Shingai Nyoka
BBC News, Harare

Image source, AFP

The ongoing tension between Zimbabwe’s two main political parties isn't reflected on the ground at all.

In fact around the centre of the capital city, Harare, people are going about their business as if an election never happened. Many people here don't believe elections can change their lives.

Harare is an opposition stronghold where the main opposition Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) swept close to 90% of the seats.

Some believe that the CCC should accept the overall results that has kept Zanu-PF's President Emmerson Mnangagwa in power, and focus instead on preparation for the next general election in 2028. Others feel the party should put pressure on the international community to act on reports of vote-rigging.

One Harare resident told the BBC that although she was not expecting a different result, she was now thinking about migrating because for fear of what this disputed win would mean for the economy.

Another woman said she would want to leave Zimbabwe but that she had nowhere to go, and was grateful for her job as cleaner, however menial, because it allows her to feed her family.

Her sentiments echo the resignation that is so apparent. Even as the police say they are prepared to put down any form of protest, few ordinary people here have the appetite for it.

In 2018, ordinary people were killed on these streets when the military opened fire on the protestors angry about the delay in releasing results.

Image source, AFP

UN Secretary General António Guterres has expressed concern over the arrest of Zimbabwe election observers amid "reports of voter intimidation, threats of violence, harassment and coercion".

He has called on political leaders and their supporters to reject all forms of violence and respect human rights and the rule of law.

"The secretary general calls on political actors to peacefully settle any disputes through established legal and institutional channels, and urges the competent authorities to resolve any disputes in a fair, expeditious, and transparent manner," a statement from his spokesperson, external said.

The electoral commission announced President Emmerson Mnangagwa to have won with 52.6% of the vote.

But the opposition also claimed to have won, saying there was widespread vote-rigging, and observers said the vote fell short of democratic standards.

Last week more than 40 poll monitors were arrested as they were trying to compile their own vote count to compare with the official tally.

The arrests have been condemned by rights groups.

Image source, Getty Images

Officials in Gabon have temporarily banned French state media stations TV5 Monde, France 24 and Radio France International (RFI) for lacking objectivity and balance in the treatment of information relating to Saturday's general election.

French public radio RFI had said there were concerns of a post-electoral crisis amid an internet shutdown and curfew imposed.

That same day a government spokesman, Rodrigue Mboumba Bissawou, said in a televised address that the shutdown and curfew were to prevent calls for violence spreading, following the vote.

The main opposition candidate, Albert Ondo Ossa, called the security measures outrageous and denounced the electoral process as "orchestrated fraud".

On Sunday, France Médias Monde, which owns the banned channels, said that it "regrets and is surprised by this provisional suspension, without foundation, which deprives the Gabonese of two of their main sources of reliable and independent information".

Results have yet to be announced by Gabon's electoral commission, which has no set deadline for declaring them. Foreign observers and journalists were banned from covering the vote.

More on Gabon:

• From playboy prince to Gabon's president
• Why French-speaking Gabon joined the Commonwealth
• A quick guide to Gabon

BBC Monitoring
The world through its media

Image source, Getty Images

Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) group has mapped out its vision to end the conflict between it and the country's regular army, signalling a readiness for a negotiated settlement.

Its leader, Lt Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, also known as Hemedti, issued a long statement on X (formerly Twitter) on 27 August to outline the group's "vision for a comprehensive settlement to end the war and to build a new Sudan".

It said in a statement any settlement to end the war "must set the country on the path to a full civilian rule based on democratic norms".

It said the "solution must address the root causes of Sudan's wars through a broad and inclusive dialogue involving all civil stakeholders". and "must be directed towards achieving a lasting ceasefire".

It added that "a new national and professional army" must be created in Sudan.

The statement came on the same day Sudan's de-facto president and army chief, Lt Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, arrived in the eastern city of Port Sudan.

It was Gen Burhan's first trip to the city, which has been spared the fighting so far, since the conflict erupted in mid-April.

Sudanese media have reported that he is expected to travel to Egypt and Saudi Arabia soon.

The Newsroom
BBC World Service

Image source, AFP

Libya's foreign minister has been suspended from office after it emerged that she met her Israeli counterpart in Rome last week.

Israel had described the meeting as an historic first step in establishing relations.

But Najla al-Mangoush said it was a chance and unofficial encounter during discussions with the Italian foreign minister.

Ms Mangoush is now under investigation.

It will report to the prime minister within three days.

The presidential council, which represents Libya's three provinces, said it was illegal to normalise relations with Israel.

The speaker's office in parliament has accused Ms Mangoush of grand treason and called for an emergency session on Monday.

Despite improving relations between Israel and some Arab and Muslim majority nations, it still has no formal diplomatic ties with Libya.

Kalkidan Yibeltal
BBC News

Image source, Reuters

Negotiations over the controversial mega dam that Ethiopia is building on the Blue Nile river have resumed in the Egyptian capital, Cairo.

