The first set of results in Sierra Leone's presidential election - with the votes from 60% of the polling stations tallied - show that the incumbent Julius Maada Bio is in the lead.

The electoral commission says that he has 56% of the vote so far with his closest rival Samura Kamara, of the All People's Congress (APC), getting 42%.

In order to win in the first round, a candidate needs more than 55% of the vote. The final results are now expected in the next 48 hours, the electoral commission said.

The APC had previously made complaints about the conduct of the election and the electoral commission.

Saturday's vote took place in a tense atmosphere at the culmination of a campaign marred by several violent incidents.

Image source, AFP

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has been speaking about the future of Wagner fighters who are operating in Africa.

The focus of attention since the weekend's tumultuous events involving Wagner and its leader Yevgeny Prigozhin has understandably been on Russia and Ukraine.

But the mercenary group has a presence in several African countries - including the Central African Republic and Mali, where they have been accused of committing atrocities and war crimes.

There have been questions over the future of those African deployments, which were seen by many as unofficially representing Russia.

But speaking on the state-owned RT channel, Mr Lavrov has said that the Wagner operations will continue, the AFP news agency reports.

Wagner members "are working there as instructors. This work, of course, will continue," the minister said.

He said the aborted rebellion would not change Russia's relationship with "partners and friends", AFP quotes him as saying.

Read more on this story:

• Wagner in Sudan: What have Russian mercenaries been up to?
• Have Wagner mercenaries helped Mali's fight against jihadists?
• How disinformation operations target Africa

Kalkidan Yibeltal
BBC News, Addis Ababa

Image source, AFP

The head of Ethiopia’s electoral board, Birtukan Mideksa, has announced her resignation.

In a Facebook post on Monday, Ms Birtukan cited health as her reason to leave her post. Parliament still has to accept the resignation.

She is a former judge and political prisoner, and her appointment more than four years ago was seen as part of reform measures introduced by a new government.

In 2018, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed took office pledging to end decades of authoritarian rule.

When he recommended Ms Birtukan to the all-important post of chairperson of the electoral board, he described her as someone who would "never surrender, even to the government".

She presided over the board that was at the centre of controversy over the postponement, due to Covid, of general elections that should have been held in May 2020.

The delay of the elections - seen by political elites in the country’s Tigray region as a pretext for Prime Minister Abiy to stay in power unconstitutionally - contributed to the breaking out of a civil war in which more than half a million people are estimated to have been killed.

The election was held a year later across the country except in war-hit Tigray.

In a recent interview with the BBC, Ms Birtukan said that currently the environment in Tigray was not conducive to the holding of elections there due to the continuing humanitarian crisis.

Earlier this year another senior figure, Meaza Ashenafi, resigned. Her appointment in 2018 as the head of the country’s Supreme Court had also seen as a sign of Ethiopia’s strides towards democracy.

• Read more about Birtukan Mideksa

Nichola Mandil
BBC News, Juba

Image source, Reuters

More than 10,000 people have registered as refugees in South Sudan after fleeing the conflict in Sudan, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha), has said.

While, overall, 130,000 people have fled into South Sudan since the fighting started in April, most of them were South Sudanese returning home.

Ocha said the latest influx continues to compound a dire situation as the arrival numbers are projected to continue to increase as fighting continues.

Among those arriving include unaccompanied or separated children, the elderly, persons with disabilities, those with urgent medical needs, single- or female-headed households and pregnant women, Ocha added.

Many arrivals have witnessed, or were subjected to, violence and exploitation such as extortion and looting, including during their journey to South Sudan.

Looking at the rest of Sudan's neighbours, Egypt - with 255,000 - and Chad - with 120,000 - have taken in the bulk of the refugees fleeing the violence.

Read more about those fleeing Sudan:

• The Eritrean refugees caught between two crises
• 'How I saved my red guitar from Khartoum war zone'

Image source, Reuters

Kenya’s opposition has described the tax rises signed into law by President William Ruto as a “mistake”, the AFP news agency reports.

It has already held cost-of-living protests this year and is threatening further demonstrations

"Our position remains that the bill is a mistake and an experiment Kenyans can ill afford," a spokesman for opposition leader Raila Odinga is quoted by AFP as saying.

"We had hoped that Ruto could call for its review before signing it."

Among the changes agreed by parliament last week were a doubling of the sales tax on fuel, from 8% to 16%, and a new housing levy.

The new measures have angered some supporters of the president, who during his successful election campaign presented himself as someone who would look out for the interests of the poor.

Mr Ruto has defended the changes as necessary to deal with the country’s debt problem and as a means to invest in programmes that will benefit the less well off.

Yusuf Akinpelu
BBC News, Lagos

Image source, EPA

Malians overwhelming approved changes in the constitution in the 18 June referendum with 97% of the vote, the West African country’s electoral commission said.

