Image source, Getty Images

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and the US President Joe Biden will hold talks on 16 September on a number of issues including trade and energy, the White House has said.

“The leaders, building on their productive call in April and the US-South Africa Strategic Dialogue in August, will discuss opportunities to deepen our cooperation on trade and investment, infrastructure, climate and energy, and health,” it said in a statement, external on Thursday.

It added that the presidents would also reaffirm the partnerships between their two countries and “discuss our work together to address regional and global challenges”.

Wycliffe Muia
BBC Monitoring

Image source, AFP

Sierra Leone's electoral body is set to begin a new voter registration exercise this weekend where all eligible voters are required to register again.

People are required to produce their national identity cards to register as voters.

Phase one of the exercise runs up to 17 September with the second phase expected to begin on 20 September to 4 October, the Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone (ECSL) wrote on Twitter., external

Over 3,500 centres have been mapped for the exercise across the country.

President Julius Maada Bio has urged, external Sierra Leoneans aged 18 years and above to come out and register to vote.

The country is set to hold a general election on 24 June next year.

BBC World Service

Image source, AFP

Angola's biggest opposition party, Unita, says it has filed a legal challenge against the results of last week's election.

The governing MPLA party - which has been in power since 1975 - was declared the winner of the vote, although with a reduced majority.

A senior Unita official, Faustino Mumbika, told the French news agency that a complaint was filed with the National Electoral Commission on Thursday.

Unita - which achieved its best ever election result - has said the poll was marred by irregularities.

Image source, Getty Images

South Africa's cabinet has approved a new design for coins that will feature inscriptions in all official languages.

The official languages will be rotated annually over the next 10 years.

This is the fourth time South Africa will be changing the design of its coins - the last one being in 1989.

The cabinet in a statement explained how the new design will look like for each denomination.

"The word 'South Africa' will be inserted on the one side of the coins and printed in all the official languages. Three languages will be used in the R5 coin; two languages R2; 50c, 20c and 10c coins and the R1 will be in one language," the cabinet statement read in part.

The new coins will begin circulating from next year and no sample design has been generated yet.

South Africa has 11 official languages: Zulu, isiXhosa, Afrikaans, Sepedi, Setswana, English, Sesotho, Xitsonga, Siswati, Tshivenda and Ndebele.

BBC World Service

Image source, Getty Images

Three health workers in Senegal have been arrested after a pregnant woman and her baby died allegedly because of a botched Caesarean section.

A health union official said a gynaecologist, an anaesthetist and a nurse were being questioned over potential negligence.

Senegalese media say the heavily pregnant woman died after losing a lot of blood.

Her baby died as a result of injuries sustained during the operation.

The Senegalese Association of Gynaecologists and Obstetricians (ASGO) defended the medical team and criticised the arrests as "wrongful".

In a statement quoted by the AFP news agency, it said the team had taken "the appropriate decision" for the woman and her baby.

Last year President Macky Sall described Senegal's health system as obsolete and ordered a national review of neonatal services.

It followed a national outcry over the death of a woman in labour - in a case in which three Senegalese midwives who were involved were found guilty of not assisting someone in danger.

Our proverb of the day:

Click here to send us your African proverbs.

A selection of the best photos from across Africa and beyond this week.

A toxicology report, suggests overcrowding suffocated the victims, relatives say.

That's all for now from the BBC Africa Live team, but we'll be back on Friday morning.

Until then you can find the latest updates on the BBC News website, or listen to our podcast Africa Today.

A reminder of our Africa proverb of the day:

Click here to send us your African proverbs.

And we leave you with a series of photos from Senegalese artist Malick Welli promoted by the Lagos Photo Festival:

Richard Kagoe
BBC Africa, Nairobi

Image source, EPA

Kenya’s Supreme Court concluded the presidential petition hearings on Thursday.

Lawyers representing the electoral commission and President-elect William Ruto challenged the petition by presidential candidate Raila Odinga and six others seeking to overturn the result of the 9 August election.

The legal teams urged the court to dismiss pleas made by Mr Odinga and others saying they lacked merit because they had not tabled evidence to support their claims.

They challenged the petitioners to provide proof to demonstrate that the results transmission system was compromised.

The court was told that the allegations made about the dispute between the commissioners and the chairperson were merely sensational and do not warrant a nullification of the election outcome.

They accused petitioners of engineering a constitutional crisis to achieve their political objectives.

Lawyers will respond to questions and clarifications sought by the seven-judge bench on Friday.

The judges will then write the judgement over the weekend and deliver the ruling on Monday.

BBC Focus on Africa radio

Image source, Getty Images

A foul smell arising from Lake Kuk in North-West Cameroon has caused panic among some of the local villagers, the BBC's Randy Joe Sa'ah reports.

The lake and nearby Kuk village are not far from Lake Nyos, where a sudden gas escape from beneath the water in 1986 killed more than 1,600 people and thousands of livestock.

Villagers in Kuk who went to investigate the smell found that the water had changed colour.

Some then started to leave the area but others stayed put, linking the natural phenomenon to the recent death of a traditional ruler. In other words, the ancestors were responding to his passing.

Kahn Elvis, a geology expert from the University of Yaoundé, said the smell could have been caused by the sudden release of magma from beneath the lake's surface.

The local authorities have urged people to be calm and said the strange smell and change in water colour was due to the recent heavy rains, Journal du Cameroon reports.

A former Zimbabwe Football Association official is banned from the sport for five years and fined 20,000 Swiss francs for sexually harassing three female referees.

