light up my home and the community," Dines Msampha, one of the Solar Mamas, told BBC Newsday radio programme.

Elinati Patison, a mother of six who runs a tailoring shop in Chatsala region, said what she had learned in India had changed her life.

"Before, I never thought that someone uneducated like me could go to India. A lot of people in my own community were surprised that a woman can assemble solar devices. In the past, they never thought that a woman could do such a thing.

"I now can work at night because I have solar electricity at home. My income improved and I can afford school fees for my children."

The Solar Mamas have lit up classrooms for children, set up phone-charging stations for villagers. Farmers can also use solar lighting for agriculture works in the evening.

"In the past, we lived in the dark, but now my community has solar electricity which is a big improvement. Before we used to buy candles for lighting and it was expensive. Now I can even go to the toilet at night because the solar light covers the entire house and garden," Edina Livitiko,who was also trained in India, told Newsday.

Listen to the interview below:

Image source, Getty Images

South Africa's former President Jacob Zuma and representatives of French arms company Thales are due to appear in court in an attempt to have all corruption charges against them dismissed.

The allegations centre on a $2.5bn ($1.96bn) deal to modernise South Africa's defence forces in the late 1990s in which Mr Zuma is accused of accepting bribes from Thales.

Both deny the charges.

Lawyers acting on behalf of Mr Zuma and Thales will argue before a panel of three judges in the South African city of Pietermaritzburg that the long delay in proceedings makes it impossible for them to receive a fair trial.

The hearings are expected to conclude by the end of this week. Last year Mr Zuma's party, the African National Congress, forced him to resign as president.

Read: Can Ramaphosa call time on corruption?

Image source, Getty Images

Zimbabwean authorities have tried to allay fears that anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs being dispensed by public health facilities six months after their expiry were harmful to users, state-linked newspaper The Herald has reported, external.

This is after people living with HIV/Aids came forward to say that a consignment of the drugs, which initially expired in June 2018 and whose shelf life was extended by six months, was having negative effects on them, says the paper.

The daily reports that the Ministry of Health's director of Aids, Dr Owen Mugurungi, said the Medicines Control Authority of Zimbabwe gave them the green light to distribute the ARVs for another six months following safety tests.

Dr Mugurungi said it was normal around the world for most medicines to be used beyond their expiry dates and that other countries repackage their drugs to indicate the new expiry date, The Herald reports.

He said pharmacists are supposed to explain to patients that the medicine is still safe for use for six more months.

Read: HIV life expectancy 'near normal' thanks to new drugs

Oluwashina Okeleji
BBC Sport

Image source, Getty Images

Ivory Coast and Lille forward Nicholas Pepe has won the 2019 Marc-Vivien Foe Award for the best African player in France's Ligue 1.

The 23-year-old won the prize ahead of Tunisia's Whabi Khazri (Saint-Etienne) and Senegal's Ismaila Sarr (Rennes).

Pepe is the third Ivorian winner of the award named in honour of Foe, who died after collapsing on the pitch in 2003.

"This is for the entire team after a great season," he told French radio station RFI, who organise the award with television station France 24.

Read the full story here

Will Ross
Africa editor, BBC World Service

Image source, AFP

Saudi Arabia says it has deposited $250m (£196m) in Sudan's central bank as part of a support package for the country which is in the midst of an economic and political crisis.

The gift, plus a similar recent deposit from the United Arab Emirates, will help alleviate some of Sudan's economic pain - but it won't address the symptoms.

This is merely a very short-term fix to a deep crisis. People are having to get used to long queues outside banks where withdrawals are often limited to a maximum of $40 and spending hours in the sweltering heat lining up for fuel.

Sudan was always going to face economic challenges after 2011 when South Sudan seceded, taking with it most of the oil.

But the problem was exacerbated by the fact that then-President Omar al-Bashir's economic policy involved spending whatever was necessary to keep himself in power.

A huge chunk of the budget went on security, and the creation of militias to prop him up.

He borrowed from wherever he could, building close ties with China, courting support from Qatar whilst at the same time getting money from Doha's arch rival, Saudi Arabia.

Mr Bashir sent thousands of soldiers to fight for the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen - in exchange for dollars.

Sudan's countrywide protests were triggered by sharp rises in the cost of food and fuel in December and Mr Bashir was finally overthrown last month.

But as negotiations over a transitional government drag on, many Sudanese are growing increasingly furious that despite braving bullets on the streets for months, the country is still being led by the former president's close military allies who are backed by Saudi Arabia.

The protesters have been insisting on a total change at the top and proper reforms to fix the country.

But the generals are standing in the way of that dream.

Read: Ramadan keeps Sudan protesters hungry for change

BBC World Service

Image source, AFP

Renewed talks have taken place between Sudan's ruling Transitional Military Council and the opposition protest movement on the composition of a proposed sovereign authority.

At a late night news conference after seven hours of talks, the council's spokesman, Gen Shamseddine Kabashi, said the two sides also discussed the terms for a three-year transition period.

Gen Kabashi said he hoped a final agreement could be reached later on Monday.

The council had suspended negotiations for three days demanding that protesters pushing for immediate civilian rule take down roadblocks.

The opposition want the sovereign council to be mostly made up of civilians but the military appears reluctant to agree to this.

In pictures: The art fuelling Sudan's revolution

BBC World Service

Two rival dancehall musicians have been questioned by police in the Ghanaian capital, Accra, following a brawl during the country's music awards.

At a ceremony on Saturday night, which was witnessed by a large television audience, Stonebwoy had just been announced as the winner of the reggae and dancehall artist of the year.

Rival musician Shatta Wale and his fans stormed the stage, starting a fight.

People were shocked to see Stonebwoy holding a gun to defend himself.

Such a scene is extremely rare in Ghana.

Police are also reported to have arrested one person for using pepper spray during the brawl.

In a statement, Stonebwoy said: “I would like to extend my sincerest apologies and deepest regrets for the part my conduct played at what should have been the biggest celebration of Ghanaian music last night.”

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