Patience Atuhaire
BBC News, Kampala

Image source, Getty Images

The Ugandan health ministry has confirmed that six children from one family have tested positive for the Ebola virus in Kampala.

They are part of a family of seven who took in a relative who had travelled from Kassanda, one of the most affected districts, and later died in the capital.

One of the children, currently in isolation, is meant to sit his final primary school exams on 8 November.

The schools the children go to have not been closed.

Health Minister Dr Jane Ruth Aceng said that 170 contacts have been listed from that one case.

She added that she was increasingly concerned about urban transmission of the haemorrhagic fever because of its complexity, due to the big populations and frequent mobility.

There have been 109 confirmed Ebola cases in the country, with 30 deaths.

Uganda is considering starting vaccine trials against the Sudan strain of the virus, which broke out 35 days ago.

Officials say about 3,000 contacts of people who got infected with the disease will be considered to receive the vaccines.

The two districts of Mubende and Kassanda - which are the epicentre of the outbreak - remain under quarantine.

Read more about Uganda's Ebola outbreak here.

Richard Kagoe
BBC News, Nairobi

Image source, FACEBOOK/ARSHAD SHARIF

Three senior security officials from Pakistan are due to arrive in Nairobi on a fact-finding mission following the killing of a prominent journalist Arshad Sharif on Sunday.

They are Director of Police Athar Waheed, the Intelligence Bureau's Omara Shahid Hamid, and Colonel Saad Ahmed from the Pakistan Army.

A statement from Pakistan’s Ministry of Interior says the three officials will assist in the investigations.

The team is expected to submit a report to the ministry after concluding their visit.

The body of the slain journalist arrived in Pakistan on Tuesday and moved to a state-owned medical facility for a post-mortem examination following a request from the family.

Meanwhile, investigations into the deadly shooting have begun in Kenya.

Kenya’s police watchdog is also investigating the incident.

Police say the shooting is being treated as a case of mistaken identity.

The death of Mr Sharif remains a mystery after police gave contradicting accounts about the circumstances that led to his killing.

A senior police officer who spoke to the BBC on condition of anonymity said Mr Sharif’s driver defied orders to stop by police manning a check point along Magadi Road prompting officers to shoot at it.

The police were pursuing a car, a Toyota Land Cruiser, that was reported as stolen in Nairobi and radar traced it to the area which is about 80km (50 miles) south of the capital.

Another version says that the vehicle's occupants shot at police officers manning a roadblock in the area injuring one of the officers. This forced the police officers to shoot back at the occupants of the vehicle.

It has also emerged that the car that was reported stolen on Sunday evening was a different model, a Mercedez Benz, with a different registration number to the Toyota Land Cruiser.

Meanwhile, four police officers have been questioned and recorded statements over the incident.

Read more about the shooting of Mr Sharif here.

Omar Wally
Journalist, The Gambia

Image source, Omar Wally

The Gambian parliament has assigned its select committee on health, disaster and humanitarian relief to investigate the deaths of more than 80 children after taking Indian-manufactured cough syrup.

This news came during an extraordinary session about the deaths.

The committee is expected to come up with findings and present it to parliament on 30 November.

It is tasked with investigating the causes and the impact of the acute kidney injuries that killed the children after taking the medicine, the potential culpability of the suspected importer and pharmacy linked to the syrups, and other issues regarding legal and regulatory framework.

Police are already investigating the matter and a commission was set up by President Adama Barrow, however, parliamentarians still see the need for a select committee to conduct their own independent investigation.

The ministry of finance has released $20,000 (£17,000) to the ministry of gender, children and social welfare to enable it to lead government condolences to families of victims.

Most parents have rejected the government's outreach and they are insisting on an independent investigation and prosecution of all those responsible.

The concern among lawmakers is that 8,000 bottles of syrups that are still unaccounted for could pose a threat to children whose parents are still reluctant to surrender the syrups to health authorities.

Health Minister Lamin Samateh is under pressure to resign to pave the way for a smooth investigation and restore confidence in the country's health sector.

Mr Samateh has ignored the calls, saying his resignation won’t have any benefit.

Parents of the victims and civil society organisations attended the session and they remain determined to get justice.

