Will Ross
Africa editor, BBC World Service

The military in Sudan has fired tear gas in an attempt to stop tens of thousands of protesters marching towards the presidential palace.

The protests are taking place across the country to mark the first anniversary of a coup that halted a democratic transition.

Since the army chief, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, seized power there have been near-weekly anti-coup marches.

The security forces have been accused of killing more than 100 protesters in the past year.

The military takeover prompted foreign donors to cut off assistance and the Sudanese economy has been in turmoil.

Ghana's Premier League is set to resume after a court case launched by club side Ashanti Gold against the country's football association is dismissed.

Guy Bandolo
BBC News

Image source, Getty Images

The president of the Central African Republic has sacked the head of the constitutional court, Danielle Darlan, for "permanent impediment".

Faustin Archange Touadera decree came after the 70-year-old judge last month threw out a bid by the ruling party to amend the constitution so that he could run for a third term.

The opposition party, Kwa Na Kwa, said it was appalled by the decree, and it would continue to recognise her as the head of the court.

She was appointed to the post in 2017, and her term was due to end in 2024.

The presidential decree said she would also lose her post at the university in the capital Bangui, where she was teaching.

It did not explain the "permanent impediment".

Mr Touadera, 65, won elections in 2016 and 2020.

Many protests have been held against the court's decision.

Image source, Getty Images

The Duchess of Sussex says genealogical testing has revealed that she is "43% Nigerian".

In the latest episode of her Spotify original podcast, Archetypes, Meghan told Nigerian-American talk show host Ziwe Fumudoh that she "had my genealogy done a couple of years ago".

When Fumudoh asked "what are you?", Meghan replied that she was "43% Nigerian".

"I'm going to start to dig deeper into all this because anybody that I've told, especially Nigerian women, are like 'What!'" she added.

Will Ross
Africa editor, BBC World Service

Uganda's interior minister Kahinda Otafiire has said the school where 11 children died in a fire has been cordoned off as a crime scene, suggesting the blaze could have been started intentionally.

Earlier this year, police reported 18 school fires over a period of three months; most had been started deliberately.

Patience Atuhaire
BBC News, Kampala

A mother has been speaking of her pain after losing her six-year-old daughter, Veronica Nassali, in a fire which swept through a boarding school for visually impaired in Uganda.

Jennifer Nassozi said:

Eleven children died in the fire which broke out in the early hours of Tuesday at the Salama School for the Blind in Mukono, east of the capital, Kampala.

The cause of the fire is still unclear.

Kennedy Gondwe
BBC News, Lusaka

The Zambian couple who have been crowned African motor rally champions say the feeling of winning the competition is surreal.

Driver Leroy Gomez, who was navigated by his wife Urshlla, became the first couple to win the competition on Sunday, beating their nearest rival by 15 points.

The achievement has drawn the attention of Zambia’s President Hakainde Hichilema, who congratulated them yesterday on Twitter.

Urshlla says she still cannot believe that she and her husband are African champions.

“The feeling right now is still surreal, it hasn't sunk in yet or maybe we haven't understood the magnitude of this win and this title,” she told the BBC.

“It's an amazing feeling to do it with my husband and to win it. It's been a long year with lost of sacrifice.”

She says the biggest challenge was the “emotional challenge and the possibility of not finishing the race”.

Urshlla says the win has motivated the couple to continue taking part in local and international events.

The pair, who are known as Couple Trouble in rally circles, also saw their son Seth crowned Zambia’s junior champion in the kids' category of the local competition.

These are the first formal negotiations since the devastating conflict began nearly two years ago.

Image source, AC

Peace talks aimed at ending the devastating conflict in Ethiopia's northern Tigray region are under way in South Africa, a spokesman for South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa has said.

The talks come after Ethiopian forces captured several key cities from Tigrayan forces in a war that a Belgian-led academic team estimates has claimed the lives of between 385,000 and 600,000 civilians because of fighting, famine and lack of health care.

South Africa hoped that the talks would have a "successful outcome that leads to lasting peace", Mr Ramaphosa's spokesman said.

The talks would end on 30 October, he added.

The Ethiopian federal government negotiators are led by Redwan Hussein, national security adviser to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, and Justice Minister Gedion Timotheos, South Africa's Daily Maverick news site quoted an unnamed official as saying, external.

The opposing team is headed by Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) spokesman Getachew Reda and veteran military general Tsadkan Gebretensae, Daily Maverick reported.

The talks are being mediated by the African Union and are the first formal ones since war broke out two years ago.

England Under-21 striker Folarin Balogun would consider playing for Nigeria at senior international level - if the West Africans come calling.

Peter Mwai
BBC Reality Check

The latest information from US space agency Nasa suggests the fire that broke out on the slopes of Africa’s highest peak, Mount Kilimanjaro, last week is still active, after dying down in recent days.

Nasa's Fire Information for Resource Management System, which uses satellite data to detect thermal hot spots, shows the fire has spread again, after burning in just one place over the weekend.

On Sunday, the Tanzanian authorities said firefighters and volunteers had managed to contain large parts of the fire. They were tackling the blaze in a ravine near a popular camp site for hikers.

The government is yet to issue another update.

The fire comes two years after a week-long inferno destroyed thousands of hectares of woodland on Mount Kilimanjaro's slopes.

