Image source, AFP

Political and human rights groups have criticised the sentencing of prominent Tunisian activist and opposition figure Chaima Issa by a military court.

The court on Wednesday handed Issa a one-year suspended prison sentence for offending Tunisia's President Kais Saied.

She was also found guilty of spreading rumours to harm public security and inciting soldiers to disobey orders, the AFP news agency reported, citing Issa's lawyer Dalila Ben Mbarek.

Amnesty International has termed Issa's conviction "outrageous", adding that "her case was brought by an increasingly repressive government that will stop at nothing to silence voices of dissent".

Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Issa's party, The National Salvation Front, have also criticised Issa's trial and sentencing by a military court, even though she is a civilian.

"Tunisian authorities should immediately stop prosecuting activists simply for criticising President Kais Saied's power grab and unjustly trying civilians before military courts," Human Rights Watch said.

President Saied has been accused of authoritarian practices including cracking down on dissenters since he dissolved parliament and the government in 2021, granting himself more powers.

Image source, Reuters

Ugandan troops killed about 200 ADF fighters in the Democratic Republic of Congo, as the military operations to flush out the Islamic State group-affiliated militants continue, Uganda's president said.

"We have been carrying out air attacks on the terrorists in Congo," President Yoweri Museveni said on X, formerly Twitter, adding that around "200 of them were killed" in strikes carried out on 16 September.

More strikes against the fighters have been carried out since then, Mr Museveni added, without giving further details.

Ugandan army spokesperson Felix Kulayigye told AFP news agency that the president was referring to the ADF jihadists.

In 2021, Uganda and the DR Congo launched a joint military offensive against ADF in eastern DR Congo, but the group still carries out attacks in both countries.

In October, two tourists, a British man and a South African woman on their honeymoon, as well as their guide, were killed while on safari in Uganda's Queen Elizabeth National Park. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack.

In June, 42 people, including 37 pupils, were killed in an attack on a secondary school in western Uganda, also attributed to the ADF.

Our African proverb of the day:

Click here to send us your African proverbs.

Ending the rebellion in the east dominates campaigning but fails to impress those fleeing fighting.

Peter Bone was allowed to attend Parliament again after his six-week suspension expired.

That's all from the BBC Africa Live team for now. We'll be back on Thursday. In the meantime, you can listen to the BBC Focus on Africa podcast here.

Our African proverb of the day:

Click here to send us your African proverbs.

We leave you with a photo of a woman by an exhibition stand, made with recycled disposable plastic glasses, in Ivory Coast's main city Abidjan:

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, AFP

South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa will appeal against a court ruling that his crowning of the new Zulu king was unlawful and invalid, his office has said.

"During the course of these legal processes, His Majesty King Misuzulu remains the identified heir to the throne," it added in a statement.

King Misuzulu's claim to the throne was challenged in the Pretoria High Court by his half-brother, Prince Simakade Zulu, who says he is the rightful heir.

The late King Goodwill Zwelithini died in 2021, sparking a vicious power struggle between the brothers for the throne.

King Misuzulu appeared to have won the succession battle - especially after his traditional coronation in August 2022 was followed by a state ceremony two months later, when Mr Ramaphosa gave him a certificate of recognition in front of tens of thousands of people.

On Monday, the Pretoria High Court ruled that the president had not followed proper procedures before recognising King Misuzulu as the monarch.

It said Mr Ramaphosa had failed to comply with the law, which required him to order an investigation into objections to the accession.

Richard Hamilton
BBC World Service newsroom

A new report accuses Russia of laundering around $2.5bn (£2bn) from what it calls African Blood Gold, since the start of the war in Ukraine.

The Blood Gold report , externalaccuses mercenaries from the Wagner group of generating more than $100m a month in revenue for the Kremlin through the illegal gold trade in the Central African Republic (CAR), Sudan and Mali.

The report was compiled by a research team led by African-European relations expert Jessica Berlin.

It says the military junta in Mali - which relies on mining companies for most of its revenue - pays Wagner mercenaries in cash.

In CAR and Sudan, the Kremlin relies on complex smuggling routes to extract large amounts of gold from Africa to Russia and the UAE where it can be mixed with legitimate sources of gold and then converted into cash, the report says.

Russia has not commented on the allegations.

Read: Inside Wagner's African 'success story'

Amie Liebowitz
BBC News

Image source, Duško Vukić

Jews in North Africa have today been celebrating a holiday dedicated to young women.

It's called Eid El Bannat in Arabic (or Chag HaBanot in Hebrew) - which roughly translates to Festival of Daughters.

The holiday coincides with the new moon in the month of Tevet, according to the Jewish calendar, and is also observed by Jewish people in Spain, Portugal and parts of the Middle East.

Although it is celebrated during a more widely-known Jewish holiday, Hannukah, Eid El Bannat is unique and culturally specific.

On the big day, women of all ages gather to rest and enjoy each other's company. The holiday's overarching purpose is to celebrate the lives of women and focus on female empowerment.

Singing, reciting poetry, dancing and eating are customary - and all this takes place without the presence of men.

