* Offshore buyers constitute more than 90 pct of accepted bids

HARARE (Reuters) - The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) on Monday pledged $253 million to fund a five-year plan to end hunger in Zimbabwe, which is emerging from a devastating drought that left more than 4 million people in need of food aid last year.

PIETERMARITZBURG, South Africa (Reuters) - Singing and dancing with hundreds of supporters in his Zulu heartland, South African President Jacob Zuma didn't look like a man facing the biggest challenge to his leadership since he came to power nearly a decade ago.

ROME (Reuters) - An agreement between Italy and Libya to fight people-smuggling in the north African nation will lead to migrants being returned to camps where they are held against their will, extorted and abused, Doctors without Borders (MSF) said on Monday.

NAIROBI (Reuters) - An Indian registered cargo dhow that was hijacked by suspected Somali pirates on April 1 is now in the vicinity of Hobyo, a major meeting point of pirates when they were most active in 2011, the EU Naval Force said on Monday, giving a location for the vessel for the first time.

KIGALI (Reuters) - Inmates protesting living conditions at Gasabo prison in the Rwandan capital of Kigali hurled stones over the prison's walls on Monday, damaging nearby houses and disrupting traffic, residents and officials said.

ABIDJAN, April 3 (Reuters) - Good rain and sun last week in most of Ivory Coast's main cocoa regions will improve the size and quality of the April-to-September cocoa mid-crop although dry weather persisted in certain areas of the south and east, farmers said on Monday.

* Offshore buyers constitute more than 90 pct of accepted bids

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's welfare department is making benefit payments to 17 million people across the country after a court battle involving the service provider averted a fiasco that had put their entitlements at risk, officials said on Monday.

PRETORIA (Reuters) - South Africa has told ratings agencies that there will be no change in its fiscal stance, the new Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba said on Monday.

JUBA (Reuters) - South Sudan has suspended plans to charge foreign workers a $10,000 work permit fee, the finance minister said, after criticism that it would create a huge expense for aid organisations.

KINSHASA (Reuters) - Congolese police deployed heavily across the capital Kinshasa on Monday as opposition calls for a general strike after a breakdown in talks with President Joseph Kabila's allies last week raised fears of renewed violence.

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's president faces a confrontation with senior members of the ruling African National Congress and the country's currency has plunged after the country's finance minister was sacked, a move that threatens to split the ANC.

DAKAR (Reuters) - Four new factory buildings rise up from fields on the outskirts of Senegal's capital, the first phase of a government plan to woo Chinese companies shifting low-end manufacturing to Africa as wages in East Asia rise.

CAIRO (Reuters) - An Egyptian human rights lawyer said on Monday he had launched an appeal against a court ruling which backed Cairo's proposed transfer of two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia.

BAMAKO (Reuters) - Mali's government should start talks with the leaders of two Islamist groups that have staged deadly attacks on Malian and French soldiers and U.N. peacekeepers, a peace conference said on Sunday.

BOSASSO (Reuters) - Pirates have hijacked a Indian commercial ship off the coast of Somalia and the vessel is heading toward the shore, a former government anti-piracy official told Reuters on Monday.

NAIROBI, April 3 (Reuters) - The following company announcements, scheduled economic indicators, debt and currency market moves and political events may affect African markets on Monday. - - - - - GLOBAL MARKETS Asian shares started the week modestly higher on Monday after a bumper quarter as investors look to the shape of U.S. trade and economic policies and how they could affect global growth. WORLD OIL PRICES Oil futures dipped on Monday