Read more about the cough syrup tragedy:

• Cough-syrup scandal: How did it end up in The Gambia?
• Gambia cough syrup scandal: Mothers demand justice

Nigeria are beaten by Colombia on penalties in the semi-finals of the Under-17 Women's World Cup, extending Africa's wait for a maiden finalist.

Jonathan Paye-Layleh
BBC News, Monrovia

Liberia’s first medical oxygen plant has been established to address critical cases needing life support in a country where healthcare delivery remains poor.

The plant has been set up by the World Health Organization (WHO), with funding from partners including the governments of Germany, Canada and the US.

It has a capacity to produce 100 cylinders of medical oxygen per day, according to the WHO.

An excited President George Weah joined dignitaries at an old peacekeeping force headquarters called “Star Base” in western Monrovia on Tuesday to launch the plant.

President Weah declared his administration was now putting in place a robust plan to tackle Liberia’s crippling health challenges.

Health Minister Wilhelmina Jallah said local hospitals should now know Liberia had an oxygen plant they could order from.

Before the onset of Covid and during most of the initial period of the outbreak, Liberia had fewer than five medical oxygen tubes, in a country of over five million people.

The new plant is intended to serve an estimated population of about two million inhabitants in the capital, Monrovia, and surrounding regions, the WHO says. Twenty local biomedical technicians and operators have been trained by a team from South Africa to operate the facility.

Another plant will be installed in the western Liberian region of Bomi, toward the border with Sierra Leone.

Liberia lost the highest number of the more than 11,000 people who died in the 2014-2016 West Africa Ebola outbreaks due to factors including lack of oxygen.

Chris Ewokor
BBC News, Abuja

Image source, AFP

A federal high court in Umuahia, in south-eastern Nigeria's Abia state, has ordered the Nigerian government to return the detained pro-Biafra separatist leader, Nnamdi Kanu, to the country where he was arrested and extradited from last year.

In a ruling on Wednesday, presiding judge, justice Evelyn Ayandike, said that the arrest and extradition of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (Ipob), tagged in legal terms as Extraordinary Rendition, was a violation of his fundamental rights.

The court also awarded 500m naira ($1.2m; £1m) of damages to Mr Kanu.

His lawyers challenged what they had described as, “his abduction and extraordinary rendition from Kenya” and requested the court to “order his return to Kenya, where he was abducted, or UK, his country of abode”.

Kenya's government has denied having any links to his arrest or extradition to Nigeria.

The ruling comes barely two weeks after the Court of Appeal in the capital, Abuja, discharged the separatist leader on terrorism charges, in a huge blow to the Nigerian government.

Mr Kanu’s lawyers said that the government lacked the power to prosecute him in Nigeria, based on the manner in which he was brought into the country.

The government is yet to react to the latest judgement by the High Court in Umuahia.

It has also not released the Ipob leader as the ruling of the Court of Appeal instructed, but has opted to appeal against the judgement.

Read more about Nnamdi Kanu here.

Nkechi Ogbonna
BBC West Africa business reporter

Image source, Getty Images

A section of legislators in Ghana’s parliament are demanding the immediate sacking of the finance minister, and his deputy, over the state of the economy and the depreciating cedi - the local currency.

At least 80 lawmakers drawn from the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) held a press conference on Tuesday evening to call for the removal of the two from office - over alleged mismanagement of the economy, excessive government spending, illegal payment of oil revenues into offshore accounts, and conflict of interest.

Neither the president, nor Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta, have made official comments or issued a response to the wide-ranging allegations.

MPs have threatened to boycott further parliament activity such as the forthcoming 2023 budget hearing. This comes after opposition MPs filed an impeachment notice in the house.

The embattled minister, who is currently negotiating a $3bn (£2.6bn) bailout fund from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), has come under scrutiny since December 2021, following the introduction of an unpopular 1.5% tax on mobile money transactions.

The Ghana cedi has also fallen significantly against the US dollar causing rising food prices and worsening the cost-of-living crisis, as inflation approaches the 38% mark.

Grace Kuria
BBC News, Nairobi

Image source, Twitter/ Silvanus Osoro

A Kenyan legislator has caused uproar in parliament and on social media after making remarks that appeared to insinuate that the reason one female nominee could have been rejected for a ministerial position was because she might have been on her monthly period.

