Mayeni Jones
BBC News

The government of Sierra Leone has designated Sunday’s unrest as a failed coup attempt.

It's the first time the authorities are acknowledging that the co-ordinated attack on barracks and prisons in the capital were an attempted military takeover.

Sierra Leonean Information Minister Chernor Bah called Sunday’s violence an attempt to illegally subvert and overthrow the elected government of Sierra Leone.

Thirteen military officers and one civilian have been arrested.

On Tuesday morning, shots were fired in the Murray Town neighbourhood of Freetown.

Police say the gunshots were part of an operation to apprehend some of the perpetrators of Sunday's attack. They added that a person of interest had been detained and that no-one was hurt.

Kalkidan Yibeltal
BBC News

Twenty people have died in a bus crash in southern Ethiopia with more than 30 others sustaining injuries, the local authorities have said.

The accident happened in the country’s Oromia region, in a district called Teltale, close to the border with Kenya.

Eighteen of those who are hurt have sustained serious injuries, according to local communication officials.

The bus was travelling from a small town called Milami to a village market nearby when it came off the road, the officials added.

The injured are said to be receiving treatment in two hospitals nearby.

A year after a court ordered the removal of the animals, they are still there.

Nichola Mandil
BBC News, Juba

Image source, AFP

South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir has sacked two ministers and the state governor of Warrap state in the north.

Mr Kiir dismissed Barnaba Marial Benjamin as presidential affairs minister and Kuol Athian as trade minister in a decree read on state TV on Monday night.

He also moved Bangasi Joseph to presidential affairs from the public service portfolio.

No reason was given for the dismissals, but they follow the recent sacking of several security officials - including the police chief - over rumours of a coup.

The sackings also come as the country is preparing to conduct its first democratic election since becoming independent in July 2011.

The elections are scheduled for December next year, but no date has been fixed.

Namibia book their spot at the 2024 Men's T20 World Cup after guaranteeing a top-two finish in African qualifying.

Tunde Ososanya
BBC News Pidgin

Image source, Subair Enitan

A Nigerian student who was determined to set a new record for hand-washing clothes has been filmed looking drastically different afterwards.

In a viral video Subair Enitan is seen resting on a bed following what she says was a 58-hour stint at a wash basin on Monday, showing friends her wrinkled and whitened hands.

The Guinness World Records group has not yet commented on Ms Enitan's bid, but she told local media on Monday:

World-record fever has swept Nigeria in recent months.

Celebrity chef Hilda Baci kicked off the trend when she cooked continuously for more than 93 hours, but five months later she was dethroned by Irish chef Alan Fisher who managed over 119 hours.

More recently, a Nigerian woman called Helen Williams set a new record for making the longest handmade wig - measuring 351.28m (1,152ft 5in).

Je Seung Lee
BBC World Service newsroom

A former Somali refugee, who became a journalist and education advocate, has won this year's Nansen Award, given out by the UN refugee agency (UNHCR).

Abdullahi Mire is the founder of an organisation that set up three libraries and provided 100,000 books for displaced children in the Dadaab refugee camps in Kenya where he grew up.

The 36-year-old fled Somalia when he was a child to escape unrest.

The head of the UNHCR, Filippo Grandi, hailed Mr Mire as living proof that transformative ideas could spring from within displaced communities.

Mr Mire dedicated the award to his fellow volunteers and children in the schools.

The Nansen Award honours individuals, groups and organisations who do extraordinary work for refugees as well as internally displaced and stateless people.

The winner is awarded a medal and a prize money worth $100,000 (£79,000) to be re-invested in humanitarian causes.

South Africa’s first black female freediving instructor is on a mission to make access to the ocean inclusive.

Image source, Getty Images

Malawi's government has announced plans to send 5,000 young people to work on Israeli farms, despite criticism for sending 221 young people to the country last weekend.

"We are looking at an initial figure of around 5,000, that's what we are targeting now," Malawi Information Minister Moses Kunkuyu told the BBC's Newsday programme on Tuesday.

"Others [Malawians] have been there for more than five years and we're just adding to those figures."

The minister defended the much-criticised move, saying that it was part of the government's ongoing programme of providing employment to young people locally and abroad.

"This has been happening in Malawi for decades and we've been exporting young people to countries in Africa and outside Africa," Mr Kunkuyu added.

On Monday, Malawian opposition leader Kondwani Nankhumwa had bashed the government during an interview with BBC Newsday, accusing it of endangering Malawians by sending them to a country at war.

However, Mr Kunkuyu said that Israel had assured Malawi that its citizens would work in safe zones unaffected by the fighting.

The Malawians will replace some of the more than 10,000 foreign farm workers who have left Israel because of the war.

Image source, Getty Images

President Cyril Ramaphosa has told South Africans they could learn a thing or two about supporting their own government from Chinese people.

"Everyone must be a messenger. We must be like China. In China nearly everyone is a messenger - every Chinese [person] is a messenger for their country, they never badmouth their own country. Never badmouth your country," he said at a community meeting in Durban, external.

China is a one-party state where people who criticise the government are subject to arbitrary arrest and detention, rights groups say, external.

South Africa, which has strong business and diplomatic links which China, is a multiparty democracy that has been governed by the African National Congress (ANC) since apartheid ended in 1994.

Image source, Getty Images

Blueberry exports are growing faster in Zimbabwe than anywhere else in the world, according to industry analysts East Fruit, external.

South Africa, European Union countries, the UK, Russia and the Middle East are said to be Zimbabwe's main markets.

