Africa highlights: Uganda arrests Trump supporters, Nigeria detains ex-president's spokesman

AFPCopyright: AFP

Football fans in the Democratic Republic of Congo are becoming vocal in the their opposition to delayed presidential elections.

During matches they remind President Joseph Kabila that his term is coming to an end on 19 December.  

This is despite a constitutional court ruling that has granted him permission to stay in office until April 2018 as the electoral commission says it needs that time to update the voters' roll.

At a recent match in the capital, Kinshasa, between the rival clubs of DC Motema Pembe and FC Renaissance, the two sides chanted in Lingala in unison: "Kabila, oyebela, mandat esili", which means "Kabila, understand,  your term is over". 

As one Kinshasa resident put it:

Quote Message: This is the anthem of revolution. The stadiums are increasingly becoming the place of choice for protests in DR Congo."

This is the anthem of revolution. The stadiums are increasingly becoming the place of choice for protests in DR Congo."

Rising ethnic rhetoric, hate speech and incitement to violence in South Sudan is highly dangerous and could result in mass atrocities if not reined in, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein has warned.

He said that over the last two weeks letters with "graphic warnings of violence" against people from the Equatoria region were left outside the gates of humanitarian groups in Aweil West, in the north-western part of the country.

The letters, purportedly written by individuals from the Dinka community, warned Equatorians to leave or be “eliminated”, with threats of violence, mutilation and murder.

Today the BBC's Focus on Africa radio programme is considering if peace is possible in South Sudan.

Archbishop Daniel Deng has told Focus presenter Audrey Brown that he still has hope for the country:

The programme has also spoken to the country's sacked Vice-President, Riek Machar, who is currently in South Africa, to get his thoughts on the failed peace agreement:

Getty ImagesCopyright: Getty Images

Five million quelea quelea birds, also known as red-billed weavers, have been killed in a special operation in Tanzania, the state-run Daily News paper says.

The birds had invaded paddy farms in the north-eastern district of Moshi. 

Moshi District Council Executive Director Butamo Ndalahwa is quoted as saying the rice farmers were now happy and now expected a "bumper harvest".

Mr Ndalahwa added that the authorities had acted fast to avert loss of yield as the birds had proved destructive.

The local council had managed to secure 325 litres of poison from the agriculture ministry for the operation, he said.

AFPCopyright: AFP

The gloves are off in South Africa’s governing African National Congress (ANC) and internal squabbles are now being played out in public.

Today the ANC Youth League launched a scathing attack on the party’s and country’s Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa.

The youth wing is backing President Jacob Zuma, who is facing allegations of corruption. 

Njabulo Nzuza the league’s secretary-general accused Mr Ramaphosa of “double standards”, because he had not publicly supported Mr Zuma over the corruption charges and the calls for him to stand down, but had supported embattled Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan.

Mr Gordhan says recent allegations of fraud against him are wholly unfounded and are politically motivated.

His backers, including from opposition parties, have called for mass support in the streets of the capital, Pretoria, on 2 November when he is due to appear in court. 

BBCCopyright: BBC

The Angolan Supreme court has demanded that President Jose Eduardo dos Santos explain why he made his daughter the boss of state oil company Sonangol, reports the news site Rede Angola.

A petition challenging whether the appointment of Isabel dos Santos was lawful was submitted to the court by a group of Angolan lawyers days after the announcement.

The court has now accepted the petition and given the president and his daughter eight days to respond, Rede Angola says. 

Ms Dos Santos became of chair of Sonangol's board of directors in June after the entire board was sacked by her father in April.

Forbes Africa has asked people to vote from among five nominees up for its “Person of the Year” award, which will be awarded on 17 November.

• Michiel le Roux, founder of Capitec Bank - “who has made banking more accessible for South Africans"
• South Africa’s former anti-corruption tsar Thuli Madonsela - “who faced death threats in her quest to bring inconsistencies to the fore"
• Mauritian President Ameenah Gurib - “who is spearheading the drive to protect her nation’s environment”
• Tanzanian President John Magufuli, nicknamed "Bulldozer" for his no-nonsense approach - nominated because he "has had a significant hand in boosting the nation’s economy”.

And an all-encompassing option:

• The people of Rwanda - “for how the country has reformed and is prioritising gender equality”.

BBCCopyright: BBC

A survivor of the attack on a guesthouse in Kenya’s north-eastern town of Mandera has told the BBC that the gunmen spoke Somali.

Daud Otieno, who hid in the toilets during the attack, said he overheard them saying: “’Let’s do it in a hurry - let’s do it in a hurry!'”

He said that the attackers fired at the door of the washroom, which was locked, and the bullets just missed him.

