African news : breaking news, features, analysis

Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has been ordered back to prison from military hospital.

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has set up a new committee to look at how an amnesty for the Islamist group, Boko Haram, can be implemented.

Malawi's President Joyce Banda was "incandescent with anger" over a statement labelling US singer Madonna a bully, the BBC has learnt.

The judge presiding over the retrial of ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has withdrawn himself from the case as the trial opened in Cairo.

The national transitional council in the Central African Republic has elected the rebel leader who seized power last month, Michel Djotodia, as interim president.

At least 19 people have been killed in bomb and gun attacks in the Somali capital, Mogadishu.

The Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram has rejected the idea of an amnesty.

A report leaked to a British newspaper appears to show that the Egyptian army participated in torture and killings during the 2011 revolution.

Two people have died in detention in Mali after being tortured by the military and denied ventilation in a cell, a rights group has said.

Nigeria should consider imposing the death penalty on convicted rapists, the women's affairs minister has said.

Uhuru Kenyatta has been sworn in as Kenya's new president, following his victory in March against Raila Odinga.

France has begun to withdraw troops from Mali where they have battling Islamist militants, the French defence ministry has said.

Nigerian militants claiming to be from a group that has been inactive since 2009 say they carried out an attack that left 12 police officers dead.

The Gulf state of Qatar is hosting a two-day conference on development and reconstruction in Sudan's Darfur region.

Eleven people have been killed in an attack in eastern Nigeria targeting the deputy governor of Adamawa state, police say.

Nelson Mandela has spent his first night at home after being discharged from hospital where he was being treated for pneumonia.

One person has been killed in clashes outside Cairo's main cathedral following the funerals of four Coptic Christians killed in religious violence on Thursday.

South Sudan provided logistical, financial and political support, but not weapons, to rebels fighting to overthrow the government in neighbouring Sudan, according to a report from the Small Arms Survey, an independent Swiss research group.