Lawyer tells the High Court the UN's refugee agency does not support the UK asylum deal.

Alfred Lasteck & Richard Hamilton
BBC News

Human rights organisation Survival International has accused the army in Tanzania of shooting at indigenous people, to try to evict them from some of their land.

It says the army has shot at men and women with live bullets in the Loliondo district in the north of the country.

But Tanzania's Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa downplayed the reports of violence and said no-one was being evicted.

He described footage being circulated on social media as a ploy by certain factions to paint Tanzania's government in a bad light.

Nigeria's Tobi Amusan and Kenya's Ferdinand Omanyala anchor their nations to relay success as both claim their second gold medals at the African Athletics Championships.

Richard Hamilton
BBC World Service News

The security services in Burkina Faso say suspected Islamists have killed around 10 police officers.

They say the attack occurred on a remote police station in the northern province of Séno, near the border with Niger.

Violence and unrest has spread from neighbouring Mali, where Islamist militants took over the north of the country in 2012.

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• Return of the military strongmen to West Africa
• Ex-president sentenced to life over Sankara murder
• Russian mercenary plan triggers alarm in West Africa

Image source, AFP

Kenya’s agriculture minister says Kenyan exports of the narcotic leaf khat to Somalia will resume following talks between President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Somali counterpart, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud.

The ban on the trade in recent years had a big impact on Kenyan farmers.

Minister Peter Munya told reporters that the exports will start again in a fortnight when the two leaders will sign a formal trade agreement.

Direct flights between the two countries are also due to resume to allow the product to be flown directly to Somalia, he said.

Khat leaves are chewed to produce a mild stimulating effect and is popular especially in the Somali, Ethiopian and Yemeni communities.

In Kenya, it is mainly grown in the central county of Meru and neighbouring regions.

The economic fortunes of the Kenyan farmers were significantly affected by the export restriction amid soured relations between Kenya and Somalia.

Kenya has been hoping to reset ties with the new administration after the relations hit a record low point under the presidency of Mr Mohamud's predecessor.

Mr Mohamud became Somalia's president last month.

Wigs have been present in African society for centuries, but where did it all begin?

Youssef Taha
BBC World Service News

Image source, AFP

Ten international human rights organisations - including Amnesty International and Lawyers Without Borders - have accused Tunisia's president of dealing a deep blow to judicial independence, after he sacked 57 judges.

In a joint statement, they have urged President Kaïs Saïed, who is a former law professor, to reinstate the judges and end what they called his "assault on the rule of law".

President Saïed accused the judges of corruption and protecting terrorists.

In protest, Tunisian judges launched a week-long strike on Monday.

President Saïed dissolved the parliament last March after suspending it for eight months.

More about Tunisia:

• Democrats, despots and the fight for power
• A quick guide to Tunisia

Nichola Mandil
BBC News, Juba

Pope Francis has had to cancel an upcoming visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan because of a knee injury, the Vatican has announced.

The head of the Catholic Church was scheduled to travel in July to the Congolese cities of Kinshasa and Goma, followed by a visit to South Sudan’s capital Juba.

In Juba he was to lead a prayer vigil with Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, and the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland Rev Iain Greenshields.

The Vatican said the visit would take place at "a later date to be determined". The decision had been made "at the request of [the Pope's] doctors, and in order not to jeopardise the results of the therapy that he is undergoing for his knee".

The Sudan and South Sudan Catholic Bishops’ Conference has not yet issued any statement regarding the postponement.

Both DR Congo and South Sudan have large numbers of Roman Catholics.

The 85-year-old pontiff has made several visits to Africa since becoming pope in 2013.

Tunisia overcome Chile but Ghana lose to hosts Japan at the Kirin Cup friendly tournament in Kobe.

Chris Ewokor
BBC News, Abuja

The authorities in Nigeria have denied media reports which suggested bandits had used a helicopter to launch a brazen attack on villages in Kaduna state.

Officials instead say the attackers arrived in large numbers on motorcycles and raided three villages, leaving at least 32 people dead, during the incident on Sunday in the southern part of the state.

The attackers also razed several houses, the Kaduna state government said in a statement on Thursday.

The commissioner for internal security, Samuel Aruwan, said the helicopter in question was an air force helicopter dispatched to the area, that was used to intercept and engage the bandits in a gun battle before the arrival of ground troops to secure the general area.

Several kidnapped victims, including an expatriate kidnapped at a mining site, were also said to be rescued.

Mr Aruwan added that security forces were on the trail of a wounded notable suspect.

The attack in Kaduna on Sunday occurred same day that gunmen attacked a church in south-west Nigeria and killed at least 40 worshippers.

Patience Atuhaire
BBC News, Kampala

Image source, AFP

More than four million people are facing high levels of food insecurity in Kenya, according to new data released by the UN.

This figure has risen from just over three million people last year.

Over 900,000 children below the age of five have been found to be acutely malnourished.

The entire country’s north, and much of the north-eastern regions, are facing food insecurity at crisis or emergency levels, the data classification shows.

The March to May rainfall has been low, irregular and poorly distributed in much of the distressed regions, which has affected production of food.

Aside from a prolonged drought, the crisis has been worsened by a rise in food prices because of the spike in the cost of fuel, resulting from the war in Ukraine.

Some of the affected counties also face ongoing insecurity and gun violence.

Large parts of eastern Africa have suffered a devastating drought for much of 2022, aggravating food insecurity for countries still reeling from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

Earlier this week, the UN also warned that more than half a million people in Uganda’s north-eastern region of Karamoja were facing a high risk of hunger and starvation.

