Ishaq Khalid
BBC News, Abuja

Image source, AFP

Nigeria’s anti-corruption agency has arrested a presidential aspirant of the ruling APC party just days to the party’s presidential primaries.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) arrested Rochas Okorocha in the capital, Abuja, on allegations of corruption involving diversion of 2.9 billion naira ($7m; £5.6m) of public funds and property.

The alleged offences were committed during his tenure as governor of the south-eastern state of Imo between 2011 and 2019. He has previously denied the accusations.

The 59-year-old politician is currently a senator. He is being detained by the EFCC.

Reports indicate there was a stand-off for hours between some of Mr Okorocha supporters and operatives of the anti-graft agency during the arrest at his residence.

His supporters say the arrest is an attempt to frustrate his presidential ambition.

But in a statement, EFCC said it was "left with no option" after Mr Okorocha had jumped the bail it granted him and also failed to honour invitations for questioning.

The EFCC has mounted a crackdown on corruption that has so far seen the arrest of the country’s accountant-general - who denies any wrongdoing.

Nigeria is due to hold elections in February next year to choose a successor to President Muhammadu Buhari, whose second term will end in May.

BBC World Service

Image source, AFP

The new head of the US President's Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (Pepfar), Dr John Nkengasong, says HIV and Aids remain a significant threat for Africa.

The virologist from Cameroon has spent the last two years heading Africa's Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

He told the BBC that there was a potential for a resurgence of HIV/Aids in many parts of Africa and that it was still an emergency which deserved the attention it received 20 years ago.

He said there was a risk that more recent outbreaks such as Ebola and coronavirus would undermine gains made in the fight against HIV/Aids.

He said:

Chris Ewokor
BBC News, Abuja

Image source, AFP

At least 12 farmers are reported to have been shot dead by gunmen in Katsina state in northern Nigeria.

Residents said the attackers, known locally as bandits, invaded the village and fired on the farmers as they were working on their fields.

Some houses were also torched.

A local police officer disputed the casualty figures but said the gunmen on motorcycles stormed the community and shot indiscriminately.

He said security forces had been deployed to the area.

The killings come just hours after 40 farmers were killed by suspected Boko Haram fighters in the north-eastern state of Borno.

Katsina is the home state of President Muhammadu Buhari.

Lalla Sy
BBC News

Image source, Reuters

Bodies of four miners have been found in a zinc mine in Burkina Faso after 39 days of search, a government spokesman has said.

Eight miners got trapped hundreds of metres underground by flood waters last month in the Canadian-owned mine in Perkoa.

Rescue operations were launched soon after to locate them. The mine has a depth of more than 710m (2,329ft).

In a statement on Tuesday night, the government sent its condolences to the families of the victims and to the local communities.

Search operations are continuing to find the other four missing miners.

Read more:

• Burkina Faso trapped miners: Wives heartbroken but praying for miracles

Our proverb of the day:

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One of Africa's largest modern art event returns to Senegal after a four-year hiatus.

That's all from the BBC Africa Live team for today. There will be an automated news feed until we're back on Wednesday morning Nairobi time.

You can also keep up to date on the BBC News website, or by listening to the Africa Today podcast.

A reminder of our wise words of the day:

Click here to send us your African proverbs.

And we leave you with this picture of a woman sitting at her market stall in Abobo in the Ivory Coast.

Image source, AFP

Ameyu Etana
BBC Afaan Oromoo

Image source, Getty Images

Ethiopia says it is outraged with the way the US magazine, Time, depicted the country's leader when it had announced the list of influential people of the year.

Time magazine has included Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Ethiopian-born US citizen and computer scientist Timnit Gebru in the latest list of 100 most influential people of 2022.

Time said Mr Abiy's peace treaty with Eritrea ''planted the seeds for an Ethiopian civil war'.' It also stated that Mr Abiy, together with Eritrea's leader, ''launched a military campaign against'' Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) leaders.

