Kaleb Moges
BBC Amharic

Ethiopia's football authority has suspended its premier league just as the season was approaching its climax. The suspension comes after a row over the rescheduling of a match between Ethiopian Coffee and Mekelle.

The game was supposed to have been played on Sunday at Coffee's ground in the capital, Addis Ababa. But police said it should be postponed because of tensions between fans.

The last time the two teams met in Mekelle, northern Ethiopia, Coffee supporters were attacked and political slogans were displayed in the stadium.

Coffee said it was going to boycott the rescheduled fixture planned for Thursday, as it was due to take place without fans at a neutral venue outside Addis Ababa.

A short statement on the Ethiopian Football Federation's website said the Coffee v Mekelle fixture had been indefinitely postponed, along with all other matches.

"In order for the rest of the league games to be peaceful, the federation needs to hold discussions with all clubs and bring lasting solutions," it said.

There are three rounds of matches left to play and Mekelle are just three points adrift of league leaders Fasil with a game in hand.

Image source, Getty Images

Will Ross
Africa editor, BBC World Service

The full picture of the brutal crackdown on the protesters is taking days to emerge. The military has shut down the internet so communication is difficult. However, doctors say they have seen at least 100 bodies, and they expect that number to rise.

Saudi Arabia - a main backer of the military council - had stayed quiet but now says it is concerned about developments in Sudan and has called for dialogue. That might explain the sudden U-turn by the head of the military council. Lt Gen Burhan says the military is ready to talk with the opposition. This contradicts his statement on Tuesday that all agreements reached so far had been scrapped.

Some tour companies are reporting a boom in women-only adventure trips.

The Travel Show's Cat Moh joins a women-only trek into Morocco's Atlas Mountains where Berber people have lived for thousands of years.

She meets Berber women who share their culture and life experiences with her.

The Travel Show can be seen on BBC World News and the BBC News Channel.

Dear Jeanne
BBC News, Kampala

Officials say at least six people have been killed and 17 injured following a landslide in the Eastern Ugandan district of Bududa in the early hours of Wednesday morning. It is feared that the death toll could rise as people are still searching for their missing relatives.

Landslides are frequent in the area, which lies in the foothills of Mount Elgon, near the border between Uganda and Kenya. More than 300 people were killed in a landslide in the area in 2010.

The latest landslide occurred in Butebulo and Bunamwamba Villages in Buwali Sub County at around 0100 local time (1100 BST), after a three-day downpour.

Local authorities estimate that hundreds have fled their homes and taken shelter in churches, mosques or with relatives.

Image source, AFP

A large crack in the earth also formed in one of the villages. Rescue teams are on the ground assessing the damage.

The chairman of the district, Wilson Watila, said more cracks could develop in the area if rains continued, putting several villages at risk of further landslides.

According to the government, over 100,000 people living in the area require urgent relocation.

A landslide last year killed 40 people. The government began re-settling the survivors of that landslide in May this year. But it faces a shortage of funds, as well as some resistance from people who are attached to their ancestral lands.

Mayeni Jones
BBC News, Lagos

Image source, AFP

The Nigerian ambassador to the United Nations has been chosen as the next president of the body’s general assembly. Tijjani Muhammad-Bande was elected to head the organisation for a year, starting in September.

Ambassador Muhammad-Bande is the second Nigerian to preside over the General Assembly. The first was Joseph Nanven Garba in 1989. He’ll be taking over from Maria Fernanda Espinosa of Ecuador.

Tijjani Muhammad-Bande told the members of the General Assembly that the priorities during his tenure would include tackling climate change, promoting universal health coverage and gender equality, as well as eradicating poverty and hunger.

The 61-year-old diplomat was born in the town of Zagga, in northwest Nigeria. He has a master’s degree in political science from Boston University, and a Ph.D. in the same field from the University of Toronto.

Tomi Oladipo
BBC Africa security correspondent

Image source, AFP

The Islamic State group has claimed a presence in Mozambique for the first time, announcing that its militants had repelled an army attack in the north of the country.

Over the past year, attacks by Islamist militants in northern Mozambique have forced more than a thousand people from their homes. But until now there was no obvious link between the militants and transnational jihadist groups.

The statement from IS says the militants clashed with the Mozambique army in the area of Mocimboa. This is very likely a reference to Mocimboa de Praia – a port district in the northern Cabo Delgado – which has witnessed Islamist militant attacks for more than a year.

IS said the attackers were part of its Central Africa Province branch. The group first mentioned this branch in April, in reference to attacks in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

At a time when IS is down to its last strongholds in the Middle East, it is playing up its international affiliates. The local militants in Africa gain a morale boost from this recognition. However, there is no evidence of operational or financial support from IS for the fighters in Mozambique.