And in Somalia, more than 200,000 people are on the verge of starvation due to the drought that has swept through the region

A hospital in the Cameroonian city of Mamfe has been razed to the ground in an arson attack.

All 45 patients at Mamfe district hospital were safely transferred to another facility and there were no deaths, according to a local administrative official interviewed by the AFP news agency.

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) called Wednesday's fire an "unprecedented attack, external on a hospital of vital importance" that will have "a major impact on people in a region where access to healthcare has already been gravely impacted by years of violence".

It is not clear who was behind the attack, but local media suspect that it was the work of English-speaking separatists who want to break away from the French-speaking majority.

Five years of violent conflict between Anglophone separatists and government soldiers has seen both sides accused of abuses, while more than 6,000 people have been killed and 700,000 others displaced.

Earlier this month Cameroonian soldiers killed nine civilians including a baby in Missong, North-West region, the defence ministry confirmed.

And on Tuesday, five soldiers were reportedly killed by suspected separatists in Njitapon in Cameroon's West region, about 12km (8 miles) from the border with the North-West region.

You may also be interested in:

• Why separatists in Cameroon and Nigeria have united
• Red Dragons and Tigers - the rebels fighting for independence
• A quick guide to Cameroon

The Nigerian thriller series Blood Sisters has been trending online, and has made it to the top 10 most watched series on Netflix globally.

Critics say it has set a new pace for Nollywood in the way it explores the struggle against gender and intimate partner violence.

The BBC's entertainment reporter, Princess Irede Abumere, spoke to one of the lead actors - Ini Dima-Okojie - on what the series is about:

She also spoke about her decision to leave a successful career in investment banking to pursue a career in acting.

Then one day, while sitting behind her desk, a friend sent her a Nollywood film trailer and she was impressed by the high quality of the production.

Breaking the news to her parents of her decision to enrol in film school was difficult, but she was surprised by her mum's acceptance - on condition she wouldn't get a tattoo.

Here is a trailer of the series:

Professor Natalie Hammond says the nurses will improve the patient experience and support staff.

A giant billboard mounted in Ghana's capital, Accra, to mark pride month - to celebrate lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer communities - has been pulled down.

The sign had gone up over the weekend on the N1 Tema motorway, a major highway in the city, according to media reports.

But some MPs objected to it, giving the head of police a 24-hour ultimatum to remove it.

It is still unclear who actually removed the billboard.

Gay sex is punishable in the West African nation with a prison term of three years.

A local journalist has tweeted a picture of the sign:

Ghana MP Sam George confirmed in a tweet on Thursday evening that the billboard had been removed.

"We salute the authorities for their swift response. We are a country of laws and would fight till the end to protect our cultural sovereignty," he said, external.

"We can get results from the authorities if we unite and collectively demand the changes we desire. True power belongs to the people. The billboard has fall 'frat'. Power to our cultural sovereignty," he added.

Ghana's parliament has been debating a bill that proposes to impose harsh penalties on the LGBT community.

Rights groups say the bill is the "worst homophobic document ever".

More on this topic:

• Archbishop of Canterbury criticises Ghana anti-LGBT bill
• Being gay in Ghana: LGBT community is ‘under attack’

Prudence Sekgodiso expects to emulate Caster Semenya by winning the African 800m title, but is wary of comparisons to her fellow South African.

BBC Monitoring
The world through its media

Image source, AFP

Senegal President Macky Sall, who is the current AU chairperson, has urged Ukraine to remove mines from the port of Odessa to ease grain exports.

Mr Sall said this in an interview, external with French media outlets, RFI and France 24.

He added that he had received assurances from President Vladimir Putin that Russia would not attack Odessa.

The AU head said that without the resumption of exports, Africa - which is highly dependent on Ukrainian and Russian grain imports and fertilisers - “will be in a very serious famine situation that could destabilise the continent”.

Russia and Ukraine account for 29% of global wheat supplies.

Mr Sall is currently in France, where he is on Friday expected to ask his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron to push for the lifting of EU sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.

Image source, Reuters

A Moroccan captured while fighting for Ukraine is among three people who have been sentenced to death by a Russian proxy court in eastern Ukraine.

Brahim Saaudun and Britons Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner are accused of being mercenaries, Russian state media says.

The court, which is not internationally recognised, is in the pro-Russian so-called Donetsk People's Republic.

The UK and Ukraine have condemned the sentences for violating international laws protecting prisoners of war.

Read more here.

Image source, Getty Images

Sudan's former main ruling civilian coalition has begun informal talks with the military mediated by the United States and Saudi Arabia.

The dialogue is meant to end the long-standing political deadlock that followed the military coup last October.

The coalition, known as the Forces of Freedom and Change (FFC) is among many pro-democracy groups that have been boycotting the face-to-face talks with the military leaders, which kicked off on 8 June.

The US embassy in the Sudanese capital Khartoum said, external representatives of the military and the FFC's central committee met on Thursday “to exchange views on how to solve the current political crisis, as well as on a process that leads to a democratic transition”.

The embassy welcomed the commitment of the parties to put the nation's interests first and to engage other stakeholders.

It said the meeting was not a substitute for the dialogue that the African Union, the UN and the East African regional grouping, Igad have been facilitating in seeking a return to democratic rule.

Since 2019, the FCC coalition had been sharing power with the military, but a coup ended the power-sharing arrangement last October.

South African bowler Mondli Khumalo, 20, is continuing his recovery after being left in a coma.