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The construction of the Kazungula Bridge, which connects Zambia and Botswana across the Zambezi river, has been completed and is ready for use.

The $259m (£200m) structure, which was built jointly by the two countries, was started in 2014.

The road and rail bridge will speed up the movement of goods and people within the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) region.

Zambia’s Minister Infrastructure Vincent Mwale said the bridge will cut travel time from days to hours.

“We are excited that this state-of-the-art bridge has been completed and I have been told that this facility will reduce the transit time for heavy duty vehicles between Zambia and Botswana from more than three days to only two hours.

"This is a great milestone in the promotion of trade and regional integration,” Mr Mwale said.

The project has been constructed by Daewoo Engineering and Construction of South Korea.

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Gender activists in Malawi are planning to sue the government over lack of gender balance in parastatal board appointments announced by President Lazarus Chakwera in September.

The Women’s Manifesto Movement (WMM) said despite trying to engage the government to rethink the appointments, the parastatals had started working without the matter being resolved in violation of the country's constitution.

They said they will challenge in court any decisions made by the parastatals.

Malawi's constitution stipulates that not more than 60% of one gender shall be represented in public service appointments. The body says at least 10 parastatals have no female representation while others have not achieved the 60:40 balance.

WMM said the government had come up with "poor excuses" to explain its position.

Local newspaper The Nation has quoted the president's Press Secretary Brian Banda as saying that Mr Chakwera was fully committed to addressing the organisations' concerns and was open to dialogue on the matter.

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President Paul Biya has ordered Cameroon’s Prime Minister Joseph Ngute to postpone the implementation of a controversial phone tax and instead propose a better way of collecting it.

The tax that should have gone into effect on 15 October requires phone buyers to pay a 33% tax, if the importer never paid customs dues.

The tax was supposed to be collected from phone users through digital means. But in a note to the prime minister, the secretary general at the presidency - Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh - has underscored the need to put it on hold.

The note requires Mr Ngute to come up with more appropriate means of collecting the tax.

Critics said it was inappropriate to allow importers to evade taxes, and instead heap the burden on end users.

Empires forced their colonies to abandon their own languages and adopt English, French, or Portuguese instead.

But increasingly across the African continent, colonised nations are making the languages of the colonisers their own.

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Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has dressed downed members of the house of representatives about their sartorial choices, saying his locally-made suit was "superior" to what the MPs were wearing.

"This fabric I am wearing is from the Konta area [south western Ethiopia]," Mr Abiy has said.

"I believe this clothing if not superior to the suits you are wearing, it is at least not inferior. It’s handmade. Its quality is high. If I don’t respect and show it, who will?" he said.

He told them to value products made in Ethiopia.

Twitter @AbiyAhmedAliCopyright: Twitter @AbiyAhmedAli

The prime minister was answering questions from MPs, which also included growing tension between the federal government and the regional authorities in Tigray region, which he said "will be resolved by the law."

He also addressed the recurring violence in the western Ethiopian state of Benishangul-Gumuz where dozens of people have been killed in ethically motivated violence since September.

Mr Abiy said the violence is likely being sparked by efforts to undermine the country's mega dam project which is being built in the region.

South Sudan's health ministry says that more than 3,000 people who arrived from abroad defied its Covid-19 safety measures, including self-isolation.

The country reopened its airspace for international flights in July, four months after suspending flights to help limit the spread of coronavirus.

Arriving passengers have to isolate for 14 days.

“Over 3,000 people who arrived into the country via Juba International Airport provided wrong telephone contacts. I don’t know what their intention was," Thuou Loi, the ministry’s spokesperson, told reporters in the capital, Juba.

The warring parties in Libya have begun around of negotiations in Geneva, chaired by the United Nations.

The talks have brought together two delegations of military officials.

One represents the UN-backed government in the capital, Tripoli, and the other has been sent by the eastern-based commander, General Khalifa Haftar.

In fighting earlier this year the government managed to end a siege of Tripoli, and push the Gen Haftar's forces out of much of western Libya.

It's thought that the talks in Geneva will focus on issues like the release of detainees captured in the fighting, and the dismantling of irregular armed groups.

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Police in Uganda have arrested 25 travellers suspected of presenting forged Covid-19 test certificates.

Some 23 travellers were arrested on Sunday while checking in at Entebbe International airport near the capital, Kampala, while two others were apprehended on arrival.

The Uganda Civil Aviation Authority spokesperson, Vianney Luggya, said the suspects are being held by aviation police. They will face charges of forgery and uttering of false documents.

Uganda reopened its international borders on 1 October - six months after they were closed to slow the spread of coronavirus.

It now requires departing travellers to present negative test results taken 120 hours before leaving.

Arriving passengers have to present certificates of test results taken within 72 hours before their flight.

