Will Ross
Africa editor, BBC World Service

Image source, AFP

The army in Mali says five soldiers have been killed and 11 others are missing after two military camps were attacked by rebels on Sunday.

In a statement the army claimed to have killed more than 30 assailants during the fighting in Léré in the Timbuktu region. It also admitted the loss of a military aircraft.

An alliance of mostly Tuareg rebel groups (CSP-PSD) said it had shot down a Malian fighter plane.

Thousands of UN peacekeepers are leaving the country as demanded by Mali's military rulers.

Tuareg rebels and al-Qaeda linked fighters from the group Jamaat Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) are trying to stop the Malian army taking over the UN bases.

You may be interested in:

• Boost for Wagner as Mali shuns UN troops, but at what cost?

Mike Thomson
BBC World Service newsroom

Image source, Reuters

A minister in eastern Libya's government says all journalists have been asked to leave the devastated city of Derna.

The minister, Hisham Chkiouat, accused the media of hampering the work of rescue teams in the wake of last week's floods.

On Monday, demonstrators set fire to the home of the ousted mayor.

Many residents say the disaster - caused when two dams collapsed during torrential rains - could have been prevented.

Officials have acknowledged that a contract to repair the dams was never completed.

Estimates of the numbers killed varies widely but the World Health Organization has confirmed the death of more than 3,900 people. Thousands more are missing.

A military helicopter in Kenya crashed overnight while on patrol in the coastal county of Lamu, killing all crew on board.

It went down in the Boni forest, an area that straddles the border with Somalia and from where the Somali militant group al-Shabab has staged deadly attacks.

The Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) has not indicated how many people were onboard the helicopter when it crashed. However, some media reports have said that at least eight people died in the incident

"The crew and other military personnel onboard were part of an air surveillance squadron intensifying day and night patrols and surveillance for the on-going Operation Amani Boni," the KDF in a statement, external.

A board of inquiry had been dispatched to the scene in Boni forest to establish the cause of the crash, it said.

Hanna Temuari
BBC News, Addis Ababa

Amnesty International has urged the UN to renew the mandate of a team of human rights experts on Ethiopia, which is due to expire at the end of the year, following the release of its most recent report.

International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia (ICHREE) was set up by the UN Human Rights Council in 2021 to conduct an investigation into allegations of violations and abuses of international human rights laws in the wake of the brutal conflict between the army and regional forces in Tigray.

It documented crimes committed by all sides including Eritrean soldiers during the war.

"While the signing of the agreement may have mostly silenced the guns, it has not resolved the conflict in the north of the country, in particular in Tigray, nor has it brought about any comprehensive peace,” Commission Chair Mohamed Chande Othman said about the latest report, submitted on Monday, external.

The report also covered violations and abuses in other regions, such as Oromia and Amhara, saying hostilities in the country had escalated to a “national scale”.

For several years, government forces have been battling Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) fighters wanting "self-determination" for Oromia - in a conflict that has left many people dead, and forced thousands from their homes.

Fighting also broke out last month in the Amhara between local militias and government troops, which has claimed the lives of more than 200 people, according to the UN.

The report warned that “systematic and ongoing violations and crimes are entrenching alienation and estrangement amongst disaffected communities in Tigray, Amhara, Oromia and elsewhere”.

It added: “The current situation across the country continues to bear hallmarked risks of future atrocity crimes.”

For Amnesty’s Tigere Chagutah this showed it was not time “for the UN to lower the accountability bar on Ethiopia”.

“Serious, ongoing human rights abuses and the unfolding crisis in the Amhara region show that Ethiopia is at a dangerous precipice,” the rights group’s regional director for east and southern Africa said in a statement, external.

"Reducing scrutiny now would further embolden impunity and abandon victims of heinous violations and set a bad precedent for the UN’s ability to exercise meaningful scrutiny over human rights crises in other parts of the world."

BBC Monitoring
The world through its media

Image source, AFP

Children have returned to school in a number of towns and villages hard hit by the deadly earthquake that struck Morocco more than a week ago, local media reports.

Lessons resumed on Monday in the towns of Amizmiz and Asni in the High Atlas Mountains and some villages in the Taroudant province in the south-west, according to the independent Lakome website.

The education department in El Haouz province was cited as saying that local authorities had set up 150 special tents equipped with teaching supplies and essentials where classes would take place.

Those set up by the army in Amizmiz were waiting to be installed with mobile education units, the state news agency MAP

It relayed what it called of a sense of optimism and determination expressed by teachers and students alike.

Meanwhile, around 6,000 students enrolled in schools in six municipalities most affected in El Haouz are being bussed to schools in the nearby city of Marrakesh, 2M TV reports.

