Aboubakar Famau
BBC News, Dodoma

Image source, Getty Images

Opposition parties in Tanzania have criticised the government's plan to use taxpayers’ money to renovate stadiums, including some owned by the ruling CCM party.

Tanzania is pushing to upgrade its sports facilities as a strategy to enable it qualify to host big tournaments including the Africa Cup of Nations in 2027.

While presenting his ministry’s budget estimates, the minister for culture and sport asked the parliament to approve a sum of 10bn shillings ($4.2m; £3.4m) to repair seven playgrounds, five of which belong to CCM.

This has provoked a sharp response from members of the opposition who describe the plan as misappropriation of public funds.

A spokesman from the opposition ACT Wazalendo party said the government should return the ownership of the grounds before renovating them.

The Chadema party's John Mrema called on parliament to reject the proposal saying it was unacceptable to use taxpayers’ money to repair private-owned facilities.

The ministry has defended its proposal, saying the amenities will be used by Tanzanians and not just by CCM members.

Guy Bandolo
BBC News

Image source, AFP

Six Chadian opposition leaders, including the co-ordinator for the main opposition coalition Wakit Tamma, have been handed one-year suspended sentences for disturbing public order.

They were also fined 10m CFA francs ($16,000; £12,800). The public prosecutor had requested two years in prison, a fine of 100,000 CFA francs, plus 2bn CFA francs in damages.

The case came after an authorised march they had organised on 14 May against France's military presence in Chad turned violent.

In the aftermath, the authorities carried out a string of arrests among the march organisers, who denied any responsibility for the violence.

Their trial opened on Monday morning at a court at Moussoro, around 290km (180 miles) from the capital N'Djamena, with defence lawyers boycotting the hearing amid a heavy police presence.

The activists had earlier refused to leave custody to attend the hearing.

Their lawyers said they intend to appeal the sentence at the Court of Appeal in the capital, describing the trial as unfair.

The case comes against a backdrop of political tension with a military junta in power, following the death of the country's veteran leader Idriss Déby more than a year ago.

More about Chad:

• Idriss Déby obituary: End of Chad's 'Great Survivor'
• Why a Darfur sultan regrets a twist of colonial fate
• Clashes between Chad gold miners leave 100 dead
• A quick guide to Chad

Image source, IEBC

Kenya's electoral commission (IEBC) has revoked the clearance of comedian Walter Mong’are, famous by his stage name Nyambane, to run for the presidency.

IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati on Monday cited new information about the comedian’s academic qualifications.

A presidential candidate in Kenya is required to have a university degree.

The comedian was a student at Kenyatta University located in the outskirts of the capital, Nairobi, before he took up a popular comical role in early 2000s of mimicking former President Daniel arap Moi.

Nyambane was the first presidential aspirant cleared by the commission last week on a Umoja Summit party ticket.

But another aspirant, who was barred from contesting on Monday because of presenting transcripts without a university certificate, questioned why Nyambane had been cleared on similar grounds.

It prompted the commission to summon Nyambane on Monday, but he failed to honour the summons - leading to his disqualification.

IEBC has so far cleared four presidential candidates - David Mwaure, George Wajackoyah, Raila Odinga and William Ruto.

The youngest presidential hopeful, Muthiora Kiriara, burnt his voters card after he was denied clearance for not having the required number of supporters’ signatures.

The pair are accused in South Africa of large-scale corruption, which they deny.

Patience Atuhaire
BBC News, Kampala

Image source, AFP

At least 200 guns and hundreds of rounds of ammunition have been recovered in Kenya's northern Marsabit county, in an ongoing operation to bring peace to the region, the interior ministry has said.

More than 5,000 illegal guns are suspected to be in the community, says Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang'i.

A joint security team has been carrying out a mop-up operation to confiscate illegal firearms from the public.

Officials say some of the guns were surrendered to them.

The government has also extended a dusk-to-dawn curfew in the area for another 30 days. The county has already been under curfew for two months.

Ethnic violence in the northern county has already claimed many lives, and a recent escalation in clashes has been blamed on political incitement, as campaigning for the August general election gathers momentum.

The region has also been experiencing a severe drought in recent months.

The drought has put a strain on shared resources such as water and pastures and put families at the risk of starvation.

Samba Cyuzuzo
BBC Great Lakes

Image source, AFP

The Codeco rebel group in the Democratic Republic of Congo says it is ending its insurgency after peace talks with the government, the army has announced.

