Africa highlights: Uganda blocks social media, Mozambique jails albino killers

AKDNCopyright: AKDN

There are four African projects among the 19 on the shortlist for the Aga Khan Architecture Award. 

All the projects are meant to have some relevance to Muslim culture.

The four are the Makoko floating school in Lagos, Nigeria, the Thread artistic residency and cultural centre in Sinthian, Senegal, and two projects in Morocco: the Guelmim school of technology and the Casa-Port railway station in Casablanca.

They are competing for a share in the $1m (£690,000) prize. The judges will pick five winners, each meant to be an example of great architecture which improves the quality of life of those who use the building.

So is winning the prize important to those on the shortlist? 'Yes!' says Kunle Adeyemi, the man behind the floating school, before breaking into a big laugh.

You can look around the buildings here:

AFPCopyright: AFP

A leading opposition party in the Democratic Republic of Congo has condemned a ruling by the country's highest court that President Joseph Kabila can remain in office, if elections scheduled for November are delayed. 

The  Movement for the Liberation of Congo party's secretary-general,   Eve Bazaiba, said the court was not independent, Reuters news agency reports.   

She added: 

Quote Message: If the court violates the constitution, we are not going to follow the court.

If the court violates the constitution, we are not going to follow the court.

Quote Message: On December 19, the mandate of Kabila is over. On December 20, if he continues, we will consider that there has been a constitutional coup d'etat."

On December 19, the mandate of Kabila is over. On December 20, if he continues, we will consider that there has been a constitutional coup d'etat."

Mobile phone operator Airtel informed its customers in Uganda that social media was blocked... on social media.

They say that the Uganda Communication Commission ordered them to implement the block:

People have been able to respond despite the ban.

One commenter explains how, simply by posting this picture:

A VPN is a Virtual Private Network. 

A court in Mozambique has sentenced two people to 35 years in prison for their involvement in the murder of a 15-year old boy with albinism. 

During the trial, the two men, aged 21 and 28, confessed to the crime. 

The killing of people with albinsim are driven by the false belief - advanced by some witchdoctors - that their body parts have properties that confer wealth and good luck. 

Read: albinism and beauty

South Africa's defence minister says it will press ahead to buy a new presidential jet, despite calls by the opposition to scrap the plan in order to show a commitment to cutting costs, local media reports. 

“Buying the VVIP aircraft, we will," Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula said, the News24 site quotes her as saying. 

She said a new jet was needed because of problems with the existing Boeing 737, leaving President Jacob Zuma and his deputy Cyril Ramaphosa stranded or late for events on several occasions. 

AFPCopyright: AFP

Ms Mapisa-Nqakula dismissed reports that the jet will cost 4bn rand ($280m; £185m).

“We would never ever sit here and say we will spend 4bn rand on [an] aircraft. Not when South Africans are starving and students are calling for fees to fall,”  she is quoted as saying.

The minister also stressed that jet was not being purchased just for Mr Zuma.  

"There will be a president after Zuma," she is quoted as saying.   

Read: Why do presidential jets cause a storm?

AFPCopyright: AFP

Oil giant Shell's Nigerian subsidiary has declared a force majeure on Bonny Light crude exports following a leak on a key pipeline, AFP news agency reports. 

The declaration of a force majeure excuses a company from contractual agreements when an extraordinary event which is beyond its control occurs.  

Shell's subsidiary did not disclose the volume of production lost from Bonny, which is one of Nigeria's main export terminals.

Bloomberg news agency reports that the pipeline operator, Aieto Exploration and Production Company, has not yet established the cause of the leak. 

"We don't know if it's an attack or sabotage," its spokesman Sola Omole is quoted as saying. 

An Egyptian court has recommended death sentences for 25 people in connection with an outbreak of inter-tribal fighting in the south of the country. 

The case relates to clashes between an Arab clan and an ethnic Nubian tribe. 

More than 20 people died in the violence two years ago in the Aswan region. 

The clashes were sparked by a dispute over a sexual assault. 

