A military helicopter crashed Tuesday into a river near Cote d'Ivoire's capital city of Abidjan, according to security sources. The aircraft zigzagged before diving into the Comoe River in the sub-prefecture of Apele, some 60 km northeast of Abidjan. The three occupants onboard came out of the aircraft unharmed.The Abidjan-based Linfodrome news portal said the helicopter belongs to the French Forces in Cote d'Ivoire, citing security personnel deployed at the scene.

Zimbabwean anti-corruption authorities have opened an investigation into the controversial awarding of a doctorate to Zimbabwe's former First Lady Grace Mugabe, news agency AFP reports.

Phyllis Chikundura, the spokesperson for Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission, confirmed there was an ongoing investigation.

"We confirm there is such a report and there is such a probe," she said.

Mrs Mugabe reportedly got the PhD after months of study in 2014.

Protests in Sudan over a sharp increase in the price of bread following the removal of government subsidies yesterday spread to the capital, Khartoum.

Police used tear gas against protesters who threw stones, burned tyres and blocked roads. In West Darfur, a student demonstrator was killed.

The Ghanaian Immigration Service (GIS) has disqualified candidates with bleached skin and stretch marks from a massive recruitment exercise.

A GIS spokesman told the BBC this was because people with such marks might bleed during the "strenuous" training.

Some Ghanaians condemned the ban as sexist and unfair. Those with tattoos, dreadlocks and "bow legs" were also disqualified from the exercise.

Child rights activists in Tanzania have criticised the arrest of five pregnant schoolgirls and their parents over the weekend.

The teenagers were arrested in Tandahimba, northern Tanzania, on the orders of a local district commissioner and later released on bail.

Gender and child rights campaigners are quoted by The Citizen news site as saying the authorities should have arrested the men who caused the pregnancy rather than the victims.

Two former Zimbabwean cabinet ministers who served under ex-president Robert Mugabe have been charged with corruption, their lawyers said on Saturday, the latest sign of a crackdown on officials loyal to Mugabe.

Mugabe, 93, stood down in November after 37 years in power following a de facto military coup, making way for his former deputy Emmerson Mnangagwa to take over.

When the military seized power they arrested key allies of Mugabe and his wife, Grace, who was vying with Mnangagwa to succeed her husband.