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Gunmen have killed two police officers in Nigeria's southern Akwa Ibom state - the latest in a string of attacks on the country's police force.

A spokesman said gunmen on motorbikes had tried to attack a police station at Ika on Tuesday but were repelled.

He said on the way to the station they had ambushed the two officers and had set a police patrol vehicle on fire.

In recent months dozens of security personnel have been killed and police stations burnt in south-east Nigeria.

Officials have blamed some of the attacks on separatists.

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Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta has sacked the entire board of directors of the country’s medical supplies agency that has been hit by a series of scandals.

The Kenya Medical Supplies Authority's (Kemsa) latest scandal involved supplying 24,000 doses of an HIV drugs that had been phased out.

Kenya stopped using Nevirapine in 2019 after patients suffered serious side effects.

The agency is also part of the reason why more than 200,000 doses of anti-retroviral drugs are stuck in a warehouse in the coastal city of Mombasa, four months after being donated by the US.

Last year, Kemsa was also implicated in the alleged misuse of millions of dollars meant for buying Covid-19 supplies.

It is hoped this overhaul will help the agency regain public trust. The new board will be in office for three years.

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A leading figure in Algeria's pro-democracy protest movement, Karim Tabbou, has been arrested.

He was detained on Wednesday evening after being summoned to a police station to respond to a complaint that's been filed against him.

Mr Tabbou became one of the most recognisable figures in the street demonstrations that forced the resignation of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika two years ago.

His detention comes weeks ahead of parliamentary elections that he and other opposition figures have said they would boycott.

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Acclaimed Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has made a heartfelt tribute on Facebook to her mother, who died on 1 March.

Adichie writes about the pain of having her heart broken twice as her mother, Grace Adichie, died months after they had buried her father.

She remembers Grace as a “warm, loving, funny, kind, quick-witted beautiful mother” and style icon who offered unconditional support to her children.

"She made history as the first female registrar of the University of Nigeria," she says.

Her death was unexpected and Grace had been working until a few days before she was suddenly taken ill, dying on the day of her late husband's birthday.

“How does a heart break twice? You discover emotions you cannot name. There is an emotion more hollow than sorrow. There is an acceptance drenched in disbelief," the prize-winning writer says.

"Language fails. Clichés come startlingly alive: the heart is truly heavy, it is no mere metaphor...

"To have loving parents, an entire life propped up by them, and in months to have it all end, so abruptly, with such unbearable finality."

Read her full post:

A church in central Kenya is asking people to be on the look-out for its 500kg (about 80-stone) bell that was stolen during a break-in last week.

The Virgin Mary Orthodox Church in Ngecha area of Kiambu, a county to the north of the capital, Nairobi, told local media that it reported the theft to the police.

The Standard newspaper has tweeted a photo of the copper bell:

Worshippers have complained that the ban on religious gatherings because of the coronavirus pandemic has led to an increase in robberies at churches, and they urged police to provide security, The Standad reports.

The church is also said to have lost 10 bottles of altar wine, a public address system and other items in a break-in a week before the theft of the bell.

A university in eastern Kenya has denied reports that it is enrolling students for a witchcraft degree.

The Machakos University said the reports were malicious:

Kenyan blogs published articles about the launch of a four year course in witchcraft at the institution.

This led to some people tweeting Machakos University asking for more information.

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A judge in Rome is starting to hear evidence against four members of Egypt's security services accused of murdering an Italian student in Cairo in 2016.

Giulio Regeni disappeared while researching trade unions; his mutilated body was found in a ditch nine days later.

A post-mortem found he’d been tortured.

The Egyptian authorities cleared all those implicated in his killing but Italian prosecutors say they’ve gathered unequivocal proof that the four officers murdered the student.

Italy withdrew its ambassador from Cairo for several months and accused the Egyptian authorities of trying to derail criminal investigations.

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Your perfect night out will have to wait.

In many countries across Africa, lockdowns or curfews have forced bars, restaurants, clubs to shut their doors.

“Unfortunately, during this Covid time, the night-time economy is going to continue suffering,” says Reginald Kadzutu, a financial and economic analyst based in Kenya.

For many of these businesses, surviving meant finding ways to continue working, while respecting restrictions still in place.

“Restaurants are only operating to deliver home and of course there’s a curfew, which right now [begins] at 8pm, so of course you have to close a lot earlier,” says Abba Kidenda, co-founder of coffee shop Lava Latte in Nairobi.

So how exactly is the continent's nightlife changing - and will it ever be the same?

Find out in Thursday’s edition of Africa Daily.

Subscribe to the show on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts.

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The Tanzanian government has said that it is ready to amend media policy and regulations with input from the country’s stakeholders.

"Bring those ideas so that what the government should do can do and what the the media sector players can do can begin," Hassan Abbas, the permanent secretary for information, told media stakeholders during the launch of a conference organised by the UN's education agency Unesco on Wednesday.

He said government was ready to make any amendments to media policy and regulations if stakeholders had recommendations that would develop the industry.