A new brand of chocolate in Ivory Coast is being made by crushing cocoa beans by cycling on them. 

Dana Mroueh spends at least an hour a day on her specially designed exercise bike breaking up cocoa beans.

BBCCopyright: BBC

Before cycling on the beans, she dries them herself on her roof or, when it rains, in a tumble dryer. 

After crushing them she removes the shells in a hot-air machine and then the remaining by hand.

Then they're ground in another machine with brown sugar, also from Ivory Coast for two to three days before being put into moulds.  

She only launched the chocolate called Mon Choco in March.

The 27-year-old is among a new wave of entrepreneurs in Abidjan who are using cocoa beans from Ivory Coast to make their chocolate.  

The country is the world's leading cocoa exporter but very little chocolate is actually made here.

BBCCopyright: BBC

At the World Economic Forum in Rwanda's capital Kigali I met with the former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair.

I was interested in what he thought of his successor David Cameron's comments that Nigeria is "fantastically corrupt".

He told me it isn't a revelation:

Quote Message: I don't think that it's exactly news to everyone that there's an issue and a challenge of corruption in Nigeria. The important thing obviously is that there is a new mood in Nigeria against corruption and the new president is a staunch fighter against it. So this is important but pointing out that not just Nigeria but Africa and the developing world has a problem with corruption, this is entirely reasonable. The fact is one of the reasons why the rule of law is so important.

I don't think that it's exactly news to everyone that there's an issue and a challenge of corruption in Nigeria. The important thing obviously is that there is a new mood in Nigeria against corruption and the new president is a staunch fighter against it. So this is important but pointing out that not just Nigeria but Africa and the developing world has a problem with corruption, this is entirely reasonable. The fact is one of the reasons why the rule of law is so important.

I asked him how we reacts to the criticism by some African leaders that it is not just Africans are corrupt:

Quote Message: Sure there are problems of corruption in the West as well but if you talk to most African leaders they will say it is a problem but we are dealing with it. I think the most important thing actually today is that there is a new mood about it among the people and amongst the leadership which is to say we want this out of our system. But you don't benefit by pretending it isn't a challenge. You benefit by meeting the challenge."

Sure there are problems of corruption in the West as well but if you talk to most African leaders they will say it is a problem but we are dealing with it. I think the most important thing actually today is that there is a new mood about it among the people and amongst the leadership which is to say we want this out of our system. But you don't benefit by pretending it isn't a challenge. You benefit by meeting the challenge."

Our reporter in Uganda Patience Atuhaire says social networks Facebook and Twitter have been blocked in the country. 

She says that messaging service WhatsApp is also blocked but mobile money appears to be working.

People can get round the block by using a Virtual Private Networks (VPN) which makes it appear that you are accessing the site from another country.

People started warning each other on Twitter this afternoon to have their VPN active as they anticipated a shut down.

It's ahead of President Yoweri Museveni's inauguration tomorrow to extend his three decades in power. 

Social media was also blocked around the time of the election in February.

Read more: How African governments block social media

 A white South African judge accused of making racist comments on Facebook has been put on special leave, the justice ministry has said. 

Judge Mabel Jansen would be investigated for alleged misconduct after a complaint was lodged against her by a leading black advocate, South Africa's Judicial Service Commission said yesterday. 

She has said her comments were made in a private Facebook conversation with activist Gillian Schutte, and had been taken out of context.

Ms Schutte said she made the comments public to expose the "deep racism and colonial thinking" prevalent in South Africa.

EncaCopyright: Enca

In the posts attributed to her, the judge said: "In their culture a woman is there to pleasure them. Period. It is seen as an absolute right and a woman's consent is not required."  

She also purportedly said that "murder is also not a biggy" for black men and "gang rapes of baby, daughter, and mother [were] a pleasurable pass [sic] time".  

AFPCopyright: AFP

The Democratic Republic of Congo's highest court has ruled that President Joseph Kabila can remain in power beyond the end of his term if elections are not held in November, Reuters news agency reports. 

