Richard Hamilton
BBC World Service newsroom

Two multinational companies - Trafigura from Singapore and Ivanhoe Mines from Canada - have signed a major deal to export copper along a railway from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The corridor to the Angolan port of Lobito has been part-funded by the United States to try to compete with China for access to minerals.

The colonial-era railway reopened in 2015 after closing during Angola's civil war but traffic has struggled to take off.

Global demand for copper is growing as it is vital for the manufacture of solar panels and electronics.

The internet outage comes on top of a 10-month civil war which has forced nine million from their homes.

Muthoni Muchiri
BBC News

Image source, Nairobi county government

City Hall in Nairobi - Kenya's capital - has become the first government building in Africa to be certified as a green building by the Word Bank's International Finance Corporation (IFC).

"An important milestone in Nairobi’s green city development," IFC Africa said.

Kenya Green Building Society CEO Nasra Nanda said Nairobi had set a new standard for urban development, emphasising the importance of sustainable practices in shaping the cities of the future.

At a ceremony to mark the occasion, Nairobi county governor Sakaja Johnson thanked everyone who made it possible for City Hall to reach the milestone.

A rocket has landed near a university in Goma, the main city in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, Reuters news agency reports.

There were no casualties from the strike, but it underscored the potential threat to the city as M23 rebels advance, Reuters reports.

The government said it would not let Goma fall while M23 said it was not intending to take Goma, the agency reports.

Jose Tembe
BBC News, Maputo

Almost 150,000 people have registered for military service in Mozambique so far this year.

They include 96,741 men and 52,481, with the registration process expected to continue until the end of the month.

Conscription is compulsory in Mozambique for people between the ages of 18 and 35. People previously served for two years in the army, but this has now been increased to five years.

Those who register are called up for service only if they pass fitness and other tests.

Many young people do not mind registering. They see the army as a source of employment. They also know that if they do not register they will not be able to study at state universities, as it is a precondition for admission. It is also a precondition for getting jobs in the government or state companies.

However, some recruits worry that after their training they could be sent to the front lines of the battle against Islamist insurgents in the northern Cabo Delgado province.

Imogen Foulkes
Reporting from Geneva

The United Nations is appealing for just over $4bn (£3.25bn) to fund humanitarian operations in Sudan and neighbouring countries hosting refugees.

The UN describes human suffering of epic proportions in Sudan.

More than nine million people have been displaced by fighting between rival military leaders which began last year.

Ethiopia, Chad and Egypt are struggling to support refugees from Sudan. UN aid agencies say half of the country's population - 25 million people - is in need of assistance. Eighteen million face acute food shortages.

South African telecoms giant Vodacom plans to appeal against a court ruling that it massively increase the 47m rand ($2.5m; £2m) payout it has offered to the inventor of its Please Call Me texting service.

The Supreme Court of Appeal ruled in favour of Nkosana Makate after he rejected the offer in his long-running battle with the company for financial compensation for his lucrative idea.

The court ruled that Vodacom's offer was "inequitable". It ordered the company to give Mr Makate between 5% and 7.5% of the total revenue generated by the Please Call Me product over 18 years, plus interest.

The mybroadband.co.za tech site, external reported that the court also ordered Vodacom to use models presented by Mr Mokate's legal team to calculate the amount, meaning that he could be entitled to around 20bn rand.

In a statement, Vodacom said it was "surprised and disappointed" by the ruling, and it intended to challenge it in the Constitutional Court - the final court of appeal.

Two decades ago, Mr Makate, a former Vodacom financial manager, came up with the concept that went on to become the company's Please Call Me service, allowing customers to send a free message to another user on the same network requesting to be called back.

He entered into a verbal agreement with the company's then-director of product development and management, Philip Geissler, that he would get a share of the revenue generated by the product, triggering a dispute that remains unresolved.

More on this story:

• The man behind Please Call Me

Image source, Getty Images

US rapper Kanye West has excited his fans in Kenya and Nigeria after listing the two countries among the potential concert venues for his new tour.

A tentative venue list shared on West's Instagram stories shows that the rapper plans to perform at Eko Energy City in Lagos and the Nyayo International Stadium in Nairobi.

West also shared interest in performing at Egypt's Giza Pyramids.

Although the rapper has not made an official announcement, the tour list has fuelled anticipation among fans in the two countries, with some playfully sharing jokes about the concert on social media.

"Kanye to Kenya? Dude probably said he must visit the country that has the same syllables as him," one Kenyan posted on X, external.