A statement by Ethiopia’s communications office confirmed the resumption of talks.

The $5bn (£3.9bn) hydroelectric dam has been at centre of diplomatic row for more than a decade between Ethiopia and the two downstream countries Egypt and Sudan.

Egypt and Sudan fear their essential water supplies are threatened by the dam.

Several rounds of negotiations had been held but attempts to ink a binding deal have not materialised.

In July, Ethiopian and Egyptian leaders met during which they agreed to return to talks.

Ethiopia says the dam is part of its efforts to electrify millions of households mostly in rural areas.

Shingai Nyoka
BBC News, Harare

Image source, Getty Images

The runner-up in Zimbabwe's presidential election, Nelson Chamisa, has accused President Emmerson Mnangagwa of carrying out an electoral coup.

The leader of the opposition Citizens Coalition for Change described official results from Wednesday's election as a sham, and argued that international observers had reached the same conclusion.

It’s not a surprise that these elections have ended up in dispute.

At a press conference, Mr Chamisa, who got 44% of the votes against Mr Mnangagwa's 52.6%, accused the electoral body of announcing false results.

He has not yet provided evidence of his allegations and has a week to take his case to court.

Mr Chamisa said there would be change in Zimbabwe whether President's Mnangagwa's Zanu-PF wanted it or not – he said he would not wait another five years.

Mr Mnangagwa has dismissed international criticism of the poll, and insists that Zimbabwe's election is fair.

Some monitors - including those from southern Africa - said the poll fell short of international standards and the requirements of Zimbabwe's own constitution.

BBC World Service

Image source, Getty Images

The Kenyan athlete Mary Moraa won the gold in the women's 800m final, on the last day of the World Athletics Championship in Budapest.

She punched the air as she jumped across the finishing line.

Moraa edged out Britain's Keely Hodgkinson, who came in second, while Athing Mu from the USA took bronze.

Read more here.

Our proverb of the day:

Image source, Getty Images

Click here to send us your African proverbs.

Bringing you the latest news from around Africa at bbc.com/africalive.

On 15 August 2008, nine-year-old Matt Berger tripped over a fossil that would lead to one of the most important discoveries in the history of human evolution.

The young adventurer had been exploring the Cradle of Humankind, in South Africa, with his father Lee, a paleoanthropologist.

"I didn't really know what was happening. I was just there for fun. But my dad was so excited. So obviously that made me excited too," said Matt.

The fossil turned out to be from a new species of hominid called Australopithecus sediba.

Matt speaks to Vicky Farncombe about his memories of the day.

(Photo: Matt Berger, son of Prof Lee Berger, found the fossil of a new hominid species that lived 1.95 million years ago. Credit: Foto24/Gallo Images via Getty Images)

In 1979, French journalist Claude Angeli and his colleagues discovered Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, the French President, received gifts of diamonds worth hundreds of thousands of dollars from the grisly and deposed former Emperor Bokassa of the Central African Republic.

The scandal damaged Giscard d’Estaing’s reputation and contributed to him losing the French Presidential election in 1981.

Ben Henderson speaks to Claude Angeli.

(Photo: Giscard d'Estaing and Bokassa in 1975. Credit: William Karel/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)

It’s been 50 years since a popular Nigerian fast food chain which later became known as Mr Bigg's was first launched.

The restaurants began as coffee shops in department stores in the 1960s and were later rebranded in 1986.

Mr Bigg's currently has more than 170 locations in 40 cities around Nigeria, and there were also restaurants in other African nations at one time.

Justice Baidoo spoke to Emmanuel Osugo, one of the pioneers of the chain.

A Made in Manchester production for BBC World Service.

(Photo: A Mr Bigg's restaurant. Credit: Adebola Familusi)

In December 1960, there was an attempt to dethrone the Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie and replace him with his son.

While the emperor was out of the country, the crown prince was taken to the headquarters of the military unit, the Imperial Bodyguard.

The conspirators, led by the troops' commander and his brother, also took top government officials hostage.

In 2015, Alex Last spoke to Dr Asfa-Wossen Asserate, the grandnephew of Haile Selassie, about the failed coup.

(Photo: Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia. Credit: Terry Fincher via Getty Images)

In 1976 in a small Belgian missionary hospital in a village in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, then known as Zaire, people were dying from an unknown disease which caused a high temperature and vomiting.

It was the first documented outbreak of Ebola the virus.

About 300 people died.

Dr Jean Jacques Mueyembe and Dr David Heymann worked to bring the outbreak under control.

Claire Bowes spoke to them in this programme first broadcast in 2009.

(Photo: Residents who were being examined during the Ebola outbreak in Zaire in 1976. Credit: Public domain/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

After Syria, Eritrea provides the second largest number of people looking to migrate to Europe. BBC news looks at a refugee camp in Ethiopia to find out why.