Africa highlights: Tanzania 'demands $190bn from mining firm', HIV 'under control' in Swaziland

Tanzania's government has said that Candian-owned gold mining firm Acacia owes it $190bn (£145bn) in taxes, penalties and interest, a company statement says.

It came to this figure following work by two presidential commissions which investigated the country's mining sector.

The commissions accused Acacia of operating illegally and failing to pay what they owed.

The company has denied all the charges and has set up a section of its website to rebut the claims.

AcaciaCopyright: Acacia

In a statement it added that “the company is considering all of its options and rights and will provide a further update in due course”.

At a public rally three days ago, President John Magufuli threatened to shut down all gold mines in the country if mining companies delay talks with his government aimed at resolving allegations of tax evasion.

Kenya and Tanzania have agreed to end a simmering trade dispute.

The row affected sales of Kenyan milk and cigarettes to Tanzania and the sale of Tanzanian flour and cooking gas to its neighbour.

The agreement was signed on Sunday but speaking today Tanzania's Foreign Minister Augustine Mahiga was keen to point out the silver lining from the tiff between the two countries.

He told the BBC that while there are always problems and challenges in regional intergration "particularly in areas of trade", the manner in which the dispute was resolved had "enhanced the relationship" between the two member states of the East African Community.

AFPCopyright: AFP

In just over a fortnight's time Kenyans will go to elect their next president, along with a host of other representatives.

Incumbent President Kenyatta is facing seven challengers and tonight Kenyans have been getting a chance to see the candidates on television.

Three of them - those thought to have the smallest chance of winning - have already taken part in the early debate with the main candidates speaking later.

But at the moment it is not clear if President Kenyatta will be taking part. His main rival, Raila Odinga, is expected to turn up.

You can follow the live debate on the KTN stream on YouTube:

The withdrawal of the controversial book Mandela’s Last Years by publishers Penguin Random House (see earlier story) South Africa shows just how much weight the Mandela name still carries years after his demise.

Nelson Mandela’s widow Graca Machel complained bitterly about aspects in the book.

The outcry was supported by other Mandela family members.

This simply means that Mr Mandela’s physician and author of the book Dr Vejay Ramlakan has been isolated.

He was adamant that he consulted everyone who needed to be consulted from the family prior to writing the book. Clearly this has backfired now.

One of the details of the book which did not sit well with Mrs Machel was the assertion that when Mr Mandela took his last breath it was in fact the hand of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela (his second wife) he was holding and not hers.

It is now left to Ms Madikizela-Mandela to come out to set the record straight about these intimate details.

You can watch the author here talk about why he wrote the book on an interview broadcast yesterday:

The authorities in Somalia say they will confiscate the assets of businesses which give money to the militant Islamist group al-Shabab.

The jihadists are known to collect taxes in areas under their control and also extort protection money.

Somali Prime Minister Hassan Ali Kheyre has accused some companies of paying more taxes to al-Shabab than to the government.

Security Minister Mohamed Abukar Islow has also warned telecom and remittance companies that they risk being shut down if they provide services to the militant group.

AFPCopyright: AFP

Liberia's President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has dedicated the county's first state-of-the art eye clinic today at the John F Kennedy Memorial Medical Center, in Monrovia.

The opening of the clinic is part of celebrations to mark the country's 170th independence anniversary this week.

Cornea transplants will now be performed in the country for the first time, and seven patients have been selected for the maiden operations.

BBCCopyright: BBC

The clinic was established by the LV Prasad Eye Institute in India which has also sent a team of specialists to manage the clinic.

Groups in the United States donated a consignment of corneas to be used during the transplant procedures.

A controversial new book about the last days of the life of South Africa's former President Nelson Mandela has been withdrawn by the publisher.

Mr Mandela's family had complained that the book, written by his doctor, Vijay Ramlakan, contained personal details about the last days of the former president.

In a statement Penguin Random House said it had pulled the book "out of respect" for the family.

It added that the author had told the publishers that Mr Mandela's family had asked for the book to be published.

