Jose Tembe
BBC News, Maputo

The beheading of two people by suspected Islamist militants is causing alarm in northern Mozambique as such atrocities have become less common in recent years.

This is partly because regional troops were deployed two years ago to help the army recapture territory from the jihadists in the northern region of Cabo Delgado.

While this has allowed some people to return to their villages, it has also encouraged retreating insurgents to win over villagers from whom they buy food.

Of late they have been saying their fight is with the defence forces, not locals.

But the decapitated bodies of two fishermen were found in the bush near the village of Litamanda in Macomia district on Monday.

It is believed they were killed over the weekend. A group of militants were spotted near where the two men resided, about 20km (12 miles) from Litamanda, on Saturday.

It comes two months after another beheading in Cabo Delgado.

It is causing much concern among villagers in the region who had hoped an end to the six-year-long insurgency was in sight.

Dorcas Wangira
Africa health correspondent

Image source, Getty Images

More than 20 million children missed out on one or more routine childhood vaccinations last year according to the World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN children's agency (Unicef).

Although numbers have decreased since the peak of the pandemic, when 24.4 million children missed out on the vaccines in 2021, they are still high compared to before Covid-19 began. In 2019, 18.4 million children were not fully protected.

According to the two UN agencies, the number of children without even a first dose of the diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough vaccinations went down in all regions of the world.

The WHO and Unicef have also warned that measles vaccinations continue to decline in low-income countries and outbreaks of the disease are already on the rise.

Ameyu Etana
BBC Afaan Oromoo

Image source, AFP

Ethiopia is allowing people to access Facebook, Telegram, TikTok and YouTube for the first time in more than five months.

The blackout was imposed on 9 February this year after tensions between the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and the government.

Only those with access to virtual private network (VPN) software could get on to the social media platforms - something that cost them additional data.

The Orthodox Church faced a split in February when some archbishops from the Oromia region said they wanted to form a new synod as they wanted to hold services in the Oromo language.

The move triggered deadly clashes, but a mediation effort by the government has now papered over the cracks.

There has been no statement from the authorities over the decision to lift the ban.

Last month, the head of Ethio Telecom said the blockage was not a decision that had been taken by the state-owned company.

According to the Internet Society, the outage has cost Ethiopia $42m (£32m) because of the knock-on effect on businesses. Others say the figure is higher.

Some areas of the northern region of Tigray, where a brutal two-year conflict came to an end last November, remain without access to the internet.

Natasha Booty
BBC News

Image source, AFP

Some of the hottest temperatures today were expected in Tunisia, about one-third of which is covered by the Sahara Desert.

The Sahara is one of the world’s most inhospitable regions, yet migrants frequently cross it in the hopes of reaching the Mediterranean sea, and ultimately, Europe.

Following a wave of racist violence in the Tunisian city of Sfax, some sub-Saharan Africans have fled to a militarised buffer zone bordering Libya.

Officials in Libya have also accused Tunisia of dumping hundreds of migrants over the border in the desert - with no food, water or shelter.

Both Libya and the UN say they have rescued migrants from the border.

Tunisia - which recently signed a migration pact with the EU - has not commented on Libya's allegations.

Patrick Zaki is sentenced to three years over an article he wrote about being a Coptic Christian.

Will Ross
Africa editor, BBC World Service

Image source, Getty Images

South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa has said that arresting Vladimir Putin - if he chooses to attend a summit in Johannesburg next month - would be a declaration of war against Russia.

The Russian president has been invited to attend a meeting of Brics countries but is the target of an International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant.

The opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) has gone to court to try to force the authorities in South Africa - an ICC member - to carry out the arrest.

Court documents reveal that Mr Ramaphosa is firmly against any such move stating that national security is at stake:

More on this topic:

• How Putin has given South Africa a big diplomatic headache

BBC Great Lakes

The authorities in Rwanda say they are still searching for 10 people, mostly children, who are missing after a boat they were travelling in sank in the Nyabarongo River, in the south-west of the country.

Four people, including the captain, were saved during the rescue operation on Monday evening. The captain has now been detained by police.

Local provincial governor Alice Kayitesi told Radio Rwanda said the boat did not meet safety requirements, including having an engine or life jackets.

Over the past 10 years there have been several boat accidents on the Nyabarongo River, with the authorities often saying that they are caused by old and overloaded vessels.