The Newsroom
BBC World Service

Image source, AFP

Fighting between the two rival factions of the Sudanese military has spread to the Red Sea city of Port Sudan for the first time in five months of conflict.

Sudanese soldiers exchanged fire with members of a tribal militia group which calls itself the Forces of the Eastern Sudan Parties and Movements Alliance.

The troops tried to remove checkpoints set up by the group on Monday in the centre of the city.

Port Sudan hosts the country's only functioning airport. The city is also where some government officials and UN agencies have relocated amid the fighting in the capital, Khartoum, and elsewhere in the country.

Clashes between the Sudanese army and rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces have left thousands of people dead since violence broke out in the capital, Khartoum, in April.

Image source, Getty Images

Kenyans are mourning the death of Kenyan-born British folk singer and expert whistler Roger Whittaker, who is especially famed locally for his 1982 hit song My Land is Kenya.

Whittaker, who has died at 87, was born in Kenya's capital, Nairobi, to English parents.

He spent two years of national service fighting the then-rebel Kenya Land and Freedom Army, or Mau Mau, before becoming a teacher. When he moved to the UK, he began playing guitar and singing in folk clubs.

He sold nearly 50 million records around the world during his decades-long music career, according to his website.

But in Kenya it is the song about where he was born and grew up that is most well-known - it is often played on TV during national holidays alongside other patriotic songs.

In My Land in Kenya, he praises “the land I love… the land I was born” with some heartfelt lines:

My land is Kenya, so warm and wild and free

You'll always stay with me here in my heart

My land is Kenya, right from your highlands to the sea

You'll always stay with me here in my heart, here in my heart

“[Roger Whittaker] has left behind a remarkable piece of art that is truly worth emulating. As Kenya celebrates 60 years of independence this year, Roger Whittaker will forever be a part of our musical history,” Edward Mwasi said on social media platform X, external (formerly Twitter).

“May he Rest in Peace, he wrote beautiful music with heartfelt lyrics, including The Last Farewell and My Land is Kenya,” former foreign affairs permanent secretary Macharia Kamau said, external.

• Read more about the life of Roger Whittaker

Image source, AFP

Hundreds of residents of the eastern Libyan city of Derna have protested against the local authorities, more than a week after heavy floods killed thousands in the city.

The protesters criticised the leader of eastern Libya's parliament, Aguila Saleh, and local officials who they blame for the floods that have killed nearly 4,000 people, according to revised UN figures.

In a joint statement, the protesters - who had gathered outside the city's main mosque on Monday - said they wanted speedy investigations into the disaster and legal action taken against the leaders responsible.

They also demanded compensation, investigations into the city’s finances and the rebuilding of Derna.

Eastern Libya is governed by a parallel government, separate from the UN-recognised government based in Libya’s capital, Tripoli.

Several experts and humanitarian organisations have suggested that the floods could have been averted if the local authorities had evacuated residents or at least communicated the warnings about Storm Daniel.

Experts have also said that the neglect of the city’s dams led to their bursting and the unleashing of flood waters.

The protesters also burned the house of Derna’s mayor, Abdulmenam al-Ghaithi.

Mr Ghaithi, along with other Derna municipal officials, have since been suspended by the eastern Libya Prime Minister Osama Hammad.

The Newsroom
BBC World Service

Image source, AFP

A bill establishing the path for long-awaited nationwide elections in South Sudan has sparked a protest in parliament.

A faction of the country's governing party walked out of the chamber as the legislation was passed.

Lawmakers accused President Salva Kiir of breaching provisions of a peace deal signed in 2018.

Members of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement loyal to Mr Kiir's rival and deputy, Riek Machar, said the National Election Act made the electoral process "undemocratic, unfair, and not credible".

President Kiir is due to address the UN General Assembly in New York later.

He is expected to highlight his commitment to implementing the peace agreement.

Our proverb of the day:

Click here to send us your African proverbs.

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

Until then you can find the latest updates on the BBC News website, or listen to our 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 spring high tide in South Africa's Western Cape province:

Image source, AFP

Kennedy Gondwe
BBC News, Lusaka

Zambia's former President Edgar Lungu has withdrawn the case in which he called for a judicial review of the government's alleged decision to bar him from travelling abroad on Saturday.

Mr Lungu was supposed to have travelled to South Korea for a conference, but shortly before his departure he was allegedly blocked from leaving because he did not have government clearance.

He took the matter to court for a judicial review, but he has now withdrawn the case on the grounds that the court had set 25 September for the hearing when the conference he was supposed to attend would end on 20 September.

Nigeria becomes the first African nation to take part in Prince Harry's Invictus Games for injured members of the armed forces.

Africa's Women's Champions League sees prize money frozen by the continent's governing body while the men's Super Cup is boosted by 130%.