It was supposed to show Mr Mandela's "strength until the very end of his life".

Namibia's footballers overcame over a year without a domestic league competition to knock Zimbabwe out of the 2018 African Nations Championship (Chan), which is contested by footballers playing in their own domestic league.

The Namibians won 5-4 on penalties after the two-legged tie ended in a draw.

The Namibian Premier League, which has lost its sponsorship, has not been in action since the 2015-16 season ended 15 months ago.

"We haven't had a league running since April last year, so it's been very tough for us," Namibia coach Ricardo Mannetti told BBC Sport.

"So we had to take these players, put them in a camp, feed them and get them mentally prepared and all that. For most of them, this was the (only) second or third match over a year."

Getty ImagesCopyright: Getty Images

Read more on this story on BBC Sport.

The coach of the teenage Burundian robotics team who went missing after taking part in a competition in the US last week has been speaking to the Washington Post about his experiences.

The six - four boys and two girls - are now thought to not want to return to Burundi, which remains volatile after political upheavals in 2015.

Coach Canesius Bindaba told the Washington Post that before leaving Burundi he had prayed to God to keep everyone safe, but he had no idea what it now appears the teenagers had been planning.

The six disappeared right after the competition finished.

“I knew something nasty was happening,” Mr Bindaba said to the newspaper.

“I cannot really describe what I felt over there, but it was really scary for me."

He then phoned the team members' relatives in Burundi and one mother told him to "cool down".

“I am not seeing the kids,” the coach replied. “How can I cool down?”.

Read more from the Washington Post

DC POLICE DEPARTMENTCopyright: DC POLICE DEPARTMENT

The Libyan navy has rescued 128 migrants off the coast of Tripoli, privately-owned al-Wasat news website reported on 24 July.

A spokesperson for the navy told al-Wasat that coast guard patrols received reports of a sinking migrant boat 14 nautical miles away from the al-Maya area near Tripoli.

Two vessels, including one that was recently given by Italy, immediately headed to the area and picked up the 128 migrants.

Rescuers provided the migrants with medical assistance in the al-Zawiya oil port, before handing them over to the anti-illegal migration accommodation centre in the city, al-Wasat reported.

Twitter users in South Africa are taking time out from their usual snarking about politics and focusing on what really gets on their nerves.

#101ThingsIFindAnnoying has been trending in the country over the last few hours.

That well known irritation among those who like to see themselves as patient in a queue has surfaced:

Also, people are taking it out on snooty Apple users:

Then there's the strangeness of the English language:

And Nigerians are also joining in:

The BBC's Zeinab Badawi attends a wedding breakfast in northern Sudan to witness the enduring beauty techniques of an 8th Century Kushite princess.

Watch this video to see what she learned:

The next episode of History of Africa airs on BBC World News at 15:10 GMT on Saturday.

A Nigerian state governor has told the BBC he expects President Muhammadu Buhari to return home from the UK within the next two weeks.

Governor Rochas Okorocha was among a delegation who met the president in London for lunch on Sunday.

He said Mr Buhari was in high spirits and fully engaged in discussions about his home country.

The president, who is 74, left Nigeria at the beginning of May for treatment for an unspecified illness.

It is the second time this year that Mr Buhari has received treatment in London.

His absence has fuelled much speculation about his health.

Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo is acting as president while Mr Buhari is away.

ReutersCopyright: Reuters

Read more: Nigeria's President Buhari seen in London - BBC News

NRCCopyright: NRC

The food crisis in north-eastern Nigeria is expected to deteriorate between now and the end of August, moving the country closer to famine, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) has warned.

The NRC quotes food security experts as saying they anticipate the number of people threatened by severe hunger in the region to rise from 4.7 million to 5.2 million by the end of August.

This includes 50,000 people forecast to be affected by famine-like conditions, according to the latest UN Food and Agriculture Organization Global Early Warning report.

The region is worst-affected by the insurgency by militant Isalmist group Boko Haram.

Cheick Ba, the Norwegian Refugee Council’s (NRC) Country Director in Nigeria, says that the food crisis is being driven by armed conflict and violence.

