Zimbabwe's President Emmerson Mnangagwa has defended a move to ban the use of international currencies such as the US dollar, South African rand and British pound.

Monday's announcement caught locals by surprise.

Zimbabwe has not had its own fully fledged currency since 2009, when the authorities abolished the Zimbabwe dollar because of hyperinflation.

Shops and most businesses will only be allowed to accept the substitute currency, RTGS dollars.

Mr Mnangagwa said in a statement that the change was necessary for the country to have control of its currency:

The government is believed to have introduced this new measure to curb rampant black market currency trading.

Critics believe that this will slow the economy as businesses will not be able to operate with a volatile local currency.

Read Mr Mnangagwa's full statement below:

Image source, AFP

Reigning champions Cameroon and four-time winners Ghana kick off their respective Group F campaigns in Ismailia on Tuesday.

The Indomitable Lions - managed by former Real Madrid and AC Milan midfielder Clarence Seedorf - play Guinea-Bissau at 17:00 GMT.

The Black Stars, looking to end their 37-year wait for the trophy, then face a Benin side (20:00 GMT) who are taking part in the tournament for the first time since 2010.

Cyuzuzo Samba
BBC Great Lakes, Nairobi

Rwandan police are investigating how thousands of young Rwandans were conned into paying a registration fee for a wealth and fitness conference that never happened.

The young people turned up at a conference centre in the capital, Kigali, to find that their $5 (£3.90) online registration fee was for nothing.

The venue was full with at least 2,000 hopeful participants but no organisers could be found.

Speaking to the BBC, some of those who turned up said they were told they would receive $197 for taking part.

The police and youth ministry arrived at the venue once news of the con had spread on social media.

Youth Minister Rose Mary Mbabazi told the unfortunate participants that they had been the victims of a scam. She added that this should be a lesson for those who go for “empty promises of easy money” online.

The police assured the frustrated young people that they would pursue the case and get the fees returned.

Jonathan Paye-Layleh
BBC Africa, Monrovia

Police in Liberia are investigating two officers after they shot at people protesting against ritual killings in Kingsville, about 20km (12 miles) south of the capital, Monrovia, leaving at least one boy with serious injuries.

The boy was sitting by the roadside roasting and selling corns when he was shot in the head, residents said.

He is currently receiving treatment but his condition is said to be critical.

Local media reported three people were shot at and one died following Monday's incident.

Another protester sustained a severe wound in his leg.

Police spokesman Moses Carter said the two officers had been hit with stones by the protesters before the shooting happened.

“Our concentration is on investigating our officers [who were involved in the shooting] because under the law they have to shoot only when their lives are under threat.

“If it is found out their lives were never under any threat but they shot, then there is no justification for their action... we will take a step to serve as a deterrent for others,” he said.

Killings for ritual purposes are common in Liberia. Some body parts are believed to be useful in preparing charms for gaining political power and luck.

Image source, Getty Images

The Confederation of African Football (Caf) has rejected Cameroon's request to replace striker Joel Tagueu who was ruled out of the Africa Cup of Nations because of a heart defect, Cameroon Football Federation says.

No further details were given about the review by Caf's medical committee.

Our colleague is puzzled by the decision:

A scan undertaken during the Indomitable Lions' recent training camp in Qatar detected a problem with the striker's coronary artery.

A statement on the federation's website says there is a "non-zero risk of sudden death on the field".

Head coach Clarence Seedorf is expected to call up a replacement for the 25 year old.

According to team doctor William Ngatchou, Tagueu had been undergoing similar scans for over eight years but those tests failed to highlight any issues.

Seedorf's side kick off their Africa Cup of Nations campaign against Guinea-Bissau on Tuesday (18:00 GMT).

Oluwashina Okeleji
BBC Sport, Alexandria

Image source, AFP

Players from Nigeria national football team have refused to train ahead of their second group game on Wednesday against Guinea - at the Africa Cup of Nations tournament in Egypt - because of a row over bonuses.

