Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki has travelled to Kenya for two-day official visit.

The 77-year-old rarely leaves Eritrea, a one-party state with a highly militarised society that has been diplomatically isolated in recent years.

Eritrean Information Minister Yemane Gebre Meskel tweeted that the president was expected to hold talks with his Kenyan counterpart, William Ruto, in Kenya's capital, Nairobi.

Last month Eritrean and Kenyan leaders agreed to safeguard regional peace and security.

Kenya's foreign minister tweeted photos of Mr Isais's red-carpet welcome:

Image source, South African Police Service

Police in South Africa have launched an investigation and appealed for witnesses following the theft of a corpse from a grave in the northern province of Limpopo.

A relative made the discovery on Sunday when she went to the cemetery to clean the area in preparation of the upcoming unveiling of the tombstone.

To her shock she found a gapping hole by the grave and the body of Modike Philemon Masedi missing.

The suspects accessed the graveyard by cutting the fence then dug a hole next to the grave to gain access to the coffin and stole the corpse, the police said, external.

Mr Masedi reportedly died on 15 January and was buried seven days later.

"The motive for this incident is unknown at this stage,” Brigadier Motlafela Mojapelo, a police spokesperson, said.

The BBC’s Victoria Phenethi in Johannesburg says it is rare for a body to be robbed from a grave in South Africa and a more common practice is for tombstones to be stolen as stone is expensive.

Provincial police boss Thembi Hadebe has urged people in the area to "desist from pointing fingers" to avoid any form of vigilantism.

Image source, South African Police Service

Namibian President Hage Geingob has expressed his dismay that children around the country are learning under trees.

In the first cabinet session of the year on Tuesday, external, he was speaking about education and told his ministers that he had witnessed the phenomenon himself: "The other thing I saw which is now prominent is children being taught under the trees. As I said, I was travelling this country and I had never seen this before. Under the trees."

The president questioned why teachers could not construct makeshift structures to shield the children from the rain and other weather elements instead of helplessly waiting on the government to construct classrooms.

“Teachers are not doing their best with their hands,” he said.

He cited an example in the past of when he had given advice to a staff member at a school that did not have a kitchen: "Yes, while you are waiting for the government, why don't you put one pole here, one pole there, one pole here and one there, and put blikkies [tins] on top?

"At the very least, you'll be cooking, and it won't be wet while you wait for the government."

The Namibian Sun shared a video of his remarks:

But his comments have drawn ire from some who say the 81-year-old president is divorced from the hardships many face in Namibia.

According to the private The Namibian newspaper, external, leader of the official opposition McHenry Venaani described the president as "clueless".

It also reported a teachers' union official pointing out that teachers were already under pressure and infrastructure was falling apart.

“The budgets of the schools apparently do not allow paying a teacher - not even a relief teacher,” Mahongora Kavihuha, general secretary of the Teachers Union of Namibia, is quoted as saying.

A Togolese and Nigerian survivors say the situation, following the earthquake in Turkey, was apocalyptic.

The media regulator in the Democratic Republic of Congo has ordered the local office of satellite television provider Canal+ to remove Rwandan channels from those it offers to the country.

The suspension will run for a period of 90 days and could potentially be renewed depending on circumstances, the regulator, CSAC RDC, said in a statement, external.

Kinshasa accuses Rwandan channels of inciting civil disobedience, among many allegations, the Rwandan Chronicles site reports.

The Canal+ offer has about 10 Rwandan TV channels, including Rwandan state broadcaster RBA, that air news and commentary programmes about the ongoing war in eastern DR Congo, the news site adds.

DR Congo, the US and UN experts accuse Rwanda of backing the M23 rebel group in the eastern part of the country.

Rwanda has denied this and blames the Congolese government for the unrest in mineral-rich eastern DR Congo.

Image source, AFP

Tunisian President Kais Saied has fired his Foreign Minister Othman Jerandi.

The president appointed Nabil Ammar, Tunisia’s ambassador to the European Union, to replace Mr Jerandi. He did not give a reason for Mr Jerandi’s dismissal, external.

A career diplomat, Mr Jerandi became foreign minister under Mr Saied in September 2020.

He becomes the fourth minister to lose his position this year, with the trade, agriculture and education ministers having already been replaced.

President Saied carried out a series of measures in 2021 to enhance the power of the presidency at the expense of parliament and the judiciary.

Opposition parties boycotted the 2022 parliamentary elections, accusing the president of staging a coup after shutting parliament in 2021 and giving himself almost unlimited executive powers.

