Africa highlights: S Africa virginity tests 'illegal', Kenya Uber ultimatum

The apparent explosion on a Daallo Airlines plane in Somalia happened before the aircraft had gained high altitude and before the cabin had been pressurised.

This allowed the pilot to bring it back down for an emergency landing in the capital, Mogadishu. If the plane had been much higher up, its fuselage could have been ripped apart and the passengers sucked out.

Footage of the plane show the seats next to the hole still intact, meaning any explosion probably came from the overhead compartments:

This should raise questions about the security procedures for passengers flying from Mogadishu's Aden Adde Airport, in light of the security issues in the country.

Local media reported that Turkish Airlines, one of the few flying to Somalia, suspended its flights from Mogadishu in December following a failed al-Shabab attack on the airport.

The airline soon resumed operating on the route, although a flight expected on Tuesday did not show up, raising questions about whether the Turks had intelligence about a security breach.

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The son of killed Angolan rebel chief Jonas Savimbi has urged a French court to punish the makers of the video game "Call of Duty" for representing his father as a "barbarian", reports AFP news agency.

Cheya Savimbi told the court that he wanted to "rehabilitate the memory and image" of his father.

Three of Mr Savimbi's children are seeking €1m ($1.1m; £0.75m) in damages. 

The game's makers, Activision, said the depiction was "rather favourable".

Savimbi founded the Unita movement, waging a 27-year civil war with the Angolan government.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 shows him rallying his troops with phrases like "death to the MPLA", referring to the party that has governed Angola since independence from Portugal in 1975.

But his family said they are outraged at the depiction.

"Seeing him kill people, cutting someone's arm off... that isn't Dad," said Cheya Savimbi.

Read more on the BBC News website.

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Mobile phone giant MTN has hired former US attorney-general Eric Holder to help it challenge a $3.9bn (£2.7bn) fine imposed on it by Nigeria for failing to disconnect unregistered users, the UK-based Financial Times newspaper is reporting. 

Last month, Nigeria's telecommunications regulator was quoted as saying that the South African-owned firm was seeking an "amicable" out-of-court settlement over the fine. 

The government says it is concerned unregistered Sim cards are being used by criminal gangs. The fine had originally been $5.2bn but was reduced to $3.9bn.    

Mr Holder led the US Justice Department from 2009 to 2015, before returning to law firm Covington & Burling. 

Ugandan singer Jose Chameleone has been getting some stick after posting this picture on Instagram:

According to Fancy Stuff website a pair of the shoes he has just had delivered cost $12,500 (£8000).

The Ugandan site Big Eye says that his fans have "decided to lecture him on financial discipline".

But he was having none of it and defended his decision on his Facebook page: 

Quote Message: I almost lost my life 8 years ago in an accident that almost left me feet less... I chose to reward my feet for standing me this tall above the envy and hate some people show.

I almost lost my life 8 years ago in an accident that almost left me feet less... I chose to reward my feet for standing me this tall above the envy and hate some people show.

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Several senior commanders from the so-called Islamic State have moved to Libya from Iraq and Syria in recent months, according to a top Libyan intelligence official.

The official told BBC Newsnight that increasing numbers of foreign fighters had arrived in the city of Sirte. IS took control of Sirte, the birthplace of killed LIbyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, last year.

Ismail Shukri, the head of intelligence in the city of Misrata, told Newsnight there had been an influx of foreign fighters in recent months. 

"The majority [of IS fighters in Sirte] are foreigners, around 70%. Most of them are Tunisians, followed by Egyptians, Sudanese and a few Algerians. 

"Add to that the Iraqis and the Syrians. Most of the Iraqis come from Saddam Hussein's disbanded army," he added. 

Mr Shukri said senior IS commanders were taking refuge in Libya, under pressure from international airstrikes in Iraq and Syria.  

"They view Libya as a safe haven," he said.

Read the full BBC story here

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The BBC is asking Nigerian digital innovators to pitch their ideas to get more people to read, watch and listen to the BBC on their phones.

Previously, South African company RLabs was chosen to develop a CatchUp widget that can be put on websites to listen to BBC Minute's news bulletin.

BBC's connected studio is looking for ideas related to language technology, social platforms and audio content distribution.  

View the submission pack by clicking here

DR Congo have beaten Guinea in the first semi-final of the African Nations Championship at the Amohoro stadium in the Rwandan capital Kigali.  