"On average over the past five years, Zimbabwe has increased blueberry exports by 63% each year. In 2022, exports grew by 85%... which allowed the country to enter the top 15 countries in blueberry exports and overtake Serbia in volume," East Fruit quotes a UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) official as saying.

The news has been welcomed by Zimbabwean media, with the state-run Herald declaring it as proof that the country was regaining its status as a breadbasket, external.

A Kenyan court has declared as unconstitutional a 1.5% housing levy that was imposed by the government as part of a finance law in July.

A three-judge bench ruled that the tax lacked a comprehensive legal framework and was irrational.

The introduction of the housing levy, among other taxes, fuelled protests amid a high cost of living.

The government has asked the court for a stay of the judgement for 45 days as it decides on the next course of action.

Image source, Getty Images

A trial of Zambia's former First Lady Esther Lungu, the wife of ex-President Edgar Lungu, has begun in the capital, Lusaka.

She has been charged with the theft of three vehicles, stealing the title deed for a property in Lusaka and the possession of $400,000 (£317,000) alleged to be proceeds of crime.

She is on trial alongside two police officers. They all denied wrongdoing when they were arrested in September.

A witness told the court that she had been the target of Ms Lungu, accusing the former first lady of forcefully taking her car, the title deeds for her house as well as two cars belonging to her daughter.

She added that the accused police officers had coerced her and her daughter to sign them over to Ms Lungu.

Image source, Reuters

More than 136,000 people, including an estimated 74,000 children, are trapped in the historic northern Mali city of Timbuktu, the charity Save the Children has said.

It also warned that those trapped were running out of essential items like food and medicine as armed groups block their entry into the city.

"With official aid routes completely cut off, supplies are dwindling and the agency fears the remaining services in the city may need to end soon if a resolution of the crisis isn’t found," the charity said in a statement on Monday.

Save the Children also said that it had received reports of children being maimed or killed by explosive devices, while others were being recruited by armed groups.

Timbuktu, a Unesco World Heritage Site, has been under siege by al-Qaeda-linked jihadists since August.

The militants have banned trucks from neighbouring regions entering Timbuktu, causing shortages and the skyrocketing of the prices of food, fuel and other necessities.

Jihadist attacks on the city have also forced more than 33,000 people to flee, according to the UN.

Image source, Reuters

The South African presidency is investigating whether parts of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s speech last week were written using the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot ChatGPT, local media reports.

It follows allegations online that a section of the speech delivered last week at an education forum by the president did not come from the president or his speechwriters.

The president’s spokesman, Vincent Magwenya, denied this, saying they do not use AI tools for content such as speeches.

He said that parts of the speech were written by the education department for the president’s office, adding that they were following up regarding the source of the content.

"The use of AI to produce speeches or any other material is unacceptable, and action will be taken should these reports prove to be correct,” Mr Magwenya was quoted by The South African news outlet as saying.

Image source, EPA

Police in Sierra Leone say they are continuing the manhunt for people involved in what the government has described as a planned and co-ordinated attack on the capital.

Gunmen broke into an armoury and several prisons in Freetown on Sunday, enabling the escape of almost 2,000 inmates.

Installations outside the capital were also attacked.

The authorities are offering a reward of $2,000 (£1,580) for anyone with information on a perpetrator still at large, as well as $1,000 for any leads on escaped prisoners.

A night-time curfew remains in place throughout Sierra Leone.

Twenty people died in the attacks, 13 of them servicemen loyal to the government.

Daniel De Simone
BBC News, Johannesburg

Image source, AFP

Eleven people have been killed in an incident at a platinum mine in South Africa, according to the mining company Implats.

The accident happened on Monday afternoon at Impala Rustenburg in the North West province.

Company spokesperson Johan Theron told the BBC that 86 people were involved in the incident and that 11 of those had died.

Some of the other people affected have sustained very serious injuries.

The mine rescue operation had concluded and investigations into the incident had commenced, the spokesperson added.

He said the incident involved a winding rope connected to a lift which hoists people up and down the mine shaft.

The lift started moving downwards unexpectedly, he said.

The legislation allowed police to take action against smugglers taking migrants to Europe.

Uganda's finance ministry has announced plans to borrow $150m (£118m) from China's Exim bank to develop the country's internet infrastructure.

Uganda's ICT minister and junior finance minister presented the proposal on Monday to the parliamentary committee on national economy.

The move highlights Uganda's growing reliance on China for funding after the World Bank, one of its largest funders, suspended support in August because of Uganda's adoption of a contentious anti-homosexuality law.

Uganda previously took out a controversial $200m loan from the Chinese bank to expand the Entebbe International Airport.

The loan was criticised by some for imposing exploitative terms on Uganda.

The East Africa nation is also in talks with Chinese export credit agency Sinosure for a loan to help fund a $5bn pipeline to export crude oil to Tanzania.

Image source, Reuters

Niger's military junta has overturned an anti-migration law that criminalised the transportation of migrants through the country.

The junta announced the repeal of the law in a statement, noting that the junta leader, Gen Abdourahamane Tchiani, had signed a decree revoking it.

The law was introduced in 2015 with European Union (EU) backing to help reduce the flow of West Africans to Europe.

It was widely opposed by desert-dwellers whose economies relied on the business.

There are fears the trafficking gangs could see the repeal of the law as an opportunity to transport people towards Libya or Algeria for onward travel to Europe.

Analysts say the move indicates the junta is asserting its authority in defiance of international pressure.

Niger reportedly received about $1.9bn (£1.5bn) in migration-related support between 2015 and 2022.

It is not yet clear how the EU will respond to what is now seen as a huge blow to its strategy for managing migration flows from Africa.