The players have not received a $10,000 (£7,000) match bonus that they had each been promised.

The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) is desperately looking to raise the money to avert a pay strike.

"My player [Ahmed Musa] couldn’t attend the press conference today because they have a very important meeting," coach Gernot Rohr told a press conference on Tuesday.

"I just hope the situation can be resolved so we can focus on what we have in front of us.

"I know the players are physically ready despite all the illness and injury, but mentally this situation for the meeting is not necessary," he added.

The financially stricken NFF relies on funding from the government and has consistently denied that it was responsible for the delay in the payment of the players' bonuses.

The BBC understands that the team, which has been together since early June, had received verbal assurances that they would be paid before the tournament kicked off in Egypt. However, a week has passed without a single penny being paid out to anyone.

Pay rows have often hit Nigerian teams. Coaches have not been paid regularly, while players have previously boycotted training during important qualifiers or at major tournaments over unpaid bonuses.

Their 2014 World Cup campaign was affected by a bonus row, with players boycotting training before the round of 16 fixture against France.

Nigeria's women's team - the Super Falcons - have twice been involved in sit-in protests at hotels in South Africa and Abuja to demand money owed to them.

Mary Harper
Africa editor, BBC World Service

Image source, Getty Images

Sudan's de facto leader has promised to release all imprisoned members of rebel groups, the country's state media reports.

Mohamed Hamdan "Hemeti" Dagolo, deputy head of the ruling military council, said there were no political prisoners in Sudan, although opposition says many of its members have been jailed.

Hemeti is also the commander of a paramilitary group, the Rapid Support Forces, which violently dispersed opposition protests in the capital Khartoum.

Talks between the military council and the opposition on the formation of a transitional government collapsed after dozens of protesters were killed earlier this month.

Read more: Hemeti - the warlord who may control Sudan’s future

Victor Kenani
BBC Africa, Nairobi

Image source, AFP

Kenya’s biggest mobile service provider Safaricom is being sued for allegedly violating the data privacy of its 11.5 million consumers.

A subscriber has accused the telecom giant of exposing his sports betting history and biodata, according to a legal petition filed at the High Court in the capital, Nairobi.

The complainant is seeking 1bn Kenyan shillings ($10m; £7m) compensation for damages for the alleged data leak.

According to the court documents seen by the BBC, the petitioner says he was approached by an individual who had subscribers' data.

The data was specific to gamblers who had used their Safaricom mobile numbers on various betting platforms registered in the country.

The personal data contained specific identifying details of customers including: full names, mobile phone numbers, gender, age, identity numbers, passport numbers as well as total amounts gambled.

The petitioner accuses Safaricom of failing to protect his data contrary to the constitution’s right to privacy and that it failed to act in response to the breach after he informed them.

Safaricom has not so far responded to a request for a comment.

Image source, AFP

Members of parliament in Tanzania have asked the government to end the rule requiring shopkeepers to delay opening on Saturday mornings once a month to get people to clean up the streets, privately owned media ITV reports.

Shops are only allowed to open at 10:00 local time (07:00 GMT) on the clean-up days, but very few people get involved in the tidy up.

The MPs said that forcing the shops to stay shut for four hours from dawn means that business people lose money and the government misses out on tax revenue.

"When you close the business for four hours, how much income have you lost?... Customers or business people want to travel at that time and they fail to get the service they need," MP Musa Mbaruku is quoted as saying.

The clean-up rule was introduced three years ago.

Read: Five things Tanzania's President 'Bulldozer' Magufuli has banned

Kalkidan Yibeltal
BBC Amharic Service, Addis Ababa

Image source, YOUTUBE/ALEM GENA TUBE

The alleged mastermind of the weekend's attacks in Ethiopia's northern Amhara region was present while they were taking place, three state officials said on local TV on Monday.

