African news : breaking news, features, analysis

Singing and dancing as she performs in a school assembly, Younis looks for all the world like a typical Kenyan teenager, with a beaming smile and a grey and maroon uniform.

There's little outward clue to the trauma she's already been through in her 13 short years. When she was just nine years old, Younis's parents arranged for her to marry a man old enough to be her grandfather, in accordance with local Samburu tradition.

The Samburu are an ancient Kenyan tribe pastoralist cattle herders, said to be "distant cousins" of the Maasai. Even to outsiders, their languages and customs are strikingly similar.

A major rebel leader in South Sudan has told the BBC he may have to take up arms again, despite the signing of a peace agreement six weeks ago.

Gen Johnson Oloni said the government was undermining the deal with attacks on civilians and a plan to re-draw state boundaries in the country.

Tens of thousands of people have died and millions have been displaced since the civil war began in 2013.

South Sudan gained independence from neighbouring Sudan four years ago.

MPs in Kenya have reacted furiously after the electricity supply to parliament was cut for three days apparently because of an unpaid bill of $97,000 (£63,000).

The opposition blamed the government, but MPs of the governing coalition rallied to its defence.

MPs also said they had not received their allowances and some parliamentary staff had not been paid.

The government and parliamentary officials have not yet commented.

Rwanda's highest court has ruled in favour of changing the constitution to allow President Paul Kagame to stand for a third seven-year term in 2017.

It would be undemocratic to deny people the right to "choose how they are governed", the court said.

Rwanda plans to hold a referendum to see whether the public supports a constitutional amendment to lift the current two-term limit on presidents.

Third-term presidential campaigns have caused unrest in other African states.

An Ebola scare has been reported in southern Nigeria, a year after the country was declared free of the virus.

Ten people have been quarantined after coming into contact with a man showing Ebola-like symptoms, officials said.

The man reportedly died shortly after being admitted to hospital in Calabar.

On Wednesday, the three countries worst affected by Ebola - Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia - recorded their first week with no new cases since the outbreak began in March 2014.

The nephew of Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has been shot dead in the capital, Mogadishu.

Gunmen opened fire on Dr Liban Osman's vehicle as it was travelling through the city's Wadajir neighbourhood early on Wednesday.

Both Dr Osman, who reportedly worked as a doctor at the presidential palace, and another man, thought to be a lawyer, died in the attack.

The leader of last month's short-lived coup in Burkina Faso has been charged with crimes including threatening state security and murder.

Gen Gilbert Diendere is expected to face trial before a military tribunal.

Interim President Michel Kafando was reinstated two weeks ago after intervention from the army and West African leaders.

Kenya’s economic growth could be the highest in Sub-Saharan Africa over the next 15 years, according to a new World Bank report.

The bank’s Pulse report on the African economy said that Kenya’s growth should remain “robust” at around 6.2 per cent until 2030, well above that of many other African economies that will suffer from China’s economic slowdown and restructuring away from foreign investment and towards domestic consumption.

Over the next three years, however, Tanzania and Rwanda are likely to witness even higher growth, at over seven per cent of GDP, along with Cote d’Ivoire, Mozambique and Ethiopia.

Their growth will be spurred by investments in energy and transport, consumer spending and investment in natural resources.

The World Bank has said that for the first time less than 10 per cent of the world's population will be living in extreme poverty by the end of 2015.

The bank said it was using a new income figure of $1.90 per day to define extreme poverty, up from $1.25.

It forecasts that the proportion of the world's population in this category will fall from 12.8 per cent in 2012 to 9.6per cent.

Tunisia is to lift the state of emergency it imposed after a terror attack at a resort in June killed 38 tourists, mainly Britons.

The short announcement carried on state media said the measure would be lifted at midnight on Friday local time (23:00 GMT).

The state of emergency gave security forces more powers and limited the right of public assembly.

Two bomb blasts have rocked the outskirts of the Nigerian capital Abuja causing a number of deaths, officials say.

The first struck near a police station in Kuje, 25 miles (40km) from Abuja, the second hit a bus stop in Nyanya.

No group has said it carried out the attacks yet but suspicion has fallen on Boko Haram Islamists.

A Kenyan man has been charged with 12 offences including rape, impersonating a gynaecologist and operating a clinic without a licence in Nairobi.

Mugo wa Wairimu pleaded not guilty and has previously denied that he raped his patients after sedating them.

The charges stem from a Kenyan TV report which had footage showing an unidentified man allegedly assaulting an unconscious woman on a clinic bed.

Five young girls were behind a series of deadly explosions in the north-eastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri on Thursday evening, security sources say.

Fourteen people, including the girls, died and 39 were injured in the attacks at a mosque and house of vigilante leader, the military said.

More than 100 people died in similar attacks in the city two weeks ago.

Maiduguri is where Boko Haram Islamist militants were first based when they began their insurgency six years ago.

Over 245,000 teachers will miss their September salaries after their employer released the payroll showing that only 42,973 would be paid.

The Teachers Service Commission took the drastic step as the Court of Appeal on Thursday ordered teachers to return to work immediately.

Most of the teachers who will get their full pay are principals, their deputies and heads of department who were in school for the duration of the strike that started a month ago.

According to sources in the Teachers Service Commission, about 26,000 teachers in secondary schools have been paid, as have 9,000 primary school headteachers.

All teachers in technical institutes, teacher training colleges and special institutions have also been fully paid.

“The teachers would have been on the payroll after the Friday ruling when they were directed to report to duty, but they did not,” the source, who could not be named as he is not authorised to speak to the media, said.