The Confederation of African Football has been tweeting the result:  

AFPCopyright: AFP

A South African government minister has slammed as "illegal" a new scholarship scheme for female students who pass virginity tests. 

Last month, the uThukela municipality in South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal province said it would award scholarships to 16 female university students on conditions they remained virgins. 

The scheme was intended to "reduce HIV, Aids and unwanted pregnancy" among young girls, said mayor Dudu Mazibuko. 

In a column in today's Daily Maverick, Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini described virginity testing as "ineffective, unhygienic and a gross violation of a girls' human rights". 

"Many first sexual encounters are unwanted... Despite this there is a huge stigma attached to girls who 'fail' the virginity testing," she said, calling the grant scheme akin to a "sexual offense".

Ms Dlamini, who is also the head of the governing African National Congress' women's league, is the most senior government official to denounce the scheme. 

The ruling party in Burundi has accused Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame of attempting to trigger ethnic violence in Burundi.

In a statement on the state broadcaster, CNDD-FDD spokesman Jelase Ndabirabe started off by thanking African leaders for deciding, at their weekend summit in Ethiopia, not to send an African Union force to Burundi.

He went on to say that the proposed force was masterminded by Mr Kagame and Burundi's former President Pierre Buyoya in a plot to get Mr Buyoya back into power.

And he suggested the two would have gone as far as sacrificing some people from their own Tutsi ethnic group to reach their aim in Burundi, which has a majority Hutu population. 

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Mr Kagame and Mr Buyoya have not commented on the allegation, but Rwanda has repeatedly denied that it is interfering in Burundi.  

Mr Ndabirabe alleged that other people involved in the plot included the US ambassador  to the UN, Samantha Power, and former Belgian Prime Minister Louis Michel.

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Leading Nigerian economists have questioned reports that more than $2tn (£1.4tn) had been stolen from the treasury and had been recovered. 

Local media quoted Justice Minister Abubakar Malami as saying that the money was recovered by the anti-corruption agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), in the last 12 years.

But Nigeria's former deputy central bank governor Obadiah Mailafia told me that even though a lot of money had been looted, the $2tn figure seemed to be an exaggeration. 

"Look at our budget, the highest amount budgeted in our history was $31bn, I don't think it is true," he added. 

Another leading Nigerian economist Bismarck Rewani told the BBC that the $12tn figure was impossible to believe it was more than the entire Nigerian budget for that time.

A Tanzanian student was chased by an angry mob in India's Bangalore city after a Sudanese student ran over a local woman. 

Police told BBC Hindi's Imran Qureshi in Bangalore that the Sudanese student was drunk and ran over a woman sleeping in the road on Sunday.

A mob formed and attacked the student and set his car alight but he managed to escape. 

Tanzanian student Bernandoo Kafumu told the BBC that about 30 minutes later, a group of four Tanzanian students passed by and asked what had happened.

Mr Kafumu said the mob chased one of the students, tore her top off and set the group's car alight:

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Investigators believe a bomb caused the explosion on a passenger plane which was forced to make an emergency landing in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, yesterday, US government sources say, Reuters news agency reports. 

The plane's Serbian pilot, Vlatko Vodopivec, told the Associated Press news agency that he and others were told the explosion that created a hole in the passenger cabin was caused by a bomb. 

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However, Somali civil aviation authority officials said they had found no evidence so far of a criminal act in the blast aboard the Airbus 321 jetliner, operated by Daalo Airlines. 

It was flying from Mogadishu to Djibouti with around 60 passengers when the incident happened. Two passengers were slightly injured, reports say.   

When Libyan rebels celebrated the death of Muammar Gaddafi, the colonel's gold-plated pistol was held up as a symbol of their victory.

The BBC's Gabriel Gatehouse was there when they passed it round. 

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Four years on, he has gone back to track down the man who had the gun - Mohammed Elbibi, picture here:

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But Mohammed told our correspondent he had nothing to do with the lynching of Gaddafi. 

He simply found the colonel's gun lying on the ground near the place where he was caught. 

In the confusion of the moment, and seeing him with the gun, the other rebels thought it was Mohammed who had killed him, he says. He became the accidental hero of the revolution.  

And he still has the gun.

Which meant our correspondent got another chance to look at it up close:

BBCCopyright: BBC

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Read the full story on the BBC News website.

