• IMF approves $368 mn credit for DR Congo

The International Monetary Fundhas agreed a $368.4 million credit facility for Democratic Republic of Congo, to enable the government meet urgent balance of payment needs.

The IMF said the support would cushion the country from external shocks after international reserves fell to critically low levels.

The country's real economic growth is projected to decelerate this years to 4.5 per cent but President Felix Tshisekedi has pledged to improve governance and security.

• Algeria confirms Tebboune winner of presidential poll

Algeria's constitutional council has confirmed Abdelmadjid Tebboune as the winner of the December 12 general election which was hit by low voter turnout.

Tebboune, once a prime minister under deposed president Abdelaziz Bouteflika got 58.13 percent of the ballot with his nearest challenger Abdelkader Bengrina at 17.4 percent.

The official turnout was 39.88 percent, the lowest since the advent of pluralism, as protesters opposed the poll until there are reforms to uproot Bouteflika regime remnants from power.

• US sanctions two South Sudan ministers

The U.S. has sanctioned South Sudan's minister of Cabinet Affairs Martin Elia Lomuro and his defence counterpart Kuol Manyang Juuk for obstructing the country's return to stability.

The sanction freezes any assets the two may have in the US and bars them from entering as the US gets impatient with the Juba leadership's failure to form a unity government.

The two ministers are accused of opposing the Hybrid Court for South Sudan, which President Salva Kiir and rival Riek Machar committed to establish to try perpetrators of war crimes.

• Zambia targets $30 billion from Cannabis exports

Zambia targets $30 billion in annual earnings from exporting cannabis, supplement foreign exchange from copper which has plummeted leaving the country in a debt hole.

Government spokesperson Dora Siliya said Cabinet approved in principle on December 4, 2019 "the cultivation, processing and exporting of cannabis for economic and medicinal purposes."

The trade will be handled in a controlled environment under the Zambia National Service, a military wing with a bias towards agriculture, infrastructure and property.

• France to return Benin artworks

France has said it will return 26 pieces of art it confiscated from Benin by 2021, putting pressure on other colonial powers to hand back stolen artefacts.

French culture minister Franck Riester says the artworks taken in 1892 from Benin's Kingdom of Dahomey during the colonial war are held in the in the Quai Branly museum in Paris.

An experts report last year showed that the Africa collection in the museum - about 46,000 pieces - was acquired with some degree of duress.

• Gambia protesters demand elections

Protesters rallied in the Gambia capital Banjul on Monday demanding President Adama Barrow steps down next month and calls election.

President Barrow rose to power under a three-year transition after an alliance of parties ousted strongman Yahya Jammeh in January 2017.

The term expires next month but some alliance members want him to stay until 2022 under a five year mandate allowed by the constitution.

Two parties including the United Democratic party, Gambia's largest, have rejected the move.