Peninah Malonza was a nominee for the position of Tourism, Wildlife and Heritage Minister and a parliamentary committee recommended rejecting her. A sitting of the whole parliament has however overruled that rejection and she is now cleared for appointment.

The parliamentary vetting committee said the decision to reject Ms Malonza was because she had failed to demonstrate to the panel her knowledge of issues about the ministry.

While trying to defend Ms Malonza, the MP who is being accused of sexism appeared to suggest she failed to impress the vetting team because she may have been on her period - but that this should not rule her out.

“The rejection ought to be on matters that are serious… not on issues of presentation to the committee, maybe she wasn’t dressed very well, maybe she was on her period,” MP Silvanus Osoro said.

Irked by the remarks, a female legislator called for MPs to stick to issues, not sideshows or trivial matters, when deliberating on women’s competences.

“You cannot trivialise women’s issues to become about our moods, emotions, periods, that, that day I did not wake up on the right side of the bed, that’s why I didn’t answer the questions right,” MP Naisula Lesuuda said.

Lalla Sy
BBC News

Image source, AFP

Burkina Faso's military ruler, Captain Ibrahim Traoré, has appointed a government of 23 ministers.

The new cabinet will run the country until civilian rule is restored in July 2024.

It will be led by Prime Minister Apollinaire Joachim Kyelem de Tembela, a 64-year-old lawyer who was appointed to the post on Friday.

The new cabinet is composed of five ministers from the former cabinet of Lieutenant Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba - the coup leader overthrown in a subsequent coup in September.

Two military officers occupy the key ministries of defence and security.

The new cabinet includes five women. Olivia Ragnagbnewendé Rouamba remains Foreign Affairs Minister. She had earlier led negotiations with regional bloc, Ecowas, on the timetable and deadline for the transition to civilian rule.

A charter providing for a government of no more than 25 ministers and a 71-member assembly was adopted on 14 October.

It stated that the transitional president's term will end with the holding of a presidential election in July 2024.

A year on from Agnes Tirop's murder, her parents are still waiting for justice amid calls to tackle gender-based violence in Kenya.

Azeezat Olaoluwa
Women’s affairs reporter, BBC News, Lagos

Image source, Getty Images

The authorities in Nigeria's Imo state have been asked to arrest a man who allegedly assaulted and broke the arm of his two-month old baby.

The 31-year-old man is reported to have assaulted his baby with a plastic cloth hanger for disturbing his sleep.

His wife told the BBC that the man took her phone and locked her and the baby in a room and threatened her not to tell the neighbours.

She finally escaped two days later and took her baby to a hospital where doctors amputated the arm.

Dr Chiedozie Mbalewe who treated the baby told the BBC that the amputation was done to save the baby 's life.

The suspect is on the run and the mother has reported the case to the police.

A group of women journalists and the National Human Rights Commission have called for justice.

Cases of violence against children in Nigeria have increased by 5% between 2016 and 2021, according to Unicef.

Nigeria’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) latest survey shows that the highest cases were recorded in Cross River and Imo states.

The country’s laws protect children against physical, mental or emotional injury and all forms of abuse, but implementation is low.

Alfred Lasteck
BBC News, Dar es Salaam

Tanzanian authorities say more than 400 porters and tour guides have joined groups battling a fire that broke out in Africa’s highest peak, Mount Kilimanjaro, which has been spreading due to strong winds.

It comes as the fire reignited in areas that were previously under control.

More than 500 officers from the defence and security forces alongside tourism stakeholders have been fighting the fire that started on Friday.

The permanent secretary in charge of tourism, Prof Eliamani Sedoyeka, said the fire had reignited in three areas by early Tuesday and they had only managed to contain one of the areas by evening.

Two years ago, a week-long inferno destroyed thousands of hectares of woodland on the slopes of the mountain.

Mount Kilimanjaro, which is 5,895m (19,341 ft) high, is a popular tourist destination and tens of thousands of people climb it every year.

Abdi Dahir
BBC Monitoring

Somalia has executed by firing squad two militants from the Islamic State (IS) group.

The state-owned Somali National News Agency (Sonna) reported that a military court found the two “guilty of assassinations” in the capital, Mogadishu, and Bosaso town in north-eastern Bari region.

