Africa Live this week: 8-14 August 2022

The military-led government in Mali has agreed to allow the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the country to resume its rotations of international troops.

These were suspended last month following a row with Ivory Coast after the security services arrested around 50 Ivorian soldiers at the main airport, for reasons of "national security".

Ten nations contribute troops to the UN force, known as Minusma.

On Friday Germany suspended some of its military operations after Mali withheld a flight clearance.

As it battles jihadists, the junta has increased its cooperation with Moscow, straining relations with the UN.

Read more: Did the Mali coup halt jihadist attacks?

That's all for this week from the BBC Africa Live team, but we'll be keeping an eye on events in Kenya and updating stories on the BBC News website.

And you can also listen to the Africa Today podcast.

Here's a reminder of our wise words of the day:

Quote Message: People are like drums - they sound for one who is alive." from A Luganda proverb sent by Kavuma Noah in Kampala, Uganda

People are like drums - they sound for one who is alive."

Click here to send us your African proverbs.

And we leave you with this image of a voter taken earlier this week in Kenya - it's from our selection of some of the best pictures of the past seven days:

Crisp-crunching comedian Elsa Majimbo has graced the airwaves as BBC Focus on Africa's editor for a day.

"You don't need to suffer to succeed" and "success doesn't come to those who wait" were among the pearls of wisdom she shared with listeners.

The Kenyan was still a teenager when she shot to fame with her viral videos - catching the attention of global tastemakers like Rihanna, who went on to cast her as a model for the Fenty make-up line.

Majimbo chose to share the limelight with the singer Ayra Starr, artist Laolu Senbanjo and fashion designer Ugo Mozie in her BBC broadcast, to mark International Youth Day.

Click here to listen to the programme in full.

There have been celebrations in the remote village of Chemomul, Bomet county, western Kenya, after Linet Chepkorir was confirmed as winning the election for the county's women's representative in parliament.

There was pomp, colour, dancing and tears as the village welcomed her home after her victory.

Alongside the 290 constituency MPs in the National Assembly, each of Kenya's 47 counties send a women's representative - and at 24, Ms Chepkorir will be the youngest of these.

In Tuesday's election she garnered 242,775 votes to beat eight candidates, some of them experienced politicians.

This will be her first ever job.

She comes from a humble background, the third child of Richard and Bety Langat.

Ms Chepkorir said it had been difficult against competitors with deep pockets and estimated she spent only 100,000 Kenyan shillings ($840, £690) during her campaign. She was also helped by well-wishers and friends.

The greatest challenge she faced when she started campaigning was convincing her community and the voters at large. They questioned whether she could do the job as she was not married, had no work experience and lacked money to hand out.

Her message to all girls is "never give up on hope".

Sierra Leone's President Julius Maada Bio has said he will address the nation at 20:00 local time (20:00 GMT) in the wake of violent anti-government protests earlier this week in which at least six civilians and four police officers died.

In a tweet, he urged "all Sierra Leoneans to be calm and stay peaceful".

About 130 people have been arrested following the demonstrations in the capital, Freetown, and in the opposition's northern stronghold over the high cost of living, corruption and police brutality.

President Bio, who had travelled out of the country, told BBC Focus on Africa on Thursday that the protests had a political motive.

"Of course what happened [on Wednesday] was definitely not a protest, it was terrorism at the highest. We have a few Sierra Leoneans who live in the diaspora who have threatened to unleash terror in Sierra Leone," he said.

"There is politics underneath all that is happening, and you can't take that away," he added.

Calm has returned to Freetown, the president said, and security forces have been deployed to make sure that there is no further deterioration in the situation.

Germany has suspended most of its military operations in Mali, after authorities in Bamako withheld a flight clearance, the German Ministry of Defence announced on Friday.

Berlin has around 1,000 troops deployed in Mali, most of them near the northern town of Gao, where their main task is to gather information for the UN peacekeeping mission, Minusma.

The suspension stands until further notice, and is a way for the German authorities to denounce a refusal by the Malian authorities to authorise a flight scheduled for Friday that would have provided a rotation of personnel.

"It is no longer possible to support Minusma operationally, without the new personnel who were to partly replace the French forces who are withdrawing," a spokesman for the German Ministry of Defence said.

In early August, Mali had already withdrawn clearances for German flights over the country but later reversed that decision.

The German decision comes as Mali has been facing a resurgence of attacks and has also pushed out the French force that was helping in the fight against jihadism.

The military-led government has since been intensifying cooperation with Moscow, which led to the deterioration of relations with Paris in recent months.

Relations between Mali and the UN, whose peacekeepers have been in the country since 2013, have also deteriorated in recent weeks.

Read more on the conflict in the Sahel:

• Mali and Burkina Faso: Did the coups halt jihadist attacks?

There has been an update on the issue of the laptop at the tallying centre in Kenya that we reported on earlier.

There had been a confrontation and accusations that it was being used improperly.

But after a meeting with presidential agents, election officials have clarified that presidential agents are allowed to have one laptop.

This is for counter-checking the results downloaded from the web portal against what returning officers have provided.

Only a chief agent, their deputy and lawyers are allowed on the tallying floor.

Officials have dismissed claims that a politician had been found in possession of a laptop on the tallying floor.

The commission has urged politicians to stop frustrating efforts by the commission to comply with the statutory timelines of verification, and announcing of election results.