Africa highlights: Nigeria university bombed, Jammeh term end 'not carved in stone'

The university of Maiduguri in north-east Nigeria has been hit by a double suicide bomb attack. At least four people have been killed - a professor, a child and the two suicide bombers.

Here is some footage of the aftermath of the attacks.

US President Barack Obama's paternal home in the village of Kogelo in western Kenya got a lot of attention during his presidency. 

Mr Obama made two high profile visits to Kenya, in 2006 when he was a senator and later as president in 2015. 

Since then residents of Kogelo village have seen a number of changes to their schools, roads and provisions.

The BBC's Muliro Telewa visited the village to speak to residents about the changes: 

Zimbabwe police on Monday detained a pastor who claimed that veteran President Robert Mugabe, who turns 93 next month, would die in October, his lawyer told AFP. 

Gift Mtisi said Pastor Patrick Mugabe was arrested at the magistrate's court in Harare where he was appearing on separate charges of wearing the national flag and charged over the prophecy made last week about Mugabe's demise. 

"He was appearing at the court on a different matter when police arrested him during a break and charged him over the prophecy," Mtisi told AFP. 

"He was initially charged with undermining the authority of the president and the charge was later changed to insulting people of a certain race or religion." 

Mr Mugadza, who is based in the northern resort town on Kariba held a press conference last week where he announced that Mugabe would die on October 17. 

Poking fun at Mugabe or making predictions about him is a risky business in Zimbabwe, which has a law that forbids "undermining the authority of or insulting the president." 

In 2015, Mr Mugadza was arrested and detained for nearly a month after holding a placard telling Mr Mugabe his people were suffering under his rule. 

On independence day last year he gave a sermon while tied to a lamppost in Harare's main shopping mall, saying the act symbolised the lack of freedom in Zimbabwe. 

Mr Mugabe's health has been subject of speculation as he makes frequent visits to the Far East for medical treatment.

BBCCopyright: BBC

The African Cup of Nations is not just about the players but the fans too. 

The BBC's Hugo Williams has been up and about in Gabon's capital Libreville to meet some of the fans. 

He has just caught up with Burkina Faso fans and their official mascot. 

You can watch his interview live on the BBC's Africa Facebook page. 

School students angry at an absence of teachers during an ongoing civil servants strike have taken to the streets to protest against the impact on their education.

In the commercial capital Abidjan, pupils blocked roads and roundabouts and were in some cases dispersed by police using tear gas, Jeune Afrique reported.

There were also chaotic scenes at a number of privately-run schools, where there were reports of attacks and vandalism.

The Lycee Jean Mermoz, an international school, was attacked with stones and invaded by a group of young men who fought with security guards before the police intervened, reports said. 

Pupils reportedly cowered under tables as windows were broken.

Meanwhile pupils and teachers at a school in the Cocody area were chased out of the school by a group of masked knife-wielding men, Abidjan.net reported.

The men said there would be no more classes until the government had given in to the civil servants' demands, the report said.

AFPCopyright: AFP

An Ivory Coast MP who had been critical of a mutiny last week across barracks in the country has been briefly detained by soldiers who took part in the uprising, AFP reports. 

The pro-government lawmaker, Bema Fofana, is quoted as saying:  

Quote Message: They climbed over the fence of my compound, snatched me and took me away by force. I was still lying in bed in my room. They were a dozen of them."

They climbed over the fence of my compound, snatched me and took me away by force. I was still lying in bed in my room. They were a dozen of them."

Mr Fofana was among MPs who hit out at the mutinous soldiers when they revolted over a pay dispute. 

He took part in organising a demonstration against the uprising. 

After he was briefly kidnapped, Mr Fofana was taken to an undisclosed location where he was later released under pressure from other soldiers who disagreed with his abduction.  

BBCCopyright: BBC

Tunisian security forces "wasted time" before responding to a massacre on a beach resort as 30 British tourists were shot dead, a UK coroner has heard.

In total, 38 people died in the hour-long gun attack near Sousse in June 2015.

But local units "deliberately and unjustifiably slowed down to delay their arrival at the hotel" as Islamist gunman Seifeddine Rezgui opened fire, said the counsel to the inquest into the British deaths.

The BBC's Panorama programme this month reported that the suspected "mastermind" behind the shootings is believed to be on the run in Libya.

Chamseddine al-Sandi recruited and directed Rezgui, according to documents obtained by Panorama.

The attack was the deadliest on Britons since the 7 July 2005 London bombings.

Read the full story here

Getty ImagesCopyright: Getty Images

Kenya's electoral commission has kicked off a major voter registration campaign intended to add about 6m of 9m unregistered voters to the electoral roll. 

Kenyan voters are due to go to the polls on 8 August for the general election. 

Registration started early in most parts of the country, with no hitches, Kenya's Daily Nation reports.

It will continue until 14 February and is open to all Kenyans aged 18 or over who are able to produce a valid national identity card or passport. 

