The president of Somalia's semi-autonomous region of Puntland, Said Abdullahi Deni, has asked the Somali government to investigate reports that Qatar was involved in attacks in the port city of Bossasso over the past year.

In one of the attacks, the port manager, Paul Anthony Formosa, was shot dead. Somalia-based militant group al-Shabab said it carried out the killing.

On Monday, the New York Times reported, external that it had obtained an audio recording of a mobile phone conversation in which a businessman close to the emir of Qatar said that militants had carried out the bombing of a courthouse in Bossasso to support Qatar in its regional rivalry with the United Arab Emirates.

The contract to develop the port is held by DP World, based in the UAE.

In the conversation heard by the New York Times, the businessmen said that the DP World contracts would be transferred to Qatar.

The story highlights how the Horn of Africa has become a battleground for competing interests.

In a statement, the Puntland president said: "The New York Times is well-known and its report is trustworthy... I need to request that the federal government investigate the report and the allegations."

Somalia's federal news agency is reporting that the Qatari ambassador has said that the report is fake news.

Image source, AFP

Read more:How the crisis in the Gulf could spread to East Africa

BBC World Service

Image source, AFP

Human Rights Watch, external (HRW) has called on the Nigerian authorities to stop its violent campaign against a Shia Muslim sect and to investigate what it calls the excessive use of force by the police.

On Monday, 11 protesters from the Islamic Movement in Nigeria were shot dead in the capital, Abuja.

A journalist was also killed by a stray bullet and the police said a senior officer also died.

HRW says some of the injured were denied medical treatment at hospitals.

The Shia sect has been calling for the release of its leader Ibraheem Zakzaky who was arrested in 2015 during a military operation in which more than 300 followers were killed.

Nigeria's military authorities say they are investigating reports that some soldiers absconded with $1.6m-worth of cash in the local currency.

It is not clear how the men who were on escort duties diverted the money, but a military source told the BBC that a huge sum is missing and that a senior officer has been placed under house arrest in the capital, Abuja.

An officer in the defence headquarters who briefed the press on Tuesday confirmed that an investigation was on going, adding that "the outcome will be made known to the public in due course".

Colonel Onyema Nwachukwu declined to give further details in an incident with many missing parts.

The money was reported to have been diverted by five junior soldiers, who were on escort duties.

One report says the money taken was intended for "military operational funds", while other accounts said the money belonged to a former senior officer in the army. The soldiers had reportedly escorted a truck carrying the cash from Sokoto to Kaduna in the north-west, where they seized it, discarded their army uniforms and absconded.

Nigeria's military is engaged in operations across the country, battling an insurgency, kidnapping, cattle thieves and bandits in different regions.

A substantial part of country's annual budget goes to the defence ministry, but soldiers at the forefront, especially those fighting militant group Boko Haram in the north-east, have often complained of a lack of equipment and non-payment of allowances.

• Also read: Nigerian serviceman returns lost parcel full of cash

Image source, Getty Images

Uganda has lowered academic requirements for police recruits in order to deal with desertion and "deal with indiscipline", news site Daily Monitor reports.

Police spokesperson Fred Enanga said the move was informed by a study done by its human resource division.

“The study found out that constables with senior six academic [A-Level] certificates were a bit low on productivity and also use the police as a springboard to other careers,” Mr Enanga said.

Officers in the entry level constable rank will now only be required to have an O-Level Certificate instead of the higher Advanced Uganda Certificate of Education.

The recruits with A-level certificates have also been demanding better standards of service and many often desert or seek early retirement, thus leaving the force depleted, the Daily Monitor reports.

The police aim to recruit at least 4,000 constables and 500 learner assistant inspectors of police in an exercise that kicks off next week.

In 2000, a judicial inquiry into corruption in Uganda's police force recommended raising the minimum education level of constables from O-level to A-level.

“With regard to recruitment, the commission found that the minimum qualification of O-level is no longer sufficient and this was exemplified inter alia by the poor calibre of officers who could hardly speak English during the proceedings,” the report said.

Kalkidan Yibeltal
BBC Amharic, Addis Ababa

More than 450 people in southern Ethiopia’s Sidama area who had fled their homes fearing violence are sheltering in a church, an official has told the BBC.

The people seeking protection are residents of the town of Yirgalem, one of several places in the area in which people were killed last week in violence over a delayed referendum on whether a separate federal state of Sidama should be created.

Tilahun Tafesse, who is head of security in Bore in neighbouring Oromia state, told the BBC that those seeking shelter were in his district.

He said that those displaced alleged they were targeted because of their ethnicity.

Hospital sources have told the BBC at least 25 were killed in clashes between Sidama protesters and security forces, as well attacks against members of other ethnic groups.

