BBC World Service

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Uganda has declared an end to an Ebola outbreak that killed more than 50 people.

The announcement follows a 42-day period without any new confirmed cases.

"We have successfully controlled the Ebola outbreak in Uganda," Health Minister Jane Ruth Aceng said at a ceremony on Wednesday in Mubende.

The outbreak, which began last September, caused particular concern as it was caused by the Sudan strain of Ebola, for which there is no vaccine.

Cases were initially concentrated in the central region districts of Mubende and Kassanda, where the outbreak began.

But the epidemic seemed to be getting out of control when positive cases were recorded in at least seven other districts, including the capital Kampala.

Africa’s fastest man Ferdinand Omanyala has graduated as a police constable in Kenya's police service.

He was among 2,881 constables who graduated on Tuesday from the National Police College in an event presided over by President William Ruto.

The recruits finished the basic police training course among other courses on human rights, community policing, public order management, skills at arms, and countering violent extremism, according to the National Police Service.

He joins other top Kenyan athletes who are members of the police force.

The athlete has confirmed his new status in a tweet:

Omanyala set the African 100m record of 9.77 seconds in September 2021. He became African champion in June 2022 becoming the second Kenyan to become continental champion over the distance.

Rights group Amnesty International has called on Ethiopian authorities to “immediately and unconditionally release” and drop charges against four human rights defenders detained for their work documenting forced evictions.

Daniel Tesfaye, Bizuayehu Wendimu, Bereket Daniel and Nahom Hussien, who work for the Ethiopian Human Rights Council (EHRCO), were arrested on Thursday while investigating cases of forced evictions in the capital Addis Ababa.

They were accused of not having the necessary permission to carry out their work, Amnesty said.

“Nobody should be criminalised for carrying out crucial human rights work,” said Tigere Chagutah, Amnesty’s regional director.

“By brazenly arresting these four human rights defenders, the Ethiopian authorities are clearly trying to prevent them from exposing the cruelty of the state’s ongoing forced evictions in Addis Ababa,” he added.

The Ethiopian authorities have not commented on the matter.

Amnesty said the Ethiopian police had told the EHRCO that they were not allowed to carry out rights investigations in the region, and were only permitted to offer humanitarian assistance.

Image source, AFP

Rwanda's government has walked back on President Paul Kagame's stand that the country will no longer offer refuge to people fleeing conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Mr Kagame's had said refugees fleeing across the border into Rwanda were "not Rwanda's problem".

"I am refusing that Rwanda should carry this burden," the president said.

But in a statement on Tuesday night, government spokesperson Yolande Makolo said Rwanda had no intention to expel or ban refugees.

She accused the media of misrepresenting President Kagame's remarks.

"What the President addressed was the blatant hypocrisy in criticising Rwanda which simultaneously gets the blame for state failure in the DRC [DR Congo], and is then expected to accommodate those who seek refuge from the consequences of that failure," she tweeted.

A Kenyan media outlet has shared camera footage of the moment four police officers allegedly attempted to rob two people of 2m Kenyan shillings ($16,000; £13,000) on a street in the capital, Nairobi.

The victims were employees of a forex bureau and had withdrawn the money from a nearby bank. The attempted robbery was foiled after they raised alarm.

The policemen were later arrested after their colleagues intercepted their vehicle.

They were arraigned in court on Tuesday to answer to charges of attempted robbery.

Image source, AFP

Benin held its annual Voodoo festival on Tuesday in the seaside town of Ouidah with followers of the once-banned religion praying and dancing.

The festival is drawing people of African descent from America, Brazil and the Caribbean who are seeking to discover the religion and land of their ancestors who were shipped away from the beaches of West Africa, the AFP news agency reports.

"We come here first to search for our origins and reconnect with Mother Earth," a tourist is quoted as saying.

The traditional leader of the Voodoo cult, Daagbo Hounon Houna II, mingled with local adherents and tourists during the festival.

Image source, AFP

There were rituals involving prayers and libations. Followers also watched Zangbeto rituals — whirling dancers dressed as guardians of the night.

Image source, AFP

There were also displays of fetishes that are said to have supernatural powers.

Image source, AFP

Anne Soy
BBC News, Nairobi

Image source, Getty Images

Six journalists detained by the South Sudanese authorities a week ago are still being held incognito despite numerous calls by rights groups for their release.

They were arrested earlier this month on suspicion of circulating a video that appeared to show President Salva Kiir urinating on himself at a public event in December.

Nothing has been heard from the six journalists since their arrest despite the efforts of multiple groups to reach them.

By law, the South Sudanese authorities are required to present suspects before a judge no more than 24 hours after arresting them.

The journalists are thought to be held at the National Security headquarters in the capital Juba.

The building, known locally as the Blue House, doubles up as a dreaded detention centre where political prisoners are detained – sometimes -- for years.

The country’s information minister could not be reached for comment.

BBC World Service

Image source, Reuters

Egypt says three people have been detained for trying to steal a massive statue of an ancient Pharaoh - using a crane.