Some residents close to the river use boat trips as a cheap and quick way to cut through areas that would take a much longer to reach on land.

Will Ross
Africa editor, BBC World Service

Image source, Getty Images

Security guards working for the multinational fruit company Del Monte have been accused of running over and injuring two teenagers at a pineapple farm in Kenya.

The Bureau Of Investigative Journalism said, external the two victims were knocked off their motorbikes after a 15-minute pursuit by Del Monte guards driving four-wheel drive vehicles.

In June journalists with same organisation said over the last decade six people had been killed by guards - some of the alleged victims had been accused of stealing pineapples on the farm.

Del Monte - which supplies supermarkets across the world - said it takes the allegations seriously and is carrying out investigations.

Nkechi Ogbonna
West Africa business journalist, BBC News

Image source, Getty Images

Some of Twitter’s former employees in Africa have told the BBC that they are tired of the drawn-out negotiations over their severance pay.

On Monday we reported that the social media company had been silent since May on all negotiations with the ex-employees’ lawyers following the massive lay-offs in November last year.

Now some of those affected have been speaking to the BBC on the condition of anonymity.

“Some of the decisions made during the negotiations [with Twitter] including the three months’ severance package wasn’t our desire but people want to get over this phase,” one ex-employee said.

For many of the former staff of Twitter’s office in Africa, the silence, along with the attitude of the organisation towards them and their legal representatives, has caused much distress. One person said it had led to “anxiety attacks”.

Some had moved their families from other countries to begin a new life in Ghana as a result of the new job.

“I know I’m entitled to my severance and other benefits, but I’m not waiting on it to move on with my life,” another former employee said.

Twitter opened its only Africa office in Ghana last November and had about a dozen employees but they were then laid off as part of a global staff cull introduced by Elon Musk when he bought the company.

The BBC's email requesting comment from the company's press office got an automated response of a poop emoji.

Andrew Ochieng
BBC World Service newsroom

Image source, Getty Images

The Egyptian musicians' syndicate has cancelled a planned concert at the Giza pyramids by US rapper Travis Scott.

Egyptian media said the syndicate cited security and offence to traditions as the reasons for the decision.

International music stars often perform at the venue near the capital, Cairo, but recently there has been backlash against music deemed improper in Egypt.

Correspondents say social media commentators in Egypt have criticised Travis Scott for supporting Afro-centrism in Egypt, which promotes the legacy of black African culture in the country.

The comedian Kevin Hart had to cancel his show in Cairo in February following outrage over his claims that black Africans were pharaohs.

Image source, AFP

Five new northern white rhino embryos have been created by a team in Kenya working to save the species from extinction.

BioRescue said they had been produced from 18 eggs collected in May from Fatu, one of two surviving northern white rhinos.

She and her mother Najin live at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in central Kenya. They were born in a zoo in Czech Republic but were transferred to their natural habitat in 2009.

“Four years since the start of this ambitious project to save the northern white rhino from extinction, the BioRescue consortium has made significant progress towards its ultimate aim,” the project, funded by the German education ministry, said on Facebook, external.

“The sperm for fertilisation came from two different bulls, thereby improving genetic diversity.”

Sperm was preserved from some male northern white rhinos before they died.

BioRescue said it was the highest number of embryos created to date from any egg collection, which is a complicated and dangerous process.

This brings the number of embryos created so far to 29. They are cryopreserved, a process that stores them at very low temperatures, in preparation for future transfer to surrogate southern white rhino mothers.

This is because neither Fatu nor Najin are able to carry a pregnancy.

According to the Ol Pejeta Conservancy, the BioRescue team has made another promising step towards saving the species by selecting two wild southern white rhino females as potential surrogate mothers.

Attempts in the past to put embryos in southern white rhinos in zoos have failed.

“A huge congratulations to the team for their phenomenal dedication and hard work that has made this all possible,” the conservancy said.

While it is a race against time to save the northern white rhino, the southern white rhino is also under threat, with just 18,000 of them left in the wild.

More on this topic:

• Northern white rhinos: The audacious plan that could save a species

South Africa's Kgothatso Montjane calls on the International Tennis Federation to address the issue of representation.

Natasha Booty
BBC News

Image source, AFP

Morocco is no stranger to high temperatures, but in recent days staff at the capital’s Rabat Zoo have taken extra precautions.

Frozen meals are being fed to the animals "taking into account the specific diet of each", head vet Saad Azizi told the AfricaNews website, external.

