Africa's fastest man has released a statement confirming that he'll be on his way to compete at the World Athletics Championships which start in the US on Friday.

Earlier it looked like Ferdinand Omanyala may not be able to run in the 100m as his visa hadn't been issued - but it came through at the last minute and he is due to arrive just hours before the first heat.

"Thanks so much for your support and prayers," he said on Twitter.

"Visa challenges are faced by all Kenyans and people daily, in this case I was no different."

Image source, Getty Images

Africa's fastest man Ferdinand Omanyala faces a race against time to compete at the World Athletics Championships after only receiving his American visa on Thursday morning.

The Kenyan,who won the African 100m title last month,is due to race in the heats on Friday at the global event in Eugene, Oregon.

"I am not giving up on the World Championships yet," the 26-year-old told BBC Sport Africa.

"The information that I am out of the Championships is not true."

Omanyala will fly from Kenya at 18:00 local time, and is expected to arrive in Eugene less than three hours before the men's 100m heats begin in the evening session on day one of the World Championships.

However, he will then need to clear United States customs, travel to the arena, pick up his accreditation and find time to warm up before bidding for a place in the semi-finals.

Read more on this story from BBC Africa Sport.

Lawmakers in Nigeria's Lagos state have denied reports of secretly passing Sharia (Islamic law).

It follows claims on social media that the law was passed to attract support for one of the main presidential candidates.

In a statement, the Lagos House of Assembly said the claims should be "discarded".

"Lagos operates the criminal code. This streamlines the state to establishment of customary courts, not Sharia," said a statement in the assembly's Twitter account.

Twelve Nigerian states in the Muslim-majority north practise Islamic law. The legal system is supposed to apply only to Muslims.

Rhoda Odhiambo
BBC West Africa correspondent, Lagos

Nigeria’s Inspector General of Police has banned the use of special number plates that grant holders priority on roads and security privileges.

In a statement, police cited abuse of the special plates, locally referred to as Spy, to disregard traffic rules.

It's unclear how many such plates are currently in use countrywide but they have all been revoked indefinitely.

Holders are to revert to their vehicles' original number plate, the statement, external by police spokesperson Olumuyiwa Adejobi said.

Police officers attached to senior government officials who use Spy number plates have also been ordered "to ensure prompt compliance with this directive or risk being arrested for violation of the order".

"This order is necessary to forestall the continuous disregard for traffic rules and regulations and other extant laws guiding road use by individuals hiding under," the police statement said.

There were no penalties specified for defaulters of the ban but police have been ordered to confiscate all special plates still in use.

Emmanuel Igunza
BBC News, Nairobi

Image source, AFP

At least 31 people including children are now known to have been killed in the last week during renewed fighting in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

The UN says intense clashes between the Congolese army and several rebel groups have spread to the Beni territory where five bodies were recovered on Wednesday.

Locals say the death toll might be even higher as dozens of people are still missing.

More than 700,000 people have fled their homes in Ituri and North Kivu provinces since the beginning of this year.

This brings to six million the total number of people displaced by armed conflict in DR Congo, which the UN says is among the worst humanitarian crises in the world.

The Congolese army is battling dozens of armed rebel groups in the east.

Many of them had been dormant since the end of the country’s civil war in 2003 but have recently re-emerged.

In the Black Fantastic is a new exhibition bringing together black artists whose works explore fantasy and race.

Jose Tembe
BBC News, Maputo

Image source, AFP

The Mozambican government has declared five days of national mourning following the death of former Angolan president José Eduardo dos Santos.

The mourning period started at midnight on Thursday.

During the five days the national flag will be flown at half mast in the country and in all diplomatic representations abroad.

The decision was taken on Wednesday night by the Council of Ministers which met in an extraordinary session.

"Jose Eduardo dos Santos, earned, at a national and international level, high prestige and esteem, especially in the context of the fight for racial equality against apartheid, in favour of freedom, dignity and economic and social progress of the countries of southern Africa and the African continent in general," said Ludivina Bernardo, the deputy minister of industry and commerce in a press conference.

Mr Dos Santos died in a Barcelona hospital on Friday last week, where he had been undergoing medical treatment.

He was was president of Angola for nearly 40 years, until 2017.

Read more about his life:

• Angola’s José Eduardo dos Santos: The flawed 'architect of peace'

Mohamed Harare
BBC Somali

Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has met parents of army recruits who were taken to Eritrea for military training.

The soldiers' whereabouts and wellbeing had become a concern after families lost contact with them three years ago.

On Wednesday night, parents at the presidential palace openly wept despite the president's reassurance that "happy days are on the way".

"I went to the camp in Eritrea... I have seen your sons. I celebrated with them on the second day of Eid ul-Adha and I left money for them to buy calling cards. I have urged all of them to call you and other parents. They should be calling you today or tomorrow," the president was heard saying in a video tweeted by his office.

"I am a parent, a father and a grandfather. I can feel the pain when children are away from you, and especially when you are not aware of their situation. It is said that parents love children most when they are away or ill.”

One parent at the meeting said that her son had called her earlier on Wednesday.

The soldiers, reported to be about 5,000 in number, appeared for the first time in public last week after they were photographed with President Mohamud during his visit to Eritrea.

Their recruitment sparked controversy following claims that some of them fought alongside Eritrean soldiers in backing the Ethiopian army's offensive against rebel fighters in the Tigray region.

Both Somalia and Eritrea denied the claims.