"Where there are proposals that require the media policy or laws to be changed, the ministry is ready to work with you ... We'll discuss the policies so that we can work on them for the future of our economy and the whole concept of media freedom," he said.

President Samia Suluhu, who took over after former President John Magufuli's death on 17 March, has brought notable changes, including allowing some media outlets that had been censored during her predecessor's regime to reopen.

Zambia’s footballer Kabaso Chongo is nursing head injuries after his TP Mazembe side were attacked by rival supporters in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Wednesday.

Mazembe were playing FC Sanga Balende in Mbuji Mayi, central DR Congo, where they scored a late win, something that displeased the hosts’ supporters.

The supporters then started stoning the Mazembe entourage leaving four players injured, including Mr Chongo.

After the incident, Mr Chongo told the BBC he was in pain.

“I am still in a lot of pain. I can’t say when exactly I will be back in training but I will need a few days to recover,” he said.

Mazembe, who are based in Lubumbashi, are hoping to defend the league though they are second after Kinshasa-based AS Vita, who are the current leaders.

Malawi's Supreme Court has ruled that the death penalty is unconstitutional.

The court said the death penalty was against international human rights standards. This means that a life sentence will be the highest punishment in Malawi.

The Malawi Human Rights Commission described the ruling as progress:

The ruling noted there had been no executions in the country since 1975.

Malawian social justice advocate Alexious Kamangila told the BBC’s Focus on Africa programme that the death sentence did not necessarily deter criminal activities, adding that other forms of punishment were good enough.

“The death penalty targets the poorest in Malawi and other places - those who cannot afford proper legal representation are the ones who are more likely to face death penalty,” he said.

Malawi now becomes the 22nd sub-Saharan country to abolish the death penalty.

Read more:

• ‘The hangman was too tired to hang me – three times’

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A Nigerian journalist has finally honoured an invitation to meet Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka, after 52 years of waiting.

Oloye Lekan Alabi, a veteran journalist who has also worked as a press secretary for four state governors, met Prof Soyinka on Wednesday at his residence in Ogun state, Nigerian media reported.

Mr Alabi told journalists that he had been invited by the novelist and playwright in 1969.

He said he had been invited because of a letter he wrote to then President Yakubu Gowon criticising the government for imprisoning Prof Soyinka. He added that he had written another letter to the laureate, during his two years in prison, to show solidarity.

In appreciation, the professor had invited him soon after he was released from prison. He said while he initially kept the appointment, he was told the professor had been away.

“Today, 52 years after, it has pleased God that I honour the kind invitation extended to me in 1969 while I was a 19-year-old student of African Church Grammar School, Apata Ganga, Ibadan, by Prof (then Mr) Wole Soyinka," the The Guardian newspaper quotes him as saying.

A magistrate in South Africa was charged in court for fraudulently acquiring a driving licence.

Bonginkosi Mtshali was charged along with five other suspects and released on a cash bail, local media reported.

The magistrate was issued with the licence by four officers who were also arrested, according to the investigating officer.

The Road Traffic Management Corporation spokesperson Simon Zwane is quoted by The South African news website as saying that “his arrest is a clear demonstration that no one is above the law and that NTACU investigates all allegations without fear or favour”.

AFPCopyright: AFP

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) security summit that was to be held in Mozambique on Thursday has been postponed.

Mozambican Foreign Minister Veronica Macamo said the body did not have a quorum because Botswana's and South Africa's presidents would be absent.

Botswana's Mokgweetsi Masis is self-isolating after his staff members contracted Covid-19 while South Africa's Cyril Ramaphosa is testifying in a corruption inquiry.

The Botswana government had in a statement said that the vice-president would represent the president.

Minister Macamo said that SADC had agreed to intervene on the insecurity in Cabo Delgado province and that it was the heads of states who would come up with lasting solutions.

The province has had a series of attacks by Islamist militants.

AFPCopyright: AFP

South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa has admitted to the failure of the ruling party to prevent corruption during former president Jacob Zuma’s rule.

He said the African National Congress (ANC) should have done more to prevent corruption, as he gave his testimony before a judicial inquiry probing allegations of corruption during Mr Zuma’s term as president.

He said the ANC had not lived up to the expectations of the South African people in enforcing accountability, noting that corruption had undermined the rule of law.

"We all acknowledge that the organisation could and should have done more to prevent the abuse of power and the misappropriation of resources that defined the era of state capture," he said.

The president was speaking before the commission as head of the ANC and is expected to continue his testimony on Thursday.

On his opening statement on Wednesday, he said the ANC would try to shed light on the matters being investigated - so as to hold to account those responsible.

Mr Zuma faces more than a dozen corruption-related charges including fraud, racketeering and money laundering during his nine years of power. He denies any wrongdoing.

Our African proverb of the day:

Quote Message: Roasting food requires the mother’s hand; the child's hand can put out the fire." from A Shona proverb from Zimbabwe sent by Clifford Musungo in Leeds, UK.

Roasting food requires the mother’s hand; the child's hand can put out the fire."

BBCCopyright: BBC

Click here to send us your African proverbs.