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The authorities in Mozambique will breathe a huge sigh of relief that Total has not pulled out completely but this latest development is a sobering warning of how a key investment could be delayed or lost.

It comes weeks after the company resumed exploration activities after the government said its forces were in control of Palma, close to its Afungi site. The guarantee didn't last - only hours later the militants overran the town.

As well as Total's LNG project in Cabo Delgado, there is another operated by the US' ExxonMobil estimated to be worth $60bn (£43bn).

The fields could earn the southern African country some $100bn over the next 25 years - that's six times the country's current budget, and perhaps enough to transform its economy.

President Filipe Nyusi is under pressure to prove that he can secure the interests of international investors, keep Mozambicans safe, and reassure jittery neighbours that he can end the insurgency.

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Read more: Total halts work after Palma attacks

Algerian authorities said they have arrested a group of separatists plotting attacks and criminal activities in several regions of the country.

The Ministry of Defence said in a statement that "security investigations helped dismantle a group of criminals who are members of the Mak separatist organisation".

The Movement for the Autonomy of Kabylie (Mak) is an ethnic Berber organisation seeking to split the Berber Kabylie region away from Algeria.

Nur PhotoCopyright: Nur Photo

Investigators uncovered and seized weapons and explosives and said "the group members intended to use in their planned attacks" during the anti-government protests of the Hirak movement.

The statement added that several members of Mak have "received military training abroad financed by foreign countries" without naming a specific country.

It is not the first time the Algerian authorities have said that the anti-government protests have been infiltrated.

In January 2020 the Ministry of Defence announced the arrest of a suicide bomber planning to blow himself in a rally in the capital, Algiers.

The legislative elections are on 12 June but the Hirak movement has already called for their boycott.

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Chad's new ruling military council has named as interim prime minister the runner-up in this month's presidential election.

The appointment of Albert Pahimi Padacké follows last week's battlefield death of President Idriss Déby.

Mr Padacké served as prime minister under Mr Déby until the post was abolished in 2018.

An opposition leader, Yacine Abderamane, has refused to accept Mr Padacké's nomination saying the transitional military council has no right to make such an appointment.

Mr Déby was killed the day after he won the presidential election.

He was fighting rebels who swept into Chad from their bases in Libya.

Read more: Chad's future rocked by president's battlefield death

An Italian priest has been shot and injured by unknown gunmen, Catholic church authorities have said.

Fr Christian Carlassare was attacked at his house on Sunday night.

“He is currently receiving treatment at a hospital in Rumbek [central South Sudan]. The armed men targeted him, they knocked his door and started shooting at the door until they broke it,” Fr. Andrea Osman, a Diocesan priest who also survived the incident told the Nairobi-based Association for Catholic Information in Africa.

“They shot him three bullets, two on one leg and the other one on another leg. He is now in stable condition as doctors have controlled the heavy bleeding,” Fr. Andrea added.

Fr Andrea said arrangements were underway to airlift the Bishop-elect to Nairobi for further treatment.

The motive of the incident remains unclear.

In November 2018 a Kenyan priest, Fr Victor Luke Odhiambo was shot dead by people who attacked his Jesuit community in the Lakes area.

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Forces loyal to the opposition in Somalia are occupying key parts of the capital, Mogadishu, following Sunday's eruption of fighting with soldiers supporting President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo.

These include a junction about half a kilometre from the presidential palace.

Civilians have been fleeing the areas affected by the violence.

Some schools and universities have been shut.

Clan elders are trying to negotiate a peaceful settlement between powerful opposition leaders and Mr Farmajo, whose mandate has been extended by two years, despite expiring in February.

Read more: Rival units fight amid row over president's term

Giant telecom operators from the UK, South Africa, Kenya and Japan are bidding to enter Ethiopia’s untapped telecom market.

The country's finance ministry announced on Monday that it received two bids - from South Africa's MTN group and a consortium that includes Kenya's Safaricom - as it works to open the telecom market to international operators.

The consortium also includes Vodafone and CDC companies from the UK, South Africa's Vodacom and Japanese firm Sumitomo.

The ministry also posted the announcement on Twitter:

Financial and technical assessments of the bids will be done by a national evaluation committee.

Opening up the telecom market was one of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s pledges of economic reform when he came to power three years ago.

South Sudan’s health ministry has rejected the advice from the World Health Organization (WHO) not to destroy the expired Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid vaccine.

The country's Covid-19 Incident Manager Richard Laku has said the government will not use the 60,000 vaccines and will destroy them.

The WHO has asked governments to wait for its guidance noting that vaccines could be used up to 36 months after manufacture.

Dr Laku said the position of the government is that “these doses of vaccine will not be used, but there is an option to destroy them.”

WHO’s Country Preparedness and International Health Regulation Officer Wamala Joseph Francis said there was a standard practice for the organisation to reach out to manufacturers for guidance.

“When such a situation happens for a precious product like this Covid vaccine, we usually reach out to the manufacturer and share the batches – so that the manufacturer can run additional tests and determine for how long the vaccine will remain stable – so that will determine the period of extending the expiry date,” Dr Francis said.

ReutersCopyright: Reuters

The Somali capital, Mogadishu, is calm on Monday morning after heavy fighting between pro-opposition armed loyalist and the government security forces, privately-owned Radio Risala has reported.