Brig Asaminew Tsige is accused of planning the attack that killed Amhara governor Ambachew Mekonnen among others.

The brigadier was himself killed as he attempted to escape from his hideout in Amhara's capital, police said on Monday..

The three officials speaking on TV on Monday described their shock and surprise at the attacks but also assured the public that they had no political differences with the Brig Asaminew, who served as the regional security chief.

They said there had been no plans to remove him from his post prior to the incidents.

Brig Asaminew was a popular figure, and seen by the youth as a true man of the people.

But he also had his fierce critics.

For some he was too much of a hardliner to be compatible with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s reform agenda in contrast to the slain governor, who was one of Mr Abiy's key allies.

Black British model Naomi Campbell, who has been outspoken in the past about the lack of people of colour in the fashion industry, says the current diversity among fashion models is "amazing".

She told the BBC that seeing more than one woman of colour on a magazine cover is a "big deal, but it really shouldn't be.

"It's not a trend."

The most recent edition of UK Vogue features a photo shoot of Campbell in the Kenyan coastal town of Malindi.

Image source, ETV

Ethiopia is holding a memorial service in the capital, Addis Ababa, for the army chief of staff and another general who were shot dead on Saturday as part of what the authorities have called a coup attempt in the northern state of Amhara.

Army chief Gen Seare Mekonnen was killed by his bodyguard while trying to foil the coup, the government said. Gen Gezai Abera, who was with him, was also shot dead.

Among the mourners are Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (centre) and President Sahle Work Zewde (right):

Image source, ETV

Roads in Addis Ababa were closed amid tight security ahead of the memorial serivce, Reuters news agency reports.

The two bodies will be taken to the generals' home state of Tigray where they will be buried later this week.

Image source, ETV

The antics of a white man supporting Tanzania at the Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt have cheered Tanzanians up after their 2-0 defeat at the hands of Senegal on Sunday.

Bongo Zozo, as he is known on YouTube, can be seen walking around Cairo in the Tanzanian kit and waving the country's flag while speaking Swahili with other Tanzanian fans.

In Tanzania, people are sharing clips of his videos on social media and WhatsApp groups. They are especially enjoying the fact that he is singing the national anthem with gusto.

People are saying in Swahili: "Mzungu mswahili ametuzidi uzalendo", meaning: "The white man who speaks Swahili is prouder of our country than us."

Bongo Zozo - whose real name is Nick Reynolds - was born in Zimbabwe and lived in Tanzania for 18 years but now lives in the UK, he told Tanzanian Ayo TV.

He explained that both Tanzania and Zimbabwe were close to his heart.

"I am a UK citizen but I feel African," he said.

"Even though my team lost the game, I am happy that Tanzania has reached the Africa Cup of Nations after waiting for 39 years."

And he is upbeat about the country's chances against neighbours Kenya in Thursday's match.

"We should not feel ashamed... we must beat our brothers."

Rwanda's President Paul Kagame has termed criticism of his country's human rights record as "rubbish" and "ridiculous" in an interview with French TV broadcaster France24.

He said that Rwanda was a different country compared to what it was 25 years ago.

He challenged the programme's host to look at what he called Europe's failing human rights record, especially its treatment of migrants.

"[Europe] is violating people's rights, with this problem of people being bundled and sent back to sink in the Mediterranean and so many people being mistreated in your own country," he said.

Mr Kagame added that the West's criticisms was tinged with a superiority complex:

"You really need to stop this superiority complex nonsense about human rights.

"You think you are the only ones who respect human rights, all others are about violating human rights. No, we've fought for human rights and freedoms for our people much better [than] you people who keep talking about this nonsense."

Watch part of the exchange here:

Watch the full interview here, external.

Bella Hassan
BBC Somali, Mogadishu

The Somali National University has held its first graduation ceremony in more than three decades.

The university, based in the capital, Mogadishu, was shut down in the early 1990s after the breakout of civil war and unrest. It reopened in 2014.

