Al-Shabab has carried out a series of attacks in Somalia recently, so is the group becoming more deadly?

Will Ross
Africa editor, BBC World Service

Image source, Getty Images

A ceremony has taken place to mark the deployment of around 1,000 Kenyan soldiers to a regional peacekeeping force in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Addressing the Kenyan battalion, President William Ruto said armed groups and those he called "terrorists" would not be allowed to hold back the development of the region.

Under an agreement made by the East African Community, the troops are due to help the Congolese army suppress a surge in violence by a rebel group known as M23.

The contingent will be joined by soldiers from Burundi, South Sudan and Uganda.

The peacekeeping force's first operation will be to-retake the city of Bunagana that was seized by the M23 group in June.

The bodies of the 11 children who died in a fire at a Uganda school for the visually impaired have been handed over to their parents.

It follows DNA tests done on parents and children to identify the charred remains, the local NBS television reports.

The dormitory blaze started in the early hours of Tuesday last week. At least 27 children were sleeping inside the building at the Salama School for the Blind.

A funeral service was held on Wednesday at the school that was attended by parents and local leaders.

Shingai Nyoka
BBC News, Harare

Image source, Getty Images

Zimbabwe's government says it will give financial compensation to victims of attacks by wildlife after 46 people were killed and many others injured between January and August.

This is the highest number of fatalities in southern Africa, according to the government.

Cabinet approved the creation of a relief fund for those who have been seriously injured, or lost crops, livestock and property, but the government did not say how much compensation will be paid.

The government says successful wildlife management programmes have increased the wildlife population.

The elephant population has risen from 50,000 in 1980 to about 85,000.

Botswana has more than 200,000 elephants, but the number of fatalities is significantly lower, with 57 deaths recorded over the last 10 years, the Zimbabwean government has said.

Zimbabwe has witnessed a growing human population and the ensuing competition for limited resources often results in wildlife attacks, especially in areas where people live near national game parks.

Image source, Getty Images

Kenya's first athlete to win an Olympic medal Wilson Kiprugut has died aged 84, Athletics Kenya has announced.

The middle-distance legend died in Kericho county in Kenya on Wednesday evening after a long illness.

Kiprugut made his breakthrough on the international stage after winning the bronze medal in the 800 metres race at the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo.

He went on to win a silver medal in the same race in the 1968 Olympics in Mexico.

In a statement, Athletics Kenya eulogised him as "a truly loveable and kind person who selflessly made the country proud on the global stage".

He won two gold medals in the 400 and 800 metres at the first All-African Games held in Congo-Brazzaville in 1965.

Alfred Lasteck
BBC News, Mount Kilimanjaro

The fire that has been raging on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania has damaged some of the internet cables installed three months ago up the mountain.

The BBC saw more than a 4km-long cable that had been damaged by the fire along the Marangu route.

Tanzanian authorities have not yet revealed the extent of the damage caused by the fire.

The cable damage has disrupted internet connection at the highest point where the cables had been installed, up to a height of 3,720m. The mountain is Africa's highest peak, at 5,895m (19,341 ft).

The blaze started on 21 October and since then it has been erupting in many areas as hundreds of firefighters struggle to contain it.

After months of dry conditions, parts of the mountain have experienced rain yesterday and today, extinguishing or reducing the intensity of some of the fires.

Many parts of Kenya have been experiencing a power outage that started just after 11:00 local time (08:00GMT).

The widespread outage affects the capital, Nairobi, the central counties around Mount Kenya as well as the coastal region.

The state utility firm, Kenya Power, attributed this to a "system disturbance" and said it was working to restore electricity as soon as possible.

In January, Kenya experienced a nationwide power blackout, the third in four years, that was blamed on vandalism of electricity pylons by illegal scrap metal dealers.

Kenya Power has often faced criticism for power cuts, inflated electricity bills and delays in connecting clients.

Rhoda Odhiambo
BBC News, Nairobi

Members of Kenya's senate health committee want a public hospital temporarily closed accusing the staff of negligence.