In a letter to the magazine Mr Abiy's office said they are ''dismayed'' with the way he has been represented as well as the portrayal over who started the country's civil war.

It describes his depiction as a ''character assassination" and accuses it of echoing the narrative of the TPLF - the regional party that has been fighting federal troops in the north.

It has requested the magazine give an explanation. There has been no immediate comment from publication.

All warring parties have been accused human rights violations in Ethiopia's civil war.

The conflict in Ethiopia started on 4 November 2020 when Mr Abiy ordered a military offensive against regional forces in Tigray after TPLF forces seized a federal military base.

Ishaq Khalid
BBC News, Abuja

A Nigerian man whose entire family has been wiped out by gunmen in the south-eastern state of Anambra has told the BBC that they were expecting their fifth child this month before the killings.

Jibril Ahmed’s heavily pregnant wife, Fatima, and all their four daughters were shot dead by suspected Biafra separatists on Sunday evening as they returned home from a visit to his sister in the Orumba area, as we reported earlier.

The killings have sparked outrage with many social media users describing them as gruesome and brutal. There have also been calls for justice and an end to the increasing violence in the region.

Speaking in an emotional voice, the 42-year-old private security guard told me that he was utterly devastated.

"I am confused," he said, however he has now left everything in the "hands of God".

Mr Ahmed said he and some friends were planning to take the bodies of the victims to his home state of Adamawa, north-east Nigeria, for burials.

His daughters were aged between two-and-a-half and nine years old.

A police spokesperson in Anambra state, Tochukwu Ikenga, told the BBC that security forces have been deployed to the rural area to track down the gunmen behind the killings.

Several other people were also shot dead in separate incidents on Sunday evening.

The authorities have blamed the banned separatist group the Indigenous People of Biafra (Ipob) for the worsening violence in south-eastern Nigeria.

Ipob has denied involvement in some of the attacks but has not yet commented on the killing of the family members.

Image source, AFP

Leading Ugandan opposition figure Dr Kizza Besigye was arrested on Tuesday as he tried to lead a protest in the capital, Kampala, against the high cost of living.

The 66 year old ran for the presidency against Yoweri Museveni four times.

He used to be Mr Museveni's personal doctor and has been arrested on many occasions.

Dr Besigye arrived at Tuesday's protest with megaphones on his car and he caused business in the local area to come to a standstill, according to the Daily Monitor news website.

Ugandan police told the Reuters news agency that they are holding Dr Besigye on charges of inciting violence.

He has not yet commented.

Basketball's world governing body Fiba warns Nigeria the impact of the government's withdrawal from the sport will last longer than the proposed two years.

Issa Ahmed
BBC News Somali

Image source, AFP

The outgoing Somali president has for the first time publicly spoken about the presence of Somali troops in Eritrea.

While handing over office to the incoming president, Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo said he had officially given the files concerning the recruits to his successor President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud.

Early last year reports emerged that thousands of soldiers were being trained in Eritrea - claims that were denied by the government despite protests in Mogadishu.

But in a twist of events, a year later the former president has confirmed their presence in Eritrea.

He said the 5,000 troops had completed their military training last year, but their return was delayed due to the election period.

There were accusations that the recruits were involved in the civil war in northern Ethiopia, where the federal government is fighting the Tigray People's Liberation Front.

A UN report submitted to the General Assembly in 2021 said Somali soldiers were fighting alongside Eritrean troops who were backing the federal government, allegations that the Somali government denied.

Kalkidan Yibeltal
BBC News

Image source, AFP

Ethiopia’s Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has been re-elected as the World Health Organization’s (WHO) head for a second five-year term.

The result of the secret vote was a formality since he was the only candidate.

Opening the 75th World Health Assembly in Geneva, Dr Tedros, who has led the global response to the Covid pandemic, said coronavirus had turned the world upside down, leaving many still enduring suffering.