In some countries, like Tunisia, girls that have recently turned 12 will group together and celebrate their Bat Mitzvah, or coming of age ceremony, on Eid El Bannat.

Speaking to the BBC, Sephardic Moroccan artist La La Tamar said that in different countries they have varied rituals, “but in Morocco and Tunisia it’s mainly for the bachelorettes".

"They make a lot of sweets and give each other gifts. They sit in a circle and learn about different heroic Jewish women," she said.

"As a woman in the modern world, any chance to explore that space is a precious opportunity for experiencing something that is almost lost in our modern society,” she added.

To learn more about this holiday, listen to the Focus on Africa podcast on BBC Sounds.

Financially beleaguered Malawi is to receive $137m (£109.4m) of budget support from the World Bank - a month after the country's currency lost nearly half its value against the US dollar.

Malawi, one of the poorest countries in the world, is battling chronic foreign-currency shortages that have led to shortages of fuel, medicines and fertilisers.

On Wednesday the World Bank announced fresh funding, of which $80m (£63.9m) will be paid out immediately.

The International Monetary Fund has said the southern African country needs almost $1bn (£798.4m) in debt relief by 2027.

Image source, AFP

Earlier, we reported that a further 170 people have died in Ethiopia's Tigray region as a drought continues to grip the Horn of Africa.

The UN's food agency has now said Sudan, Ethiopia's neighbour, has the highest level of hunger ever recorded during its harvest season.

It said Sudan was edging towards a hunger catastrophe, made worse by a months-long war between the army and a rival paramilitary group.

Leni Kinzli, a spokesperson from the World Food Programme, told the BBC: "The conflict needs to end now because we are seeing a situation that is spiralling out of control.

"These record levels of hunger, twice as much as there was the same time last year, in a situation where there were already existing drivers of food insecurity, the conflict, the ongoing fighting, is just compounding all of that, making it so, so much worse for already so vulnerable populations."

• Read more: Conditions worse than ever seven months into Sudan civil war

Several people in DR Congo have been injured following clashes at a rally held by leading opposition presidential candidate Moise Katumbi in Mwanda city in the south-west.

Mr Katumbi suspended part of his campaign following the clashes, which mark an escalation in tension ahead of elections on 20 December.

There are conflicting accounts of what happened at Tuesday's rally.

The provincial government said in a statement that Mr Katumbi's guards fired warning shots after the crowd grew rowdy.

Jostling ensued, the government said, therefore police used tear gas to restore order.

The statement said several people were injured, including a police officer.

However Mr Katumbi alleged on X, formerly known as Twitter: "The images, the live ammunition fired by the police, and the testimonies confirm that these incidents were programmed, planned and orchestrated with a desire to commit crime."

Almost 44 million people are registered to vote in an election that will determine whether incumbent President Felix Tshisekedi will stay in power after a first term marred by economic hardship and insecurity.

Mr Katumbi, a wealthy businessman and former governor, is one of Mr Tshisekedi's main rivals in the race.

• Read more: DR Congo election 2023: What you need to know

BBC Newsday
World Service radio

Image source, Getty Images

The Uganda National Teachers Union has said there has been a high number of deaths among teachers, mainly caused by ill health due to poor working conditions.

According to the union, more than 1,000 teachers in the country have died in the last two years. It said Uganda is at risk of facing a shortage of teachers by 2025 as poor conditions push more and more teachers out of the profession.

"These deaths are as a result of the working and living conditions. There are stress factors in relation to the pressure of work, because it is overwhelming," Baguma Filbert Bates, the General Secretary of Uganda's National Teachers Union told BBC's Newsday programme.

He added that Ugandan teachers are constantly stressed by an overwhelming workload caused by understaffing, as well as a paycheck of about 490,000 Ugandan shillings ($125; £100) per month. Mr Bates said this amount is inadequate in sustaining teachers and their families in the current economic environment.

He said the union has repeatedly urged the government to improve teachers' welfare, which would in turn boost the quality of education received by students.

"Whenever there is need for political priorities, money is found. Therefore, we cannot say the Ugandan child should be sacrificed because of the economy," Mr Bates said.

The High Court in Uganda's capital, Kampala, has sentenced a 25-year-old serial killer to 105 years in prison.

Musa Musasizi was sentenced on Wednesday after pleading guilty to the murder of three women said to be his girlfriends and a three-month-old girl who was the child of one of his victims.

He reportedly pursued romantic relationships with the women before sexually assaulting and killing them, then burning and disposing of their bodies, the court heard.

Justice Margaret Mutonyi said the long sentence was necessary to protect young women, including Musasizi's six-year-old daughter, the privately-owned NTV channel reported.

Musasizi had been arrested in March 2021 on suspicion of killing five women and an infant.

He was convicted for the murder of one of the women in July.

At that time, his lawyer asked the judge for mercy, saying that Musasizi, a former street child, had survived a difficult upbringing.

Yusuf Akinpelu
BBC News

Image source, Reuters

Niger’s junta has said French soldiers remaining in the country should complete their withdrawal by 22 December.

The remaining 157 troops are mainly from teams covering logistics, the junta said in a statement on X (formerly Twitter). It added that 1,346 French military personnel have already left the country.