The Somalia-based al-Shabab militant group said it was behind the attack that killed 12 people, including two actors, but a local official has blamed a local militia (see earlier posts).

Al-Shabab has been behind a spate of deadly attacks targeting Christians in the mainly Muslim region, which has a large population of ethnic Somalis.

A spokesman for Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta has said everything will be done to bring the attackers to justice:

Quote Message: Every Kenyan of goodwill, Christian and Muslim alike, knows that it is wrong to take innocent life. Kenyans will not allow themselves to be divided along religious lines, which is what the terrorists want. from Kenya's State House statement

Every Kenyan of goodwill, Christian and Muslim alike, knows that it is wrong to take innocent life. Kenyans will not allow themselves to be divided along religious lines, which is what the terrorists want.

Getty ImagesCopyright: Getty Images

Militants say they have blown an oil pipeline in south-east Nigeria.  

The Niger Delta Avengers said it attacked a pipeline belonging to the oil giant Chevron.

The petrol firm refused to confirm whether an attack took place citing its long-standing policy of not commenting on such incidents.

This attack comes days before talks are scheduled to be held between militants and the government to end the violence in the oil-rich Niger Delta.  

Since the start of this year growing militancy has slashed Nigeria’s oil production. 

Following the latest attack, the Niger Delta Avengers warned foreign oil companies that they should not repair damaged infrastructure until any negotiations were completed. 

The militants say they are fighting for a larger share of the country’s oil wealth for their communities. 

The oil industry has caused widespread environmental damage in the Niger Delta. 

But the government accuses the militants of holding it to ransom and has threatened to impose a military solution unless the attacks stop.     

Read more: Why Nigeria's 'Avengers' are crippling the oil sector

AFPCopyright: AFP

Pascal Simbikangwa, the first person to be found guilty in France in connection with the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, has returned to court to appeal his 25-year jail sentence, BBC Afrique reports. 

In 2014, a French court found Simbikangwa guilty of genocide and complicity in crimes against humanity. 

The sentence came at a time that France was accused by the Rwandan government of providing a safe haven to genocide suspects.   

Simbikangwa, who has been confined to a wheelchair since a car crash in the 1980s, was accused of organising roadblocks where ethnic Hutu militia murdered many of their victims, AFP reports. 

He was quoted by AFP as saying today: 

Quote Message: I was a soldier but after my accident I returned to civilian life."

I was a soldier but after my accident I returned to civilian life."

At least 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were massacred in the genocide.

Relations between France and Rwanda have been tense since 1994. 

Rwanda says France provided support to the Hutu regime in power at the time of the massacre.

Former French military officials believe rebel fighters allied to those in power in Kigali today sparked the killing by downing the plane in April 1994 of then-Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana.

At least four people have died after a storm hit Mozambique's capital Maputo last night, the office of public safety is reported as saying in Portugal's Observador newspaper.

The newspaper adds that the deaths occured after a tree fell on a minibus taxi.

Human Rights Watch's Zenaida Machado tweeted last night that hailstones came down in the storm:

This Maputo-based journalists shows people started collecting the fallen trees for firewood this morning:  

After nearly three years of devastating civil conflict, South Sudanese artists have come together to try and get the country thinking and talking about peace, by launching a public art project in the capital, Juba.  

The walls of schools, bakeries, cultural centres and shipping containers have been re-purposed as concrete canvases for the artists:

Ana TabanCopyright: Ana Taban

It has been organised by the Ana Taban collective (which in the Arabic means "I am tired"), taking its name from a parallel pro-peace movement in Syria.   

Ana TabanCopyright: Ana Taban

An online campaign #SaveTheLastTrain by South Sudanese poet Akol Miyen, inspired this artwork:

Ana TabanCopyright: Ana Taban

"This is the last train because our chances as a nation our running out," the group says.  

That question - Are South Sudan's chances for peace really running out? - is being considered on the BBC's Focus on Africa radio programme today.

See more of the artworks on BBCAfrica.com.

A spokesperson for the African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia has said that two soldiers have died in an attack on its base in Beledweyne (see earlier post).

Civilians are also believed to have died when a truck laden with explosives rammed into the camp.

An eyewitness has told the BBC that he saw the body of dead woman.

The military base belongs to the Djiboutian forces who are operating mainly in central Somalia. 

AFPCopyright: AFP

Chad's President Idriss Deby has announced that former prime ministers will be stripped of the state privileges they have enjoyed as part of cost-cutting measures, BBC Afrique reports. 

The oil-producing country has been forced to tighten its belt because of the drastic fall in oil prices.

