Teklemariam Bekit
BBC Tigrinya

South Africa-born billionaire Elon Musk is being urged on Twitter to provide his internet service to Eritrea after recently coming to the aid of Ukraine.

The SpaceX founder has donated Starlink dishes to Ukraine over fears internet access will be disrupted following Russia's invasion.

Using the hashtag #Starlink4Eritrea, those mainly in the diaspora have been saying that Eritrea has been isolated for two decades because of its lack of access to the internet.

Eritrea has one of Africa's lowest rates of internet penetration - a report by the International Telecommunication Union, external put it at barely over 1%.

State-owned EriTel is the sole provider of telecom services in the country.

People can only access the internet via WiFi, but it is very slow. To get on to social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, people use a virtual private network (VPN) to circumvent government censorship.

Since its independence from Ethiopia in 1993, Eritrea has been a one-party state controlled by President Isaias Afwerki.

The country has never had an election and is accused of violently suppressing opposition and silencing the media, both of which are currently non-existent.

Last week, Eritrea was one of only five countries in the world that voted against a resolution deploring Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at the UN General Assembly.

Mr Musk’s Starlink uses satellites in low-orbit in space, not a fibre-optic cable system, to provide the internet. People need kit from SpaceX to access the signals.

The satellite also needs to communicate with a nearby ground station, or gateway, to supply the internet. In Ukraine’s case, there is a gateway in neighbouring Poland.

Ameyu Etana
BBC Afaan Oromoo

Image source, Getty Images

Seven children playing at a road-construction storage site have died after a dynamite explosion in northern Ethiopia.

Construction firms set up camps to store their equipment, which is where the children were hanging out unaware of the danger.

Police are warning the community in the West Armachiho area of Amhara region to keep their children away from the site.

The construction company has not commented.

Dynamite is commonly used to blast through rocks when building roads.

Mercy Juma
BBC News, Nairobi

Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta has ordered the authorities to re-register all motorbike taxi operators following public outrage over an attack on a woman in her car in the capital, Nairobi.

A video showed the woman - from Zimbabwe - being stripped of her clothes and groped as she screamed for help.

It is believed taxi drivers, locally known as boda-bodas, descended on the woman's car to intimidate her after an accident.

The incident happened on Friday on Wangari Maathai Road, named after Kenya’s late renowned feminist and ecologist and the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

The police say they have arrested the motorcycle riders involved, who are due to be arraigned in court. At least 100 motorcycles have also been impounded.

Earlier on Tuesday, women held street protests in the capital, Nairobi, to condemn the incident and other cases of sexual and gender-based violence.

Kenya's Interior Minister Fred Matiang'i said he was shocked and disgusted by the incident.

Nigeria coach Augustine Eguavoen wants to persuade former Chelsea winger Victor Moses to return to international football.

A Nigerian student stuck in the Ukrainian city of Sumy describes life amid the conflict.

Image source, AFP

The son of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni - Lt Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba - has announced his retirement from the army.

“After 28 years of service in my glorious military, the greatest military in the world, I am happy to announce my retirement,” he posted on Twitter.

After training at Sandhurst, an elite British military academy, as well as in Egypt, the US and South Africa - he rose swiftly through the ranks of the Ugandan army.

The 47-year-old has been rumoured to be a possible successor to his 77-year-old father, who has been in power since 1986.

Moroccan Younes Zerdouk steps up to coach Comoros, Kaba Diawara is retained by Guinea and Javier Clemente leaves Libya again.

Abdi Dahir
BBC Monitoring, Nairobi

Two senior Djiboutian ministry officials have been arrested for questioning over allegations of embezzling public funds.

The arrests follow an audit by the state inspectorate-general that unearthed massive theft of state funds, state television reported.

Investigations had shown the existence of fraudulent agreements between some traders and officials at the budget ministry to embezzle money, RTD Djibouti said.

Two officials - Farah Mohamed Osman, deputy director of materials, and Sahal Said Awaleh, head of the ministry's treasury directorate - were being held over “unjustified significant budget overruns”.

The officials have not commented on the allegations.

