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Tunisian's former prime minister, who was sacked by the president last month, has been seen for the first time since his shock dismissal 11 days ago.

There have been unconfirmed reports that he was under house arrest.

Pictures on the website of the anti-corruption agency show Hicham Mechichi entering its premises to sign an asset declaration, but he did not speak to the media.

He was fired on 25 July and there were rumours at the time that he had been assaulted.

In a 26 July Facebook post Mr Mechichi denied the assault and said he was ready to hand over to his successor once appointed by the president.

But since then he has not spoken to the media or appeared in public.

The motivation behind the Islamist insurgency in northern Mozambique must be understood in order to pave the way towards a dialogue, former President Joaquim Chissano has told the BBC's Focus on Africa radio.

He was expanding on his comments broadcast on state-owned Radio Mozambique on Wednesday.

He said that while the priority would always be to protect the people, there is a need to engage with those causing the violence.

"Talking should not be ruled out because many groups using terrorism as a method of fighting have ended up with some dialogue [with the authorities]", the former president told the BBC's Veronique Edwards.

He said that in his experience it was sometimes impossible to insist that fighting should end before talking begins, "so it's better to find out how they can talk even if the fight continues".

Mr Chissano said he used the approach successfully when dealing with rebels in Guinea-Bissau.

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Tunisia's largest political party, Ennahdha, has reiterated its call for an end to the suspension of parliament, which was ordered by President Kais Saied.

But the party also said it was ready to cooperate in order to solve the country's problems.

Ennahdha had earlier described President Saied's action as a "coup".

But his decision to sweep aside the government has been widely welcomed by the public.

In a statement, Ennahdha said the party had reflected on the popular anger felt towards Tunisia's political class in general, and said that it needed to apologise for its mistakes.

Read more:

• Tunisia crisis: Democrats, despots and the fight for power

The authorities in north-west Nigeria’s Kano and Jigawa states say a cholera outbreak has killed about 300 people.

Nigeria experiences annual cholera outbreaks during the rainy season but this year’s death toll appears to be higher than in previous years.

Overall, Nigeria’s Centre for Disease Control says the cholera outbreak has hit more than half of the country’s 36 states.

Thousands of people have been infected and hundreds have died - with most of the victims being children.

The north of Nigeria has seen the highest number of cases.

The outbreak started in March but worsened in recent weeks.

It is coinciding with a significant upsurge in Covid-19 cases and a doctors' strike by doctors.

With the entire health system under strain, the authorities are struggling to stop the spread of cholera.

Getty ImagesCopyright: Getty Images

Lions have killed three children who had gone to look for missing cattle in northern Tanzania’s Ngorongoro wildlife reserve, police said in a statement on Thursday.

The children – aged between nine and 11 – went looking for the livestock just after they had returned from school, Arusha police chief Justine Masejo is quoted by the AFP news agency as saying.

"That is when the lions attacked and killed three children while injuring one," he said.

"I would like to urge the nomadic communities around the reserved areas to take precautions against fierce animals especially when they task their children to take care of the livestock. That will help to protect the children and their families."

Ngorongoro, and other wildlife reserves and national parks, are protected areas but the authorities allow Maasai people to live there and raise cattle.

There have been cases of humans and wildlife coming into conflict before, AFP reports.

Thirty-six lions had to be relocated from the Serengeti National Park, also in northern Tanzania, after they attacked humans and cattle.

Renamo Mozambique/FacebookCopyright: Renamo Mozambique/Facebook

Mozambique’s largest opposition party, Renamo, has demanded that parliament hold an urgent session to discuss the presence of foreign forces fighting armed groups in the Cabo Delgado province.

“Renamo's position is that… the body that represents the people should, in principle, debate all the implications of the entry of foreign forces into Mozambique,” ​​said the party’s chief whip, Venancio Mondlane.

The party argues that the introduction of foreign troops into the country did not follow the constitution and thus it should be "normalised and legalised as soon as possible".

Speaker Esperança Bias said there was no illegality in the decision to allow foreign troops to combat terrorism.

She said a session to discuss the situation in Cabo Delgado had been scheduled for October – where the executive would explain itself to the "representatives of the people".

Troops from Rwanda and others from the southern African regional bloc (Sadc) are already in the country providing support to Mozambican forces fighting insurgents in the northern region.

Pierre Mvogo Ndongo/Re:WildCopyright: Pierre Mvogo Ndongo/Re:Wild

On a recent trip to Sierra Leone, Cameroonian scientist Pierre Mvogo Ndongo found a species of fresh water crab that had not been seen by scientists for more than 200 years.

The Afzelius’s crab of the Afrithelphusa afzelii was first identified in the 18th Century, he told the BBC‘s Focus on Africa radio programme.

On a research visit, Prof Ndongo headed for the Moyamba district where sightings had been reported.

With the help of locals he found several Afzelius crabs, which have a brown shell and are about 20mm in size, he said.

“I feel very good to be the first to find the crab alive after 230 years,” Prof Ndongo told Focus on Africa.