More than 170 Malians have been repatriated from Libya after their hopes of reaching Europe were dashed.

The Malians were imprisoned in Libya, and described jail conditions as harsh. 

"I spent one month in jail and there was no food, you would only get some bread in the morning," one of them said.   

The 173 looked tired when they got off the plane in Mali's capital, Bamako, after the International Migration Organisation arranged their repatriation. 

Two of them had injuries, but it is is unclear how they sustained them. 

Government minister Abdourahmane Sylla said the government would give medical and financial assistance to the returnees.

"They will get some money for transport, so that they can go back to their villages. We are also working at helping them with their economic reintegration," he added. 

Despite the instability in Libya and European states taking a tougher line against migrants, thousands of sub-Saharan Africans still travel to the North African state in the hope of crossing the Mediterranean.

AFPCopyright: AFP

More football news - DR Congo take on Guinea at 14:00 GMT in the first semi-final of the African Nations Championship at the Amohoro stadium in the Rwandan capital Kigali. 

DR Congo beat hosts Rwanda 2-1 after extra-time in the quarter-finals on Saturday while Guinea needed penalties to overcome Zambia on Sunday. 

Guinea’s goalkeeper Abdoulaziz Keita was the hero as he saved and then scored the crucial penalties in the shootout. 

The Confederation of African Football has been tweeting about today's match:

  The second semi-final is on Thursday at 14:00 GMT between Ivory Coast and Mali.  

Former international Sang Ndong has been named as the coach of The Gambia for a second time, having been in charge in 2003. 

He has stepped down as coach of local side Hawks to sign a two-year deal with the Scorpions. 

Ndong's first competitive games will be home and away Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers against Mauritania in March. 

He replaces Swiss coach Raoul Savoy who left in December, saying he quit while the federation claim he was sacked. 

The Gambia are currently third in their Nations Cup qualifying group with one point from a 0-0 in South Africa, they then lost at home to Cameroon 1-0.  

South Africa's suspended police chief Riah Phiyega has come out fighting following findings by a police watchdog body that she should be charged with defeating the ends of justice. 

The charges relate to the deaths of miners in what local media dubbed the “Marikana Massacre”. Police gunned down 34 miners who were on a pay strike at the UK-owned Lonmin mine, which lies about 100km (62 miles) north-west of Johannesburg.. 

Ms Phiyega who was suspended by President Jacob Zuma last year for being “unfit to hold office” following the incident, said in a press conference in Johannesburg that the action against her was an attempt to tarnish her reputation. 

Opposition parties have welcomed the findings of the watchdog body, the Independent Police Investigative Directorate. 

If a trial goes ahead, Ms Phiyega would be the most senior official to take the fall over the deaths. 

Getty ImagesCopyright: Getty Images

We have been reporting on a passenger plane that made an emergency landing on Tuesday in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, with a massive hole through its side. 

Daallo Airlines said on its Facebook page that all the passengers were evacuated safely.

But Mohamed Hassan, a police officer in Balad town, north of Mogadishu, said residents told him they found the dead body of an elderly man who might have fallen from the plane, the Associated Press news agency reports.

The UK's Daily Mail newspaper and Sky News describe a man as being "sucked out of the plane" in their headlines.

Here is some video from inside the plane after it landed:

Taxi operators in Kenya have given the government seven days to address their grievances over the entry of Uber into the market or they will stage protests by blocking off roads. 

The Kenya United Taxi Organisation gave the ultimatum during a press conference in the capital, Nairobi, televised by privately owned K24 TV. 

The taxi drivers complained that the app-based taxi service was undercutting them with cheaper fares, and driving them out of business. 

They denied that they have been attacking Uber drivers and vandalizing vehicles operating as Uber taxis: 

"We are not at war with any transport service provider... We are fighting the strategy that Uber is using to gain monopoly of the market in a bid to dominate us," a spokesman said.

According to the private Daily Nation newspaper, the taxi operators said the Uber drivers were destroying property themselves and blaming the traditional taxi drivers to get sympathy from the public.

The taxi drivers said they would come up with their own version of Uber.

Earlier, the company was quoted as saying there had been "cases of isolated intimidation towards Uber driver-partners" in Kenya. 

 Uber, which launched in Kenya in January 2015, is thought to be the world's most valuable private company, with an estimated worth of more than $50bn (£35bn).