Some businesses were also targeted in towns like Yirgalem and properties said to be owned by members of other ethnic groups were damaged.

Following the violence, soldiers and federal police have been deployed to the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples' Region, where Sidama is located, to oversee security.

The Sidama, Ethiopia’s fifth largest ethnic group, have campaigned to have their own regional state.

Activists from the group said they would declare a state last week after accusing the government of failing to arrange a referendum.

Image source, AFP

BBC World Service

The Algerian government has ordered a switch from the French language to English in all communications within the country's universities.

Up to now, official documents have been circulated in Arabic and French.

The minister of higher education said the dropping of French was part of a policy designed to encourage the use of English.

He said the decision was also a response to the demands of students, who want their degrees to be more easily recognised abroad.

As the Conservative Party leader Boris Johnson steps over the threshold of 10 Downing Street later on Wednesday, no doubt it'll be Brexit that will be uppermost on his mind. But what is he thinking about this continent?

There may be some clues in what he has written about Africa.

In a 2002 blog, external following a visit to Uganda he wrote that the "problem [in Africa] is not that we were once in charge, but that we are not in charge any more".

He said that colonialism ended slavery and brought cash crops, whereas aid efforts bring political correctness.

In the same year, he wrote in the Daily Telegraph that the Commonwealth supplied the Queen with "regular cheering crowds of flag-waving piccaninnies".

In 2016, he wrote in the Sun newspaper that then-President Barack Obama had an "ancestral dislike of the British Empire" because he is "part-Kenyan".

Mr Johnson is never shy of the colourful phrase but when he gets into office, he'll be focused on the practicalities of a post-Brexit Britain, and that will include doing trade deals with African countries.

Image source, Reuters

When it comes to African heads of state, some already welcomed his election as leader of the Conservative Party on Tuesday.

Zimbabwe's president wants to build "ever closer ties between our two nations":

And in a similar message, Ghana's president looks "forward to working with him":

A global emergency fund for disasters like Ebola, has been described as "poorly designed from the very beginning".

The Pandemic Emergency Financing Facility (Peff) was created by the World Bank after the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa so that have emergency funding would be available.

But Laurie Garrett, author of the book The Coming Plague, told the BBC's Newsday programme that the current response is operating on a deficit.

It’s estimated that more than 100 million girls under the age of 18 will be married in the next decade.

But in Ethiopia a scheme involving solar lamps is helping thousands of girls stay in school longer and avoid marriage until they are adults.

A film by Ruth Evans, Lily Freeston and Hadra Ahmed for People Fixing the World.

The Tanzanian prosecutor in the case of the kidnapping of billionaire Mohammed Dewji wants five foreigners - from South Africa and Mozambique - to be arrested in connection with the crime, the Citizen newspaper reports, external.

Mr Dewji, 43, was seized by armed men in the city of Dar es Salaam last October.

So far, the only person to be charged over the kidnapping is a Tanzanian taxi driver, who is accused of being involved in a criminal gang with links to Johannesburg, the Citizen says.

Prosecutor Wankyo Simon asked the magistrate to issue the arrest warrants for the five foreigners.

The case has been adjourned for a fortnight, the Citizen reports.

Image source, AFP

Killian Chimtom Ngala
BBC News, Yaoundé

The Cameroon government has blamed supporters of a detained opposition leader, Maurice Kamto, for a riot at a prison in the capital, Yaoundé.

The trouble on Sunday night at the Kondengui maximum security prison saw hundreds of inmates go on a rampage, burning the prison library and infirmary as well as the destruction of a workshop meant for female inmates.

A government official, Jean Claude Tilla, who visited the prison to assess the damage, said that supporters of Mr Kamto's Cameroon Renaissance Movement (CRM), were the instigators of the violence.

At least 400 of them are still held in different facilities in the country, but it is unclear how many are detained at the prison where the riot took place.

Mr Tilla said supporters of the CRM have been causing trouble in Cameroon prisons since they were detained.

"We know that they are hiding behind the Anglophone problem to foment such trouble,” he told journalists.

The riot was live streamed on Facebook and showed prisoners calling for the release of Anglophone separatist leaders held for over a year now. They chanted pro-independence slogans and described President Paul Biya’s government as incompetent.

Cameroonian security forces restored control after shooting in the air and firing tear gas into the prison.

The Anglophone detainees - many of whom have never been taken to court - were moved to different detention facilities.

The prison, constructed in 1969 for 1,500 people, currently has about 9,000 inmates, 90% of whom have not been charged, according to the justice ministry.

Will Ross
Africa editor, BBC World Service

A Gambian soldier has admitted to participating in the 2005 execution of around 50 migrants on the orders of former President Yahya Jammeh, who is reported to have feared the men had come to overthrow him.