In May last year, supporters of IS on the Telegram messaging app praised the militants in Mozambique after they beheaded 10 people in the village of Monjane, near the border with Tanzania.

Louise Dewast
BBC Africa

Image source, AFP

The brother of Burkina Faso’s ex-President Blaise Compaoré could be sent home from France to face questions over the murder of a prominent journalist, after a court in Paris approved his extradition on Tuesday.

Francois Compaoré was arrested in Paris in 2017, three years after his brother was forced from office.

He is wanted in connection with the killing of Norbert Zongo, whose body was found in a burned-out vehicle 21 years ago.

The murder of the journalist, who had been investigating the death of Francois Compaoré’s chauffeur at the time, prompted big protests in Burkina Faso.

A judge dismissed charges in 2006 against the only suspect.

Image source, AFP

The case was reopened in 2014 and an international arrest warrant issued for Francois Compaoré.

His lawyer said that if the French government gave the go-ahead for his extradition, he would appeal the court decision at France's State Council.

The Zongo family has not yet reacted to this latest development.

Blaise Compaoré’s 27-year rule ended in October 2014 after a wave of popular protests.

Image source, Arizona State University

Early humans were making stone tools 2.6 million years ago - or some 10,000 years earlier than previously thought, according to scientists who have been conducting excavations in north-eastern Ethiopia.

Their findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, external, are based on the discovery of a trove of sharp-edged stone artefacts at the Bokol Dora 1 site in Ethiopia's Afar Basin.

Their research also suggests that stone tools were invented by distinct groups of prehistoric humans on separate occasions - as opposed to having been invented once, and passed on.

The earliest stone tools were found by researchers in Kenya in 2015. These are thought to be some 3.3 million years old. However, these are not believed to have been created by early humans, but by another group of related hominins.

The research was conducted by an international team which includes Ethiopian scientists, and was led by experts from George Washington University and Arizona State University.

A primary school teacher in Tanzania has been arrested after being found in possession of a rifle loaded with five bullets.

Jonathan Shana, the police commander from Arusha, northern Tanzania, has confirmed to the BBC that the 30-year-old Solomon Leteto, who teaches in a state-funded school, was found with an AK-47.

During a raid at his home the police also discovered some ivory.

The police said the weapon is among a number of illegal arms that have been used to carry out criminal activities in that area.

The teacher has been accused of being involved in poaching, robbery and carrying out attacks on tourists in and around Arusha.

Mr Leteto has said that the gun does not belong to him. In a video broadcast on local media he said: "I teach English, geography and history at... primary school."

BBC World Service

Media reports in Egypt say militants have attacked a number of security checkpoints in northern Sinai.

State television said one checkpoint has come under fire and eight members of the security forces were killed.

Others say as many as 12 are dead.

The attack is said to have happened as prayers were held in in the city of El Arish to celebrate Eid al Fitr; the Muslim holiday marking the end of Ramadan.

Rapid deployment forces are searching for the militants. Egypt is battling a long running Islamist insurgency in Sinai, mainly in the north.

The South African winner of a major engineering prize, external says he "can now ramp up... manufacturing efforts" of his smart locker for dispensing drugs.

Neo Hutiri won the Royal Academy of Engineering Africa Prize at a ceremony in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, on Tuesday evening.

His Pelebox system allows patients to access life-saving drugs at health centres without having to wait hours and take up valuable staff time.

Entrepreneur Marieme Jamme, one of the competition judges, has called Mr Hutiri's idea "investable".

She tweeted that after seeing the four finalists she was "extremely proud for Africa":

Opposition leaders in Sudan have said they will not give up the fight but right now it’s hard to see how they can re-organise and take on the formidable security forces.

But, the protesters have lost their biggest bargaining chip - the evocative power of the sit-in in the centre of the capital, Khartoum.

Two days on and the city is still in lockdown. The Rapid Support Forces – who destroyed the sit-in at the heart of Sudan’s uprising – now guard the streets in their desert brown trucks.

Gunfire was heard overnight as reports continued of violence against civilians.

With the sit-in around the army headquarters now gone, the protesters have retreated to residential areas.

They are building barricades and burning tyres.

Image source, AFP

Hana Zeratsyon
BBC Tigrinya

A student has died during a protest that turned violent in the northern Ethiopian city of Axum, the Tigray regional authority has confirmed.

Medical sources at the local hospital said that 10 students were also injured.

