Ishaq Khalid
BBC News, Abuja

Image source, Reuters

The secretary general of Opec, Muhammad Barkindo, 63, died on Tuesday night in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, according to officials.

His death was announced on Wednesday morning in a tweet , externalby the head of Nigeria’s state oil company (NNPC).

The circumstances of the death remain unclear.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries termed his death, external "a profound loss to the entire Opec Family, the oil industry and the international community".

Mr Barkindo's six-year tenure was due to end this month and he was visiting his home country as part of farewell activities.

He was instrumental in signing a deal between Opec and non-Opec member countries, including Russia, on stabilising oil output in the global market in 2016.

He was also spearheading the organisation’s drive towards recovery following the unprecedented shocks in the global oil market caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

He had met President Muhammadu Buhari earlier on Tuesday afternoon at the presidential palace where the president described him as a "worthy ambassador" of Nigeria.

Mr Buhari had also ordered a "befitting reception" event to honour him.

Youssef Taha
BBC World Service News

Image source, Getty Images

Tunisia's financial auditor has ordered a freeze on the bank accounts and financial assets of 10 people, including two senior officials.

The Tunisian Financial Analysis Committee says its order is based on a letter from an anti-terrorism judge, without giving details.

The 10 named people include Rached Ghannouchi, the head of the Islamic Ennahda Party and former Speaker, along with his son and son-in-law; former prime minister Hamadi Jebali and his two daughter.

Last May a Tunisian court banned Mr Ghannouchi and more than 30 other people from travel for being under investigations.

Youssef Taha
BBC World Service News

Image source, Getty Images

Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has hosted Palestinian rival leaders Mahmoud Abbas and Ismail Haniya.

Mr Abbas - the Palestinian president - and his arch rival who heads the Hamas' politburo - the Islamist group that rules the Gaza Strip - met for the first time in 15 years.

The two leaders were invited by Mr Tebboune to attend his country's 60th independence day celebrations

Algeria is a major supporter of the Palestinian cause.

Footage broadcast by Algerian television channels showed President Tebboune getting his Palestinian counterpart and Mr Haniya to shake hands, after which Hamas delegation members embrace Mr Abbas.

It is not clear whether he held talks with Mr Haniya.

President Abbas presented Mr Tebboune with a Palestinian stamp commemorating Algeria's 60th independence day, along with a map showing a Ramallah street recently named "Algeria".

Hamas won the 2006 legislative elections but a year later the two men fell out and Hamas seized the Gaza Strip in a bloody civil war.

No Palestinian election has been held since, primarily because of the internal divisions.

West African leaders agree to drop the economic sanctions imposed on Mali after a coup.

Uganda's cabinet has approved the adoption of Swahili as an official language, according to a statement.

The cabinet also recommended that the teaching of Swahili in primary and secondary should be made compulsory.

Swahili, which originated in East Africa, is one of the world's 10 most widely spoken languages with about 200 million speakers.

The language and its dialects is spoken from parts of Somalia down to Mozambique and across the Democratic Republic of Congo.

In a tweeted statement, the Ugandan cabinet said the decision followed a directive by the East African Community bloc to adopt the language to ease communication among member countries

More on this topic:

• Swahili's bid to become a language for all of Africa
• Swahili’s growing influence outside East Africa

Ishaq Khalid
BBC News, Abuja

Nigerian forces have retaken a prison in the capital, Abuja, after it was attacked by armed men on Tuesday night.

It is not clear who carried out the attack but witnesses say they heard loud explosions and gunfire around Kuje prison - a medium security prison.

Some local reports suggest a number of inmates escaped from the facility during the attack.

A spokesperson for the Nigerian interior ministry said security forces had "taken control of the situation’’ without giving details.

Armed groups including Boko Haram extremists and Islamic State (IS) group-affiliated militants have carried out several jailbreaks across Nigeria in recent years, with more than 5,000 inmates having escaped since 2020.

Hours earlier, gunmen opened fire on a convoy of President Muhammadu Buhari’s security guards, officials and media team in his home state of Katsina.

Nomsa Maseko
BBC Southern Africa correspondent

Image source, AFP

The mass funeral for 21 teenagers who died in mysterious circumstances at a South African nightclub more than a week ago is due to take place on Wednesday.

The funeral ceremony for the teenagers aged between 13-17 will be held in a giant tent at Scenery Park, in East London.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and government officials, friends, relatives and pupils are among about 3,000 people who are expected to attend.

No official cause has yet been released for the deaths of the teenagers who were reportedly celebrating the end of their exams.

Experts have said initial results showed that the teenagers inhaled or ingested something that led to their deaths, but the toxicology report is yet to be finalised.

The tragedy has prompted a review of nightclub licences and premises in East London, and the Enyobeni tavern, where the bodies were found, has been closed.

The south-east African country's annual inflation rate stood at more than 190% in June.

Aliyu Tanko
BBC Hausa editor

Image source, Getty Images

Gunmen have attacked a convoy of Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari's team in Katsina, his home state in the north.

Two persons sustained injuries in the advance convoy of security guards, protocol and media officers, according to a statement by the president's spokesman Garba Shehu.

The convoy had gone ahead of the president’s trip to his Daura hometown to celebrate the Eid-ul-Adha Muslim festival this weekend when the attackers opened fire on them.

They were however repelled by the military, the presidency said.

Katsina is one of the states in north-west Nigeria affected by criminal activities of bandits.

Many people have been killed and thousands kidnapped in the region since 2015.

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Two trans women in Amsterdam are planning a refuge in Kenya for trans people at risk all over the world.

People are losing faith in democracy to deliver economic stability across Middle East and North Africa, according to a major new survey.

That's all for now from the BBC Africa Live team for Tuesday. There will be an automated news feed until we're back on Wednesday morning.