The two were identified as Adan Mohamed Ali Mohamud and Mohamed Ali Mohamed Farah.

Local media reports said many al-Shabab and Islamic State militants are still in prisons waiting to be executed after being sentenced to death.

The Islamic State insurgents mainly operate in north-eastern Puntland where they had claimed attacks in the past.

Peter Jegwa
Lilongwe, Malawi

Malawi's President Lazarus Chakwera has fired Agriculture Minister Lobin Lowe and his deputy Madalitso Kambauwa Wirima over what he termed "incompetence and gross negligence".

President Chakwera made the announcement in a televised address on Tuesday evening.

The agriculture ministry is accused of botching the implementation of a programme in which Malawian rural farmers are provided with subsidised fertiliser and farm inputs.

Mr Lowe has not commented on the accusations.

The president has since appointed Sam Kawale, formerly the lands minister, to replace Mr Lowe.

The president said more changes in his cabinet would be coming in due course.

Omar Wally
Journalist, The Gambia

Image source, AFP

The Gambian parliament will on Wednesday convene for an extraordinary session to debate the deaths of nearly 70 children linked to cough syrups made in India.

The children were diagnosed with serious kidney problems.

Wednesday's session in parliament will be the first by lawmakers in the country since the tragedy happened earlier this month.

Gambian health authorities said there were no more new cases, but there are 82 existing cases and 12 recoveries.

Most of the existing cases involve children aged one and two years.

Civil society organisations in the country are mounting pressure on the authorities to take action against those responsible for importing the drugs.

Health officials and the Red Cross have started a second phase of recalling the cough syrups.

Police investigations have established that the Medicine Control Agency was established without a laboratory to test the safety of the drugs.

President Adama Barrow has set up commission of inquiry to investigate the deaths.

Read more:

• Cough-syrup scandal: How did it end up in The Gambia?
• Gambia cough syrup scandal: Mothers demand justice

Emmanuel Igunza
BBC News, Nairobi

Image source, IMRAN ADMANI

Police in Kenya will on Wednesday exhume the body of a British tourist who died two years ago to establish details about her death.

Ms Luftunisa Kwandwalla, 44, from Leicester in the UK died in August 2020 at the house of a controversial cult leader in Kenya's coastal city of Mombasa.

Her initial cause of death was listed as cardiac arrest, but her family claims she was murdered and her body buried quickly to conceal evidence.

Earlier this month, a Kenyan court granted the family orders to have an autopsy done to see if she was killed.

The body will be exhumed on Wednesday afternoon in the presence of some of her family members and an autopsy carried out later in the day.

Ms Kwandwalla arrived in Kenya from the UK in August 2019 to visit members of her husband's family. She was due to return to the UK several months later, but a coronavirus lockdown prevented her from going back home in Leicester.

It is during that time that her family says she unknowingly joined a controversial cult in the coastal city.

The family claims that she was later murdered at the home of a reclusive Muslim preacher accused of running a secret sect.

BBC World Service

Image source, AFP

Burkina Faso's military rulers have launched a drive to recruit tens of thousands of civilian volunteers to help fight Islamist extremists.

The commander of the force, called Volunteers for the Defence of the Fatherland, said the aim was to enlist 35,000 new members.

Candidates will receive two weeks of military training before taking part in operations across the country, which has been battling a jihadist insurgency since 2015.

There have been two military coups in Burkina Faso this year with the leaders of both promising to end the violence.

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That is all from the BBC Africa Live team for now. We will leave you with an automated service until our team returns on Wednesday morning Nairobi team.

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

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And we leave you with a photo from Sudan of a butterfly sitting on a tree branch:

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

The chairman of the African Union commission has welcomed the fact that the Ethiopian government and Tigrayan forces have entered into talks aimed at ending the war that has devastated Ethiopia's northern Tigray region.

Moussa Faki said he was "encouraged by the early demonstration of a commitment to peace" in the talks being held in South Africa.

The AU-appointed mediators are the former presidents of Nigeria and Kenya, Olusegun Obasanjo and Uhuru Kenyatta respectively, and South Africa's former Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.

The UN, US and the East African regional body, Igad, had observer status at the talks, Mr Faki added.