Favour Nunoo
BBC Pidgin

Image source, Getty Images

Ghanaian shop owners have forcefully locked Nigerian-owned shops in a market in the capital Accra after insisting that they are operating illegally, one trader told Citi FM.

It is the third time this year that shops belonging to Nigerians have been locked by Ghanaian traders.

Last month, more than 30 Nigerian-owned shops were locked by unidentified individuals in Ghana’s second largest city, Kumasi.

Recently, local traders in Accra said on a radio show that the locks are a warning to the government to enforce the law that bars foreigners from participating in the retail market.

The president of the Nigerian traders union in Ghana, Chukwuemeka Nnaji, told BBC Pidgin that “the Ecowas protocol gives all citizens of member states equal rights to do business, reside and establish a business in each member state".

“We Nigerians in Ghana have the right to trade here in any kind of business, the law they are quoting is not applicable to Nigerians”, Mr Nnaji added.

But Ghanaian traders insist they want the government to enforce a 2013 law, which they say limits retailing in the country only to Ghanaians.

The shops in the capital remain locked and police have met with Ghanaian and Nigerian traders to resolve the situation.

Gabonese former member of parliament Bertrand Zibi Abeghe has been sentenced to six years in jail for his part in post-electoral violence, one of his lawyers told AFP news agency.

Libreville Criminal Court convicted Zibi on charges of "violence and assault" and "illegal possession of a firearm", lawyer Charles-Henri Gey told AFP.

His lawyer told AFP that they intend to appeal the decision.

More than 1,000 people were arrested after violent protests broke out following the disputed presidential elections in 2016.

Three people were killed in protests that began after the announcement that President Ali Bongo had been narrowly re-elected.

Image source, AFP

Image source, Getty Images

A Mozambican Catholic bishop has criticised the government over what he said was its failure to curb a radical Islamist insurgency, reports AFP news agency.

AFP says the criticism was made in a pastoral letter from the bishop of Pemba, Dom Luiz Fernandes, that was read out to worshipers over the weekend.

Pemba is the gas-rich area in the north of Mozambique where Islamist militant attacks have been growing in the last two years.

The bishop accused authorities and the international community of doing little to curb the wave of attacks by the militants whose exact identity remains unclear and their motive unknown.

Army brigades stationed in the province "have rarely been able to prevent the attacks, because when they do occur the army is not there and often arrive late," the bishop is quoted as saying in the letter.

He also reportedly criticised the government's treatment of journalists trying to report on the attacks, as several reporters and rights campaigners have been detained by security forces.

Read more: How Mozambique’s smuggling barons nurtured jihadists

Rwandan opposition activist Diana Rwigara has spoken to the BBC's Newsday programme about why she wrote an open letter to her president about the death of a prison guard.

Ms Rwigara published the letter, external to President Paul Kagame last week about the murder of Paul Mwiseneza.

In the letter, she said he was killed shortly after talking to her about unrest at a prison in the capital, Kigali.

She told Newsday that this was yet another example that the government did not tolerate a dissenting voice.

“We live in a country where daring to voice your opinion, daring to criticise the government will get you killed,” she said.

Listen to the full interview:

BBC World Service

Officials in the Democratic Republic of Congo say nine people, including several children, were killed when rebels attacked two villages in the east of the country.

Late on Monday Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebels used machetes to kill people in Oicha and Eringeti - two villages north of the city of Beni.

Local residents say the group had warned of imminent attacks but the motive is unclear.

Many hundreds of people have since fled the area.

The ADF has no clear political agenda but is reported to have recently formed a link with the Islamic State group.

BBC Monitoring
The world through its media

Image source, Getty Images

Zimbabwe's government has announced plans to start offering free treatment to cancer patients, reports state-run ZBC Radio.

Health Minister Obadiah Moyo is quoted as saying to the radio station that cancer had overtaken HIV/Aids as the main cause of death in the country.

Last year, some NGOs warned that Zimbabwe’s health sector was in a “precarious” state.

Former President Robert Mugabe was known for going to Singapore to get his own medical treatment.

Current Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga is following a similar trend of not getting treatment for his undisclosed illness inside Zimbabwe, instead going to South Africa and then China,reports The Herald newspaper, external.

In South Africa, two thieves reportedly stole an empty commuter train from a depot and drove it for 12km (7.5 miles) along the coast of KwaZulu-Natal province, reports IOL News, external.

The article goes on to say that the weekend joyride only stopped when the train lost momentum going up hill. The two men then jumped out and fled into a nearby forest chased by security guards.

The rest of the details are patchy because the investigation is too sensitive to allow for further details to be released, Zama Nomnganga, spokesman for the rail agency, is quoted by IOL as saying.

But he is quoted as saying that the incident was extremely dangerous.

"That was a high-risk activity, as anything could have happened to them. This is not Playstation."

Image source, AFP

A South African vet has been videoed rescuing a leopard trapped in a laundry room, reports News 24, external.