This follows the hearing of testimonies from Kenyans who have lost their loved ones at Mama Lucy Kibaki Hospital over the years.

The hospital, which is named after the wife of Kenya's third president, has been on the spotlight several times now over alleged cases of medical malpractice.

On Tuesday, the nine-member committee heard from a mother who lost her son at the hospital after nurses failed to attend to him. Her son had been involved in a road accident and was brought to the facility by police officers.

According to the mother, the nurses did not do anything and they were forced to move to a different facility. The 41-year-old man was pronounced dead on arrival.

The committee also heard from a first-time dad who lost his wife at the same hospital after she delivered twins. She bled to death.

One senator called for the committee to recommend that medics take individual responsibility for negligence.

“These are serious cases of negligence. These deaths could have been avoided had the people in charge acted with speed and professionalism,” Murang’a Senator Joe Nyutu said.

Several public hospitals have been accused of negligence in the past in cases that were all found to be institutional and human resource-related.

Very few health workers have been found guilty of negligence.

Nigeria’s anti-narcotics agency has issued an arrest warrant for Lagos socialite Ademola Kazeem for alleged drug trafficking and money laundering.

The arrest warrant follows Kazeem’s alleged failure to honour a summons to appear at the federal high court in Abuja on 17 October.

Femi Babafemi, the media director at the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), said seven properties belonging, external to the suspect had been sealed and a bank account with $493,000 (£428,000) frozen.

The agency said Kazeem had been linked to an attempt to export cocaine to the United Arab Emirates and other destinations by suspects already in police custody. Kazeem has not commented on the allegations.

The NDLEA has heightened its fight against drug trafficking, with former Nigerian deputy police commissioner Abba Kyari among suspects currently on trial for narcotics-related offences.

Image source, Getty Images

Scientists say that an invasive species of malaria-carrying mosquito from Asia has spread to Africa, where it poses a particular threat to city-dwellers.

In Africa, where the majority of global deaths from malaria occur, the disease is mostly spread by a mosquito specific to rural areas.

But the Anopheles stephensi species of mosquito, which is responsible for most of the cases seen in Indian and Iranian cities, breeds in urban water supplies - and is resistant to most insecticides in common use.

The mosquito has already caused cases in Djibouti and Ethiopia to rise, seriously complicating efforts to eradicate the disease.

Researchers say that if it spreads widely in Africa it could put nearly 130 million people at risk.

BBC journalist Anne-Marie Dias Borges tells how her foster father invented the iconic claw hair clip.

BBC World Service

Image source, AFP

Human Rights Watch is warning that more than 200,000 people in north-east Nigeria who have been displaced by an Islamist insurgency are struggling to meet their basic needs for food and shelter.

The rights group said the problem was exacerbated by the Borno state authorities shutting down camps for internally displaced people.

It said by August this year more than 140,000 people had been removed from the camps and told to go home.

The state government said they needed to be weaned off humanitarian aid and that the security situation had improved.

More on this topic:

• Boko Haram crisis: The women walking miles to save their children's lives

Richard Kagoe
BBC News, Nairobi

Image source, AFP

Kenya is deploying the first contingent of a regional peacekeeping force to eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

President William Ruto will on Wednesday morning preside over a flagging-off ceremony in Nairobi for the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) battalion joining the regional forces.

The Kenyan troops, who will be in DR Congo as part of the East African Community (EAC) force, will help the Congolese army's efforts to quell the violence in the region.

Some Kenyan troops have already been installing logistical support systems in DR Congo since September in readiness for the planned operations against the rebels.

The EAC agreed on a troop deployment deal to combat rebels early this year.

The Kenyan contingent’s first mission will be to help recapture the border city of Bunagana that was seized by the M23 rebels in June.

DR Congo has consistently accused Rwanda of supporting the M23 group. Kigali has always denied those accusations.

Beverly Ochieng
BBC Monitoring

The US has sanctioned the Islamic State group (IS) in Somalia and several of its alleged members said to be smuggling arms in East Africa.

The IS mainly operates in the country’s north-east where it targets security forces and civilians in attacks.