Some fans also joked that the rapper should announce the ticket prices early so they can save.

Fans from countries such as South Africa have complained about being left out from the potential tour, echoing similar past concerns of major Western musicians excluding the continent from their international tour schedules.

BBC Monitoring
The world through its media

At least 14 soldiers have died in the Democratic Republic of Congo and 500 others have been affected by a cholera outbreak in south-eastern Haut-Katanga Province, the army told local media.

Gen Eddy Kapend, commander of the 22nd military region, Mura military training centre, confirmed the deaths on Tuesday during a meeting with a delegation from the UN Children's Fund (Unicef) office in Lubumbashi.

"As of 72 hours ago, the number of patients receiving treatment had risen to exactly 144. We have recorded 14 deaths and have saved many patients who have returned to their ranks," Gen Kapend told the UN-sponsored Radio Okapi website.

He said that the outbreak was caused by unsanitary conditions at the military camp.

In July 2023, a cholera outbreak in Kalemie, in neighbouring Tanganyika province, left at least ten people dead.

Image source, Reuters

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has denied that people were dying of hunger in the conflict-hit regions of Tigray and Amhara, which are grappling with a food crisis.

“There are no people dying due to hunger in Ethiopia,” Mr Abiy told lawmakers on Tuesday.

He, however, said that “people may have died” due to illnesses associated with malnutrition.

The PM also acknowledged that drought was affecting people in several regions of the country, including Tigray, Amhara and Oromia, but warned that “we must refrain from politicising this issue".

Last month, the state-appointed Federal Ombudsman Institute said nearly 400 people had died of hunger in the northern regions of Tigray and Amhara. The institute’s head, Endale Haile, told the BBC that the deaths occurred in the past six months.

The Ethiopian Human Rights Council (EHRC) has blamed the federal and regional governments for not providing enough humanitarian aid to the most vulnerable.

About 20 million people require food assistance in Ethiopia due to conflicts, drought, and flooding, according to the UN.

You may also be interested in:

• About 225 starve to death in Tigray towns - officials
• Ethiopia starvation: Fear of famine in Tigray grows
• Ethiopia-Somaliland deal makes waves in Horn of Africa

Thomas Naadi
BBC News, Accra

Ghanaian MP Farouk Aliu Mahama has been blacklisted by the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) for allegedly attacking a journalist.

It’s the strongest statement yet by the association to protect journalists in the country following increasing attacks.

Mr Mahama and his entourage reportedly attacked Mohammed Aminu M Alabira, who works for Accra-based Citi TV, while he was covering a political event involving the MP’s New Patriotic Party (NPP) in Yaba, northern Ghana.

The MP, the son of the late former Vice-President Aliu Mahama, allegedly slapped and kicked the journalist without provocation, while he was covering chaos that erupted during the party’s primaries.

A police officer and election official were also attacked, but were later rescued by military personnel who were called to the scene.

The GJA and three other associations have urged media organisations to deny the MP access to media platforms.

GJA has also given the ruling NPP and the police a 10-day ultimatum to arrest and prosecute the perpetrators. The police say they have commenced investigations into the incident.

Violence against journalists remains pervasive in Ghana and often goes unpunished.

In 2019, Ahmed Hussein-Suale, an investigative journalist who had collaborated with the BBC, was shot dead near his family home in Accra by unknown gunmen.

Alfred Lasteck
BBC News, Stone Town

Image source, CCM

Tanzania's ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi party (CCM) has questioned the former Zanzibar tourism minister, weeks after he resigned amid shortage of alcohol in the islands.

Simai Mohamed Said appeared before the party's ethics committee on Tuesday but did not disclose why he had been summoned.

“It is normal to visit the party’s office, and I am not the spokesperson of the meetings, you can find the chairperson or the secretary general of the committee to say something,” Mr Said told journalists immediately after the meeting.

He had resigned as tourism minister two weeks ago, citing "unfavourable and disruptive working conditions".

His resignation has been linked to the alcohol shortage facing the Tanzanian archipelago, which threatens the tourism sector of one of Africa's top travel destinations.

Prices of beer have shot up by almost 100% after the supply chain was disrupted by a sudden change of importers.

Before his resignation, Mr Said publicly accused the Zanzibar Liquor Control Board (ZLCB) of mismanaging the liquor industry.

But Zanzibar’s President Hussein Mwinyi accused Mr Said of having a conflict of interest, while he was the minister.