Mike Thomson
BBC World Service News

Image source, Getty Images

A Moroccan imam who lost a court appeal on Tuesday against deportation from France for hate speech has gone missing.

When police arrived at Hassan Iquioussen’s home in Lorches, in northern France, he wasn’t there.

The interior ministry ordered Mr Iquioussen’s expulsion in July over what it called his “especially virulent and anti-Semitic speeches”.

But French cultural, academic and human rights figures claim the case is further evidence of anti-Islamic sentiment in France.

They've launched a petition calling on President Emmanuel Macron to stop his deportation.

Keisha Gitari examines what led to Emirate Airlines suspending flights to Nigeria.

Nomsa Maseko
BBC Southern Africa correspondent

Image source, AFP

The findings of the toxicology report into the mysterious deaths of 21 young South Africans - mostly teenagers - suggest that they suffocated due to overcrowding, their families say.

Officials from the health department have been briefing the families of those who died while partying at the Enyobeni tavern in East London in June.

After waiting for more than two months, the parents of the young victims who collapsed while dancing at a popular Eastern Cape nightspot have said they’ve been left with more questions than answers.

Health department officials have declined to publicly disclose the cause of death, saying the matter was confidential.

The families of the victims were briefed separately. But the credibility of the report, which has been presented to the families, has been brought into question by relatives who said they weren’t satisfied with what government officials have told them.

They've said they would seek legal advice.

This comes after it emerged that traces of methanol, which is a poisonous chemical normally used in manufacturing cleaning detergents, was found in all the victims' bodies, according to a press briefing by the Eastern Cape clinical service in July.

A forensic pathologist also said the initial autopsy report ruled out binge drinking, carbon monoxide poisoning and a stampede as possible causes of death.

The tavern owner, who is facing charges of violating South Africa's liquor laws and selling alcohol to minors, is expected to appear in court on Friday for a pre-trial hearing.

It's unclear if more charges will be added.

Read more:

• South Africa's Enyobeni Tavern deaths: Tears for teenagers at mass funeral

Kennedy Gondwe
BBC News, Lusaka

Image source, Zambian government

Zambians have celebrated the clinching of the $1.3bn (£1.1bn) bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) after seven years of waiting.

Social media is awash with memes and celebratory messages after the news broke, especially because Zambia became the first African country to default on its debt - estimated to be over $16bn - during the Covid pandemic.

But with the acquisition of this interest-free loan, experts feel the move is a seal of approval to assure creditors of the country’s ability to settle its debts. The country's currency - the kwacha - has also surged in value on the news.

Most importantly, the move is seen as a step towards economic recovery that will in return unlock the country’s expenditure in the social sector.

However there are concerns that with the removal of fuel, electricity and agricultural subsidies, misery among certain sectors of the population could follow.

But there is a general sense of happiness as most Zambians are expecting a trickle down effect on the back of a massive employment drive that has seen thousands employed in the health and educational sectors.

For President Hakainde Hichilema, elected last year, the work towards a better Zambia has just started.

He tweeted: “We are delighted that the IMF shares our vision for a prosperous Zambia, with strong socio-economic growth at the heart of our development plans. Thanks to the people of Zambia for believing in us."

Dominic Casciani
Legal Correspondent

Image source, Reuters

A detailed clinical review of the backgrounds of asylum seekers likely to be sent to Rwanda has found many may have been tortured.

The research by charity Medical Justice questions how people have so far been selected for the proposed flights.

The plan to send some asylum seekers to Rwanda is being challenged next week in the High Court.

The government says the scheme will help end people smuggling and dangerous crossings of the English Channel.

The Home Office's £120m plan aims to send some of those who cross the English Channel on to Rwanda to have their claims dealt with there.

If they are found to be in genuine need of protection, Rwanda would offer them resettlement, rather than sending them back to the UK.

The plan is widely opposed by asylum experts, including the United Nations' refugee agency.

Read more from this story.

A few weeks ago, it seemed as though peace talks were imminent, so why has fighting resumed in Tigray?

Jose Tembe
BBC News, Maputo

Five villagers have been killed, several others abducted and more than 100 huts torched in two separate jihadist attacks in Ancuabe district of Mozambique’s northern Cabo Delgado province.

In the latest incident, three men were beheaded on Wednesday afternoon in Megaruma village, about 15km (nine miles) from the headquarters of the administrative post of Metoro.

There are also reports of abductions in the same area of an unknown number of people.

The situation has caused unrest and tension in Megaruma, Metoro and their surrounding areas.

Security forces have been deployed to the area to restore peace and order.

BBC Great Lakes

Image source, Bruce Melodie/Instagram

A Rwandan music star was on Wednesday arrested in Burundi's economic capital, Bujumbura, and accused of fraud, the authorities have said.

Bruce Melodie had scheduled concerts in Bujumbura for Friday and Saturday.

Melodie is accused of not returning money to a local music investor when his concert in Bujumbura was cancelled in 2018, local media reports.

The musician is yet to comment on the allegations.

A Burundian musician, Jean-Pierre Nimbona, popularly known as Kidum, says the money issue should have been resolved in talks because it might escalate.

“This [arrest] could cause a diplomatic incident between the two countries which were far in negotiations,” Kidum told the BBC Great Lakes service.

The Burundian and Rwandan authorities have been in negotiations to rebuild relationships after several years of diplomatic strain that has at times turned into incidents of military confrontation.