Despite receiving regional and international support, Somalia continues to grapple with deadly militant violence.

IS Somalia has been active in the Horn of Africa nation since 2015.

The sanctioned individuals are accused of providing support to the group’s intelligence unit, smuggling arms across East Africa and co-ordinating high-profile attacks.

Some were former members of the al-Shabab group.

In October, the US blacklisted several al-Shabab members also said to be trafficking weapons between Somalia and Yemen where al-Qaeda and the Islamic State are entrenched.

Violent attacks by Somalia’s militant groups have claimed many lives and instilled widespread fear.

Somalia is heavily dependent on international support to disrupt illicit arms and financing networks aiding activities by al-Shabab and the Islamic State.

Alfred Lasteck
BBC News, Dar es Salaam

Tanzania’s army has deployed hundreds of troops to help firefighters who have been battling fires on Africa’s highest peak, Mount Kilimanjaro, for close to two weeks now.

Army officials say the Tanzania People’s Defence Forces (TPDF) will co-operate with other agencies and volunteers to ensure the fire is controlled before it causes more damage to vegetation on the mountain.

“Officers and men of TPDF have already arrived in Siha and Mweka areas in Kilimanjaro Region ready to fight the fire,” a statement by the TPDF says.

A BBC team on the slopes of the mountain witnessed some of the soldiers arriving at the two entry points to the mountain on Tuesday.

A series of wildfires have been breaking out in different areas on the mountain, after an initial fire started near a camp along a popular hiking route on 21 October.

Hundreds of people, including firefighters, national park staff, tour guides and civilians, have been battling to put out the fires with little success.

The cause of the fires is not known yet but the government says human activities are most likely to blame.

The government says a prolonged drought, layers of decaying organic material and strong wind are part of the reasons the fire has been hard to control.

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

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Super Eagles boss Jose Peseiro is yet to receive a single pay cheque from his employers, six months after his appointment.

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

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

A reminder of our wise words of the day:

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And we leave you with this shot of a woman in Maputo, Mozambique, by photographer Grégory Escande:

Peter Jegwa
Lilongwe, Malawi

Malawian activists who've been released on bail say they'll continue nationwide protests to demand decisive action against official corruption, and want all those who misbehave in public office to be arrested.

A social media influencer, Joshua Chisa Mbele, and his colleague, Levy Luwemba, together with four other leaders of a grouping calling itself Action Against Impunity were arrested on Friday on charges related to inciting violence.

The activists pleaded not guilty to the charges.

There was a heavy presence of police at the court in Lilongwe on Monday and Tuesday, where sympathisers gathered to offer solidarity to the protest leaders after reports emerged that they had been physically assaulted while in police custody.

Police deny assaulting the activists, but highly regarded rights watchdog, the Malawi Human Rights Commission has launched a probe into the assault allegations.

Speaking upon being released, Mr Luwemba said he and his colleagues will “not give up the fight” in spite of the arrest and alleged ill treatment while in police custody.

The protesters say that cabinet ministers and senior government officials already under corruption investigation must be investigated, not just fired or forced to resign.

Grace Kuria
BBC News

Gender-based violence and femicide cases continue to rise in South Africa as “violent" men in the country are targeting children and elderly women, the country's President Cyril Ramaphosa, said.

“We have in recent times seen a spate of rapes and killings of elderly women, our mothers and grandmothers that are meant to be respected and treated with dignity," Mr Ramaphosa added.

He was speaking during the second presidential summit on Gender Based Violence and Femicide.

According to the president, data from the South African Police Service shows that sexual offences and rape increased by 13% between 2017-18, and 2021-22.

Murders of women and children are also on the rise, he said.

“Between the first quarter of 2021 and the first quarter of 2022 there was a 52% increase in the murder of women, and 46% increase in the number of children murdered," Mr Ramaphosa said, calling on men to end such crimes.

"These barbaric acts are a shameful indictment of the men of this country."

He however highlighted some gains from the last presidential summit in 2018, including 83 courts being upgraded to sexual offences courts.