“Insecurity is preventing people from farming, and restricting access to local markets. This is depleting grain stocks and pushing food prices beyond people’s reach, with devastating consequences for affected families, including 450,000 acutely malnourished children,” said Cheick Ba, the Norwegian Refugee Council’s (NRC) Country Director in Nigeria.

The region is worst-affected by the insurgency waged by militant Islamist group Boko Haram, forcing hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes.

Mr Ba said the crisis was caused by a man-made conflict and needed a man-made solution.

"Providing people with food is only a short term solution. The crisis will only end when the conflict has been resolved and communities can safely return to their land to rebuild their lives,” he added.

Tens of thousands of illegal workers in Saudi Arabia face forcible deportation and imprisonment from Tuesday, following the end of an amnesty period extended by the Kingdom.

In March, the Gulf state issued a 90-day notice for all undocumented workers to leave the country without facing any penalties.

The amnesty was further extended in June.

Ethiopians make up one of the largest group of illegal labourers there - the authorities believe there are about 400,000 of them, but only 60,000 have so far come back home despite the government paying for part of their airfare.

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At Addis Ababa's airport I met 28-year-old Nura Ahmed who had just come back after five years in Saudi Arabia:

Quote Message: I was a domestic worker there. But life was really tough. Sometimes I would work and sometimes I was jobless because I did not have the proper documentation.

I was a domestic worker there. But life was really tough. Sometimes I would work and sometimes I was jobless because I did not have the proper documentation.

Quote Message: It was not as comfortable as my country. My employers were good but since I didn’t have any papers, I had no freedom to move around. One can never be in peace there"

It was not as comfortable as my country. My employers were good but since I didn’t have any papers, I had no freedom to move around. One can never be in peace there"

BBCCopyright: BBC

Saudi Arabia has warned that the amnesty will not be extended and that those who stay behind without proper documentation will face still penalties.

Apartheid-era police officer Paul Erasmus has testified in detail how he was tasked with spreading false news about the African National Congress (ANC).

He has been giving evidence at the inquest into the death of anti-apartheid activist Ahmed Timol, who died in police custody in 1971.

Mr Erasmus said that the police used to discredit campaigners such as Desmond Tutu, who later became Archbishop of Cape Town.

He told the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria: “I used to forge signatures including Desmond Tutu’s to discredit him in our propaganda campaign, because I was good at it.”

He is also explaining in graphic detail how police tortured people at John Vorster Square, now known as Johannesburg Central Police Station

This is one of the very rare occasions that the South African public is hearing from those who were directly involved in apartheid operations on behalf of the state.

The last time that these details came out was during the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in the late 1990s.

AFPCopyright: AFP

The HIV epidemic is "coming under control" in Swaziland, the country with the highest HIV prevalence rate in the world, the US government says.

In a statement, the President's Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (Pepfar) says that data that it has gathered show that since 2011 new HIV infections "have been nearly halved among adults", while the HIV viral load suppression (an indicator of how the body is fighting the virus) has doubled since that year.

Pepfar says Swaziland has now joined Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe in reaching this point.

Nigerian officials say suicide bombers have attacked two camps for displaced people near the north-eastern city of Maiduguri.

They killed at least four people and wounded nearly 20 others.

The attacks were carried out late on Sunday and early Monday. At least one of the bombers was a woman.

Tens of thousands of people are living in the camps after being forced from their homes by the militant Islamist group Boko Haram.

Zambia's governing party the Patriotic Front (PF) could be courting controversy after it adopted President Edgar Lungu as its sole candidate for the 2021 general elections.

The PF's top decision-making body made the decision at the weekend.

The controversial candidacy of Mr Lungu is already in court and is likely to divide both the PF and the country.

The president's critics argue he does not constitutionally qualify to stand again after completing the term of late president Michael Sata and then being elected on a full five-year mandate last year.

The Zambian constitution does not allow a candidate to serve three terms. But those in support of Mr Lungu’s candidacy argue that his first term should not count as it was not for the full five years.

ReutersCopyright: Reuters