About 16m Kenyans are already registered, the commission says - more than during the 2013 general election. 

President Uhuru Kenyatta is seeking a second term and he is likely to face a unified opposition who are yet to pick their candidate. 

Both political camps draw support along ethnic lines, a divisive factor which has contributed to post-electoral violence in the past.

AFPCopyright: AFP

A UN report into violence in South Sudan, has described grave human rights abuses, rapes, killings and serious violations of international humanitarian law – some possibly amounting to war crimes. 

Based on the testimonies of victims and witnesses, the report into the violence in the capital Juba in July blames both government and opposition forces. 

The cycle of violence began in South Sudan three years ago when President Salva Kiir and his former Vice President Riek Machar fell out, sparking a civil war largely along ethnic lines between the Dinka and the Nuer ethnic groups which the two men represent. 

In the last six months more than 417,000 people (source UNHCR) have fled into neighbouring Uganda to avoid fighting. 

United Nations human rights investigators found that civilians were deliberately targeted along ethnic lines, and that hundreds of people were killed during violence in the capital Juba in July. 

Fighting between the mainly Nuer rebels and the mainly Dinka government troops left many more injured. 

The UN documented more than 200 cases of rape and gang rape - Western aid workers were among the victims – and they described “extreme violence against women and children.”

Many atrocities have been carried out in South Sudan since the civil war began three years ago. 

The UN report blamed both sides for these latest serious violations of human rights. 

Fighting is continuing at various flashpoints across the country. 

Senior UN staff have warned of ethnic cleansing and the potential for genocide. At least 4500,00 million people are now expected to need food aid over the next few months.

Paul Polman, the head of Unilever, talks about the business and the African proverb that he says informs the way he runs his company.

He is attending the World Economic Forum summit of political and business leaders in Davos, Switzerland this week and will be launching the Business and Sustainable Development Commission's report on global goals.

A journalist with the UK Guardian newspaper is tweeting that the President- Elect of The Gambia Adama Barrow, who is in Senegal, is about to hold a press conference. 

Mr Barrow is staying in the neighbouring country, reportedly at the request of West African leaders, ahead of his expected inauguration on 19 January. 

President Yahya Jammeh is refusing to step down when his term ends on 18 January.

However The Gambia's chief justice has declined to rule on an injunction submitted by Mr Jammeh asking that Mr Barrow's inauguration be blocked.

It has also just been reported that Mr Barrow has just lost his eight-year-old son after he was bitten by a dog. 

However he was advised not to travel back from Senegal for today's funeral over concerns for his safety, the BBC's Stephanie Hegarty in Lagos says.

See earlier posts for more details

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Mozambique's economic crisis is set to deepen following the government's announcement that it will miss a $60m (£50m) interest payment on a 2023 bond, the AFP news agency reports.  

The government blames the ongoing cash crunch to hidden debt, falls in commodity prices and a cut-off in aid, the finance ministry said in a statement: 

Quote Message: "The deteriorating macroeconomic and fiscal situation of the Republic has severely affected the country's public finances,"

"The deteriorating macroeconomic and fiscal situation of the Republic has severely affected the country's public finances,"

The country is in talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) over resuming support that was suspended in April due to the hidden debt scandal, the report says. 

Last month, a parliamentary inquiry found that the government broke the law by securing loans worth more than $2 billion in hidden debt that prompted the IMF and World Bank aid cutoff, AFP said.

The scandal surfaced in 2013, when the government announced a contract for 30 fishing and coastal protection vessels between French shipyards and Ematum, a state-owned company that had previously raised $850 million on the eurobonds market without lawmakers' knowledge. 

In April last year, more hidden debt worth $1.4 billion - contracted without parliamentary approval by two more state-owned firms and the defence ministry - was uncovered.

The government claimed the loans were used to fund military vessels and defence equipment, and said it did not disclose them as a matter of national security, the report says. 

Kenyans are using #MyBadDoctorExperience to comment on the ongoing crisis in the health sector which has been paralysed nationwide by a doctors strike. 

Several patients have reportedly died because of the lack of professional care in public hospitals. Others have been forced to go to expensive private hospitals. 

Doctors have been using the hashtag to tell of their work experience: 

Doctors have been pushing the government to honour a deal signed in 2013 to improve their pay and working conditions. 

Some of the people have been sharing their experience  of medical care in public hospitals. They say the facilities are in a bad condition: 

The government has offered the doctors a new deal which they have rejected. A threat to hire foreign doctors has failed to get the doctors to relent on their demands. 

Some Kenyans are now saying that the medics should sacrifice their own interests and put their patients first:

AFP/GettyCopyright: AFP/Getty

The eight-year-old son of Gambian President-elect Adama Barrow has died after being bitten by a dog.

Habibu Barrow is reported to have died on the way to the hospital after Sunday's incident in Manjai near Banjul.

His funeral has already taken place. Mr Barrow is in the Senegalese capital Dakar ahead of his planned inauguration on Thursday.

Mr Barrow has two wives and four other children, according to reports.