Mr Deby has had 10 prime ministers in the 26 years he has been in power.

Under the new measure, former prime ministers will no longer receive their monthly salary of $2,490 (£2,040). 

Other cost-cutting measures taken by the government over the last year have included a 50% reduction in perks awarded to top government employees and the scrapping of university scholarship programmes. 

This has prompted a waves of protests over the austerity measures.     

Getty ImagesCopyright: Getty Images

South African mobile-phone giant MTN is being investigated in Nigeria for allegedly "repatriating" $13.97bn (£11.45bn) illegally, reports South Africa's New Age paper. 

It says Nigeria’s central bank has suspended MTN’s dividend payments until further notice.

This could lose MTN money, Africa analyst Dobek Pater told the New Age:

Quote Message: If the funds remain in Nigeria, they may lose a considerable portion of their value, depending what happens to the Nigerian economy and the naira. If the naira loses value against the dollar, MTN would be able to buy fewer dollars for the naira held in Nigeria."

If the funds remain in Nigeria, they may lose a considerable portion of their value, depending what happens to the Nigerian economy and the naira. If the naira loses value against the dollar, MTN would be able to buy fewer dollars for the naira held in Nigeria."

The phone company has already been in trouble in Nigeria - last year it was fined $5.2bn for failing to disconnect unregistered Sim cards.

After negotiations, MTN agreed in June to pay $1.7bn to the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) for the transgression.

One of South Africa's greatest historical artefacts is the star attraction of an exhibition of the country's art opening at the British Museum in London last this week. The BBC's Christian Parkinson put together this video about the Mapungbwe kingdom and its golden rhino:

GettyCopyright: Getty

Ugandan police have arrested two youth activists attempting to campaign for US presidential candidate Donald Trump at the American embassy in the capital, Kampala.

The pro-government news website Chimp Reports says five Uganda Young Democrats attempted to storm the embassy.

The private Daily Monitor newspaper has tweeted some photos of the demonstration: 

The Trump supporters were told by police that they would not be allowed inside the embassy because they had not obtained permission, Chimp Report says.

"Trump in his manifesto said he would deal with long-serving African presidents including President Museveni. We had to show our solidarity with him,” Hakim Kizza, one of the members of the group, is quoted as saying.

The African Union mission in Somalia (Amisom) has confirmed that its base in Beledweyne, a strategic town 325km (200 miles) north of the capital, Mogadishu, was hit by a truck bomb (VBIED) this morning:

It is not clear how many people died.

Somalia news website Shabelle says four AU troops are among the dead.

The Reuters news agency is quoting al-Shabab spokesman Abdiasis Abu Musab as saying that 17 soldiers from Djibouti were killed in the attack.

Amisom, which has serving troops from Burundi, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda, has been helping a UN-backed government in its fight against al-Shabab, pushing the militants out of most of Somalia's major towns.

But they continue to mount deadly suicide bombings and guerrilla attacks.

The overnight attack in the Kenyan town of Mandera was carried out by local militia not al-Shabab, according to north-eastern regional security co-ordinator Mohamud Saleh.

Mandera borders Ethiopia and Somalia, which shares a long and porous border with Kenya. 

The Somalia-based Islamist militant group al-Shabab has already said it carried out the attack on the guesthouse in the town, as we reported earlier. 

But Mr Saleh said as the border with Somalia was closed from dawn to dusk, there was no way the attackers could have crossed the border.   

He added that preliminary investigations show that "the 3.00 am attack was carried out by radicalised youth criminal gangs operating within Mandera town who used four improvised explosive devices to blow up a section of the hotel". 

BBCCopyright: BBC

Of the 12 people who died in the attack, two were among a group of 10 actors who travelled to Mandera to perform set-texts for secondary school candidates. 

Ethiopia’s leading English-language magazine the Addis Standard has suspended its print version because of a state of emergency that was declared earlier this month.

The monthly magazine said its readership had been growing since its first publication in February 2011:

Quote Message: The presence of the Addis Standard magazine has immensely contributed to the relative expansion of media diversity in what’s otherwise a restrictive environment."

The presence of the Addis Standard magazine has immensely contributed to the relative expansion of media diversity in what’s otherwise a restrictive environment."

But the magazine’s management said the state of emergency, imposed in the wake of deadly anti-government protests, made it impossible to carry on this work.

The digital edition of the Addis Standard will continue.

Its last print edition, issued before the state of emergency, focused on the deaths of at least 55 people at the Ireecha festival:

The annual Oromo celebration had in part turned into an anti-government protest.

Activists from the Oromo ethnic group blame security forces for causing panic which led to a stampede and the deaths.