More than 130 graduates were awarded degree certificates during Monday's ceremony.

In 2014, only 550 students applied to the university, but in 2018 that number increased to 5,070.

Many students have expressed their concerns about security.

The fear of militant group al-Shabab was initially a big obstacle for new graduate Yusra Osman Sharif.

“When I was starting the university I used to hide my ID card, when someone asked me which university I went to I used to try to mislead them," she said.

Image source, Getty Images

Lamine Diack, the ex-boss of athletics' world governing body the IAAF, is to stand trial in France on corruption and money-laundering charges.

The 86-year-old, whose son Papa Massata Diack has also been charged but fled to their native Senegal, has been under house arrest since November 2015.

Diack senior has been investigated over allegations he took payments for deferring sanctions against Russian drugs cheats.

They both deny all the charges.

Former French long jump champion Diack was in charge of the IAAF for 16 years and initially praised by Lord Coe when the British double Olympic champion replaced him as IAAF president in August 2015.

But within three months of Coe's election, details emerged of Diack's alleged involvement in a conspiracy to bury positive drug tests by Russian athletes in return for money.

The French authorities have also been investigating allegations that Diack received bribes for his votes in several bidding contests for high-profile sports events.

Read more on this story from BBC Sport

Image source, Getty Images

There were victories for both Ivory Coast and Mali, and Tunisia and Angola drew, in Monday's games at the Africa Cup of Nations.

Aston Villa's Jonathan Kodjia scored the only goal of the game as Ivory Coast edged past South Africa 1-0 in Cairo in their opening Group D encounter.

Mali produced a dominant display to beat tournament debutants Mauritania 4-1 in Suez.

Tunisia's Djalma cancelled out Youssef Msakni's first-half penalty to earn Angola a point against Tunisia also in Suez.

In Tuesday's games, the final set of the first group matches, Cameroon take on Guinea-Bissau and Ghana play Benin.

Follow all the Afcon action here.

Ethiopia's federal police have apologised for saying that the bodyguard who is accused of assassinating the head of the army, Gen Seare Mekonnen, on Saturday had killed himself.

In a statement read on state media on Monday evening they said that the bodyguard, who has not been named, was instead being treated for gunshot wounds in hospital.

The prime minister's office has said the bodyguard killed Gen Seare and another general, Gezai Abera, at the army chief's home on Saturday as part of an attempt to overthrow the regional government in Amhara state.

This is now the second time the story of what happened to the bodyguard has changed.

Initially on Sunday the government said that he had been arrested. Then on Monday police chief Endeshaw Tasew announced that he had killed himself after killing the generals.

It is not clear whether the bodyguard's wounds that he is being treated for were self inflicted or whether he was shot by someone else.

Image source, ETV

Read more about the alleged coup attempt.

Mayeni Jones
BBC News

The brother of Senegal President Macky Sall has resigned from a top government position, following a BBC investigation into a suspicious oil deal.

Aliou Sall headed a body linked to the national treasury.

In a statement, he said the allegations were part of a campaign to “dehumanise” him and make him “public enemy number one”.

The BBC’s findings have dominated headlines in Senegal since they were published in early June.

There have been protests in the streets of the capital, Dakar, and an investigation has been launched by the ministry of justice.

In 2012, Romanian-Australian businessman Frank Timis was given oil and gas exploration rights off the Senegalese coast.

The final go-ahead came from President Sall. But the deal looks suspicious, because Aliou Sall was working for Mr Timis.

Documents obtained by the BBC show Aliou Sall was paid $1.5m (£1.2m).

Aliou Sall says he was hired for his expertise, and that his salary was in line with others in the business.

BP later bought a stake in the concession, and according to documents found by the BBC, it agreed to pay Frank Timis’ company between $9bn and $12bn in royalties over 40 years.

BP says it conducted extensive due diligence and that the figures published by the BBC are not true.

Frank Timis and Aliou Sall strenuously deny any corruption.

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