GABORONE (Reuters) - Botswana holds an election on Wednesday that will present the first genuine challenge to the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) in its five decades of dominance over southern Africa's wealthiest and most stable nation.

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Ethiopia plans to award two telecoms licences to multinational mobile companies by April 2020, the new communications regulator said on Tuesday, an apparent delay in the timeline officials had previously set.

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Ethiopia will face problems if it delays its general election beyond the scheduled date of May next year, the prime minister said on Tuesday, recalling past political violence.

GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) - An informant for Congo's intelligence agency who was on trial for alleged involvement in the murders of two U.N. investigators has died from a long-term illness, his lawyer said on Tuesday.

NAIROBI (Reuters) - The five mothers sat in a bright blue room in Kenya's largest maternity hospital waiting to pump breast milk - but not for their own newborns.

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - After three days at sea trying to reach Europe, Demba Dembele was intercepted by Libya's EU-backed coastguard and returned to Tripoli – where, like dozens of other migrants, he got in a taxi and set off into the city.

CONAKRY (Reuters) - Five opposition and civil society leaders in Guinea were convicted and sentenced to prison on Monday for organising protests against a possible change to the constitution that could let President Alpha Conde seek a third term.

JOHANNESBURG, Oct 22 (Reuters) - Volkswagen will decide early next year whether to roll out its new ride-hailing business in Ghana, where the German automaker will soon begin assembling cars, the head of the company's African division said.

LONDON, Oct 22 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Whether it is building schools from plastic waste or opening a cafe staffed by trafficking survivors, social entrepreneurs find innovative and creative ways to solve a diverse range of environmental and social problems through a business lens.

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Armed men invaded a metallurgical plant owned by South Africa's DRDGOLD on Monday night, killing the gold miner's chief security officer and stealing an estimated 17 kg of gold, the company said.

MAPUTO (Reuters) - Mozambique's President Filipe Nyusi is heading for a landslide victory in elections, according to a preliminary estimate by an observer group on Monday, in a contest the opposition claims has been tarnished by "mega fraud".

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of Sudanese demonstrated in Khartoum and other cities on Monday to call for the former ruling party to be dissolved and for ex-officials to be put on trial.

ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria's anti-fraud office on Monday charged two Britons in the capital, Abuja, for alleged money laundering in connection with an ill-fated gas deal that has left the government facing a disputed bill of more than $9 billion.

MAPUTO (Reuters) - Mozambique's former guerrilla movement Renamo on Monday urged citizens to join it in rejecting preliminary results of last week's general election, citing fraud as incumbent President Filipe Nyusi took a strong lead.