Malian and French forces have killed around 100 jihadists and took another 20 captive in a joint operation this January in central Mali, the West African nation's army has said in a statement.

A Zimbabwean government spokesperson who accused doctors of being "medical assassins" after four ministers died of coronavirus has sparked outrage in a country buckling under the Covid-19 pandemic.

Ugandan troops have withdrawn from around the home of opposition leader and popstar Bobi Wine, ending his house arrest since a 14 January election won by long-serving President Yoweri Museveni.

The death toll from storm Eloise rose to at least 13 on Monday after heavy winds, rain and flooding destroyed buildings, drowned crops and displaced thousands in parts of southern Africa.

Russia and China have approached Zimbabwe about supplying vaccines to tackle its escalating Covid-19 outbreak amid concern about Harare's ability to afford the shots.

The death toll from storm Eloise has risen to at least 12, according to figures from authorities across south-eastern Africa, where heavy winds, rain and flooding have also destroyed buildings and crops.

A Ugandan court has ordered security forces to cease surrounding the home of opposition leader Bobi Wine, whose house arrest since a mid-month presidential election has drawn international pressure, his lawyer has said.

Severe winds and heavy rains wrecked thousands of buildings, ruined crops and displaced almost 7 000 people in Mozambique over the weekend, officials said in their first detailed report on the disaster.

Representatives from rival Libyan camps have said a candidacy process would open for key institutional appointments.

Hundreds of demonstrators have taken to the streets of Tunisian cities to protest police repression, corruption and poverty.

Western Sahara's pro-independence Polisario Front has launched an attack on the Guerguerat area on the border between Morocco and Mauritania.

The coastal city of Beira in Mozambique, which houses one of the country's most important ports, has seen mild damage to property and flooding after tropical cyclone Eloise made landfall early on Saturday, an official said in a television report.

For women in Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo's second city, a curfew may help fight the coronavirus, but for many, it comes with a dread of burglary and rape.

"Attention, isolation zone," warns a bright orange notice at the entrance to the main coronavirus treatment centre in Lagos, Africa's most populous city.

A powerful storm nearing Mozambique is expected to intensify into a tropical cyclone on Friday, according to forecasts, dumping rain onto already swollen rivers in an area devastated by Cyclone Idai less than two years ago.

Three Malian troops were killed and five wounded by a roadside bomb in the centre of the country on Thursday, military sources said, in the latest attack in the Sahel state.

The UN says it has received "disturbing" reports of sexual violence and abuse in Ethiopia's conflict-hit Tigray region, including of individuals forced to rape members of their own family.

Egyptian star satirist Bassem Youssef had his country in stitches during the Arab Spring, but a decade later the politicians may well think they have had the last laugh.

South Africa has been careful to make "quick judgements" in the aftermath of Ugandan elections, which the opposition says was rigged.

African countries will pay between $3 (R44.65) and $10 (R148.85) per vaccine dose to access 270 million Covid-19 shots secured this month by the African Union (AU), according to a draft briefing on the plan prepared by the African Export-Import Bank