The constitution requires Mr Kabila to step down in December after two terms in office, but the opposition has for a long time been expressing fears that he intends to cling to power by delaying elections. 

Read more: What's Kabila's plan?

AFPCopyright: AFP

Kenya's mobile phone giant Safaricom has announced profits of more than $380m (£260m) for the last financial year, mainly driven by its money transfer service M-Pesa. 

It retains its position as Kenya's biggest and most profitable company. 

The announcement comes days after its counterpart in South Africa, Vodacom, dropped its M-Pesa service because it failed to pick up. 

Safaricom has defied odds by succeeding in a challenging business environment in Kenya that has seen nearly 20 large companies issue profit warnings.

Read Why M-Pesa failed in South Africa

EPACopyright: EPA

The social network Facebook has launched a free internet service in Nigeria, reports Quartz.

The Free Basics service allows people to look at a restricted amount of sites.

It's controversial -  India's telecoms regulator blocked it, ruling that data providers should not favour some online services over others.

One of the sites which will be available for free in Nigeria is a job site called Jobberman.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post that the job site started in a dorm room and now gets 5,000 applications a day.

FacebookCopyright: Facebook

UK Prime Minister David Cameron's description of Nigeria as "fantastically corrupt" dominated a commonwealth conference on corruption in London this morning. 

And the anger among the Nigerian delegation was palpable. 

At the conference, the Cabinet Office minister Matthew Hancock, lavished praise on Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari paying tribute to his leadership in fighting corruption. 

In the Commons, Mr Cameron praised Nigeria for the remarkable steps it had taken against corruption. 

And he told MPs that he wanted to stop corruptly-obtained money pouring into Britain's property market by insisting that offshore firms declare their ultimate owners.

GetCopyright: Get

We reported in our previous post that Ugandan opposition leader Kizza Besigye has been arrested in the capital Kampala. 

The Kampala metropolitan police spokesperson Patrick Onyango told the BBC that Dr Besigye was arrested for defying a court order banning all opposition defiance activities. 

This video appears to show his car being towed:

The opposition leader was arrested as he led a procession of his supporters to the city centre. 

Mr Besigye’s Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) had called for a “defiance campaign” against the re-election of President Yoweri Museveni during the controversial February polls.

It appears Uganda's opposition leader Kizza Besigye is playing cat and mouse with the police today.

His party says on its Twitter account that it managed to perform a ceremony swearing him in as president but that later he was arrested (see 12:45 post for more on the arrest):

Regardless of the arrest, it carried on tweeting as if he was going to become president:

Mr Besigye has denounced Yoweri Museveni's election victory as a "sham". 

He previously called for demonstrations to disrupt Mr Museveni's inauguration as president, which is due to be held tomorrow.

Two suspected militants have been killed and 16 others arrested on the outskirts of Tunisia's capital, Tunis, the ministry of interior has said in a statement. 

Tunisia's security forces have stepped up counter-terrorism operations in recent months, and have arrested hundreds of people across the North African state. 

It follows a spate of deadly attacks by militants, including on beaches and museums popular with tourists.  

BBCCopyright: BBC

All day we've been discussing the furore caused by UK Prime Minister David Cameron after he called Nigeria "fantastically corrupt".

Here's a bit of background.

Corruption isn't a problem here - it's a way of life. 

You get hit up for bribes at the airport, at government offices, at police stations - basically everywhere you go. 

As for the government - the sums involved can be jaw dropping. 

Among the biggest recent scandals - $20bn (£14bn) that disappeared from the oil ministry. 

Or about $15bn (£10bn) that was stolen from the army's budget - money that should have been used to fight the Islamist militants Boko Haram.

But President Muhammadu Buhari, who was elected last year, is waging war on corruption. 

APCopyright: AP

He has a reputation for honesty. 

Dozens of officials are under investigation - cash is being clawed back from overseas.

Mr Buhari has warned that if corruption does not end, it will kill the country.