BBC News Africa

That's all from the BBC Africa Live team for now - there will be an automated feed until Tuesday morning.

Keep up-to-date with what's happening across the continent by listening to the Africa Today podcast or checking the BBC News website.

A reminder of our wise words of the day:

Quote Message: A host's dance is never a bad one." from Sent by Bwalya Mpelwa Chanda in Lusaka, Zambia

A host's dance is never a bad one."

And we leave you with this picture of a cyclist in Libya's capital, Tripoli.

Residents of South Sudan’s capital, Juba, have expressed mixed feelings regarding news of a shift to a new time zone.

Last week, the cabinet resolved that South Sudan will change to a new time zone by setting the clock back one hour from 1 February 2021.

The country’s time zone will change from GMT +3 to GMT+2, which was its previous time zone before it separated from Sudan.

Wodkan Saviour Lazaru, from the Support Peace Initiative Development Organisation, told the BBC the change was a bad idea:

Quote Message: We have already joined the East African Community and we are used to East Africa time which is GMT +3. The new change means the majority of people will get confused as they will not know what to do - because it will affect working hours – reporting to work and getting back home.

We have already joined the East African Community and we are used to East Africa time which is GMT +3. The new change means the majority of people will get confused as they will not know what to do - because it will affect working hours – reporting to work and getting back home.

Quote Message: I am suggesting that the government should reconsider its decision and not to change the time zone, let it remain GMT +3.”

I am suggesting that the government should reconsider its decision and not to change the time zone, let it remain GMT +3.”

While Samuel Marial, a journalism student at University of Juba, welcomed the move:

Quote Message: I really welcome this announcement of the change to the new time zone because it was the original time. The new time will have a positive effect. As a student, it will give me much time to arrive at the university on time for lectures. The new time favours students.”

I really welcome this announcement of the change to the new time zone because it was the original time. The new time will have a positive effect. As a student, it will give me much time to arrive at the university on time for lectures. The new time favours students.”

However, Deborah Arach, a housewife and a fourth year student at the University of Juba, had a different view:

Quote Message: I don’t welcome this change. As a woman, it will affect me because services at home will be affected, it will be difficult to do domestic work before leaving for university. Those of us who are married will have problems with our husbands who might not be satisfied with the work we do at home.”

I don’t welcome this change. As a woman, it will affect me because services at home will be affected, it will be difficult to do domestic work before leaving for university. Those of us who are married will have problems with our husbands who might not be satisfied with the work we do at home.”

AFPCopyright: AFP

Somalia has foiled an attempt to smuggle "high calibre weapons and ammunition" into the country by local and foreign groups, the country's information ministry has said.

The ministry said the operation was successful because it has a "robust system in the supply chain of weapons and ammunition from point of procurement to post-distribution", read a statement from the ministry.

The government said investigations were ongoing to establish the origin and intended use of the weapons.

The UN Security Council imposed an arms embargo on Somalia in January 1992. However, it has allowed light arms supplies to the Somali government forces.

The development comes three months after the country's spy agency said it seized 79 tonnes of sulphuric acid smuggled into the country for use by al-Shabab militants.

BBCCopyright: BBC

The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has said that it has found young children in detention suspected of being members of an insurgent group.

In a statement on Monday EHRC said it found the children in the south-western state of Gambella during a site visit last month.

The children - aged between 11 and 14 - are suspected of being members of the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA).

The EHRC has shown relative independence in recent years, despite its affiliation with the government.

The commission said that two boys - aged 11 and 12 - and a girl aged 14 remain in jail a month later - where the boys received beatings.

The OLA - often referred by authorities as the OLF Shane - is a breakaway group from the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) and is believed to operate in western Ethiopia.

The commission also said 90 people from the Tigrayan ethnic group have been jailed in the state since early November.

They are accused of supporting the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) - that fought against federal troops in northern Ethiopia.

They have remained in police custody and no investigations have been conducted, EHRC said.

Daniel Bekele, an official from the commission, added that the “issue of children in detention and ensuring the bail rights of detainees requires urgent attention."

AFPCopyright: AFP

Zimbabwe's government spokesman has apologised after the country's medical association reacted furiously to his suggestion that doctors were behind the deaths of top government officials who succumbed to Covid-19.

