Image source, AFP

Former Mozambican Finance Minister Manuel Chang has been handed over to the FBI to face fraud and corruption charges in the US.

Mr Chang has been in prison in South Africa since December 2018. He denies any wrongdoing.

He was handed over to the FBI on 12 July, according to the spokesman for South Africa’s Justice and Correctional Services Ministry, Chrispin Phiri.

"This was after a provisional arrest warrant was issued by the US. Both the US and Republic of Mozambique requested Chang's extradition on various charges," added Mr Phiri.

He was in charge of Mozambique's finances when the country guaranteed more than $2bn (£1.5bn) in secret borrowing by state-owned firms.

It was the country's biggest corruption scandal and led to economic collapse.

It is alleged that the money was used to buy a large tuna factory, among other things, leading to the affair being dubbed the "tuna bond" scandal.

So far, 11 people, including the son of former Mozambican President Armando Guebuza, Armando Ndambi Guebuza, have been convicted over their roles in the scheme.

Alfred Lasteck
BBC News, Dar es Salaam

Image source, Getty Images

The authorities in Zanzibar, a semi-autonomous island province of Tanzania, are enforcing a ban on men wearing their hair in braided styles, telling the BBC they flout the law and local traditions and threaten people's morals.

"We find it dangerous to our future generations," says Zanzibar’s Culture Executive Secretary Omar Adam. "This is one form of immorality in Zanzibar, it is a culture which is adopted from outside Zanzibar."

He has dismissed concerns that the move was targeting the LGBTQ community in the islands, where same-sex relationships are illegal.

The law against men braiding their hair is not new - it dates back to 2015 - but the authorities have only now started enforcing it.

Any man who enters or lives in Zanzibar with braided hair faces fines of more than $400 (£306) or six months imprisonment - or both.

Despite Zanzibar being among top tourist destinations, the authorities say the enforcement will apply equally to visitors.

Two months ago, the Zanzibar government banned 16 book titles and the use of rainbow colours in schools claiming that they advocated for LGBTQ rights.

Ruth Nesoba & Grant Ferrett
BBC News

Image source, AFP

Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga has called off a rally that had been planned at Kamukunji grounds in Nairobi, saying he wanted to avert further violence.

At least one person has been killed during a day of protests across the country against tax increases.

Police have used tear gas in numerous towns and cities, including Mombasa and the capital, Nairobi.

Mr Odinga has again demanded that the government scrap tax rises and he has condemned the police - accusing them of multiple shootings, assault and harassing his supporters.

On Friday, several people were killed during anti-government protests. Human rights groups have accused the Kenyan police of using excessive force.

Anthony Irungu
BBC News, Nairobi

Fifty-three children have been rushed to a hospital in Kenya's capital, Nairobi, after falling unconscious when tear gas was thrown into their class by police during protests.

Eagle Nursing Home hospital owner Dr Aron Shikuku told the BBC they have been able to stabilise the children who have been at the hospital for about four hours.

There have been protests around the country called by the opposition over the rising cost of living.

Two people are reported to have died as protesters stormed a police station and torched it and another man died after a police van was attacked along the Nairobi Expressway in Mlolongo on the outskirts of the city.

Opposition leader Raila Odinga has called off a rally that he was to hold at the Kamukunji grounds in a Nairobi suburb, citing police shootings, assault and harassment of his supporters.

Transport and businesses have been disrupted around the country.

Protesters have resorted to lighting fires on roads, while striking public transport workers engage in activities like football games at bus terminuses, as captured in videos circulating online., external

Jose Tembe
BBC News, Maputo

Five people have died and two others are reported missing following two shipwrecks that occurred over the past weekend in the Chire and Megaza rivers, in Morrumbala district, Mozambique.

The first incident involved a canoe carrying a couple and their son returning from an agricultural field and the second was on a boat heading to neighbouring Malawi.

Maritime administrator of Zambezia, Augusto Dongo, confirmed the incident, indicating that the two wrecks were caused by strong winds.

Mr Dongo revealed that, in the first case, a child died on the spot while their mother managed to swim to the banks of the river.

Grant Ferrett
BBC World Service News

Image source, Getty Images

Britain has announced sanctions against firms linked to the rival military groups in Sudan's increasingly bloody conflict.

A British government minister, Andrew Mitchell, said the Sudanese army and paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) had dragged their country into a wholly unjustified war.

The sanctions impose an asset freeze on three businesses linked to each side in the fighting.

Washington imposed sanctions at the start of June.

Since the fighting in Sudan erupted three months ago, it's thought thousands of people have been killed.

Millions of people have been forced from their homes.

A man has been shot dead during protests in the Kenyan town of Emali, some 100km (62 miles) from the capital Nairobi, according to multiple reports in local media.

The Daily Nation newspaper says that police opened fire on protesters who reportedly set fire to a police vehicle and threw stones at a local bank.

Emali sits on the Nairobi-to-Mombasa highway. The K24 website reports that hundreds of protesters there barricaded the road on Wednesday morning, , externalbringing traffic to a standstill.

These oppositions protests have gone ahead despite police declaring them illegal.

Neither the police nor the local authorities have commented on the protester's death.