He also found the Sierra Leone crab, which hadn’t had a confirmed sighting since 1955.

Camapign group Re:Wild says the lost species are land-living crabs that live in burrows on the rainforest floor, often far from permanent water sources.

They have specially adapted lung-type structures that allow them to breathe air, and some of their close relatives elsewhere in West Africa can even climb trees.

AFPCopyright: AFP

Amnesty International says Nigerian security forces have killed dozens of people during operations against separatists in the south-east of the country.

This comes after the government accused the banned Indigenous People of Biafra (Ipob) movement of attacking police stations killing dozens of officers.

Amnesty is calling for an impartial and open inquiry as well as fair trials for anyone accused of violence.

It says the evidence it has gathered in Imo, Anambra and Abia states paints a damning picture of ruthless excessive force by the Nigerian police and army.

As well as killing 115 suspected militants, the rights group says people were randomly picked up from their homes who had nothing to do with the attacks on police stations - some were tortured.

Ipob has denied any involvement in the violence.

Its leader Nnamdi Kanu is on trial for treason.

There is a danger that the authorities' response to the unrest could fuel resentment and anger and lead to yet more violence in south-east Nigeria.

Getty ImagesCopyright: Getty Images

Nigeria has recorded its highest daily confirmed cases of Covid-19 in nearly six months.

Figures from the country’s centre for disease control, NCDC, show that 747 infections were recorded in the last 24 hours.

Officials say the county is beginning to experience a third wave of the pandemic largely driven by the more contagious Delta variant.

This is happening amid low vaccination rates and a strike by doctors in public hospitals.

The government also placed at least six states on the red list over a possible surge.

Just around 1% of Nigeria’s population of around 200 million has been vaccinated so far.

The country has recorded more than 176,000 cases of the virus with more than 2,000 deaths since the start of the pandemic last year.

ReutersCopyright: Reuters

South Sudan’s First Vice-President, Riek Machar, has condemned the group of generals within the military wing of his Sudan People’s Liberation Movement In Opposition (SPLM-IO), who announced his ouster from the party’s leadership.

On Tuesday, three generals said they had deposed Mr Machar and replaced him with the former SPLA-IO Chief of General Staff, Simon Gatwech Dual, as an interim leader of the party and commander-in-chief of the forces, a new twist in South Sudan’s politics.

Mr Machar had dismissed Mr Gatwech from his position as chief of staff and recommended his appointment as Presidential Advisor for Peace, but Mr Gatwech rejected the appointment.

The vice-president said the people behind the attempted ouster "peace spoilers" in a press release.

He said the declaration was aimed at derailing the graduation and deployment of the unified forces after the reconstituted parliament was sworn in.

Mr Machar reiterated the commitment of his party to the full implementation of the revitalised peace agreement "in letter and spirit".

A group of fishermen looking for a catch in Kenya’s Lake Victoria got the shock of their lives when they instead netted a heavy metallic box with six mortar bombs inside.

The fishermen in the western Mbita town, who had thought they had caught a large Nile Perch on Wednesday morning, hastily opened the box only to discover the rusty bombs.

Kenya's police have been tweeting about the incident:

Two of the fishermen jumped into the lake in fear that the bombs would explode while three of their colleagues steered the boat ashore.

They reported the discovery to the beach authorities who informed the police.

Kenya's Department of Criminal Investigations (DCI) said bomb disposal experts were immediately informed and "rushed to the scene and took possession of the cache”.

The bombs were expected to be safely detonated later by the experts.

In 2019 explosives believed to be from the colonial era were found concealed in an old rusty wooden box in the lake.

Nigeria's Grammy-award winning star Wizkid is trending on Twitter in the UK as his fans scramble to get seats for a one-off concert in November.

A first batch of tickets went on sale on Thursday morning and were sold out in minutes. People have been sharing their success and frustration.

McBriggs was celebrating:

But this tweeter was not so lucky:

And Jason Okundaye said that he might die if he can't see Wizkid:

More tickets will be on sale on Friday.

More than 150 lorries carrying humanitarian aid have arrived in Ethiopia's conflict-hit northern Tigray region. Millions are in need of assistance there, according to UN estimates.

The UN World Food Programme said 175 lorries carrying supplies had made it into Tigray.

Its executive director, David Beasley, tweeted that while this was "great progress" more than 100 lorries were needed every day for the population who were in dire need.

The Ethiopian government confirmed the arrival of the food aid and other items transported by WFP and other UN agencies.

It came as Ethiopia announced the suspension operational permits of a three aid agencies, accusing them of administrative violations and engaging in activities outside their mandate.

BBCCopyright: BBC

The court case of Tanzania opposition leader Freeman Mbowe, which was to be held virtually, has been postponed after technical difficulties.

Nevertheless, party supporters who had turned out on the streets to back him were dispersed by police and some were arrested.

BBCCopyright: BBC

Mr Mbowe has been charged with terror-related crimes.

He was arrested ahead of planned meetings to discuss constitutional reforms.