Wedaeli Chibelushi
BBC News

Image source, Reuters

Migrants make up about 10% of those known to have died when floods hit Libya a week ago, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) has told BBC News.

Libya is hugely popular with migrants. According to data from the IOM, which is a United Nations body, more than 706,000 migrants lived in the North African country in February 2023.

Some live and work in Libya long-term, while others use it as a transit point in bids to reach Europe.

Four-hundred migrants are registered as having died in the floods, the IOM understands, although it says that this death toll is likely to change as bodies continue to be recovered.

The IOM and World Health Organization have the wider confirmed death toll at 3,900. However, officials using different methodologies have given widely varying statistics, for example, the mayor of Libyan city Derna estimates more than 20,000 people died.

Derna was, by far, hit hardest by the floods. Two dams burst amid heavy rains and swathes of the city were submerged in water.

Around 10,000 migrants lived in the port city before the flood, and the IOM "expects the death toll of migrants to be particularly high, considering they were settled in very low-lying areas," IOM director of emergencies, Federico Soda, said.

BBC World Service

Image source, Getty Images

The Italian government has agreed new measures in response to a surge in irregular migration across the Mediterranean from Africa.

The maximum time migrants can be detained before repatriation is being extended to 18 months.

More detention centres will be built in remote parts of Italy to house them.

Italy's far-right Prime Minister Georgia Meloni said on Sunday that people who relied on traffickers to break Italian law should know that they would be detained and repatriated.

Ms Meloni was elected on a promise to stop irregular migration - but almost 130,000 people have landed so far this year, nearly double the total for 2022.

The island of Djerba, off the coast of Tunisia, has been added to the UN cultural agency's much-coveted world heritage list.

Gaining Unesco recognition often boosts tourism and can make it easier to secure funds for the preservation of cultural sites.

Visitors already flock to the picturesque island famed for its white-washed villages and the yearly pilgrimage to Ghriba Synagogue. Djerba is believed to be among the first Jewish settlements in Africa.

Star Wars movies have also been filmed on Djerba, and it was said to be the home of "lotus-eaters" in Homer's ancient Greek epic poem The Odyssey.

Jose Tembe
BBC News, Maputo

Mozambique's police chief Bernardino Rafael has denied accusations that officers attempted to assassinate politicians ahead of October's local elections.

The mayor of Nampula province, Paulo Vahanle, claimed to have survived an assassination attempt on 22 August. Two weeks later, the mayor of Quelimane, Manuel de Araújo, also alleged he was targeted.

Both men are members of Mozambique’s main opposition party, the ex-rebel Renamo movement, and both men say that police agents carried out the attacks.

Speaking at the weekend, the police chief called the accusations false and baseless, saying that they were dreamt up by political parties to distract from their lacking manifestos.

He also said such accusations could harm the leaders and parties themselves because the same police officers they accuse were also voters.

Mozambique's police were duly prepared to guarantee order and security during the electoral process, he added.

Will Ross
Africa editor, BBC World Service

UN human rights experts say war crimes and crimes against humanity are still being committed in different parts of Ethiopia 10 months after government and regional forces from Tigray signed a peace deal.

Their report describes the situation in Ethiopia as extremely grave. It documents crimes committed by all sides - including Eritrean soldiers - during the war in Tigray.

The International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia said government forces were arresting, detaining and torturing civilians in Oromia.

It also reports having received numerous credible reports of violations against Amhara civilians since the announcement of a state of emergency there last month.

Kennedy Gondwe
BBC News, Lusaka

Image source, Getty Images

Zambia's former President Edgar Lungu has taken the government to court after he was allegedly blocked from travelling to South Korea for a conference.

It is alleged that Mr Lungu was invited for a world peace conference but when he was about to depart, he was ejected from his plane because he did not have the government’s clearance to travel.

Mr Lungu is now seeking a judicial review in the Lusaka High Court, where he is challenging the government’s decision to stop him from travelling to South Korea, according to court papers he has filed.

His party, the Patriotic Front (PF), has condemned the government's alleged action, calling it illegal.

"If he is invited and the trip is paid for or he can meet the cost of his own trip and that of his entourage, he doesn't need to inform governments," argued Emmanuel Mwamba, the PF's spokesperson.

Mr Mwamba said the former president had been stopped from travelling for a medical trip earlier despite seeking permission from the cabinet office.

"These draconian and dictatorial actions are a violation of fundamental rights of the former president and have no place in true democracy," he said., external

Mr Lungu lost power to incumbent Hakainde Hichilema in 2021.

Though he announced his retirement from active politics afterwards, it is widely believed he is eyeing a comeback and might run in the 2026 elections.