Shingai Nyoka
BBC News, Harare

Image source, AFP

Former Zimbabwe government minister Saviour Kasukuwere, who sought to challenge President Emmerson Mnangagwa in upcoming elections, has been barred from contesting.

A Harare high court judge has invalidated Mr Kasukuwere's application to contest as an independent candidate mere weeks after the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission accepted his registration papers.

Lawyer Lovedale Mangwana challenged the body's decision in court, arguing that Mr Kasukuwere was no longer a registered voter - a criterion for a candidate - as he had lived outside Zimbabwe for longer than 18 months.

Mr Kasukuwere is key a Mugabe loyalist who served as a Zanu-PF political commissar and minister of youth and indigenisation in the ex-president's government.

He fled the country in the aftermath of the military coup that ushered President Emmerson Mnangagwa to power in 2017.

He returned briefly in 2018, but fled again to South Africa citing political persecution.

General elections will be held in Zimbabwe on 23 August.

Anthony Irungu
BBC News, Nairobi

Image source, AFP

As banned protests go ahead in Kenya, police have fired tear gas at crowds gathered at Kamukunji grounds in the capital, Nairobi, where opposition veteran Raila Odinga was expected to address his supporters.

Livestreamed video at the grounds shows stage technicians scrambling for their equipment.

A section of the multimillion-dollar Nairobi expressway has been closed due to the demonstrations, its management company says.

Videos on social media appear to show a group of people vandalising the road.

Image source, Getty Images

Readers surveyed by the UK's Telegraph newspaper say South Africa is the world's best tourist destination.

The right-wing paper gushes over the beauty of Cape Town, calling it "a supermodel at the foot of Table Mountain".

It also hails the "fine vintages" of South Africa's wine country and calls the Garden Route "a ribbon of road-trip nirvana".

Kenya and Botswana also rank in the Telegraph's top 10, at number seven and number 10 respectively.

You can read the full list here, external.

A group representing amateur clubs in Cameroon calls on Samuel Eto'o to resign as president of the country's football federation.

Many matatu drivers in Kenya are on strike over rising fuel costs - leaving them free to engage in more energetic pastimes.

CitizenTV has this footage of staff skipping and playing football together in the central town of Nanyuki:

Anthony Irungu
BBC News, Nairobi

Kenyan opposition protesters have pressed ahead with planned demonstrations on Wednesday, defying a warning from police who called the protests illegal.

Officers have sprayed tear gas at protesters in various towns as the police chief says necessary measures must be taken to disperse them.

Protest organisers are calling for the scrapping of a new law which doubles fuel taxes and imposes a 1.5% housing levy on employees. For now it has been suspended by the high court in Nairobi, because of constitutional concerns.

But the government says the measure is necessary to fix debt repayment issues and create job opportunities for unemployed youth.

Last Friday, confrontations between opposition protesters and the police resulted in six deaths in multiple towns.

On Wednesday, major roads in the capital Nairobi as well as Kisii, Kisumu, and Nyeri are noticeably less busy, and videos online show blocked roads in several areas. Bus and taxi drivers have joined the demonstrations, expressing concerns about rising fuel costs.

Many businesses remain closed, and transportation has come to a standstill.

BBC World Service

Image source, AFP

Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi is in Kenya at the start of a three-day African tour.

It's the first time that an Iranian president has visited Africa for more than 10 years. Mr Raisi will also be visiting Uganda and Zimbabwe.

He's being accompanied by his diplomatic chief and a business delegation, as Iran looks for new allies and commercial opportunities.

Mr Raisi has also recently visited Latin America and Indonesia, where Iran re-joined the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.

BBC World Service

Image source, Getty Images

The lawyer for a senior opposition politician in Senegal says his client has been charged over comments he made about President Macky Sall.

Birame Souleye Diop was arrested following remarks he made suggesting the president might row back on his commitment not to stand for a third term in next year's election.

President Sall ruled out running for re-election earlier this month, following widespread protests.

Mr Diop is an MP with the Pastef party, whose leader, Ousmane Sonko, was handed a two-year prison sentence in June, making him ineligible to stand in the presidential election due in February next year.

Read more: Senegal's Macky Sall defuses a political timebomb by not seeking a third term

Image source, Reuters

There are reports that dozens of people have died in a random shelling of a market in the Sudanese city of Omdurman, however these have not been verified.

On Saturday, 45 people were killed in an air strike in the city, which lies across the River Nile from the capital, Khartoum.

Fighting between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has been going on for three months.

More than 3,000 people have been killed.

Update: This story has been updated because the source of the reports is unclear

Read more: Army outnumbered on Khartoum's streets

Our proverb of the day:

Image source, Getty Images

Click here to send us your African proverbs.

A group of teenagers held "a knife to my throat", a woman from Ivory Coast tells the BBC.

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

In the meantime, you can get the latest updates on the BBC News website and listen to the Focus on Africa podcast.

A reminder of Tuesday's wise words:

And we leave you with this photo of a man enjoying some fresh water on a hot day in Algeria on Monday:

Image source, Getty Images

An investigation is under way after the theft at one of Lagos airport's two runways.