The East Africa country has so far confirmed 10,590 coronavirus cases and 97 deaths from about half a million tests carried out.

About eight facilities are accredited to run Covid-19 Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) tests but they are costly. Some facilities charge as much as $126 (£97) for each test.

More students are resuming face to face learning in Mozambique after the government rolled out a plan for gradual reopening of schools.

University students were the first group to report back when restrictions were eased on 1 October.

Mozambican Ministry of Education and Human Development spokesperson, Feliciano Mahalambe, said 300,000 Grade 10 students in more than 800 schools across the country will return to schools on Monday.

Mr Mahalambe said since 1 October when Grade 12 students resumed classes, no cases of new Covid-19 had been recorded.

He said the authorities will give the go-ahead for learning to resume for all students once they are satisfied that school administrators have put in place measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

Police in Nigeria say that its facilities in the southern city of Benin in Edo state have been attacked by "people posing as #EndSars protesters", referring to the demonstrations against police brutality that have been going on for almost two weeks.

The "protesters" took arms and ammunition from the armoury and freed suspects being held, police said in a statement posted on Twitter.

It added that some that some of the facilities had been set on fire:

The statement also said that everything was being done to bring the situation under control.

The authorities in the southern Edo state have imposed a 24-hour curfew saying that "hoodlums" had taken advantage of the #EndSars protests.

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The Sudanese authorities say they're ready to cooperate with the International Criminal Court over charges faced by the former President, Omar al-Bashir, and other ex-officials.

A delegation led by the ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda is currently in Sudan, investigating the conflict in Darfur in the early 2000s.

Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok said his government was committed to achieving justice.

Bashir has been charged by the ICC with genocide and crimes against humanity.

He's currently in detention in Khartoum convicted of corruption and facing further charges related to the coup that brought him to power in 1989.

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Authorities in Nigeria's southern Edo state have imposed a 24-hour curfew following what it describes as "incidents of vandalism and attacks carried out by hoodlums in the guise of #ENDSARS protesters."

Huge protests against police brutality continued in the state on Monday with several reports of riots breaking out in different locations and a jailbreak at a detention facility.

Secretary to the state government, Osarodion Ogie, who announced the curfew said it is to take effect from 16:00 Monday until further notice.

“This decision has become necessary because of the very disturbing incidents of vandalism and attacks on private individuals and institutions by hoodlums in the guise of the #ENDSARS protests.

“While the government of Edo State respects the rights of its citizens to undertake legitimate protests, it cannot sit idly when hoodlums have taken laws into their hands to cause mayhem on innocent citizens and the state,” Ogie said.

Earlier on Monday, there were multiple reports of prisoners escaping a correctional facility in the Oko part of the state.

In videos posted on social media, some men can be seen scaling a high barbed-wire fence said to be the prison walls along the Sapele road in Edo state.

In this video posted by Nigerian broadcaster TVC, protesters can be seen throwing objects at the prison gate and encouraging inmates to scale the fence:

Widespread demonstrations continued across several Nigerian cities on Monday as protesters called for an end to police brutality and reforms in the sector.

The protests have continued despite authorities agreeing to disband the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (Sars).

On Sunday, protesters occupied the country's central bank in the capital Abuja, but reports say they were targeted by armed thugs in the early hours of Monday.

There is also an increased presence of armed army personnel in the capital days after the military offered to step in warning that "subversive elements and trouble makers" were exploiting the situation.

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A member of parliament in Kenya has been detained for three days pending psychiatric evaluation before she is charged with murder.

Malindi MP Aisha Jumwa was arraigned before a court in the coastal city of Mombasa.

Prosecution said it had enough evidence to charge her for the killing of one Ngumbao Jola in 2019.

Mr Jola was shot during a scuffle in ward by-election campaigns in Aisha Jumwa’s Malindi constituency.

It was then reported that Ms Jumwa had stormed the home of a political opponent to confront opposing supporters when the incident occurred.

If declared fit to stand trial, she will take plea on Thursday along with her bodyguard.

Ahead of the trial critics have accused the state of harassing Ms Jumwa because of her political stand.

The MP has declared her support for Deputy President William Ruto’s presidential ambitions. She is facing separate corruption charges over alleged embezzlement of nearly $20,000 (£15,000) of Constituency Development Funds.

The public prosecutor maintains the decision to press charges is based on evidence collected, which it says is enough for a murder charge.

Several politicians are either under investigation or on trial for corruption and other felonies. In June, MP John Waluke was sentenced to 67 years in jail for corruption, or to pay a $7m fine. After nearly four months behind bars, he was granted bail pending an appeal on the sentence.

Teodorin Nguema Obiang, the vice-president of Equatorial Guinea and son of the president, has been holidaying on an idyllic island and sharing videos and pictures on Instagram.

