Many refugees are relieved to cross the Metema bridge from Sudan into Ethiopia. But getting there is extremely dangerous.

Image source, Getty Images

South African news sites have been reporting on a memorial service held in honour of renowned journalist and political commentator Eusebius McKaiser, whose sudden death last week at the age of 45 shocked the nation.

News24, external reports that people were requested to bring to the memorial one of his great loves, books, rather than flowers, that would be donated to a charity.

"The request was just one of the many ways the broadcaster, author and political analyst was remembered for his intellectual prowess and eloquence in communicating his sometimes radical and passionate ideas," the site reports.

SowetanLive, external reports that vocalist Lyla Faye performed Revolution by Tracy Chapman, while all the speakers described him as "extremely intelligent, witty, full of love and passionate".

In his address, McKaiser's partner Nduduzo Nyanda said: "What I'll miss the most are our Sunday nights and our rituals. I'll miss his cheesy music, his love of 80s music. What I'll miss the most is knowing I have somebody who loved fully and who gave himself fully."

McKaiser died after suffering a suspected epileptic seizure.

He was outspoken about racism and a strong advocate of the rights of the LGBT community.

McKaiser hosted talk shows and wrote columns for various local and international publications.

Alfred Lasteck
BBC News, Dar es Salaam

Tanzania's justice minister has defended the government over accusations of forcefully relocating the Maasai people from their ancestral land near the Serengeti National Park.

Damas Ndumbaro described as "misleading" a report by Amnesty International that accused security forces of repeatedly using excessive force to evict the Maasai in the northern Loliondo region.

The rights group said police carried out arbitrary arrests and shot at people.

The minister told the BBC that government had only sought to demarcate a 4,000 sq km (1,544 sq miles) area that was a game-controlled area, established by the German colonial government.

He said local people had invaded the area after independence in 1961 to an extent that it could no longer be used for conservation, and the government had donated about two-thirds of the land to the communities there.

The minister said the police had acted calmly despite locals confronting them with crude weapons.

“Our police behaved very professionally in last year's’ demarcation exercise. They did not react because they respect human rights,” he said, adding that a policeman was killed and the accused were being tried in court in accordance with the rule of law..

Samba Cyuzuzo
BBC Great Lakes

Image source, Salomon Idi Kalonda/Twitter

The right-hand man of the Democratic Republic of Congo's main opposition leader, Moïse Katumbi, has been accused by the army of colluding with a rebel group to plan a coup.

Salomon Idi Kalonda was arrested last week at the airport in the capital, Kinshasa. He is a key figure in Mr Katumbi’s political campaign ahead of December presidential election.

His arrest has been described by the opposition as politically motivated, but Col Kangoli Ngoli of the military intelligence said that Mr Kalonda had been “regularly” talking to M23 rebel officers “and Rwandan officers”.

“The aim was to overthrow the current authority in DR Congo by all possible means,” Col Ngoli told journalists on Monday.

The authorities in Kinshasa accuse the Rwandan army of fighting alongside the M23, an allegation Rwanda has consistently denied.

M23 spokesman Maj Willy Ngoma denied the rebel group was working with Mr Kalonda to stage a coup, adding that leaders in Kinshasa “can accuse anything about anyone they want to neutralise”.

"We cannot plan with someone in Kinshasa to organise a coup, we want talks with the government, not a coup,” Maj Ngoma told the BBC.

Image source, Reuters

Police have fired tear gas to disperse Kenyans demonstrating in the capital against government plans to impose higher taxes.

One of the controversial proposals in the unpopular finance bill is a new 3% housing fund levy for all salaried workers, and a move to increase value added tax on fuel to 16%.

The bill also calls for taxes on beauty products, crypto-currencies and earnings by social media influencers.

They are among the measures that have been opposed by many Kenyans.

The dozens of protesters had sought to gather at a park in the centre of Nairobi before marching to parliament to urge MPs to reject the tax proposals.

Local media reported that some of the protesters were arrested.