Lt Malick Jatta was giving testimony before the country's Truth, Reconciliation and Reparation Commission (TRRC) which is investigating atrocities committed during Mr Jammeh's 22-year rule.

He earlier admitted involvement in the murder of the journalist Deyda Hydara in 2004 on the orders of the former president.

Mr Jammeh - who now lives in exile in Equatorial Guinea - always denied any involvement in the deaths of the migrants or the journalist.

Lt Jatta's confession corroborates the findings of human rights activists and campaign groups including Human Rights Watch.

Its report said the West African migrants, who were headed for Europe, were arrested and executed after the boat they had boarded in Senegal landed in The Gambia.

Read more:

• Letter from Africa: Torture revelations transfix The Gambia

Image source, AFP

Mayeni Jones
BBC News, Lagos

The United States has imposed visa restrictions on those Nigerians it says are "responsible for undermining the Nigerian democratic process".

In a statement,, external the State Department says the measures will also apply to those who have organised election-related violence.

It is unclear what criteria the US has used to determine who will be affected by the visa restrictions.

The names of those impacted by this announcement have not been made public but the US government stressed that the sanctions were specific to certain individuals, and "not directed at the Nigerian people or the newly elected government".

"These individuals have operated with impunity at the expense of the Nigerian people and undermined democratic principles and human rights," the statement says.

This is not the first time the US has raised concerns.

During a visit to Nigeria ahead of the 2015 elections, then-Secretary of State John Kerry, promised anyone involved in political violence in Nigeria would be denied a US visa. But the government failed to follow through on its threat.

A former adviser to the State Department told the BBC that the decision to impose visa restrictions this time around, may be a sign of the declining relationship between the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari and the US diplomatic mission in Nigeria.

Image source, Getty Images

Wednesday's African proverb:

Image source, George Wafula/BBC

Welcome to BBC Africa Live where we'll be keeping you up to date with news and developments on the continent.

That's all from BBC Africa Live for now. Keep up-to-date with what's happening across the continent by listening to the Africa Today podcast or check the BBC News website.

A reminder of today's wise words:

Click here and scroll to the bottom to send us your African proverbs.

And we leave you with this picture from Kampala in Uganda:

A policeman and three villagers have been killed in a gunfight between law enforcers and locals accused of illegally fishing on Lake Victoria, AFP news agency is quoting an official as saying.

The governor of Tanzania's Mwanza region John Mongella told ITV Television that a fight broke out between local fisherman and a police unit battling illegal fishing.

"Shots were fired, killing three villagers. The villagers then shot the person heading the patrol unit," said Mr Mongella.

Tanzanian authorities have stepped up patrols on the lake because of problems with over fishing.

Last year, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) said plant and animal life in the lake was being "decimated", with 20% of species facing extinction due to climate change, industrial and agricultural pollution, and poor fishing practices.

Will Ross
Africa editor, BBC World Service

There has been a riot at a prison in Yaoundé, the capital of Cameroon, where many people accused of being separatist rebels from the Anglophone regions are being detained.

Inmates at Kondengui maximum security prison live streamed on Facebook the initial protest from their mobile phones.

Image source, _

They were chanting pro-independence slogans, calling for an amnesty for all people arrested during the three-year separatist conflict and demanding an immediate ceasefire.

Overnight violence erupted and parts of the prison were set on fire.

Cameroonian security forces restored control after shooting in the air and firing tear gas into the prison.

The Anglophone detainees - many of whom have never been taken to court - were moved to different detention facilities.

Ferdinand Omondi
BBC Africa, Nairobi

Image source, Reuters

Kenya’s Finance Minister Henry Rotich has been released on $150,000 (£120,500) bail after pleading not guilty to more than 10 counts of corruption-related charges.

He is accused of flouting procurement procedures in awarding a contract worth more than $450m for the construction of two dams to an Italian firm, CMC de Ravenna.

The company has denied any wrongdoing.

Mr Rotich was ordered to surrender his passports as part of the bail condition, and barred from entering the premises of the Treasury Ministry.

Magistrate Douglas Ogoti termed it a scene of crime

This makes it difficult for Mr Rotich to continue his duties.

Speculation is growing that a cabinet reshuffle is imminent.

Mr Rotich is the most senior official to be arrested since President Uhuru Kenyatta took office in 2013.

Read more on the BBC News website.

Image source, Getty Images

Kenya's parliament has voted to nationalise Kenya Airways, reports Reuters news agency.

The country's main airline is already 48.9% government-owned and 7.8% held by Air France-KLM and is making a loss at the moment, Reuters adds.

Kenya Airways Chairman Michael Joseph told Reuters the vote was "great news".

"Nationalisation is what is necessary to compete on a level playing field. It is not what we want, but what we need," he is quoted as saying to Reuters.

Air France-KLM could not immediately be reached for comment.