• Eritrea to consider joining Africa free trade deal

Eritrea, the only country that has not joined the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) which was launched over the weekend ,says it will seriously consider joining the pact that aims at removing tariffs on mpore than 90 per cent of commodities traded among African countries.

Nigeria and Benin signed the agreement during the heads of state summit in Niemey, Niger where the nations agreed to shared rules of origin, the monitoring and elimination of non-tariff barriers, a unified digital payments system and an African trade observatory dashboard.

The zone comes into operation in July 2020, giving countries time to adopt to the changes and to agree on rules of origin for critical sectors like textiles and the automotive sectors.

Countries have a period of up to 15 years to phase down tariffs under a schedule determined by the level of development.

• Niger's Issoufou calls for Syria-type coalition against west Africa jihadists

Niger President Mahamadou Issoufou wants the US to be more involved in the set up of a coalition to battle terrorists who rampaging across the Sahel and the Chad basin.

The jihadists allied to Islamic State and Al Qaeda have taken on state agents in Burkina Faso, Chad, Libya, Mali, Niger and Nigeria forcing neighbouring Ghana and Ivory Coast to increase their security budgets.

President Issoufou said in an interview with Bloomberg on the sidelines of the Africa Heads of State Summit Niamey that only international coalition similar to that in Iraq and Syria would combat the terrorists.

The US Africa Command announced in February plans to reduce its 6,000 special forces and defence contractors in Africa over three years arguing that terrorism in Africa does not pose immediate risk to US national security.

• Malawi post-poll protests turn ugly

Nearly 70 people had been arrested by Sunday in Malawi as the wave of protests that have gripped the country over disputed presidential results in May turned ugly.

Police said the arrests came in the face of criminal acts like injuring of police officers, looting, vandalism of vehicles and buildings during demonstrations on Thursday.

President Peter Mutharika said on Saturday during festivities to mark the country's 55th independence day that the protests were part of a plot to overthrow his government.

The protests resume on Monday as opposition leaders press for resignation of electoral commission chief Jane Ansah.

• Hague court convicts DR Congo warlord Ntaganda of war crimes

Congolese rebel chief Bosco "Terminator" Ntaganda faces life in prison after International Criminal Court judges on Monday convicted him of war crimes including directing massacres of civilians and rape.

Head judge Robert Fremr said Ntaganda, 45, was a "key leader" who gave orders to "target and kill civilians" in Democratic Republic of Congo's volatile, mineral-rich Ituri region in 2002 and 2003.

Ntaganda will be sentenced at a later date after judges hear submissions from victims of ethnic Tutsi revolts amid the wars that wracked the Democratic Republic of Congo since 1999, that have to date left 60,000 dead.

• EU Bank to lend Cape Verde $25 million for undersea cable

The European Investment Bank has agreed to provide $25 million for construction of a submarine cable to Cape Verde that will enable roll out of 4G mobile services for faster internet access in the island.

The money will be lend to Cape Verde Telecom for connection to EllaLink cable.

The telecom company plans to spend $60 million on expanding 4G networks coverage across 10 islands, taking fibre to home internet use and deploying solar energy in its network.

• BA fined $230m over computer theft of passenger data

British Airways has been fined more than £183 million ($230m) after computer hackers last year stole bank details from hundreds of thousands of passengers.

In a statement, BA's owner International Airlines Group, said it would consider appealing the penalty notice to be issued by the UK Information Commissioner's Office.

The fine is equivalent to 1.5 per cent of British Airways' turnover in 2017 though the airline protests its innocence saying no fraud was found on the affected accounts.