Just about 11% of Tunisians turned out for a second round of parliamentary voting last month.

There has been a deepening political and economic crisis, amid protests by Tunisians increasingly frustrated with the state of the economy and against Mr Saied's seizure of near total power.

Image source, AFP

South African lawmakers say a proposed sponsorship deal with Premier League side Tottenham Hotspur should be scrapped.

The proposal sparked public uproar after details were leaked in the media.

The country's official tourism board had conditionally approved the proposed three-year deal worth 900m South African rand ($52.5m; £42.5m).

But critics said the amount could be better utilised in a country battling daily power blackouts, water shortages and significant unemployment.

On Tuesday, parliament’s tourism committee called for the deal to be stopped immediately.

This was after Tourism Minister Lindiwe Sisulu had told it that she had no knowledge of the proposed deal.

"This deal, it ends here, today, now. Because there is everything wrong about the deal itself. There must be an investigation on this matter with immediate effect," committee chairperson Thandi Mahambehlala said.

It also resolved that the board's acting chief finance officer be removed from the position immediately over an alleged conflict of interest and irregular appointment.

Will Ross
Africa editor, BBC World Service

The UN has called for an investigation into violence in the self-declared republic of Somaliland where at least 50 people have been killed during two days of fighting between regional government troops and local militias.

Medics in the city of Las Anod say they are struggling to cope with the number of casualties.

The city is in an area (Sool) which is also claimed by the Somali region of Puntland.

The authorities there have denied that troops from Puntland are fighting alongside local militias.

The president of Somalia, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, has called for all sides to hold talks to end the conflict.

Somaliland broke away from Somalia in 1991 but has not been internationally recognised.

Image source, AFP

Three protesters were killed on Tuesday during an attack on a UN convoy in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the UN said in a statement.

The UN mission in the country (Monusco) said it "deplored the deaths" during the attack in Munigi, North Kivu province.

It said the protesters had forced the convoy to stop and proceeded to set four trucks on fire.

The victims died while peacekeepers, accompanied by Congolese soldiers, "tried to protect the convoy", according to the statement, external.

Rebels have recently captured large swathes of territory in the volatile province, sparking public anger against the UN and the East African regional force.

Recent fighting has killed hundreds of people and displaced thousands more.

Will Ross
Africa editor, BBC World Service

Image source, Facebook/John Williams Ntwali

A court in Rwanda has fined a man $900 (£746) after he pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter over the death of a journalist who was critical of the government.

John Williams Ntwali was killed last month when a speeding vehicle hit the motorcycle on which he was a passenger.

The authorities said it was a traffic accident.

Rights groups have called for an independent investigation, describing his death as suspicious.

Human Rights Watch said Mr Ntwali had been regularly threatened and attacked in pro-government media for his investigative reporting.

The trial was not open to the public but some journalists were invited to witness the reading of the verdict.

Our proverb of the day:

Click here to send us your African proverbs.

Amid Russia's isolation, its friendship with Mali blossoms, but has it stopped jihadist violence?

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

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

A reminder of Tuesday's wise words:

Click here to send us your African proverbs.

And we leave you with this picture of an 81-year-old martial arts instructor showing off her chops at a training session for her peers in Kenya's informal settlement of Korogocho:

Fauziyya Tukur
BBC News, Abuja

A widely shared video showing staff members at a Nigerian bank using a ladder to climb over a security wall to escape irate customers is genuine, the BBC's Disinformation team has found.

The workers at Zenith Bank in Warri, Delta state, had been accosted by customers frustrated at not being able to get access money from ATM machines.

A staff member, who asked to remain anonymous, told the BBC that the trouble started after they informed customers that they had run out of new naira notes.

There have been long queues outside banks in recent weeks as Nigerians seek to exchange their old banknotes for new ones before the 10 February deadline - extended from 31 January.

Many banks have placed a limit because of the shortage to the frustration of customers.

More on this topic:

• Nigeria's CBN naira deadline: Hunting out savings from under mattresses

Jose Tembe
BBC News, Maputo

Mozambique's Ministry of Education and a private publisher have apologised after printing errors were found in a Portuguese language text book used in primary schools.

The page numbers in Ouvir e Falar, Ler e Escrever (Listen and Speak, Read and Write) do not follow a chronological order.

For example, what should be the first page is instead page 16 with the wrong content. Other pages are also upside down.

“We apologise to all those affected," said publisher Textos Editores in a statement, adding that not the whole print run was affected by the error.