His latest video, shot by a drone, captures him walking on a deserted sandy beach then segues to another sequence of him snorkelling and diving in pristine turquoise waters.

The video ends with an overhead shot revealing the full breadth of the tiny island and a yacht anchored close by.

Investigate journalist Emmanuel Freudenthal tweeted that Mr Obiang has been holidyaing in the Maldives since the beginning October.

He is staying at a $50,000 (£38,000) per night hotel at a private island, Mr Freudenthal tweeted.

In 2017 The Economist magazine reported on Mr Obiang's lifestyle in a report titled Instagram playboy is also the vice-president of Equatorial Guinea.

It featured pictures of the vice-president showing off his expensive cars and mansions.

His assets - including luxury vehicles, mansions and expensive watches - have been seized in three continents over the past decade, Bloomberg reports.

In 2017, a French court handed him a three-year suspended jail term for corruption.

Despite riches in oil and gas, 76% of Equatorial Guinea's 1.5 million population live in poverty, according to the UN and World bank.

President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo has ruled the country for 41 years.

ReutersCopyright: Reuters

Schools in Ethiopia are re-opening from Monday after closing for more than seven months because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The schools will reopen in stages with students in rural districts returning to classes first.

Schools were closed down after the country reported its first case of coronavirus in March.

The country is aiming to reopen all primary and secondary schools by mid-November.

Some parents remain wary of sending their children to school but the ministry of education has said it was taking necessary measures to minimise the risk of the virus spreading in schools.

One of the measure is to distribute 50 million face masks for pupils and teachers.

Those in their last year of secondary school will still have to do their exams next year, online.

Ethiopia has not introduced full lockdowns during the pandemic. A five-month state of emergency ended in early September and the country has returned to relative normalcy.

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Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth has hit out at the UK for refusing to return control of Chagos Islands to the island nation.

Mr Jugnauth described the UK and the US as "hypocrites" and “champions of double talk”.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague last year gave an advisory opinion ordering the UK to hand over the islands to Mauritius.

Britain continues to insist that the ICJ ruling is wrong.

One of the islands, Diego Garcia, is home to a US military airbase.

Prime Minister Jugnauth on Sunday told a group mainly of Chagossians and their descendants that it was a disgrace for the two powers not to respect human rights.

"Despite the advisory opinion, the English still do not respect the judgement in complicity with the Americans," he said.

“They teach other countries to respect human rights but they are champions of double talk. Our fight is just. The majority of countries support us," he added.

The prime minister urged Chagossians not to be divided in the cause of reclaiming the islands.

He launched a workshop on the preservation of the Chagossian traditional drum, sega.

Read more:

• UK's Chagos Islands descendants feel like 'lost nation'

South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa has wished his Health Minister, Zweli Mkhize, speedy recovery after contracting coronavirus.

Mr Mkhize and his wife tested positive for the virus on Sunday and are self- isolating at home. He is the fifth cabinet minister to catch the virus in South Africa.

President Ramaphosa, in a tweet, urged South Africans to help the country avoid a second wave:

South Africa has been the worst-hit by the pandemic on the continent. It has to date confirmed more than 703,793 coronavirus cases with 18,471 deaths.

Labour PartyCopyright: Labour Party

An Eritrean former refugee has become New Zealand's first African MP following Labour Party’s biggest victory in 50 years.

Ibrahim Omer is now a list MP having ranked 42 in the Labour Party list.

List MPs are elected from a party list rather than from a geographical constituency.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's party won enough seats to allow Mr Ibrahim to be in parliament.

During campaigns Mr Ibrahim said he wanted to "fight for people in the positions he has been in to have better opportunities for a decent life".

He fled Eritrea in 2003 into a refugee camp in neighbouring Sudan. He was later resettled in New Zealand where he worked as a cleaner at Victoria University.

He studied at the university while working as a cleaning supervisor and got involved in politics while there.

Mr Ibrahim said his win was "for the low paid workers" and "former refugees".

Kenya's Health Minister, Mutahi Kagwe, is worried that the popularity of the hit song Jerusalema has led to disregard of Covid-19 restrictions in entertainment spots.

He said the Jerusalema dance challenge was being performed in bars by patrons who do not adhere to social distancing.

The Jerusalema dance challenge has become a global sensation during the coronavirus pandemic.

"I'm told that there is even a new dance that is now the main thing in those bars... that once Jerusalema gets in all [safety] measures go out. Please can you dance Jerusalema keeping social distances," Mr Kagwe urged on Sunday.

Kenyan MPs are set to release their version of the dance challenge on Tuesday.

Kenya's NTV channel tweeted a video of Mr Kagwe remarks on the Jerusalema dance challenge:

Kenya reported 685 new virus cases on Sunday and 616 cases on Saturday. The country has reopened bars, schools and churches.