Codeco, whose full name is Congo Economic Development Cooperative, is one of the deadliest militia groups operating in eastern DR Congo.

It was blamed for last month’s slaughter of around 50 civilians in a mining area.

The group's decision to end hostilities was made on Monday following talks in Ituri province that brought together representatives of various ethnic groups, including leaders of the Lendu community that is linked to the rebels.

“Codeco is going adhere to [the] peace process…we hope that from today peace will be back in our province,” Célestin Tawara, a representative of the Lendu community was quoted as saying by the army.

The truce came as army chiefs from the states that make up the East Africa Community met in Goma town to decide on a regional force to fight militia groups in eastern DR Congo.

It is not yet announced when the force will start operations against rebel groups that will reject an offer to lay down their arms.

More than 100 local and foreign groups operate in South Kivu, North Kivu and Ituri provinces. They have destabilised the region for more than two decades.

Emery Makumeno
BBC News, Kinshasa

Image source, EPA

Belgium's King Philippe and Queen Mathilde on Tuesday are to begin a seven-day visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo at the invitation of President Félix Tshisekedi.

It will be King Philippe’s first visit to country since ascending to the throne in 2013.

The royals will be accompanied by Belgian government ministers.

They will visit the capital, Kinshasa, and the cities of Lubumbashi and Bukavu.

The trip was initially scheduled for March 2022, but was cancelled because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

In June 2020, King Philippe expressed his "deepest regrets" to the Democratic Republic of Congo for his country's colonial abuses.

It was the first time a Belgian monarch had formally expressed remorse for what happened during the country's colonial rule.

Belgium controlled the central African country from the 19th Century until it won its independence in 1960. Millions of Africans died during the bloody colonial rule.

Presidential adviser Christian Bushiri Ongala told the BBC that "the damage was done, it was deep, nothing can compensate for human lives".

"There were millions of people savagely killed under the duress of colonisation, no billion dollars can compensate for human lives. We are in a logic of recognition, in a logic of normal relations, not in a logic of claiming compensation," he said.

"So, if the King has recognised this, it is a step in the right direction, and we must value the population that was humiliated during this period of colonisation. And do what is expected, that is a co-operation between two civilised countries, between two responsible governments. If we go in this direction, I believe that it can somewhat compensate for the misdeeds of colonisation.”

Image source, Reuters

Police in Nigeria say gunmen who killed more than 20 people in a church on Sunday had disguised themselves as worshippers.

A spokesman said the attackers detonated explosives inside the building, while others outside opened fire.

It still isn't clear why they carried out the assault in the south-western town of Owo.

Police are also yet to announce an official number of deaths.

The UN in Nigeria said it "strongly condemns the brutal attacks on worshippers", according to a statement by the UN secretary general's spokesman on behalf of the UN's Resident Coordinator for Nigeria, Mattias Schmale.

Mr Schmale appealed for calm and called for the attack perpetrators to be brought to justice.

The attack overshadowed a meeting of Nigeria's governing party, which has begun the process of choosing a candidate for next year's presidential election.

President Muhammadu Buhari cannot run again, having served two terms.

BBC World Service

Image source, AFP

Nigeria's governing party has started the process of choosing a candidate for next year's presidential election.

Under the constitution, President Muhammadu Buhari cannot run again, having served two terms.

He has not publicly endorsed any of the 23 hopefuls who are standing at a meeting in Abuja of the All Progressives Congress.

Whoever wins will lead the party against the main opposition candidate, the former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, in the election next February.

The meeting has been overshadowed by the killing on Sunday of more than 20 Roman Catholic worshippers at a church in south-western Nigeria.

Read more:

• Nigeria's ruling party choosing election candidate

Lalla Sy
BBC News

Image source, AFP

Mali's military leaders have confirmed there won't be a return to civilian rule for two years.

The interim President, Colonel Assimi Goïta, has signed a decree fixing the length of the transition period.

The army initially seized power in 2020 and has been under international pressure to hold elections sooner.

Mali is struggling to deal with crippling sanctions imposed after it failed to hold a planned vote in February.

Over the weekend, the West African regional grouping, Ecowas, decided to keep the measures in place.

It will examine the situation again during its next extraordinary summit next month.

The bloc had asked Mali to review its two-year transition period, considering 12 or 18 months to be reasonable.

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A surge in ethnic pride among Ethiopia’s Oromo community is leading some to ditch their names.