Legislators are set to debate the bill on Thursday, amid warnings issued by President William Ruto and his deputy Rigathi Gachagua against those opposed to the proposals.

Image source, Reuters

Former Los Angeles Laker Ater Majok wants to repay a sport that gave him purpose as he returns to the continent to play in the Basketball Africa League.

Nomsa Maseko
BBC News, Johannesburg

Image source, Getty Images

South African police have confirmed the death of one of the lead investigators into the daring prison escape of rapist and murderer Thabo Bester.

Police said they were investigating the circumstances around the apparent death by suicide of 59-year-old Brigadier Jackson Mkhaulesi. He was found dead in his car on Monday.

Earlier in the day, he attended a court hearing where Bester’s girlfriend, celebrity doctor Nandipha Magudumana, lost her application to declare her arrest in Tanzania unlawful.

News of Brigadier Mkhaulesi's death has sent shockwaves around South Africa.

The police detective with 31 years of service has been described as a hardworking and loyal officer.

Bester is known as the “Facebook rapist" for using social networking sites to lure his victims.

He faked his death to break out of prison last year. He and his girlfriend, who is accused of helping him escape, were arrested in Tanzania in April and brought back to South Africa to face justice.

Didier Bikorimana
BBC Great Lakes Service

Image source, AFP

Rwanda's President Paul Kagame has appointed new military and intelligence chiefs in a major reshuffle.

The president appointed Juvénal Marizamunda as the new defence minister, replacing Maj Gen Albert Murasira, who was in the post since 2018.

A new army chief, Lt Gen Mubarakh Muganga, is taking over from Gen Jean Bosco Kazura who ran the Rwanda Defence Force (RDF) since November 2019.

A reshuffle in which a defence minister and army chief are fired at the same time is not common in Rwanda.

No reasons have been given for the reshuffle. In previous changes to the upper echelons of the military, Mr Kagame would at times publicly hint at the reason.

In the Monday night reshuffle, Mr Kagame also appointed a new army chief of staff (land forces) as well as head of military intelligence.

In another move, he changed the top commanders of Rwandan troops deployed in Mozambique to help fight militant Islamists.

Image source, AFP

The Democratic Republic of Congo's government says 10 of its citizens died after their university campus was "bombarded" in air strikes in Sudan's capital, Khartoum, on Sunday

The foreign affairs ministry said in a statement, external that it had “learned with deep dismay” the killing of its citizens at the International University of Africa.

Minister Christophe Lutundula said there were indications that the air strikes were "carried out by the regular army on an area occupied by civilian and unarmed populations, including foreign nationals, seriously wounded other compatriots".

The minister said the government was waiting for the Sudanese authorities to shed more light about the incident.

Khartoum has been at the centre of fighting between the army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) since 15 April, with civilians caught in the crossfire.

DR Congo's government has called for a humanitarian corridor to enable it to evacuate its wounded citizens and others still stranded in Khartoum.

Azeezat Olaoluwa
BBC News, Lagos

Image source, Getty Images

Nigeria's main trade union movement has suspended its call for a nationwide strike on Wednesday to protest against a sharp increase in the price of fuel following the government's decision to stop subsidising it.

After an hours-long meeting with the government, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) President Joe Ajaero said the decision had been taken to give more time for negotiations.

A court has ordered unions to desist from industrial action until an application filed by the government is heard on 19 June.

An increase in the minimum wage and tax holidays for workers are some of the demands organised labour is making to cushion the effects of the removal of the fuel subsidy.

Last Wednesday, fuel marketers increased the price of petrol to at least $1 (£0.80) per litre - up by about 200%.

This has had a knock-on effect on the price of transport, food and other commodities, while the minimum wage is about 65$.

Nigeria's new President Bola Tinubu announced the scrapping of the fuel subsidy in his inaugural address on 29 May, but did not give a date.

Within hours of Mr Tinubu's first address, hundreds of people had poured on to the streets, either in their cars or on foot with yellow jerrycans, to grab what they believed to be the last drops of fuel to be sold at a government-fixed price.