Reports link one of Mr Said's relatives to one alcohol importing company whose licence was not renewed.

The alcohol shortage comes amid soaring tourist arrivals in the semi-autonomous Tanzanian islands.

Read more on alcohol shortage in Zanzibar:

• Alcohol shortage hits Tanzania's spice islands

Three-time African champions Nigeria will rekindle their continental rivalry with South Africa in the 2023 Afcon semi-finals.

Zimbabwe's cabinet has supported proposed legislation to end the death penalty, marking a pivotal point in abolishing capital punishment in the southern African country.

Information Minister Jenfan Muswere on Tuesday said that the cabinet's decision was made following countrywide consultations.

Should parliament approve the bill, life imprisonment will serve as the maximum sentence.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa has previously criticised capital punishment.

He was sentenced to death in 1965 following accusations that he bombed a train while fighting against white minority rule.

Mr Mnangagwa's death sentence was, however, commuted after his lawyers argued that he was underage.

Zimbabwe's death penalty is a remnant of a colonial-era law. The country has not carried out an execution since 2005.

Image source, AFP

Some Kenyan youths have been locked out of the ongoing recruitment into the state youth agency for inscribing tattoos on their bodies.

Even though they met academic qualifications and also passed the physical fitness test to join the National Youth Service (NYS), they were found ineligible because of the body art.

Some of the disqualified youths questioned the decision to lock them out of the exercise simply because of their art and urged the authorities to reconsider the move.

Authorities did not immediately give reasons for the move but they promised to issue a statement at the end of the exercise, local media reported.

The NYS recruitment, which is taking place countrywide, began on Monday, and is seeking to net at least 15,000 recruits.

Image source, AFP

The international athletics governing body, World Athletics, has ratified the historic world record set by long-distance Kenyan runner Kelvin Kiptum.

Last October, Kiptum made headlines by setting the fastest marathon time in history.

He completed the Chicago Marathon in two hours and 35 seconds, shaving 34 seconds off the previous record held by elite marathoner Eliud Kipchoge.

The ratification of Kiptum's record by World Athletics means the governing body now acknowledges it as accurate and compliant with sporting rules and regulations.

The 24-year-old is aiming to make history again in April by becoming the first person to run an official marathon in under two hours, when he competes at the Rotterdam Marathon in the Netherlands.

Image source, Reuters

Three opposition Senegalese opposition MPs have been arrested in the fallout from parliament's decision to postpone the presidential election by 10 months.

The spokesperson for dissolved opposition party Pastef, El Malick Ndiaye, told Reuters news agency that the three lawmakers from the opposition coalition Yewwi Askan Wi were arrested on Tuesday.

On Monday, lawmakers approved a last-minute amendment to hold the vote in December, extending President Macky Sall's mandate.

Most opposition MPs had been forcibly removed from the chamber after heated debates.

The delay has sparked widespread protests and international concern about Senegal's democracy - among the most stable in the region.

The US Department of State in a statement said the move was "contrary to Senegal’s strong democratic tradition".

The West African regional bloc, Ecowas, has urged politicians to urgently re-establish an electoral calendar in line with the constitution.

Read more on Senegal election row:

• Senegal on the brink after elections postponed

Image source, CIJ_ICJ/X

Ugandan-born Judge Julia Sebutinde has been elected vice-president of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in Hague, Netherlands.

The judge recently caused controversy in the international community when she ruled against emergency measures requested by South Africa against Israel over the war in Gaza.

She was the only judge on the 17-member ICJ panel to vote against all six measures adopted by the ICJ court in a ruling ordering Israel to take action to prevent acts of genocide as it fights Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip.

Ms Sebutinde was one of only two judges who issued dissenting judgements while 15 voted for the emergency measures which covered most of what South Africa had asked for in the case.

The Ugandan government distanced itself from the judge's dissenting opinion, saying it did not represent the East African country's position in the conflict.

There were many critical comments on social media, with some wondering why she chose not to be more sympathetic to South Africa's case.

The court announced on Tuesday that Ms Sebutinde was elected vice-president for three years, in what appears to be a major vote of confidence in her.

Lebanon-born judge Nawaf Salam takes over as ICJ judge-president from Joan Donoghue.

Ms Sebutinde has been an ICJ judge for more than a decade. She previously handled several high-profile war crime trials, including the prosecution of former Liberian President Charles Taylor.

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An anaesthetist tells the BBC he was taken from his hospital for training to combat jihadists.