APCopyright: AP

Kenyan artist Evans Yegon is sad to see President Barack Obama leave office, AP reports from Nairobi. 

The artist has made a name for himself painting $1,000 ( £830) portraits of Mr Obama and he's finding the new focus of his work, Donald Trump, a hard sell. 

Obama's presidency electrified Kenyans, who are proud that his father was a Kenyan. Thousands thronged Obama's visit to the country as president in 2015. 

Many express sadness at the impending end of Obama's time in office. 

"Simple: Obama is a sort of miracle of the century,'' journalist Ochieng Ogodo posted on Facebook. 

While Trump is an interesting subject with his facial expressions and persona, Mr Yegon said he has struggled to find buyers for his paintings of the president-elect. 

"Even if you are a Donald Trump supporter, you don't want to make it public," he said.

"I painted him because he is hated and he is loved."

Mr Yegon has sold just one Trump painting, to an American client, of the 10 he has painted so far. 

He said he sold 28 of the 30 Obama paintings he made during the outgoing president's second term.  

APCopyright: AP

Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has told the BBC that Gambian President Yahya Jammeh played a "ruse" on her by recording a telephone conversation between the two leaders and broadcasting it later on national TV.

During the call Mr Jammeh said he had filed an injunction at the supreme court - which the chief justice today said he would not rule on - and asked West African regional body Ecowas to help supply new judges, saying the only "peaceful resolution of the impasse was through the courts".

Ms Sirleaf said she would "work on this right away".

She has now told BBC Focus on Africa radio that Mr Jammeh had been playing a game with her:

Quote Message: Unfortunately, being the person that he is, he recorded and televised the conversation without advising me of his intent to do so.”

Unfortunately, being the person that he is, he recorded and televised the conversation without advising me of his intent to do so.”

Quote Message: Let me make it very, very clear. There is no change in Ecowas’s position. The constitution of the Gambia must be respected.”

Let me make it very, very clear. There is no change in Ecowas’s position. The constitution of the Gambia must be respected.”

Quote Message: My only duty was to take his appeal and pass it on to the mediating team.”

My only duty was to take his appeal and pass it on to the mediating team.”

Quote Message: At the time he called me I was thinking that he was going to find a way out of this and he was going to be able to work with the team but clearly, clearly it was just a game. It was just a ruse on his part.”

At the time he called me I was thinking that he was going to find a way out of this and he was going to be able to work with the team but clearly, clearly it was just a game. It was just a ruse on his part.”

Car giant Ford has announced the recall of 4,500 1.6-litre Kuga cars in South Africa over safety fears after nearly 40 incidents in which vehicles were reported to have burst into flames. 

There have been repeated accounts of spontaneous blazes in the SUV model while it was being driven, AFP reported.

Ford South Africa chief executive Jeffrey Nemeth told a press conference in Pretoria:

Quote Message: We are now announcing a voluntary safety recall of the Kuga 1.6. We can confirm that a total of 39 incidents have been reported to Ford... there may be some incidents that have not yet been reported to us."

We are now announcing a voluntary safety recall of the Kuga 1.6. We can confirm that a total of 39 incidents have been reported to Ford... there may be some incidents that have not yet been reported to us."

Mr Nemeth said that the fires were caused by overheating due to poor coolant circulation that led to an oil leak:

Quote Message: If the oil leak reaches a hot engine component it could potentially catch fire.

If the oil leak reaches a hot engine component it could potentially catch fire.

Quote Message: With this safety recall all affected vehicles, including those that have already been checked as part of our maintenance check, must be taken to a Ford dealer as soon as possible."

With this safety recall all affected vehicles, including those that have already been checked as part of our maintenance check, must be taken to a Ford dealer as soon as possible."

AFPCopyright: AFP

West African leaders requested that The Gambia's President-elect, Adama Barrow, remains in Senegal until his planned inauguration on Thursday. 

The move does not clearly suggest he could take the presidential oath abroad. But would his legitimacy suffer if he is sworn in outside The Gambia? 

Well, the Gambian Constitution does not define any territorial bounds on the issue. The "Supreme Law" says: 

Quote Message: [...] The person elected President shall before assuming office take the prescribed oath."

[...] The person elected President shall before assuming office take the prescribed oath."

As it is, the constitution provides no guidelines about the venue for the oath. However, it gives an indication of the time when the oath is due:

Quote Message: The person elected President shall assume office sixty days following the day of his or her election, and in any case where the candidature of a person contesting the election is unopposed, such candidate shall be declared unopposed and elected to the office of the President on the day following the making of that declaration."

The person elected President shall assume office sixty days following the day of his or her election, and in any case where the candidature of a person contesting the election is unopposed, such candidate shall be declared unopposed and elected to the office of the President on the day following the making of that declaration."

In a statement earlier last week, Adama Barrow relied on the provisions above as well as on as other articles of the constitution to reassert his legitimacy as the new president of The Gambia after 19 January, the due date for the handover of power.