Despite its oil riches, Nigeria is unable to refine crude locally to meet demands.

The four state-owned refineries are moribund, forcing the country to import refined petroleum products which are then sold at a price fixed by the government.

Mr Tinubu says the government can no longer afford to subsidise fuel because of dwindling revenue: the government has already set aside $7bn to subsidise fuel for the first six months of this year.

Our proverb of the day:

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We will be bringing you the latest news and views from around the continent. So stay with us, on this Tuesday 6 June.

The recruitment of nurses by high-income countries is "out of control", a nursing body says.

The policeman shot dead three soldiers near the border in what Israel says was a terrorist attack.

That's all from the BBC Africa Live for now, we'll be back on Tuesday.

Until then you can follow the latest news at BBCAfrica.com or listen to the Focus on Africa podcast.

A reminder of Monday's wise words:

Click here to send us your African proverbs.

And we leave you with this photo of Burna Boy taken at his sell-out London show, joined on stage by J Hus:

Image source, Redferns/Getty

Priya Sippy
BBC News

A new report by the McKinsey economic consultancy has shown that Africa's biggest economies, including South Africa, Egypt, Nigeria and Algeria, are experiencing the slowest growth on the continent.

"The growth in the past was driven by resources. We need to pivot now to productivity growth," said Acha Leke, a senior partner with McKinsey.

The report showed that the performance of these economies had slowed the overall growth on the continent.

"If you look at growth over 10 years, it has grown at 3.3% which isn't good when you look at population growth. But there is huge variation within Africa."

The report added that the continent's consistently growing economies have been driven by East Africa, Rwanda in particular. More recently, some countries in West Africa, such as Ivory Coast, have experienced a surge in growth.

As a result, Mr Leke said that 50% of Africans lived in countries that had grown above the average.

He said that future growth will hinge on strengthening intra-regional trade, helping Africa's businesses increase in scale and skilling up the future workforce.

Richard Hamilton
BBC World Service Newsroom

Amnesty International has condemned the authorities in Tanzania for forcefully evicting members of the indigenous Maasai community from their ancestral land.

The human rights group said that in June last year, the security forces repeatedly resorted to excessive use of force, arbitrary arrests and shooting at Maasai people in Loliondo, near the Serengeti National Park.

It also said the authorities showed a total disregard for due process or obtaining the consent of the Maasai people.

The Tanzanian government maintains the evictions are necessary for wildlife conservation.

Police in northern Nigeria say armed men killed 30 people in raids on six villages at the weekend.

Residents from two villages said the attacks in Sokoto state were reprisals for refusing to pay protection money to bandits.

One witness, who lives in the Gwadabawa district, told Punch newspaper the coordinated attacks happened after evening prayers in two villages as the same time.

The witnessed added: "After killing them, they set their corpses and those of their animals on fire, ensuring that most of them were burnt beyond recognition."

The latest attacks come a week after Nigeria new president, Bola Tinubu, took the oath of office and promised reforms to tackle the country's rampant insecurity.

Better co-ordination, consultation and timely reporting were all needed to improve the way security agencies worked together, Mr Tinubu said at a later meeting of security chiefs.

A crowd of 60,000 fans screamed the Grammy award-winner's Afrobeats lyrics back to him at the London Stadium.

A campaign group says Malawi has disregarded basic human rights by detaining and forcibly relocating refugees and asylum seekers across the country, in what it calls its "encampment" policy.

Malawi's government has not responded to the claims of abuses.

But Human Rights Watch (HRW) is calling on the government to reverse its actions, external, and bring back the 902 people who it says were last month rounded up and taken to Dzalek refugee camp 40km (25 miles) from the capital, Lilongwe.

During that process, HRW alleges that many people had their businesses forcibly closed and were held in prisons before being taken away. The rights body also says there are reports of child refugees being held in jail and other refugees suffering beatings and having their property stolen.

"Not only are the authorities committing abuses during arrests and detaining children, summarily removing them from their homes amounts to unlawful forced evictions," alleges HRW's senior Africa researcher Idriss Ali Nassah.