Fighting back tears as he spoke, he also called for an end to war, which he said "shakes and shatters the foundations on which previously stable societies stood".

He recalled his own first-hand experience as a child of war in Ethiopia, which is again experiencing civil conflict in its northern Tigray region, where he is originally from.

The 57-year-old has been at odds with Ethiopia's government after it accused him of supporting forces from Tigray - an accusation he has previously denied.

He had been Ethiopia’s health minister - during which he received praises for his efforts in controlling diseases like malaria and HIV/Aids - and a foreign minister before he was first elected to lead the WHO in 2017.

Kalkidan Yibeltal
BBC News, Addis Ababa

The United States has said it is concerned about recent mass arrest of journalists and community activists in Ethiopia.

In a statement shared on its social media platforms, external, the US Embassy in the capital, Addis Ababa, said that it shared calls made earlier by the state-affiliated Ethiopian Human Rights Communication (EHRC) for the authorities to respect the rule of law and adhere to due process.

At least 10 journalists and media personalities have been arrested in the past week in Addis Ababa and the country’s second-most populous region, Amhara.

On Monday, the authorities in Amhara announced that they had arrested more than 4,500 individuals in a campaign they said was aimed at enforcing law and order in the region.

According to the EHRC, many of the detainees were held without proper court warrants and it had been difficult for some family members to find where their loved ones were being kept.

Zimbabwe coach Norman Mapeza accepts the timing is right for striker Knowledge Musona to retire from international duty.

BBC Focus on Africa radio

The first Eswatini winner of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize for Africa has said it was "unbelievably shocking" that he had won the award and that it was an honour.

It was the second time he had submitted a work for the prize, and he had no "expectation of winning", he told the BBC. He just wanted to practice and improve his writing.

Ntsika Kota, who is a trained chemist, wrote a story called And the Earth Drank Deep about the first human murder in prehistoric times.

He said his prize-winning story, was inspired by a thought that popped into his head: "Who was the first serial killer and how would they have behaved?"

He told Focus on Africa that his love for writing was "first ignited in school" but he decided to pursue science for further study because it was something he felt he "had to do".

You can listen to his full interview here:

Queen Angelique-Monet, a trained ventriloquist, is married to the king of Eti-Oni a region of Nigeria.

Lebo Diseko
BBC News, Johannesburg

Image source, Getty Images

Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz has questioned South Africa's neutral stance about the war in Ukraine at a meeting with his South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa on the last leg of a three-nation visit to Africa.

Pretoria has abstained from UN resolutions condemning Russia's actions.

Asked why, President Ramaphosa said it was only through negotiation and dialogue that a resolution could be reached.

While Chancellor Scholz said he understood that different countries had different views, he called Russia the aggressor in a "brutal war".

Despite this, both leaders stressed the importance of the relationship between their countries, with Chancellor Scholz saying it is one he wants to nurture.

The two leaders are expected to outline trade partnerships, particularly in the field of alternative energy.

Germany is South Africa's second largest trading partner.

Guy Bandolo
BBC News

Image source, AFP

The Gabonese government has banned an opposition march against the French military presence in the country.

A letter by the interior minister to the leader of opposition Gabonese Patriotic Front justified the ban, noting the defence agreements Gabon has signed with France.

It said the protests would jeopardise the "excellent relationship" between the two countries.

The Gabonese Patriotic Front had planned a "peaceful march" on Tuesday starting from the French military base in Gabon's capital Libreville.

The party leader, Gerard Ella Nguema, told the BBC that he was going to appeal to the constitutional court against the decision, which he described as unconstitutional.

The ban on protests comes amid an anti-French sentiment in West Africa.

Earlier this month, five opposition leaders were arrested following such a demonstration in the Chadian capital N'Djamena.

Gabon hosts French forces, whose missions are focused on training African troops and French soldiers in tropical zones.

Morocco defender Noussair Mazraoui joins German champions Bayern Munich from Dutch side Ajax on a free transfer.