African news : breaking news, features, analysis

When the younger brother of the BBC's Ruona Meyer became addicted to cough syrup, she began to investigate the men who make and sell opioid-based medicine on the streets of Lagos.

Africa Eye – a new documentary strand from the BBC launches today with an in-depth investigation into the plague of addiction to cough mixture across Nigeria.

More than 250 judges have been sacked in the Democratic Republic of Congo for not having a law degree, and corruption allegations.

South African anti-apartheid campaigner Winnie Mandela has died aged 81, her personal assistant says.

On Saturday, March 10, just a day after Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and opposition leader Raila Odinga shook hands on the steps of Harambee House, Nairobi, and vowed to bury the hatchet, deported lawyer Miguna Miguna, who commissioned Mr Odinga’s ‘oath’ as the ‘people’s president’ on January 30, flew to Dallas, Texas, USA, to deliver a talk about his resistance movement’s ideals.

Nigeria Customs Service operatives on Wednesday stormed the home of Sir Olu Okeowo in Ikoyi, Lagos.

President Buhari has ordered Nigeria's police chief to relocate from the capital Abuja to Benue State, to deal with an upsurge in violence there.

More than 90 people have been killed in Benue and neighbouring Taraba State in the past week.

Switzerland will return to Nigeria about $321m (£239m) of government money looted by former military ruler Sani Abacha, following a memorandum of understanding signed by the two governments .

In a statement, the Swiss government said:

Zimbabwe's ousted finance minister Ignatius Chombo, charged with three counts of corruption, has been refused bail by a magistrate.

Mr Chombo is the first minister from the former Mugabe regime to be charged.

The magistrate ruled his life could be in danger if he is released on bail, as he could be attacked by the public.

A South African court has increased Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius's jail sentence for killing his girlfriend to 13 years and five months.

Prosecutors had argued that the six-year term for murdering Reeva Steenkamp was "shockingly light".

A spokesman for Ms Steenkamp's family said the ruling "verified there was justice".

Four suicide bombers have killed at least 10 people and wounded many others in the north-eastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri.

The attackers, who included women, detonated their explosives in the Muna district, police said.

Cameroon's President Paul Biya is marking 35 years in office today - making him one of Africa's longest-serving leaders.

Mr Biya first took office in 1982, when the country had a one party system.

President Robert Mugabe's wife on Sunday said she is ready to succeed her husband as tensions rise in Zimbabwe's ruling party over who will take over from the country's ageing leader.

"I say to Mr Mugabe you should ... leave me to take over your post," she said in an address to thousands of indigenous church followers at a stadium in Harare.

South Africa's Supreme Court of Appeal is hearing an application by prosecutors to increase disgraced Olympic and Paralympic star Oscar Pistorius' six-year prison sentence for the murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine's Day in 2013.

Prosecutors say the sentence is "shockingly light", and he should be given a 15-year jail term.

A Ugandan MP has been fined by a court in the capital, Kampala, for causing a public nuisance by urinating in public after pictures of the incident were widely shared on social media, the New Vision news site reports.

Abraham Abiriga was given a fine of 40,000 Ugandan shillings ( $10, £5) for the 25 September incident near the gate of the ministry of finance.

A former President of the Republic of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo, has stated that political stability are two sides of the same coin.

He said countries cannot have ever political stability when there is no security and they also cannot have security when there is no political stability. They must both existing and we cannot have one without the other.

The 14th Conference of the Committee of Intelligence and Security Services of Africa (CISSA), has opened in Khartoum, Sudan.

The six-day conference has brought together, security experts, prominent African statesmen and intellectuals.

Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari is back in London.

No explanation has been given regarding the reason for his visit, however his spokesman Femi Adesina has told the BBC's Hausa service that the Nigerian leader will be in the UK "until Monday next week."