Nick Mangwana tweeted "medical assassins" to insinuate that the politicians were being deliberately eliminated.

Four cabinet ministers have now died from Covid-19, as the virus sweeps across Zimbabwe, overwhelming its chronically underfunded health system.

The country’s doctors reacted with fury, insisting their staff were working hard, with few resources and little pay, to fight the pandemic.

Some Zimbabweans have noted that, because of lockdown restrictions, the country’s political elites are no longer able to rush abroad to seek medical treatment as former President Robert Mugabe once did so routinely.

Instead, Zimbabwe’s rulers are now obliged, mid-pandemic, to depend on a health system which they stand accused of breaking.

AFPCopyright: AFP

The High Court in Malawi has refused to allow former President Peter Mutharika access to his bank accounts which were frozen by the country’s anti-corruption body pending trial.

Mr Mutharika’s bank accounts, as well as those of his wife, Gertrude, were frozen last August by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) which accuses him of benefiting from a $6.6m (£4.2m) cement scandal.

The former president denies wrongdoing and has applied to the High Court to allow him access his accounts to, among other things, pay for his legal fees in the case.

The court dismissed his application on a technicality after it transpired that the day on which the application was made, 25 November 2020, the court order he was challenging was not valid.

Judge Rowland Mvundula said the former president had made an application at a time when he was actually able to access his bank accounts.

However, the ACB has managed to obtain an extension to the original court order, which means the former president remains restrained from accessing his bank accounts.

AFPCopyright: AFP

The decision by Liberian sport authorities to choose Heineken, the Dutch beer, over its competitor in the country, the Chinese-brewed Tsingtao, to sponsor the country's largest annual sporting event has sparked a row.

The two competing beers both have large fan bases and are loved and consumed widely.

Liberian sports authorities say they selected Heineken because its management offered more cash to help with the event’s planning.

“The fact of the matter is our sponsorship between these two competitors was purely on the basis of the higher bidder,” Youth and Sports Minister Zeogar Wilson told the BBC. “Tsingtao could only afford $10,000 (£7,000) and Heineken came up with $15,000 (£11,000) plain and simple.”

But Liberian agents of the Chinese beer have described their exclusion as a deliberate attempt to make business difficult for their product.

They have argued in a series of radio appearances that the authorities did not appreciate the employment they have created for hundreds of citizens which has boosted the economy.

The foreign beer competition has put pressure on Liberia’s own traditional Club Beer to improve its quality and introduce new and better brands on billboards in recent times.

The National County Meet, which involves male and female football matches, is the most popular social event in the country.

AFPCopyright: AFP

A video of a Kenyan priest blasting top politicians including President Uhuru Kenyatta over their handling of the country's affairs has been widely shared on social media.

Those commenting praised Rev Sammy Wainaina, the provost of the All Saints Cathedral in the capital Nairobi, for "speaking truth to power".

In his Sunday sermon, Rev Wainaina criticised an ongoing campaign to change Kenya’s constitution that will see the post of a prime minister and deputies reintroduced in the executive arm of government.

He said the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) would not solve the country’s urgent problems like unemployment and poverty.

“We have money for BBI which will only benefit a few people at the top, the kingpins... but we have no money to build schools, then our children [are forced ] to learn under trees,” he said.

“Let me remind Kenyans that when your tribal man becomes the president or takes the five top seats, you will remain poor,” he added.

But he saved his most stinging criticism for President Kenyatta, who recently said that Kenya was losing more than two billion shillings ($18m; £13m) a day to corruption.

“What are you telling Kenyans when you confess that? That you are defeated? Who will then save this country if the president cannot save us?" he asked.

“Mr president, you have the ethics and anti-corruption commission, you have the director of public prosecutions, you have the national intelligence service, you have every government machinery at your disposal.

"Either the government knows who is stealing the Kenyans' money, or the government is part of the stealing?" he said, adding that he would no longer host politicians in his church.

The BBI proposals have deeply divided the country and heightened political campaigns in the country.

Politicians opposing and supporting the initiative have been criss-crossing the country to make their case to the public ahead of an expected referendum.