The exact cause of the violence or how the student was killed are not clear.

Students from Axum University called the demonstration on Tuesday to protest against the killing of a Tigrayan student at Debra Markos University which is in Amhara region.

Regional tensions have been increasing since 2015 and when Abiy Ahmed became prime minister in April last year, Tigrayans, who once dominated the government, are now complaining of marginalisation

The authorities in Tigray say that there will be an investigation into who was responsible for the death of the student on Tuesday.

Sudan's Transitional Military Council is willing to have talks with opposition groups without conditions, Reuters news agency is reporting quoting the head of the council, Lt Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.

The comments came in a message marking the Muslim Eid festival, Reuters adds.

On Tuesday he had said that the agreements reached with the demonstrators were cancelled and elections would be held later this year.

A Sudanese protester in the capital, Khartoum, has appealed to the outside world to intervene as people "are being killed on the street".

Speaking anonymously to the BBC's Newsday programme, he said that protests would not stop despite the military crackdown.

The leaders of the Transitional Military Council are not sincere when they say they want to negotiate, he added.

An opposition doctors' group now says that more than 60 people have been killed since security forces tried to disperse the demonstrations on Monday.

The internet has been blocked, soldiers are patrolling the streets and some neighborhoods in Khartoum have raised their own barricades to protect their areas.

Listen to the interview:

Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge, who's arguably the world's greatest ever marathon runner, has made a call for people to work together to end pollution.

Kipchoge is backing a UN campaign to tackle air pollution has used World Environment Day to say that "if pollution rises then kids won't perform well".

"The fight against pollution is in our hands," he told the BBC's Newsday programme. People need to be educated about the dangers and then they will do something about it, he added.

He said that as an athlete clean air is crucial and while he is able to train in an unpolluted part of Kenya he said that pollution is a big problem in his country. One of the biggest sources of concern is people cooking on open fires indoors.

The UN says more than 90% of people breath polluted air and it costs around seven million lives a year.

Listen to the interview:

Read about the row over Chinese coal plant near Kenya's World Heritage site.

The international community has been accused of being "asleep at the wheel" when it comes to events in Cameroon.

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) has put the conflict in the North-West and South-West regions of Cameroon at the top of its list of the globe's "most neglected displacement crises".

"Brutal killings, burned-down villages and massive displacement have been met with deafening silence,” NRC chief Jan Egeland said.

The NRC says that 500,000 people have been forced from their homes and more than 780,000 children are unable to attend school.

The crisis has its origins in the country's colonial history.

Protests over the increasing use of French in courts and schools in Cameroon's English-speaking heartlands, the North-West and South-West regions, morphed into violence in 2017.

A security force crackdown led to some English-speaking civilians taking up arms against the government, led by the French-speaking President Paul Biya.

Read: Burning Cameroon - images you're not meant to see

As Muslims celebrate Eid, we look at how businesses in the coastal city of Mombasa, Kenya fared during the month of Ramadan.

Reporter Gloria Achieng takes a tour of Marikiti market and discovers the foods that were of significance during the holy month.

An invention by a South African engineer that keeps secure and then dispenses pills to patients has won a major African engineering prize.

Neo Hutiri, 31, was announced as the winner of the Royal Academy of Engineering’s 2019 Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation, in the Ugandan capital, Kamapla, on Tuesday evening,.

Mr Hutiri had to present his invention, along with three other finalists, to a panel of judges and an audience who then voted for what they thought was the best innovation.

Along with a medal, the engineer and his team have won $32,000 (£25,000).

Mr Hutiri's invention, the Pelebox, "is a simple wall of lockers, controlled by a digital system," the Royal Academy of Engineering says.

The lockers are stocked by healthcare workers and the patients receive a code to open the locker and get their medicine.

This keeps the medicine safe as well as dramatically reduce waiting times at clinics.

The other inventions in the final were a "high-tech glove that translates sign language to text and speech, a currency exchange platform that moves money between users to reduce the need for foreign exchange... and a business giving women in low-income families access to sustainable, off-grid housing," the Royal Academy of Engineering says.

Image source, AFP

The number of protesters killed in Sudan has risen to 60, an opposition doctors' group says, as paramilitary forces push deeper into Khartoum.

The revised death toll came after two days of unrest which began when forces of the Transitional Military Council (TMC) fired on unarmed protesters.

Members of a feared paramilitary group have reportedly been roaming the streets attacking civilians since.

The military has faced international condemnation for the deadly crackdown.

However, an attempt by the UK and Germany at the UN to call on the Sudanese military to work towards finding a solution was blocked by China, who were backed by Russia.

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