Mercy Juma
BBC News, Nairobi

Image source, Getty Images

Graça Machel, a prominent rights campaigner and the widow of Nelson Mandela, has told the BBC more women should have been included in debates at the first-ever Africa climate summit.

At the recently concluded three-day gathering in Kenya’s capital, African heads of state agreed on a unified position for the continent ahead of November's COP28 summit - including a proposed a global carbon tax regime.

Ms Machel, who is deputy chair of The Elders - a group of senior statesmen founded by Mr Mandela in 2007 to tackle some of the world's most pressing problems, said this was a step worth celebrating.

She lauded some of the innovative ways of dealing with climate change that had been presented in Nairobi, saying: “Africa is not here to be helped. Africa is here to offer opportunities to offer investment, to offer solutions.”

But the 77-year-old Mozambican campaigner said women had to be at the centre of the debate in future: “We have to stop this thing of women speaking from the window.”

Even when women shouted from a window, those coming up with resolutions failed to hear them, she said.

Azeezat Olaoluwa
BBC News

Image source, AFP

Four people died in clashes between protesters and security forces in Guinea as the country marked the second anniversary of a military coup, activists say.

The Forces Vives, an alliance of political parties, trade unions and civil society groups that wants a speedy return to civilian rule, reported the deaths of four young men aged between 15 and 18 in statement published on Facebook.

It said two of them had been killed the capital, Conakry, when armed security forces attacked the neighbourhoods of political activists on Monday, the eve of planned demonstrations against the junta.

The other two teenagers had been killed on Tuesday and at least a dozen others suffered bullet wounds, Forces Vives said.

The junta, which had warned people against joining the protests, has not made any comment about the latest incident.

Forces Vives has expressed concerns about the delay in holding elections.

Several protests have taken place against Mamady Doumbouya, a military officer serving as interim president, many of which have ended in violence.

The junta proposed a two-year transition to democracy last October, after the regional bloc Ecowas rejected a three-year timeline.

Guinea's military government is just one of several in West and Central Africa that have taken power in a string of coups since 2020. Many of them are yet to hold elections as promised.

News of the arrest of a suspected serial killer in Rwanda has caused shock waves across the country.

Murder crimes are normally relatively low - and people have been drawn to the house in the capital, Kigali, where police have dug up more than 10 bodies.

The BBC's Jean Claude Mwambutsa went to the site in Kicukiro, a suburb in the hilly city, and took these photos.

Neighbours say the man had been staying in the house for more than a year.

Police say officers went to evict the man for failing to pay rent when he began to act suspiciously, later confessing to the murders.

Officers went back to the house on Tuesday and began investigating his kitchen.

This is where he had told police he had buried the bodies of his victims.

Locals say he had been living alone in the rented accommodation.

The victims are yet to be identified, but a police spokesperson has told the state broadcaster that most of them were women he had met at bars.

The man, reported to be 34, has not yet been formally charged in court as investigations are continuing.

Read more:

• Rwanda suspected serial killer arrested after bodies found in kitchen

Image source, AFP

Angry protesters in Chad tried to storm a French military base over the fatal shooting of a local soldier.

He had reportedly gone to the Faya-Largeau base in the north of the country seeking medical treatment on Tuesday.

French troops are deployed there as part of anti-terror operations in the region.

According to Chadian and French officials, the soldier then attacked a nurse with a scalpel.

"A Chadian soldier who was not in a normal state went to the French army base to get bandaged, picked up a scalpel and wounded a French military nurse," General Ali Maide Kebir, the region’s governor, told the AFP news agency.

"The nurse used his firearm and killed him," he said.

A senior officer with French forces told AFP that the military nurse reacted in self-defence.

"We don't know the reasons for the attack. The nurse received three scalpel blows to the throat, head and neck but his condition has stabilised,” he said.

The Chadian and French militaries have launched joint investigations into the incident.

But the news has upset the local community, triggering the protests outside the base. Chadian soldiers guarding the base prevented the demonstrators from getting inside.

Image source, Getty Images

Madagascar President Andry Rajoelina has said he will be seeking re-election in November despite a campaign to disqualify him from the presidential race.

In June this year, leaked documents revealed that Mr Rajoelina, his wife and children had become naturalised French citizens in 2014.

Since the revelation some Malagasy leaders and citizens have questioned his transparency and loyalty to Madagascar, which was a French colony until 1960.

Critics also say the country's law does not allow dual citizenship and those who obtain foreign citizenship automatically forfeit their Malagasy citizenship and cannot seek the presidency.

But Mr Rajoelina, who won the election in late 2018, disputes this and says the constitution does not forbid those with dual citizenship from vying for presidency.

More than 20 candidates are running in the elections scheduled for 9 November on the Indian Ocean island.

BBC Monitoring
The world through its media

Image source, AFP

The European Union has protested strongly after its ambassador to Niger, Salvador Pinto da França, was prevented from accessing the French embassy in the capital, Niamey.

"The European Union denounces and regrets the obstacles to freedom of movement of which the European ambassador, stationed in Niamey, was the victim this Tuesday 5 September, while he was going to the French embassy," said EU spokesperson Nabila Massrali. , external

"Under the Vienna Convention of 1961, the ambassador of the European Union has been duly accredited and he must, therefore, be able to carry out his mission in the full respect of the said convention," she added.

The French embassy has been blockaded after the military junta ordered the arrest and expulsion of French Ambassador Sylvain Itté, but he is refusing to leave.

The junta issued the order on 26 August in retaliation for Paris refusing to recognise coup leader Gen Abdourahmane Tchiani and insisting on only recognising ousted President Mohamed Bazoum as Niger's legitimate president.

The EU has termed the expulsion order a "new provocation which can in no way help to find a diplomatic solution to the current crisis".

