The government of eSwatini has called in the army to restore order after days of violent protests against its absolute monarch, the acting prime minister said.

BOUNA, Ivory Coast, July 1 - A court in Ivory Coast on Wednesday sentenced 10 people found guilty of child trafficking to 10 years in jail, part of an effort to clamp down on organised networks that smuggle children to work in cocoa plantations.

Three soldiers behind a failed coup in Gabon in 2019 have been sentenced to 15 years' prison, the prosecutor told AFP on Thursday.

Ethiopia on Thursday called on rebel forces in the war-hit Tigray region to adhere to a unilateral ceasefire it declared earlier this week, amid doubts about whether fighting would actually stop.

The United States government has announced a €600 million (about R10.1bn) investment plan for Aspen Pharmacare to secure enough vaccines for the African continent.

The Hanns Seidel Foundation, together with the Institute for Security Studies and News24, will host a seminar on harnessing the benefits of a SADC Standby Force in Mozambique on Thursday.

News24 has appointed seasoned journalist Lynsey Chutel to head up its Africa desk.

Zimbabwe has also entered a new form of Level 4 lockdown which has the potential to disrupt cross-border movement with South Africa.

Protesters in eSwatini defied a curfew, taking to the streets in what activists say is a tipping point in Africa's last absolute monarchy.

Pro-democracy activists in eSwatini said on Wednesday several people were killed and injured in overnight clashes with police, the latest bout of unrest in days of protests rocking Africa's last absolute monarchy.

A group seeking a separate homeland for the ethnic Igbo people of Nigeria's southeast demanded 'justice and fair hearing' on Wednesday, after their leader Nnamdi Kanu was detained.

The backing of ICBC was seen by RioEnergy as a fresh start in a plan to develop the plant and end recurrent power outages in Zimbabwe.

Many soldiers and civilians have been killed in the conflict in Ethiopia's Tigray region, a spokesman for the Ethiopian government task force for Tigray said on Wednesday.

Zimbabwe is adopting level 4 lockdown measures which will curb working hours, despite calls from business leaders to maintain normal working activities.

Nearly half of the 206 protected areas in central Africa are under threat from the oil and gas industries, a report published Tuesday by the Central African Forest Observatory (OFAC) said.

The WHO said it was supporting the five remaining countries yet to start their Covid-19 immunisation campaigns, as the planet clocked up administering three billion vaccine doses.

Following days of unrest, which culminated in violent protests on Tuesday, the eSwatini government has instituted a strict Covid-19 curfew.

Somalia will indirectly pick a new president on 10 October, the prime minister said on Tuesday, potentially easing a political crisis brought on by a delay in holding the election.

Watch all the latest news from the African continent.

eSwatini government rubbishes claims that King Mswati III has fled as demonstrators target royal property, demanding multiparty democracy.