The country’s military rulers and regional powers said the vote will lead to elections in February next year and then the return to civilian rule.

Turnout among the 8.4 million registered voters was just under 40%, Moustapha Cisse, the head of the electoral commission, announced.

The country has seen two military coups since August 2020, when President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta was overthrown.

Junta leader and interim President Assimi Goïta said in an address that he was “convinced that this referendum paves the way for a new, strong, efficient and emerging Mali, but above all a Mali at the service of the wellbeing of the people”.

Ahead of the referendum there were concerns that the new constitution would give sweeping powers to the president, who will now have the right to hire and fire the prime minister and cabinet members.

Under the changes, a second parliamentary chamber is set to be created to enhance wider political representation. The constitutional changes also designate Mali as a secular state, a move opposed by some Islamic clerics.

A Muslim man in northern Nigeria has been killed by a mob for alleged blasphemy.

Usman Buda, who worked as a butcher at the Sokoto city abattoir, "was mobbed and attacked by some Muslim faithfuls [who] inflicted serious injuries on him", Sokoto state police spokesman Ahmad Rufa'i is quoted as saying by the AFP news agency.

When the police arrived on the scene, "the mob escaped and left the victim unconscious", he added, the Premium Times reports, external.

Mr Buda was taken for treatment by police when they went to rescue him but his death was confirmed at the hospital.

The authorities are now looking for the alleged perpetrators.

AFP reports that Mr Buda was killed after an argument over some child beggars who had asked for money. It quotes a witness as saying that he got embroiled in a row after he disapproved of the children. He then made the alleged blasphemous remarks about the Prophet Muhammad.

A gruesome video being shared on social media shows a mob targeting a man with stones as he stumbles and falls.

In response, Sokoto state Governor Ahmed Aliyu "called on the people of the state to remain calm and law-abiding at all times", but he added that people should not do anything that is capable of degrading the personality of the Prophet Muhammad.

In May last year, a female student was attacked by Muslim students at her college in Sokoto, who killed her and set her body alight. She had been accused of blaspheming.

Nigeria's Burna Boy has been acclaimed as the best international act at last night's BET awards in Los Angeles making it the fourth time he has won the award.

This time he was up against the likes of South Africa's Ko and Britain's Stormzy and Central Cee.

Cameroon's Libianca won in the best new international act category chosen by BET viewers.

Her song People (Check On Me) has been streamed more than 320 million times since December. It sat on the top of the UK's Afrobeats chart for eight weeks and got into the UK's official Top 10 - a first for an artist from Cameroon.

• Read this profile of Libianca

Image source, Reuters

Kenya's President William Ruto has signed into law his government's first finance bill, which seeks to boost revenue through raising taxes on a number of items.

One of the most controversial changes approved by parliament last week was the doubling of value-added tax to be charged on fuel - it's rising from 8% to 16%.

Employees will also hand over 1.5% of their gross pay for a housing levy that will go into a fund that will then pay to build homes for low-income people.

President Ruto, who was elected last year, has said that the government needs more money in order to be able to pay off the debts racked up under the presidency of his predecessor, Uhuru Kenyatta.

But the opposition have said they would call for protests if the tax rises came into effect.

Azeezat Olaoluwa
BBC News

The tallying of results is continuing in Sierra Leone two days after the general election.

It's not clear who is leading in the presidential race between President Julius Maada Bio and his main contender Samura Kamara, but both sides have already said that they won the poll.

Election observers have urged them to remain calm and wait for the official results. But there are worries that no results have been announced.

The European Union mission urged the electoral commission to provide "full transparency during the tabulation of results" to ease tensions.

The Carter Center also expressed concern over "reports indicating a lack of transparency during parts of the tabulation process", the AFP news agency quotes it as saying.

The winner of the election must secure 55% of the valid votes cast, otherwise there will be a run-off between the top two candidates two weeks after the announcement of the results.

A lot is at stake as the West African country faces many issues including a worsening cost-of-living crisis, poverty and massive unemployment.

Grant Ferrett
BBC World Service

Image source, AFP

Soldiers have surrounded the headquarters of the main opposition party in Sierra Leone, as votes are counted in the country's presidential election.

The leader of the All People's Congress, Samura Kamara, said live ammunition was fired into the building as he held a news conference.

He said it amounted to an assassination attempt.

Clouds of tear gas shrouded the building.

It's unclear why truckloads of troops were deployed.

The police have not yet commented on the incident.

The opposition is hoping to unseat President Julius Maada Bio, who's standing for a second term in office.

There was sporadic violence against election officials during the vote on Saturday after a tense campaign.

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Welcome to BBC Africa Live for this week where we'll be updating you with news from around the continent.

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