The prosecutor's office said the three were found in possession of digging tools and the crane with which they had tried to lift the 10-tonne statue and excavate antiquities in the ancient city of Aswan.

The statue is of Ramses the Great, who died more than 3,000 years ago.

A probe is being held and there are orders to investigate any further accomplices.

In recent years Egypt's managed to recover thousands of antiquities illegally taken abroad.

BBC World Service

Image source, Getty

The spokesman for the rebel Tigrayan forces in northern Ethiopia says they have handed over their heavy weapons in line with the ceasefire agreement signed in South Africa in November.

Getachew Reda wrote on Twitter, external that the transfer had been confirmed by an African Union monitoring and verification team.

The move is central to the agreement along with services being restored in the war-torn region where hundreds of thousands of people were killed.

Another condition is the withdrawal of Eritrean soldiers who fought alongside the Ethiopian government.

Reports from Tigray suggest the troops are still there.

Our proverb of the day:

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DR Congo becomes the latest country to have its preparations thrown into chaos after checks find 25 overage players.

Sama, which runs Facebook's moderation hub for east Africa, is to stop providing content-review services.

That's all from the BBC Africa Live team until Wednesday morning.

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

A reminder of our African proverb of the day:

We leave you with a photo from a voodoo festival in Benin's Ouidah city:

Image source, Getty Images

Ameyu Etana
BBC Afaan Oromoo

There was joy and celebration today in the capital of Ethiopia's war-devastated Tigray region after top athletes reunited with their families after more than a year.

The delegation, led by Ethiopian Athletics Federation head Derartu Tullu, flew into Mekelle after being forced to remain in the federal capital Addis Ababa because of the war.

''Today my happiness has become full. I was hoping for peace and my hope has come true,'' the 10,000m world champion, Letesenbet Gidey, said.

Gold medallists Gotytom Gebreslase and Guday Tsegay were also on the flight.

''Welcome home our heroes and heroines," the spokesman for the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), Getchaew Reda said on Twitter.

Much of Tigray had been sealed off from the outside world for more than 18 months, before a peace deal was signed in November to end the conflict between the TPLF and the federal government.

Basic services - including electricity and phone lines - are slowly resuming in the region.

Footage has surfaced online showing people with South African army uniforms setting ablaze corpses.

Image source, PEN Pinter Prize

Uganda's Constitutional Court has quashed a section of a communications law that had been used to prosecute journalists and critics of the government.

The judges ruled that prohibiting people from using electronic communication to disturb the peace of others curtailed freedom of speech.

Punishments for offenders ranged from a fine to a jail term.

Writer Kakwenza Rukirababashaija and the academic Stella Nyanzi were among activists who were either been charged or convicted under the law.

Rukirababashaija had made critical comments on Twitter about President Yoweri Museveni and his son Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba, whom he called "obese" and a "curmudgeon".

The author had also tweeted that "the Musevenis have imposed enormous suffering on this country"..

The island will take millions of years to recover from a wave of extinctions, scientists say.

Image source, Getty Images

The Church of England says it will spend £100m ($121.6m) over the next nine years on "communities affected by historic slavery".

The announcement comes after the Archbishop of Canterbury apologised last year, following research which showed that the Church of England's investment fund had links to the slave trade.

The £100m would be in a new investment fund that would hopefully "grow over time, reinvesting returns to enable it to have a positive legacy that will exist in perpetuity", the Church of England said in its latest statement, external.

Last June, it said an investigation, initiated by the Church Commissioners, a charity managing the Church's investment portfolio, revealed that for more than 100 years the fund invested large sums of money in a company responsible for transporting slaves.

The fund, known in the 18th Century as Queen Anne's Bounty, had developed into a £10.1bn investment trust.

The Most Reverend Justin Welby said he was "deeply sorry for the links".

The regional force fighting militant Islamists in Mozambique is carrying out an investigation after a video surfaced showing people wearing army uniforms setting ablaze corpses, furniture and kitchenware, the South African military has said.

The video shows two soldiers throwing a corpse on to the side of a bonfire of burning rubbish; one of them then throws liquid over the body and the flames spread.

Another body is already on the pile of items, but has not yet caught alight. During the 20-second clip, a pot is also flung into the pile.

Two men in army fatigues holding mobile phones appear to be filming the fire, one of them has the South African flag on his uniform.

South African troops are part of the regional force - known as the Southern African Development Community Mission in Mozambique (Samim) - helping to fight jihadists in northern Mozambique.

In a statement, the South African National Defence Force said the commander of Samim was "conducting an investigation surrounding the involvement of its members in this despicable act.

"The SANDF does not condone in anyway the acts committed in the video and those who are found guilty of such acts will be brought to book."

The SANDF said the incident was believed to have taken place in November in Mozambique.

The BBC's Jose Tembe reports from Mozambique's capital, Maputo, that the government has not yet commented on the video.

Some people who have seen the footage have reacted with shock, saying those behind the "horrible" incident must be held responsible, he says.

However, he reports that others said they doubted it had happened in Mozambique.

The country's electoral commission says insecurity threatens the nationwide vote due next month.