Image source, AFP

Two Congolese nationals arrested and indicted in the US last year for trafficking ivory, rhino horn and pangolin scales have pleaded guilty to the charges, the US Department of Justice has said.

Herdade Lokua, 34, and Jospin Mujangi, 32, were indicted last November on 11 counts related to trafficking wildlife from the Democratic Republic of Congo to Seattle in the US.

“In pleading guilty, both defendants admitted that beginning in November 2019, they agreed to smuggle elephant ivory, white rhinoceros horn and pangolin scales to the United States," the justice department said in a statement

They are alleged to have worked with a middleman to smuggle three packages of ivory tusks cut into pieces and labelled as wood.

A “similar scheme” was used to send rhino horn, the justice department added.

The sentencing is due on 1 November.

Jose Tembe
BBC News, Maputo

Image source, AFP

Elephants have killed five farmers who were harvesting their crop in a village in Macomia district in northern Cabo Delgado province.

The victims include two children and a woman.

Others who managed to escape the elephants returned later to find the crushed bodies of their relatives.

The victims are formerly displaced people who had just returned to the village, according to local sources.

Cabo Delgado has been at the centre of a jihadist insurgency since 2017 that has forced hundreds of thousands people from their homes.

Macomia district neighbours the Quirimbas National Park, but no elephant attacks have been recorded for many years, including during the period of the jihadist attacks.

“This is a situation of conflict between humans and wildlife,” police spokesman Mário Adolfo told Lusa news agency, adding that the victims were not in a protected area.

Nkechi Ogbonna
West Africa Business Reporter, BBC News

Image source, AFP

Ghana’s annual inflation rate hit 29.8% in June, the highest since December 2003.

The country’s statistics office says surging food and commodity prices are responsible for the spike.

The government has now turned to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a bailout plan expected to be worth $1.5bn (£1.3bn).

If granted, this will be the 17th time the country has borrowed from the IMF since independence in 1957.

Ghana’s total debt is estimated to be more than two-thirds of GDP and an increase in its debt profile could harm future generations and scare investors.

Economists believe a restructuring of debt and a reduction in subsidies and cost of governance could help ease the pressure.

The finance minister is expected to present a mid-year budget review before parliament this month.

David Bamford
BBC World Service News

Image source, The Gambia Coalition

A judge in The Gambia has sentenced to death the country's former intelligence chief Yankuba Badjie and four other security agents for the killing in 2016 of a political activist in the final days of brutal rule under former President Yahya Jammeh.

The activist, Ebrima Solo Sandeng - a leading figure in the opposition United Democratic Party - had been arrested during anti-government protests.

He died in prison two days later, having been beaten and tortured.

His death galvanised a wave of popular anger that eventually led to the ousting of President Jammeh after 22 years in power.

Mr Jammeh fled in 2017 to Equatorial Guinea, where he remains in exile.

More on this topic:

• Gambia after Yahya Jammeh: 'I'll never get justice'
• How US mansion of Gambia's ex-president was seized
• Profile: Former Gambian President Yahya Jammeh

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Suedi Murekezi, a US Air Force veteran, is reportedly being held by pro-Russian separatists.

Roots Party candidate George Wajackoyah is causing a social media sensation with some original policies.

Morocco and Zambia reach the Women's World Cup after winning their Women's Africa Cup of Nations quarter-finals.

That's all for now from the BBC Africa Live team for now. There will be an automated news feed until we're back on Thursday 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 taken on Tuesday of a woman on her motorbike in Ouagadougou, capital of Burkina Faso - where almost every adult in the West African nation reportedly owns a motorcycle:

Image source, Getty Images

Veronique Edwards
BBC Focus on Africa radio

Award-winning Cameroonian writer Mutt-Lon has told the BBC his new novel The Blunder - a fictional account of a real scandal that happened in colonial times - may explain today’s Covid-19 hesitancy in Cameroon.

The book chronicles a medical campaign by French doctor Eugène Jamot against sleeping sickness, a disease that is transmitted from cattle to humans by the tsetse fly which is fatal if not treated.

In 1931 Dr Jamot's junior colleague began doubling and tripling the dose of tryparsamide, a type of arsenic, that was being given in small doses to treat the sickness.

But the dramatically increased dosage led to 700 people in the central Bafia region losing their sight.

Mutt-Lon says the colonial authorities tried to cover up the scandal and those who went blind were never compensated.

The novelist believes the attempted cover-up has had long-lasting consequences when it comes to trusting authority today.

“Cameroonians are reluctant to get vaccinated, you have people more than suspicious and the reason of that behaviour dates back to the blind people of Bafia, which was hidden but it left deep traces in the collective memory,” he told BBC Focus on Africa radio.

Kalkidan Yibeltal
BBC News, Addis Ababa

Image source, Getty Images

The head of Ethiopia’s government-run relief agency, Mitiku Kassa, has been arrested on suspicion of corruption, police have said.

He is accused by the police corruption investigation unit of conspiring with a non-governmental organisation, which allegedly sold food aid and clothes intended for displaced people. The money was then allegedly used to buy a property.

Mr Mitiku, who has led Ethiopia’s Disaster Risk Management Commission since 2015, has grown in prominence in recent years as the face of the country’s efforts to provide support for millions of its citizens uprooted from their homes in widespread ethnic violence and more recently in the brutal civil war.

He has not yet publicly responded to the police accusations.

Nigeria will use criticism from pundits as motivation for their Women's Africa Cup of Nations quarter-final against Cameroon, says defender Osinachi Ohale.