Rwandan police discovered the crime after the 34-year-old suspect was evicted from his rented home.

Image source, AFP

The Democratic Republic of Congo has scrapped visa requirement for Kenyans travelling there.

DR Congo's Director General of Migration Roland Kashwantale Chihoza announced the move in a statement on Wednesday.

It is a reciprocal move after Kenya said last month that it was waiving similar requirements from Congolese visiting the country.

Kenya said it was removing barriers to allow free movement of people and encourage trade within the East African Community (EAC).

DR Congo became the seventh member of the EAC last year.

Richard Hamilton
BBC World Service newsroom

Image source, AFP

Three European politicians say the Tanzanian government has prevented them from visiting the country to investigate the evictions of indigenous Maasai people.

The three MEPs from the Green Party, Michele Rivasi, Claude Gruffat and Pierrette Herzberger-Fofana, said that less than 24 hours before they were due to set off on Monday, they were informed that the visit had been postponed.

They said it was the third observation mission to be denied access since the end of last year.

The Maasai allege that they have been forcibly evicted from ancestral land in the north of the country.

The government says local people have moved voluntarily, under a scheme that is necessary for conservation.

Samba Cyuzuzo
BBC Great Lakes

Image source, BBC's Jean Claude Mwambutsa

The victims of the suspected serial killer in Rwanda have yet to be identified.

Police have exhumed more than 10 decomposing bodies from a hole in the kitchen of the house he was renting in the capital, Kigali.

The man, who police say confessed to the killings earlier in the week, has not commented in court on the allegations and is yet to be formally charged as investigations continue.

Other things remain unclear, like the exact timeline - though locals say the man had rented the house for more than a year.

A police spokesperson told the state broadcaster it was believed that most of the victims were women he had met at bars.

His neighbours told local media that at times they heard women screaming in the night - though they did not think there was anything untoward about the sounds.

Rwandans have reacted en-masse in shock on social media to news of the arrest.

A survivor who managed to escape from him is believed to have led to his arrest and the discovery of the bodies - though police say he confessed after being evicted for not paying his rent.

He had previously been accused of rape but was released for lack of evidence, police said.

Mali's Momo Sissoko, the nephew of the late Salif Keita, pays tribute to the first African Footballer of the Year.

Image source, AFP

Rwandan police have arrested a 34-year-old suspected serial killer who is alleged to have murdered and buried more than 10 bodies in his kitchen.

The police found out about the murders after evicting the man from his rented house in Kicukiro district, a suburb of Rwanda’s capital, Kigali.

His landlord had asked them to do so as he had defaulted on rent for the last seven months.

A police official told Rwanda’s private newspaper The New Times, external that when they went to evict him on Monday, he put up a fight.

"He apologised and cried excessively, which raised our suspicions. We detained him and I personally took him to the police. It is at the police station where he confessed to having killed some people, prompting RIB [Rwanda Investigation Bureau] to investigate his residence,” the official said.

Police said that the man confessed to luring his victims from bars and then robbing, killing and burying them in a hole he had dug up in his kitchen. He also revealed that he dissolved some victims in acid.

The victims were both male and female, said Thierry Murangira, spokesperson for the Rwanda Investigation Bureau.

He told the AFP news agency that sex workers had mainly been targeted.

The authorities said that they had arrested the man in July for allegedly robbing, raping and threatening some women, but released him as there was insufficient evidence.

An anonymous police source told AFP that they had recovered 14 bodies, but Mr Murangira said that the police were still investigating the total number of victims.

Despite suffering some of the worst impacts of climate change, the continent only gets 12% of financing.

Kennedy Gondwe
BBC News, Lusaka

Image source, Getty Images

The wife of former Zambia President Edgar Lungu has been released from police custody until she appears in court.

Esther Lungu, who was arrested along with four others on Wednesday, was released later in the evening alongside her fellow accused, according to police spokesperson Danny Mwale.

They are charged with the theft of a motor vehicle and one count of theft of a certificate of title for a property in Lusaka.

They are also accused of being in possession of property believed to be proceeds of crime.

They all deny wrongdoing.

Paul Njie
BBC News

Image source, Getty Images

Gabon's military leaders have announced an end to deposed President Ali Bongo's house arrest, saying he's now "free to move about".

In a communique read on state TV on Wednesday evening, military spokesperson Col Ulrich Manfoumbi said the decision to free Mr Bongo was due to "his state of health".

"He may, if he wishes, travel abroad for medical check-ups," he added.

After the military staged a coup on 30 August, they placed the former president under house arrest and announced they were in control of the oil-rich country.

The decision to free him follows pressure from the Central African regional bloc Eccas and Gabon's neighbours, to respect the physical integrity of the ousted head of state.

In 2018, Mr Bongo suffered a stroke.

His health was a major source of concern for many in the build-up to the 2023 presidential election.

Our proverb of the day:

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President Bola Tinubu's opponents failed to prove allegations of rigging, the court rules.

That's all from the BBC Africa Live team for now until Thursday morning.

There will be an automated news feed here until then, plus you can get the latest updates at BBCAfrica.com and find out about stories behind the news on the Focus on Africa podcast.

A reminder of Wednesday's wise words:

Click here to send us your African proverbs.

And we leave you with this recent shot of a Kenyan Maasai traditional dancer at the inaugural Africa Climate Summit held in Nairobi, Kenya:

Image source, EPA

A court in Nigeria has rejected an attempt by the opposition Labour Party and its candidate Peter Obi to overturn February's presidential election result.

The judges are still delivering their ruling on another petition by the Peoples Democratic Party.

Former South Africa prop Tendai Mtawarira says captain Siya Kolisi transcends the sport ahead of the Springboks' Rugby World Cup title defence.