(The following statement was released by the rating agency) HONG KONG/LONDON, February 21 (Fitch) Ghana's disclosure of unreported expenditure and the resulting failure to hit the 2016 fiscal deficit target highlights substantial risk to the country's public finances, Fitch Ratings says. Public finances are an important ratings weakness, but we think the new government is committed to fiscal adjustment under Ghana's IMF programme. The Negative Outlook on Ghana's 'B' sovereign rating reflect

JUBA (Reuters) - South Sudan's President Salva Kiir on Tuesday promised aid agencies safe access to hunger-stricken civilians, a day after his government declared a famine in parts of the war-ravaged country.

ABIDJAN, Feb 21 (Reuters) - A cocoa glut in top producer Ivory Coast that has driven down prices and paralysed buying is also fuelling a rise in the smuggling of beans to neighbouring countries, farmers and exporters said on Tuesday.

GENEVA (Reuters) - Nearly 1.4 million children are at "imminent risk" of death in famines in Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen, the U.N. children's agency UNICEF said on Tuesday.

PRETORIA (Reuters) - At least 20 shops possibly belonging to immigrants were looted in South Africa's capital overnight, police said on Tuesday, but they could not confirm if the attacks had deliberately targeted foreigners.

HARARE (Reuters) - As he celebrated his 93rd birthday on Tuesday, Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe brushed aside persistent allegations of corruption against senior officials, saying rumour-mongers were merely targeting "big fish" in his administration.

ACCRA (Reuters) - Ghana's government will reduce the fiscal deficit significantly in 2017 and act to revive economic growth that fell to an estimated 3.6 percent in 2016, the lowest level in some 23 years, President Nana Akufo-Addo told parliament on Tuesday.

ACCRA, Feb 21 (Reuters) - Ghanain President Nana Akufo-Addo said in his first state of the nation address that the West African nation's economy was in a "bad way" and the fiscal deficit for 2016 was 9 percent of GDP on a cash basis.

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - The bodies of 74 migrants have been found washed up on a beach near the western Libya city of Zawiya, a Red Crescent spokesman said on Tuesday.

ACCRA, Feb 21 (Reuters) - Ghana's government will reduce the fiscal deficit significantly in 2017 and act to revive economic growth that fell to an estimated 3.6 percent in 2016, the lowest level in some 23 years, President Nana Akufo-Addo told parliament on Tuesday.

ACCRA (Reuters) - Ghana's President Nana Akufo-Addo said in his first state of the nation address that the country's economy was in a "bad way" and the fiscal deficit for 2016 was 9 percent of GDP on a cash basis.

* Swings back to headline profit, resumes dividend (Recasts with Obuasi developments)

ACCRA, Feb 21 (Reuters) - Ghana's President Nana Akufo-Addo said in his first state of the nation address that the country's economy was in a "bad way" and the fiscal deficit for 2016 was 9 percent of GDP on a cash basis.

OUAGADOUGOU (Reuters) - Burkina Faso President Roch Marc Christian Kabore has handed over control of the defence portfolio to a new minister as the country battles to contain the spread of Islamist militant violence.

ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria said there was no cause for concern for President Muhammadu Buhari's health but he had to stay longer on medical leave in Britain than planned, the presidency said on Tuesday.

GENEVA (Reuters) - The trial of Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, a son of the ousted Libyan leader sentenced to death in absentia, did not meet international standards and he should face murder charges at the International Criminal Court (ICC), the United Nations said on Tuesday.

SAINT-DENIS, La Reunion (Reuters) - A 26-year old man has died after being attacked by a shark off the coast of La Reunion island in the Indian Ocean, said a local authority official on Tuesday.

CAIRO (Reuters) - Islamic State published a video on Sunday threatening Egyptian Christians and showing the last statement of a man it said was responsible for the deadly bombing in December of a Coptic cathedral in Cairo.

JUBA (Reuters) - Parts of war-ravaged South Sudan are suffering famine, a government official said on Monday, adding nearly half the country's population would lack reliable access to affordable food by July.

GENEVA/KINSHASA (Reuters) - Democratic Republic of Congo must investigate credible reports of atrocities including summary executions by the armed forces, U.N. human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad al Hussein said on Monday.