The national broadcaster added that their detention "was followed by the arrest of several local traders and other people".

Image source, Samuel Otunla

Samuel Otunla, who is doing a masters in veterinary medicine in Sumy, has told the BBC what it's like for him and other African students trapped in the north-eastern Ukrainian city.

The whole experience the past 10 days has been nothing short of trauma.

We’ve been unable to leave. The railway has been closed, the main roads are [largely] inaccessible... though, some civilians have been able to travel across by road to other cities but others have been shot at or reached a dead end at broken bridges and had to turn back.

The conclusion is there is a possibility to leave but it is extremely risky - and expensive - because the Ukrainian drivers who are able to transport students are charging between $2,000 (£1,500) and $5,000 for a 200km (125-mile) drive down south.

The school administration informed us a couple days ago that they (as part of the Ukrainian government) are having discussions for a humanitarian corridor to allow civilians to leave. They are in discussion with the Red Cross.

Buses have been prepared to move students but unfortunately, the Russian government and military have not agreed to a ceasefire.

The embassies of Nigerian in Russia (and other African countries as I’ve heard) offered us an option to be transported to Russia and evacuated from there. Many students have rejected this idea and rightly so. Russia is the enemy - with all these sanctions. I don’t think any embassy of any country is able to reach a peaceful agreement with them for safe evacuation of its citizens.

I, together with over 60 international students, Ukrainian students and hostel staff have spent the past seven nights in a dusty basement/bomb shelter. It’s not a good experience.

We have gotten financial help and assistance from different organisations - through these we have been able to get groceries and other supplies.

So far we have had explosions on 10 days out of 11. Only one peaceful day.

Our daily routine has been: leaving the bomb shelter between 06:00 and 08:00. Spending the rest of the morning cleaning up, cooking and having breakfast. We usually have a general lunch provided by the school administration by noon and the rest of the afternoon is pretty free. During that time, grocery shopping, a lot of “searching for a way out”.

Throughout the past eight days, we’ve experienced trauma, sickness, stress and weariness but in the midst of all that, we also experienced friendship and love.

The school administration in my university have been so helpful and supportive, every student is willing to help the other person, we’ve shared meals, medications, blankets and mattresses with one another, we’ve played games together, prayed together and laughed together but more than anything, we want to be evacuated together.

We don’t like it here.

This is an edited version of Samuel Otunla's testimony. Click here for his full account.

Every time Angella Okutoyi, whose mother died in childbirth, steps on court she thinks of how tennis will change her family's life.

Jose Tembe
BBC News, Maputo

Image source, Getty Images

Herds of elephants moving in groups of between 27 and 30 have gone on the rampage in central Mozambique, devastating crops and injuring people.

The elephants are reported to be coming from the Gorongosa National Park.

The elephants have attacked people at night in the towns of Metuchira and Bebedo, in Nhamatanda district of Sofala province.

The latest incident saw two people get seriously injured as they attempted to scare away the animals.

Residents fear that they will face starvation if the elephants continue to devastate fields of crops.

Nhamatanda district administrator Adamo Ossumane said the government, in partnership with the Gorongosa National Park’s authority, would find a solution.

In February, the death of two people in elephant attacks led to protests where people torched a vehicle belonging to the Gorongosa National Park and attacked two rangers.

The Archbishop of Canterbury hosted Kenya's Deputy President William Ruto in London on Monday, ahead of a similar meeting next week with Kenyan opposition figure Raila Odinga.

Details of Justin Welby's meeting with Mr Ruto were not disclosed.

But head of the worldwide Anglican church tweeted that it was "good to meet Mr Ruto" and that he was "praying for peaceful, open and credible elections on 9 August".

Mr Ruto is on the final leg of his tour in the US and UK as he bolsters his bid for the presidency.

On Monday, he gave an address at Chatham House, a think-tank in London, on Kenya's forthcoming elections.

The deputy president has been side-lined by President Uhuru Kenyatta, who is supporting Mr Odinga as his successor.

Opinion polls carried by local media have Mr Ruto as the front-runner in the presidential race but without the threshold of more than 50% needed for a first-round win.