"The situation in the areas where the fighting occurred is today calm and people were seen walking to their work places and some came out to assess the situation," Radio Risala's website said.

Heavy clashes between opposition loyalists and government security forces erupted on Sunday.

Military sources in Nigeria say more than 30 soldiers have been killed in an Islamist attack on their convoy in the north-eastern state of Borno.

The insurgents are then reported to have overrun an army base, burning military vehicles.

Several other attacks have been reported in Nigeria over the past two days, with dozens of civilians killed.

There is growing concern over what many Nigerians say is the government's inability to deal with deteriorating security.

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The government of Kenya is not closing down Dadaab and Kakuma refugee camps but it wants a solution, the head of the UN's refugee agency has said.

UNHCR's Filippo Grandi is visiting the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Burundi, to assess the problems that refugees are currently facing in the region.

Last month, Kenya gave a 14-day ultimatum for UNHCR to close Dadaab and Kakuma camps, citing national security concerns, and the interior ministry said “there was no room for further negotiations”.

In Rwanda on Sunday, Mr Grandi told journalists that they “have had very good discussion with the government of Kenya”.

“The government of Kenya is not closing down those camps, the government of Kenya wants to have a solution, they want to see what’s the way forward,” Mr Grandi said.

The UN refugee agency have submitted to Kenya plans for the future of the two camps, he also revealed.

“I think the government of Kenya will continue to provide hospitality... but understandably they want to have a strategy for the future and the discussions continue.”

In April, Kenya’s High Court temporarily blocked the closure of the two refugee camps that host more than 400,000 people.

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Malawi has said it will go ahead and destroy more than 16,000 doses of expired Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines despite the World Health Organization (WHO) advising against it.

In early March, Malawi received 360,000 doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines but found out the vaccines were due to expire before they were all administered.

The WHO said that the vaccines can be used up to 36 months after manufacture and advised African countries to keep hold of them and wait for further guidance.

But Malawi’s Ministry of Health spokesperson, Joshua Malango, has told the BBC that Malawi will go ahead and destroy 16,440 doses of the vaccines because news of extension of shelf life was shared with Malawi after the vaccine had already expired and taken out of the so-called cold chain system which ensures the temperature of the vaccine doesn't fluctuate and then lose its potency.

“For us, the vaccine doses were effectively already destroyed the moment we removed them from the cold chain system after the expiry date... the incineration will just be a formality,” Mr Malango said.

He further said the other reason for destroying the expired vaccines is that most people were hesitant to get vaccines they thought had expired so destroying them will restore people’s confidence.

Getty ImagesCopyright: Getty Images

In the fight against Covid-19, every vaccine counts.

And yet, both Malawi and South Sudan say they may destroy as many as 70,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca jab. They say the vaccines may have passed their expiry date.

Last week, the World Health Organization pleaded with them not to go ahead with the plan.

“The Ministry of Health is still in communication to reach an amicable resolution,” says South Sudan’s UK Ambassador Agnes Oswaha. “There is no decision made yet to dispose of the vaccines."

But some say this impasse may affect public confidence on the vaccine.

“In terms of perception, in terms of communication, I don’t think that it will be useful,” says Yap Boum, regional representative for Africa for Epicentre, the research arm of Doctors Without Borders.

So, why exactly are so many vaccines at risk of going to waste? What exactly went wrong?

Find out in Monday’s edition of Africa Daily.

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

South Africa will resume its Johnson & Johnson Covid vaccine rollout on Wednesday following recommendations from its cabinet and the health regulatory authority.

“It has since been established there is a one-in-a-million chance of getting the clot after the vaccine, and that it appears that women between the ages of 18 and 48 years old are particularly at risk.

"With such a low probability of developing a clot, all the regulators across the world have recommended the continued use of Johnson and Johnson," Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said in a statement on Monday announcing the resumption.

The authorities will however work "to ensure that there is intensified pre-vaccination assessment and post vaccination monitoring when the rollout is resumed", he said.

The number of vaccination sites will also be expanded across the country once the vaccination resumes.

The country suspended its Johnson and Johnson vaccination programme two weeks ago over concerns that the jab could cause blood clots.

Ugandans online have cheered British actor Daniel Kaluuya, who is of Ugandan origin, after he won an Oscar.

Mr Kaluuya won Best Supporting Actor for his role in Judas and the Black Messiah.

In his speech he thanked all his fans from London and Kampala.

His Ugandan mother, who was in the audience, was also credited for her contribution in his career.

Mr Kaluuya's final words of how incredible it was that his parents had sex and had him made his mother and sister blush:

During the press interviews he said he would avoid picking up his phone for a while but quickly added that his mother had a sense of humour.

Ugandans have congratulated him for his win:

"Congratulations Kaluuya. You are always proud of your motherland and your motherland is proud of you!" Marcella Karekye tweeted.

"Daniel Kaluuya has us Ugandans another Oscar. Its really a good morning alhamdulillah," Kabaka Chosen wrote.

"Kampala, Uganda got a shout out at the Oscars. Thank you for repping the village, Daniel Kaluuya. So proud of you. We Out Here," Colonel tweeted.