You can also keep up to date on the BBC News website, or by listening to the Africa Today podcast.

A reminder of our wise words of the day:

Click here to send us your African proverbs.

And we leave you with this photo of people in Algeria watching air force planes fly in formation over the capital, Algiers, as the North African nation celebrates the 60th anniversary of its independence from France:

Image source, AFP

Mike Thomson
BBC World Service Newsroom

Twenty-two migrants from Mali, including three children, have died after their boat got into difficulties off the Libyan coast.

The Malian government said they were part of a group of more than 80 migrants who had been stuck on their distressed vessel for much of the last two weeks.

Sixty-one people were rescued from the boat with the help of the United Nations' migration agency.

A spokesperson for the agency said there has been a "significant increase" in migrant flows through Niger and Mali towards North Africa in the first quarter of this year.

Jose Tembe
BBC News, Maputo

Image source, Mozambique presidency

Italian President Sergio Mattarella has been in Mozambique to boost relations as the country looks for cut its reliance on Russian gas.

This is being done via Italian oil giant Eni.

“Collaboration with Eni is important here: it is precious and I hope it can spread to other Italian firms,” President Mattarella said at the presidential palace in the capital, Maputo.

Following the war in Ukraine, Italy has brought down Russian gas imports from 40% to around 25% following deals with Algeria, Egypt, and Libya among other African countries.

Mozambique’s leader Filipe Nyusi, while acknowledging future co-operation with Italy, said his country needed to diversify its economy as well.

“People don't eat, don't smoke gas. That's why we talk about other areas, including agriculture, industry, fishing and energy and other areas," the president said.

Will Ross
Africa editor, BBC World Service

The UN mission in Mali says two Egyptian peacekeepers have been killed and five others seriously injured when their vehicle struck a roadside bomb in the north of the country.

The UN mission (Minusma) said the attack between Tessalit and Gao may constitute a war crime.

It said mines and improvised explosive devices planted by jihadist fighters affected UN personnel, the Malian military and civilians without distinction.

The peacekeeping force is one of the UN's largest and is one of the most dangerous missions.

Over the last decade more than 170 troops have been killed.

Last month the UN Security Council extended the force's mandate by a year.

There is concern that the peacekeepers may be more vulnerable without French air support following France's decision to withdraw from Mali after falling out with the military leaders who carried out two coups.

South Africa's state-owned power company Eskom says it has signed a deal with striking workers that could see an end to power cuts which have crippled the country over the last week.

Known as “load shedding”, the blackouts increased last Tuesday to up to six hours a day to avoid catastrophic grid collapse - a move Eskom blamed on the strike.

The workers had been demanding a 10% pay rise - and three unions had now agreed to a 7% deal, the company said on Twitter.

But Eskom warned that power supplies would still take time to recover.

"As a result of the strike, maintenance work has had to be postponed, and this backlog will take time to clear," it said, external.

More on this topic:

• SA power cuts: My blackout misery

BBC Focus on Africa radio

Image source, AFP

Nigeria's information minister has criticised a call by the leaders of one of the country's states that people should take up arms to defend themselves against militants, criminals and kidnappers.

At the end of last month, the authorities in the north-eastern state of Zamfara, told individuals to "obtain guns to defend themselves against the bandits".

The state “government is ready to facilitate people, especially our farmers, to secure basic weapons for defending themselves", a statement said.

But the federal government disagrees.

"Asking individuals to arm themselves is a recipe for anarchy," Information Minister Lai Mohammed told BBC Focus on Africa radio.

The solution, he said, was for the governors to "support the federal government in the area of security".

Image source, Getty Images

President Muhammadu Buhari is now in the last year of his eight-year presidency and, with frequent reports of attacks and kidnappings, there is a feeling that he has not been able to contain the violence.

But Mr Mohammed said this was not the case.

"State security has improved since 2015," he told presenter Bola Mosuro.

And when challenged that many ordinary Nigerians do not feel safe, the information minster responded saying: "You do not make a judgement on a matter that you understand very little about."

More on this topic:

• Nigeria's kidnapping crisis: Should ransom payments be banned?
• Nigerian outrage at brazen bandit attacks

Ghana will appeal against a $100,000 fine and ban imposed on the country's women's Under-17 football team for age-cheating.

Nichola Mandil
BBC News, Juba

Image source, Nichola Mandil/BBC

Pope Francis still intends to visit South Sudan if his health improve, a top Vatican official who is touring the country in his place has said.

Last month, the pontiff had to postpone his trip to South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo on the advice of his medical team because of knee pains.

He sent Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s secretary of state, to the neighbouring countries instead.

“It’s a great joy for me to be with you and to be able to stay for days and pray with you on behalf of Pope Francis,” the cleric told bishops and government representatives on his arrival at Juba International Airport on Tuesday morning.

“The Holy Father is following development[s] taking place [in South Sudan] and he would like to assure all of you - the population, the Church and the authorities - of his prayers and his spiritual support,” he said.

As part of his four-day visit, Cardinal Parolin will travel to Bentiu town on Wednesday. The capital of oil-producing Unity state, in the north of the country, has recently experienced flash floods that have forced thousands of people from their homes and destroyed their livelihoods.

The senior cleric will also celebrate a mass on Thursday and lay a foundation stone for the new Vatican Embassy in South Sudan.

The majority of the population in the world’s newest nation are Christian.

It is nine years since the country broke away from Sudan - but many of those years have been dominated by a brutal civil conflict.

Catholic and Anglican church leaders have played a role in urging peace and a deal was signed in 2018, though disagreements continue.

The next year Pope Francis was filmed kissing the feet of rival South Sudanese leaders during a two-day spiritual retreat at the Vatican organised by both churches.