There have been tensions between France and Niger following the 26 July coup, led by Gen Abdourahmane Tchiani, that deposed democratically-elected president and French ally Mohamed Bazoum.

France began to pull its troops out from Niger in October. The junta had ordered the French to leave, having accused the European nation of trying to reinstate President Bazoum by force.

The military leaders also said they plan to end some historical military and economic agreements with Paris.

Niger was seen as one of the West’s last allies in the Sahel region in the war against terror.

France’s influence in the area has been waning following a wave of coups across some of its former colonies.

Flagship bill passes its first Commons hurdle but PM still faces battle to get it through Parliament.

BBC Monitoring
The world through its media

The M23 rebel group has agreed to honour a three-day US-brokered ceasefire deal with the Democratic Republic of Congo's army.

The group’s spokesman, Lawrence Kanyuka, said in a statement on X, external (formerly Twitter) that the rebels accepted the deal “since it is in line with the M23's existing signed ceasefire of 7 March 2023”.

The rebel group had not consulted about the deal before its completion, according to Mr Kanyuka.

Despite agreeing to the ceasefire, the M23 said they would "not hesitate" to defend themselves - and the civillian populations under their control - from the army or government-allied militia.

The ceasefire began on Monday midday, according to a statement, external by US National Security Council Spokesperson Adrienne Watson.

It comes one week ahead of hotly contested elections in the central African country. Authorities have said voting cannot take place in the eastern territories of Rutshuru and Masisi, as they are in the grip of the conflict with the M23.

And on Tuesday, the electoral commission announced that those displaced by the conflict will also not be able to vote.

Previous ceasefire deals between the rebels and army have been breached, leading to fresh fighting.

Image source, EPA

Egypt's electoral body has started counting votes following the conclusion of polling in the presidential elections.

Voting began on Sunday and ended at 21:00 local time on Tuesday (19:00 GMT), with more than 67 million people registered to vote.

Incumbent President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi is seeking a third consecutive term.

Although three other candidates are vying for the presidency, many Egyptians believe Mr Sisi will easily win a new six-year term in office.

Early provisional results have already placed Mr Sisi in the lead.

The official results are set to be announced on 18 December.

Read more on Egypt's election:

• Egypt election: Discontent grows as Sisi seeks third term

Paul Njie
BBC News, Yaoundé

Image source, AFP

Eight male students who had been abducted by suspected separatists from a school in the war-torn Anglophone north-west region of Cameroon have been freed, authorities say.

Abdoullahi Aliou, a local administrator, said the armed men stormed the school in Esu area on Tuesday and "tortured" the students before abducting them.

Two classrooms and the principal's offices were set on fire during the attack. Some school officials, including the deputy principal, were also kidnapped.

Several students who sustained injuries are being treated in hospital.

“The eight students who were kidnapped were all freed following the intervention of defence and security forces,” Mr Aliou said, without providing details of the whereabouts of the deputy principal and other school officials.

For over six years now, separatists have imposed and enforced a school boycott in the English-speaking regions of Cameroon. The separatists see schools as an arm of the French-speaking-majority's rule.

The separatists have attacked students and teachers who defy their orders.

No group has so far claimed responsibility for Tuesday’s attack.

More than 700,000 children have lost access to education after the closure of several schools since the conflict began in 2017, according to the UN.

About 6,000 people have been killed and hundreds of thousands displaced in the conflict, the International Crisis Group said.

Image source, AFP

The Democratic Republic of Congo has signed an agreement with a US company for a carbon credit deal covering the Congo Basin rainforest and peatlands.

dClimate, a "climate information and data infrastructure" company, said it will support DR Congo to preserve the Basin by reducing deforestation. The deal is aimed at preserving more than 100 million tonnes of carbon dioxide in the forest.

In recent years, environmentalists have raised alarm over the depletion of thousands of acres in the Congo Basin through deforestation.

As the second-largest rainforest in the world, it absorbs over 1.5 billion tonnes of CO₂ annually. Experts say preserving the Congo Basin is integral in global efforts to slow climate change and maintain biodiversity.

Carbon credits work like this: an organisation that pollutes can buy a credit which is worth one tonne of carbon dioxide.

The money paid by the organisation is meant to go towards carbon-lowering schemes, so for every tonne of carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted, the credit represents a tonne of CO2 that was captured.

In this way, the overall amount of (CO2) and other pollutants produced is supposed to stay the same, or even be lowered.

In recent years, there has been an increase in carbon-offsetting companies taking control of land in sub-Saharan Africa for multi-year carbon-credit projects. Some critics question whether credits represent genuine carbon reductions and also whether they benefit local people.

dClimate said it will help DR Congo develop a carbon registry - a system through which the government will track and sell credits.

"dClimate will lease the carbon sequestration rights for an initial 10-year period but will not lease or buy the land, thus preserving the national sovereignty and the rights of local communities," the company said on Tuesday, following the signing of the agreement at the UN COP28 climate summit in Dubai.

The credits produced during the decade-long partnership will be worth an estimated $1bn, dClimate's co-founder Siddhartha Jha told Bloomberg.

The company will retain 10% to 20% of generated revenue.