The education ministry has ordered a recall of the affected books.

Critics accuse the government of not taking children's education seriously and want higher standards to be adhered to.

Last year, scientific errors were reported in a natural science book used by grade six pupils.

Despite an outcry from parents the authorities did not comment at the time.

Anne Soy
BBC senior Africa correspondent

Sergey Lavrov’s is the first visit by a Russian foreign minister to Mali as he tries to expand his country’s footprint on the continent.

Relations first blossomed between the two in December 2021 with Russian forces being welcomed into the West African country in December 2021 to help with the fight against extremist groups.

The authorities in Mali describe them as security advisers, but Western officials insist they are mercenaries from the private security company, Wagner, which the US recently designated as an international criminal organisation.

Mali’s co-operation with these forces had led to a souring of relations with its traditional Western partners.

French forces, which had been in the country fighting Islamist militants for close to a decade, withdrew last year as did their partners, including US special forces.

In recent weeks, the authorities in Bamako expelled French ambassador Joel Meyer.

The US government told the BBC it could not exist in the same space as a group it accuses of committing crimes.

“That is not an organisation that would bring any value to the fight against terrorism,” the US ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the BBC last month about Wagner.

She made the comment during a visit to the continent, which coincided with Mr Lavrov’s first tour of Africa this year.

Last week, UN experts published a report calling for the Malian army and their Russian partners to be investigated for war crimes, drawing the ire of the military junta in Bamako and culminating in their expulsion of the UN Human Rights Representative, Guillaume Andali, from the country over the weekend.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, has deplored the decision and asked Malian authorities to rescind it.

Analysts say the fallout with forces engaged in the fight against militants in the Sahel, including the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali (Minusma), complicates efforts to deal effectively with the growing security challenge.

Politically, the country has also found itself isolated in the region following successive military coups in 2020 and 2021.

But the military junta has found a friend in Russia. The realignment of alliances has been rather swift and in both countries’ current interest. Mali hopes this engagement enables it to boost and “diversify security and defence ties”.

Russia, on the other hand, has a foothold in Africa and it hopes to court more support amid its international isolation following its invasion of Ukraine.

BBC Focus on Africa radio

"We have been trying to survive with the bare minimum," Sherif, a man from Togo caught up in the devastating earthquake in Turkey, told the BBC's Focus on Africa radio programme.

He is now living with his wife in shelter with five other families in Gaziantep after his home was destroyed.

The city is closest to the epicentre of the 7.8 magnitude quake that struck on Monday.

"The experience was unprecedented," he said about the panic he felt at first.

"Things were just falling apart. The buildings were shaking. When we came outside it was snowing and we stepped on ice. We were outside in the extreme cold and freezing weather.

"At first we didn't know where to go or what to do. The situation was apocalyptic. We had to find our own ways. Rescuers did not have time to respond so people were just fending for themselves."

The disaster has killed more than 5,000 people so far, but there are warnings the death toll could continue to surge.

The authorities in Zambia have rearrested eight Croatian nationals accused of child trafficking a day after the state prosecutors dropped all the charges.

Chief Resident Magistrate Dominic Makalicha had said that the case against the four women and four men had only been discontinued - and was not an acquittal.

The Croatian nationals' lawyer as well as the Zambia Department of Immigration's public relations officer, Namati Nshinka, confirmed the four couples had been detained.

“I can confirm the eight Croatians have been rearrested. We received instructions from the NPA [National Prosecution Authority] to rearrest,” Mr Nshinka told local media.

The eight were arrested last year after allegedly checking in to a lodge in northern Ndola town, but on the third day, workers there noticed they had children.

The couples said they had adopted the children from neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo.

The Zambian authorities had earlier said that they were working with the relevant bodies in DR Congo to investigate the matter.

Four people including a Nigerian senator are accused of being part of an organ harvesting plot.

Thomas Naadi
BBC News, Accra

Twenty-four students injured when a school building collapsed following a rainstorm in southern Ghana on Monday have been treated and discharged from hospital.

Five others who sustained serious injuries remain in a stable condition.

Officials at Ejura government hospital said that a total of 19 students were still being treated.

The students of Ejuraman Anglican Senior High school were eating their dinner when a rainstorm ripped off the roof of their dining hall and brought down the makeshift structure.

Image source, Hafiz Tijani

Engineers have been assessing the extent of the damage which also affected other buildings in the school.

Ghana still lacks proper building infrastructure in schools, especially in rural parts of the country, despite government efforts.