Mohamed Salah rejected Liverpool's request to have a pre-match scan on an undisclosed injury before the forward played 90 minutes for his country on Sunday.

"I don't think the shock of what I saw will leave me for the rest of my life," one man tells the BBC.

Gunmen have killed an unknown number of church worshippers in Ondo state, south-west Nigeria.

That's all from the BBC Africa Live page team for now - there'll be an automated service until Tuesday morning.

In the meantime you can listen to our Africa Today podcast and check the BBC News Africa page.

A reminder of our wise words of the day:

Click here to send us your Africa proverbs.

And we leave you with this image from Kenyan artist Cyrus Kabiru's Instagram account, showing his latest twist on funky eyewear:

Kalkidan Yibeltal
BBC News, Addis Ababa

Image source, Getty Images

The government in Ethiopia is fully committed to African Union-led efforts to find an end to the civil war - now in its 19th month - in the north, a government spokesperson has said.

Speaking to journalists in Addis Ababa on Monday, Billene Seyoum, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s press secretary, said Ethiopia has a "high regard" for former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, the AU’s chief mediator.

However “any kind of peace process is long; it’s not simple. It’s a complex process [that’s] multi-layered,” she added.

The remarks came days after Mr Obasanjo met both Tigrayan leaders and senior government officials including the prime minister, in his latest trip to Ethiopia.

Ms Billene nonetheless accused Tigrayan forces of "amping up war drums” in recent weeks.

Tigrayan forces had previously said that they welcome the peace efforts.

In the past few weeks Ethiopia has jailed thousands of people mainly in the northern Amhara region and in Addis Ababa, as part of an operation that authorities say is aimed at ensuring law and order.

Eighteen journalists and media workers are among those jailed in what the state's own rights body, the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission, called "unlawful" measures.

Ms Billene, however, contradicted the commission's remarks by saying many of those jailed were not licensed journalists recognised by the media regulatory body.

The mass arrests in Amhara are aimed at “individuals operating outside mandated security apparatus” and that government’s efforts to “ensure there’s clarity where the monopoly of power lies”, she said.

A UN-backed attempt to resolve Sudan’s political crisis has been rejected by a leading civilian group, the Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC), the AFP news agency reports.

It quotes an FFC statement saying that a meeting with the army supported by the UN, African Union and regional group Igad, "does not address the nature of the crisis" and the process should focus on "ending the coup".

Last October, the military, led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, deposed the prime minister ending a fragile military-civilian coalition. It was supposed to be overseeing a transition to democracy in the wake of the 2019 downfall of President Omar al-Bashir.

The political process to end the current crisis cannot be inundated "with parties representing the coup camp or linked to the former regime," the FFC is quoted as saying by AFP.

Kalkidan Yibeltal
BBC News

The authorities in western Ethiopian have vowed to ensure order following violent confrontations between security forces and armed men, which have left several dead.

Among those killed was a district administrator.

While the civil war in the country’s north has received much of the attention, Ethiopia has seen a surge in deadly violence in various parts of the country.

The head of the police force in Benishangul-Gumuz region, Harun Umer, said armed men opened fire on his forces in the remote town of Belo.

In the battle that followed, he told the BBC, at least 19 people were killed.

The region has seen an increase in armed clashes in recent years, and tens of thousands of people have fled their homes.

With a truce now in place in the north of the country, where the army has been fighting Tigrayan forces, the government has launched operations in several other areas to control what it calls lawlessness.

However, violent incidents have continued to be reported, raising questions over the success of these measures.

Shingai Nyoka
BBC News

Image source, Getty

Botswana’s prosecuting authority says it is considering applying for the extradition of former President Ian Khama from South Africa.

Earlier on Monday, Mr Khama failed to appear in court for a second time for his trial on firearms charges.

He has been in self-imposed exile in South Africa since last November, citing alleged threats against his life and the alleged harassment of his family members by the current government.

The trial was postponed to the end of August, as the prosecution considers applying for Mr Khama’s extradition.

His co-accused, including the former heads of intelligence and police services were in court today where a fifth person, a former procurement manager was added to the group.

They face a combined total of more than 30 charges of theft and unlawful possession of firearms.

Mr Khama said he acquired the firearm lawfully during his presidency.

The trial marks an extraordinary fallout between him and his successor President Mokgweetsi Masisi.

The two have clashed over policies and Mr Khama has emerged as a strong critic of the government.