BBC World Service

A Geneva-based human rights group, the World Organization against Torture, has accused authorities in Chad of summary executions and torture after at least 50 people died and hundreds were injured in clashes between protesters and security forces.

The group had initially reported a higher number of deaths in the capital, N'Djamena and in four southern towns - Moundou, Doba, Koumra and Bebedjia.

The clashes took place on Thursday when demonstrators turned out on the streets, responding to an opposition call for peaceful protests to mark the date when the military had promised to hand over power.

The head of the military administration General Mahamat Idriss Deby has been in power since his father was killed in an operation against the rebels in April 2021.

The President of DR Congo Félix Tshisekedi says his relationship with Rwanda's Paul Kagame is 'cold'.

The widow of Pakistani journalist Arshad Sharif, who was shot dead by police on Sunday near Kenya's capital, Nairobi, says the authorities in the East African country are "answerable" to his family.

The Kenyan police said officers manning a roadblock mistook Mr Sharif and his brother for kidnappers.

Pakistan's ambassador to Kenya told local journalists that a post-mortem showed Mr Sharif was shot between his shoulder and his head.

In a tweet, Sharif's wife Javeria Siddique said "authorities in Kenya are answerable to us". She also shared pictures of her husband's body arriving in Pakistan.

Ishaq Khalid
BBC News, Abuja

Image source, Getty Images

Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari,79, says the UK governing party's decision to choose Rishi Sunak as the next prime minister is a milestone and inspiring for young people.

Mr Sunak, 42, will be the UK's first British Asian prime minister and the youngest for more than 200 years.

Mr Buhari called for more cooperation between Nigeria and the UK to strengthen ‘’the enduring partnership and unbreakable friendship’’ between the two countries.

He also stressed the need ‘’to increase trade and investment within and between Commonwealth countries to boost the health and wealth of all our peoples.’’

Nigeria, which has the biggest population in Africa, gained its independence from the UK in 1960.

Beverly Ochieng
BBC Monitoring

Image source, Reuters

Sudanese security forces have closed major roads and bridges in the capital, Khartoum, as anti-government activists plan mass protests on the first anniversary of the latest military coup.

More than 100 people have been killed in violent protests since October last year.

The junta has been under pressure from the international community.

On Monday the US said it could sanction those undermining the transition to civilian rule.

Despite expressing a commitment to democratic reforms, Sudan’s military rulers have gradually tightened their hold on power and reneged on political and social changes pledged after the removal of long-serving leader Omar al-Bashir in 2019.

Image source, AFP

The body of well-known Pakistani journalist Arshad Sharif, who was killed on Sunday by Kenyan police, is headed home, according to Pakistani media outlet Dunya News where he worked before leaving the country in August.

His body is expected to arrive in Islamabad later on Tuesday afternoon after a stopover in Doha, Qatar.

The journalist will be cremated on Thursday at a cemetery in Islamabad, his widow Javeria Siddique is quoted as saying.

Mr Sharif was "fatally wounded" while he was a passenger in a moving vehicle after it failed to stop at a roadblock, according to the Kenya police.

Officers had set up the roadblock as they were looking for a stolen car.

Image source, AFP

Popular Moroccan rapper ElGrande Toto was taken into custody on Monday evening, the AFP news agency reports quoting a judicial source.

It followed complaints filed against him for public statements he made about using cannabis.

The rapper, who has a big following in the country, is reported to have told journalists last month that "I smoke hash - so what?... It does not mean I set a bad example".

His comments sparked an outcry in Morocco, and the 26-year-old was on Thursday forbidden from leaving Casablanca and was also summoned by the police, AFP reports

A prosecutor late on Monday placed Taha Fahssi, ElGrande Toto's real name, in custody after complaints were filed by "three artists, a journalist, and a policeman", the news agency quoted the judicial source as saying.

He was taken into custody a day after apologising for his comments.

Patience Atuhaire
BBC News, Kampala

Ugandan police say at least 11 people, among them students, were killed and six others are in a critical condition after a dormitory caught fire at a school for visually impaired children in Mukono, east of the capital, Kampala.

The injured are being treated at Herona Hospital, police said.

Investigations have started into the cause of the fire at Salama School of the Blind which is said to have broken out in the small hours of Tuesday morning.

School fires are common in Uganda, sometimes started from children lighting candles in their dormitories after lights out.

Managing the fire is in many cases hampered by overcrowding in the school children’s sleeping areas.

Guy Bandolo
BBC News

Image source, Reuters

Chadian junta leader General Mahamat Idriss Déby has declared seven days of national mourning from Tuesday for the dozens of people killed during pro-democracy protests held last week.

Around 50 people died in protests in several parts of the country to demand a return to civilian rule.

In an address on Monday, Gen Déby said the protests were a "well-prepared insurrection" with the "support of foreign powers".

He accused the demonstrators of having "coldly killed civilians" and "murdered" members of the security forces "in their barracks", with "the manifest desire to start a civil war".

The junta leader accused political actors in the country of seeking the support of “foreign powers” to exert pressure on him, but he did not offer details on the foreign powers.

“Outsiders have provided arms and money to opportunistic Chadians who have not hesitated for a moment to destroy the country to satisfy their interests and meet foreign agendas," Gen Déby said.

Last week's protests took place on the day when President Déby was originally intended to step down, but a meeting earlier this month extended his rule for another two years.

He was named president by the military in 2021 following the death of his father, Idriss Déby Itno, who had been in power since 1990.