Mammals and birds are most at risk from the heatwave, he said, and staff are warned to limit the quantity of frozen food the animals eat so they don’t suffer side effects.

Some of the animals are also getting cold showers, and blocks of ice are being put in their enclosures to cool them down.

Temperatures on Tuesday are expected to top 40C (104F) in several towns and cities across Morocco – including Fez, Zagora and the tourist hotspot of Marrakesh.

Kenya is in a drought-hit region and Ukrainian grain has contributed to vital food aid supplies.

Will Ross
Africa editor, BBC World Service

Image source, EPA

Joseph Kabila, former president of the Democratic Republic of Congo, has rejected accusations from neighbouring Uganda that he gave sanctuary to an Islamist rebel group and allowed it to exploit mineral resources.

Last week the Ugandan leader, Yoweri Museveni, said Mr Kabila had allowed the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) to set up large camps and to mine gold and sell timber.

The ADF was created in the 1990s and took up arms against President Museveni, alleging persecution of Muslims.

Image source, AFP

"The gratuitous false accusations of President Museveni, who is one of the main destabilisers in the region, are simply ridiculous and aim to distract the Congolese people and divide them," Mr Kabila's spokesperson Barbara Nzimbi told the Reuters news agency.

Last year a top UN court ordered Uganda to pay the Kinshasa government hundreds of millions of dollars in reparations for atrocities committed during a war in eastern DR Congo.

The latest row comes a month after ADF rebels were blamed for killing more than 42 students at a school in western Uganda.

More on the ADF:

• I covered myself in blood to hide
• Inside view of the IS-linked ADF rebels

Chigozie Ohaka
BBC News, Lagos

Image source, AFP

Nigeria is gearing up to stop the spread of anthrax after cases were reported at a livestock farm north-west of the capital, Abuja.

The outbreak was confirmed by the agricultural ministry after symptoms of the disease were discovered at a farm in Gajiri, along the Abuja-Kaduna motorway, in Niger state.

The farm, which has cattle, sheep, goats and poultry, has been placed under quarantine, and 50,000 doses of anthrax vaccine have been sent to the area.

Anthrax primarily affects livestock animals. Humans can also be infected when they come into direct contact with infected animals or consume products from them.

It is caused by Bacillus anthracis and largely survives as spores that hide away in soil for years before entering an animal through a cut or wound.

Clinical signs of anthrax in animals include sudden death and bleeding from the nose, mouth and anal region.

The government is encouraging livestock owners, farmers and the public to remain vigilant and report any other suspected cases.

It also urged farmers to avoid slaughtering sick animals as this could expose people to anthrax spores.

Anthrax can be treated with antibiotics but treatment needs to start soon after infection. No human exposure has been reported so far.

Many communities, mostly in northern Nigeria, depend on livestock farming and herding for their livelihoods, supplying meat to the rest of the country.

Warren Bull
BBC World Service newsroom

Image source, Getty Images

Morocco says that Israel has become the latest country to recognise its sovereignty over the disputed territory of Western Sahara.

The Moroccan foreign office said King Mohammed had received a letter from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirming Israel's support for its claim.

Countries including Saudi Arabia and Jordan had already recognised the claim by Rabat, while more than 40 countries support its independence.

The Polisario Front has fought for the independence of the former Spanish colony since 1975, when Madrid withdrew and most of the territory was occupied by Morocco.

BBC Sport Africa looks at the Africans to watch from the each of the continent's four teams at the 2023 Women's World Cup.

Will Ross
Africa editor, BBC World Service

Image source, AFP

The paramilitary force fighting against the army in Sudan has taken control of a town in South Darfur with further reports of human rights abuses.

Clashes between the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the army have forced several thousand families to flee the town of Kas.

There are reports of RSF fighters looting or destroying government buildings and markets.

Since the war broke out in mid-April, non-Arab communities across Darfur have been targeted by the RSF and allied Arab militias.

Heavy fighting is continuing in the capital, Khartoum, and several other areas as regional and international mediation efforts continue to end the conflict.

A similar pattern of ethnic violence took place two decades ago when militias were deployed to crush a rebellion. That war left around 300,000 people dead.

Read more on the conflict in Sudan:

• 'I saw bodies dumped in Darfur mass grave'
• Darfur governor killed after genocide claim
• Sudan's Darfur conflict: Why an accountant took up arms

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