Heavy fighting broke out at a Somali town near the Kenyan border, leaving at least 11 people dead and 14 others injured, according to eyewitnesses.

The fighting in Baled-Hawo town, in the south-western region of Gedo, started late Sunday night and continued until Monday morning

Somalia’s information ministry has accused Kenya of supporting "rebels" to attack federal forces amid rising tensions between the two East Africa neighbours.

Kenya has not yet responded to Somalia's statement.

But an official of the semi-autonomous state of Jubbaland, Vice President Mohamud Sayid Adan, told BBC Somali radio that regional forces stationed outside the town were attacked by federal forces in the town.

Both Jubbaland and the federal government are claiming victory.

Somali's information ministry said federal forces were in control of the town.

Residents say some people had started to flee.

The federal government and Jubbaland's administration have been engaged in a dispute over the process for elections and control of some regions bordering Kenya.

Somalia last month severed diplomatic relations with Kenya after accusing Nairobi of “blatant interference” in Jubbaland affairs. Kenya denied the accusation.

The regional body, Intergovernmental Authority on Development (Igad), recently sent a fact-finding mission to the border but the findings have not been made public.

Large numbers of Ghanaians are filing past the coffin of the former president, Jerry Rawlings, ahead of his funeral on Wednesday.

The open casket is surrounded by flowers, candles and a glass screen at Accra's international conference centre.

Mourners are wearing face masks and are socially distanced, in line with coronavirus restrictions. Mr Rawlings, who was 73, died in November from an undisclosed illness.

A local TV station has been broadcasting the event.

His burial was delayed, in part, because of disagreements between Ghana's current political leaders.

During two decades in public life, he twice led military take-overs, before later returning the country to multi-party politics and winning elections.

AFPCopyright: AFP

A retired and influential Catholic Cardinal has questioned the calibre of some of some church leaders in South Sudan.

“I don’t want stupid priests in the church," said Cardinal Gabriel Zubeir Wako, the Archbishop Emeritus of the Catholic Archdiocese of Khartoum, during a visit to the north-western city of Wau.

"During the days I have spent here in Wau, I have been meeting priests and I have noticed that most of them don’t know the liturgy of the church, they have shallow teaching of the church. They must upgrade their standards," Archbishop Wako said on Sunday.

The Cardinal, who celebrates his 80th birthday next month, is widely respected and credited for supporting education programmes.

He was honoured by the government of South Sudan in 2016 for supported the education of two million children displaced by conflict in South Sudan.

He also sent many priests for further studies in Rome and in Kenya, for masters and a doctorate degrees.

Amongst those he sent for further studies are his immediate successor Archbishop Dr Michael Didi, the current Archbishop of Khartoum, and the current Archbishop of Juba, Dr Stephen Ameyu.

Cardinal Wako also urged priests to upgrade their standards “morally and intellectually” in order to serve the church and the society effectively.

Burundi’s ruling party, CNDD-FDD, has elected Révérien Ndikuriyo as its new leader.

He will take over the secretary general role from incumbent President Evariste Ndayishimiye, who held the post until May 2020 when he won the election.

Mr Ndikuriyo took to Twitter after the vote on Sunday to thank “companion” President Ndayishimiye and said he “will not betray” the party.

He joined the then rebel group in early 1990s before it turned into a political movement and eventually won power in 2003 after the Arusha peace agreement.

The 50 year-old former Makamba province governor is known to be outspoken and straight forward in his speeches.

CNDD-FDD tweeted photos of the new secretary general:

AFPCopyright: AFP

If the security forces withdraw immediately, Bobi Wine still has at least four days to file a court petition challenging the result of the vote.

If he takes that route, the court must hear and rule on the petition within 30 days.

National Unity Platform officials had told the BBC that a way forward had not been mapped, as they were unable to access their party president.

In a Facebook Live address on Friday, Bobi Wine said that Ugandans had a right to protest if they so wished, though he did not outright call on his supporters to take to the streets.

He is not the first Ugandan opposition leader to be kept under home confinement. Kizza Besigye was kept under house arrest for more than two months after the 2016 election.

Following the 2011 election, Dr Besigye launched a series of walk-to-work protests, rather than challenge the poll result in court. They were all violently broken up by the security forces.