Some want evangelists to make less noise when trying to convert people in Uganda's capital, Kampala.

Mercy Juma
BBC News, Nairobi

Kenyans in the capital, Nairobi, are holding a peaceful protest over the sexual assault of a female motorist by motorcycle taxi operators.

A video of the operators stripping down the woman as she screamed for help was shared online, eliciting public outrage.

The incident is believed to have taken place after an accident involving her car and a motorbike taxi - prompting other taxi drivers to descend on her vehicle to intimidate her.

Police arrested 16 operators in connection with the incident.

A crackdown on Tuesday morning has also seen about another 200 motorcycle taxi operators arrested for flouting regulations.

The protesters, led by civil society groups, have been calling for justice.

Jose Tembe
BBC News, Maputo

Mozambique has recorded its first day of zero Covid-19 infections since the outbreak of the disease in the country in March 2020.

It also recorded zero Covid deaths on Monday and zero hospitalisation in 24 hours throughout the country.

The country has so far recorded 225,140 infections and 2,196 deaths since the pandemic started.

Some 18 people are still hospitalised across the country.

The ministry attributed the zero cases to the mass vaccination campaign and adherence to mask wearing, hand washing and social distancing.

Ishaq Khalid
BBC News, Abuja

Gunmen on motorbikes killed at least 63 people in Nigeria’s north-western state of Kebbi on Sunday night.

A village head in the Zuru area, Umaru Garba, told the BBC that all those killed were members of vigilante groups who had been chasing after the gunmen.

The incident is one of the deadliest involving vigilante groups set up by communities to deal with the armed gangs.

The gunmen had stolen cattle and kidnapped a number of people in the attack.

The vigilantes then mobilised from at least five villages to rescue the animals and the abductees when they were ambushed.

A vigilante leader said all the 63 victims were buried on Monday. An unknown number of gunmen were also killed during the clashes, according to residents.

Kebbi police spokesperson Nafiu Abubakar told the BBC the motorbike gunmen, locally known as bandits, were fleeing military operations in neighbouring Niger state.

He said they were still gathering details on the exact number of victims.

Armed criminal gangs frequently carry out killings, kidnappings for ransom and cattle theft across Nigeria, particularly in the north of the country.

More on Nigeria's motorbike gangs:

• ANALYSIS: Nigerian outrage at brazen bandit attacks

Image source, Moderna

Kenya has signed a deal with US biotechnology company, Moderna Inc, to build a vaccine manufacturing facility in the country.

The facility if expected to produce up to 500 million doses of vaccines annually.

The deal has been hailed as one that will help solve vaccine access in the current coronavirus pandemic and in future pandemics.

Moderna anticipates to invest more than $500m (£380m) in the facility.

Chris Ewokor
BBC News, Abuja

Image source, SAIF

The authorities in Benin have released Nigerian separatist leader, Sunday "Igboho" Adeyemo, according to his spokesperson.

He was freed on Monday in Cotonou on health grounds, but he is to remain in Benin for security reasons.

Mr Adeyemo was arrested at Cotonou airport in July 2021 alongside his wife on Nigeria's request, although his wife was released days later. The couple was said to be headed for Germany where his wife is a citizen.

He was accused of entering Benin illegally and planning to cause trouble but he denied the charges. The Nigerian authorities never made a formal extradition request.

His spokesman Maxwell Adeleye said Mr Adeyemo was released to the leader of the umbrella body of Yoruba Self-determination Groups, Banji Akintoye.

He told the BBC the separatist leader was not expected to appear in court in Benin as he had no case to answer.

Nigeria accuses Mr Adeyemo of stockpiling weapons, calling for the break-up of the country and inciting ethnic killings.

Mr Adeyemo is hailed as a hero by his supporters after calling for a Yoruba nation in the country's south-west.

He fled the country after a raid on his home by Nigeria's secret police in July 2021 where two of his associates were killed.

Read more:

• Sunday Igboho: The Nigerian separatist who wants a Yoruba nation

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Many countries do not record femicide - the most extreme form of gender-based violence - so activists are doing it themselves.