Dr Cliff Bull said he was contacted about a stray leopard in the town of Benoni near Johannesburg.

"Apparently the maid had walked into the washroom and seen the leopard, so she ran out and closed the door," he is quoted as saying in News 24.

The article goes on to say that the leopard hid behind the washing machine so he got someone to appear at the window to provoke it to jump up and he shot a dart gun from another window.

After waiting for the anesthetic to kick in, the video shows the vet grabbing the leopard by the tail and the scruff of the neck and carrying it outside where it was handed over to the care of wildlife rehabilitation staff.

Benoni is a built up area, and although the vet said it is not unheard of for wildlife to be seen there, it's still rare.

So he suspects this cat escaped from an enclosure, he told News 24.

The philanthropist Melinda Gates has told BBC Newsday that lack of ID keeps poor African women out of digital banking.

She said that the "digital revolution is happening across Africa" but that women are locked out of it.

One of the things that she says stops women from getting digital bank accounts is if they don't have the identification needed to start an account.

She said that digital financial services give women the capability to save money - something she sees as key to avoid crises like not being able to pay for medical care.

"This is my number one priority at the [Bill and Melinda Gates] foundation and will be for the rest of my life", she told Newsday.

Listen to the full interview:

Image source, ADP

Singapore authorities have seized 8.8 tonnes (8,800kg) of elephant ivory, its largest ever seizure to date.

Authorities estimate that the tusks, valued at $12.9m (£7.61m), have come from nearly 300 African elephants.

Some 11.9 tonnes of pangolin scales valued at $35.7m were also seized. It is believed to have belonged to about 2,000 of the mammals.

The illegal cargo was found in containers after a tip-off from China's customs department.

Read more on the BBC News website.

Teklemariam Bekit
BBC Tigrinya

Egyptian police are still holding five Eritrean refugees arrested during a demonstration in the capital, Cairo, on Sunday.

The refugees were protesting at the offices of the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) about delays in processing registrations for newly-arrived asylum seekers when police arrested more than 40 of them.

Most were released later the same day, but five were kept in different holding cells, the BBC has learned.

One refugee following their cases told BBC Tigrinya that the police are trying to find out who organised the demonstration.

The London-based rights group the Eritrean Movement for Democracy and Human Rights said they fear the group could be deported back to Eritrea.

The UNHCR office in Egypt has not commented on the issue.

Image source, Samsom Tekie/Facebook

Larry Madowo
BBC Africa business editor

A new investigation has shed light on how some of the poorest countries in Africa are losing out on millions of dollars in tax revenues from Western multinationals and wealthy individuals.

The report, from the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, external, says companies and individuals use the Indian Ocean island nation, Mauritius, to legally avoid paying higher taxes in the countries where they make their money.

Mauritius denies any wrongdoing and says it is compliant with all relevant international laws.

The report is based on 200,000 confidential documents that show for the first time how one offshore law firm helped its international clients avoid millions of dollars in taxes.

The cache of confidential records, emails and filings, called the Mauritius Leaks, reveals the legal practices that divert tax revenues from poor African, Middle Eastern and Asian countries back to the pockets of Western corporations, with Mauritius taking its cut.

The documents have come from the Mauritius office of a Bermuda-based law firm Conyers, Dill & Pearman, and cover a period from the early 1990s until 2017.

The BBC has not independently reviewed the documents to confirm their authenticity.

The documents contain detailed accounts that implicate major multinationals and accounting firms in complex financial transactions designed to avoid paying taxes.

The investigation says the companies took advantage of 46 tax treaties Mauritius has with mostly poor countries, the absence of a capital gains tax and weak regulations, to register shell companies in the island nation even though they had no staff or operations there.

The law firm Conyers sold its Mauritius office to three former employees in 2017 and says it is regulated by the laws in the countries it operates in.

Mauritius has since tightened its laws for offshore companies but some tax experts still see it as a facade that allows tax evasion and avoidance.

Read more about an earlier cache of documents that raised questions about tax practices:

• Panama Papers: How Jersey-based oil firm avoided taxes in Uganda

In court, Kenya's Finance Minister Henry Rotich has denied the corruption allegations being made against him.

The charges, relating to the awarding of a contract to build two dams, are being read out. Mr Rotich is being asked if they are "true or not true".

"Not true," he has responded so far.

Image source, KTN

Mr Rotich is appearing alongside several other officials in court in the capital, Nairobi.

He was arrested on Monday after the director of public prosecutions made the allegations.

Image source, AFP

A Gambian army officer has accused ex-President Yahya Jammeh of ordering the murder of a journalist, AFP news agency reports him as saying in his testimony to a truth commission.

Deyda Hydara, who was the editor of the local daily The Point Newspaper and a correspondent for AFP, was killed in 2004.

"We opened fire, myself, Alieu Jen and Sana Manjang," Lt Malick Jatta said at the public hearing, naming two other military officers.

Lt Jatta is quoted by AFP as saying at the commission that his commanding officer later gave him an envelope containing US dollars, which he said was a "sign of appreciation from the big man", a reference to Mr Jammeh.

Pap Babucarr Saine, Hydara's colleague and managing editor of The Point, told the truth commission earlier that Hydara was killed for writing about the rampant corruption that marked Mr Jammeh's rule, AFP adds.

Mr Jammeh had said in an interview on Gambian state television that the government had "no stake" in the killing. He hinted that Hydara's love life had led to the murder, says the news agency.

The Gambia's Truth, Reconciliation and Reparation Commission was formed to establish a "historical record of the nature, causes and extent of violations and abuses of human rights committed during the period July 1994 to January 2017" - a specific period encompassing the 22-year rule of now-exiled Mr Jammeh.

Read more: Torture revelations transfix The Gambia

In South Sudan, the move to ban the singing of the national anthem at public events where the president is not in attendance has caused a "public outcry", Juba's Eye Radio reports, external.

On Monday, the station had quoted Information Minister Michael Makuei as saying that "the anthem is not meant for everybody".

He was reportedly referring to instances where it had been sung at events attended by junior officials - such as "under-secretaries and governors" - to honour their presence.

But some have objected to the need for President Salva Kiir to be present and are sharing their anthem renditions on Twitter:

It's not clear if the information minister meant that it could not be sung at all, but some clearly feel that the national anthem belongs to everyone:

Kenya's former anti-corruption czar, John Githongo, says people in the country are "cautiously optimistic" after Finance Minister Henry Rotich was arrested, along with other senior officials, on corruption charges.

Mr Rotich is due to appear in court in Tuesday. He has denied the allegations.

Mr Githongo told the BBC's Newsday programme that it is the first time the country is seeing both the minister and the ministry's permanent secretary being "arrested in the manner they had".

Mr Rotich is accused of flouting procurement procedures when awarding a contract worth more than $450m (£360m) for the construction of two dams.

Explaining the significance of his arrest, Mr Githongo said "it’s a level of accountability which Kenyans are not accustomed to".

Image source, Reuters

Soldiers and federal police are due to take over security in parts of the south of Ethiopia after unrest that has left several people dead, according to an announcement on regional state television.

The new security measures come following a request from the authorities in the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples’ Region (SNNPR), the announcement said.

The aim is to ensure the rule of law and to protect the public, according to the authorities.

At least 25 people died in clashes between security forces and activists in southern Ethiopia at the end of last week.

The hospital officials said security forces fired bullets during protests across the Sidama region.

The tension is over a delay in holding a referendum on whether there should be a separate state of Sidama.

The Sidama are Ethiopia's fifth biggest ethnic group, making up 4% of the population and are mainly based in the Southern Nations, Nationalities and People's (SNNP) regional state.

The four bigger communities all have their own regions within Ethiopia's ethnically based federal system.

The mayor of Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa, says that his administration is developing a tracking system that would allow motorbikes to return to the city's streets.

Earlier this month, Takele Uma's ban on motorbikes came into force. He said it was to curb crime and he told the BBC that the "security problem" has been cut by half.

Private delivery companies have complained that their businesses have been affected, but Mr Takele said that their bikes will be back on the road once the tracking system is ready.

Kenya's Finance Minister Henry Rotich has arrived at court in the capital, Nairobi, where he is to appear after being accused of corruption by the director of public prosecutions.

Mr Rotich was arrested on Monday after Noordin Haji said he was part of a scheme to defraud by arranging contracts "riddled with massive illegalities". He has denied wrongdoing.

Kenyan TV station K24 posted a video of a bus arriving the court:

Mr Rotich is accused of flouting procurement procedures in awarding a contract worth over $450m (£405m) for the construction of two dams to the Italian company CMC de Ravenna.

The company has also denied the accusations.

The spokesperson for Kenya's president has described corruption as "a cancer that is eating away the Kenyan soul".

Kanze Dena-Mararo's comments come a day after Finance Minister Henry Rotich, and more than two dozen other officials, were accused of "conspiracy to defraud" and arranging contracts "riddled with massive illegalities".

In a newspaper advert published in March, Mr Rotich denied wrongdoing.

He is accused of flouting procurement procedures in awarding a contract worth over $450m (£405m) for the construction of two dams to the Italian company CMC de Ravenna, which has also denied the accusations.

Kenya was ranked 144th out of 180 in Transparency International's perceptions of corruption report for last year.

The country is routinely hit by high level corruption scandals but senior officials are rarely arrested.

The US ambassador to the country has been outspoken in his condemnation of what he calls "thievery" in the country.

His latest tweet, shared on Tuesday morning, says "we wake up to a new variety of thievery".

In Swahili he says that like the way that the slang for thief has changed from mgondi to dingo, so has corruption.

Why the dog?

Just so that people would take notice, he says. It's called Malaika by the way.