Liberians have been voting to choose a successor to Africa's first elected female president and Nobel Peace laureate Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

Ex-football star George Weah and Vice-President Joseph Boakai are the main contenders in the race to succeed her.

Liberia, founded by freed US slaves in the 19th Century, has not had a smooth transfer of power in 73 years.

Ms Sirleaf urged people to vote peacefully in a nation still recovering from a 14-year civil war.

"Your vote is about you and your family - not party, ethnicity," she said in an address to to the nation.

• Africa Live: Updates from the election
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A total of 20 presidential candidates are running to succeed Ms Sirleaf.

They include Alex Cummings, a former Coca-Cola executive, and MacDella Cooper, a former model and ex-girlfriend of Mr Weah.

Ms Sirleaf, 78, is stepping down at the end of her two terms.

When will we get results?

The head of the electoral commission, Jerome Kokoya, told the BBC's Newsday programme that counting of votes would begin as soon as polls close at 18:00 GMT, and that he expected early results to be announced by 23:00 GMT.

Image copyrightAFPImage captionGeorge Weah is hoping to be third time lucky in his presidential bid

Provisional results could come as soon as Wednesday but might take up to two weeks due to the poor state of the country's infrastructure.

To avoid a run-off, the winner of the presidential race must get 50% plus one vote.

With so many candidates running, most analysts expect there to be a second round.

Is Liberia peaceful now?

Ms Sirleaf took office in 2006, after her predecessor, Charles Taylor, was forced out of office by rebels in 2003, ending the long civil war.

Taylor is currently serving a 50-year prison sentence in the UK for war crimes related to the conflict in neighbouring Sierra Leone.

Mr Weah, 51, has chosen Taylor's ex-wife Jewel Howard Taylor as his running mate.

This is the former footballer of the year's third attempt to become president.

Ms Sirleaf has failed to campaign for Mr Boakai, fuelling speculation that the two have fallen out.

Speaking at an interface rally in Bindura on Saturday, President Robert Mugabe told a crowd of thousands that he knew he was  "disappointing many men" for banning Zodwa Wabantu from performing in Zimbabwe.

The Zimbabwean president lambasted the Durban entertainer, who is famous for her sultry moves and revealing clothes, for attending parties without wearing underwear.

He said: "I'm sorry we disappointed many men... You just come without covering your decency. What do you want? Men to see you? We don't want such..."

Zodwa was set to perform in Zimbabwe, but was banned by the acting minister of Tourism and Hospitality last month when he ruled that the Durbanite will not be allowed to perform at the Harare International Carnival.

Read: Zodwa Wabantu banned from Zimbabwe

This happened after actress Anne Nhira complained to the tourism board that Wabantu should not be invited because she was not a Zimbabwean, she dressed scantily and she was a lesbian.

Zodwa told TshisaLive she blamed her gig cancellation on "political games".

"The show was cancelled at the last moment. They said I must tell everyone that I am sick and they would send me money to cover the trouble. It's a political thing. It was politics behind closed doors because apparently people were protesting that they want me to perform and sponsors were pulling out of the event because reports about me were drawing too much (negative) attention to the event," she said.

Aboard Seefuchs Rescue Ship - Just before the sun dipped into the Mediterranean on Saturday, rescuers spotted a tiny wooden boat on the horizon. It turned out to contain five young Libyans fleeing violence and turmoil who were waving their arms for help.

The crew of the Seefuchs plucked them from the old fishing boat, gave them water and couscous and one of the men, 26-year-old Hamza Tekbali, explained why they had fled their country.

"Libya is terrible," Tekbali told Reuters as he waited to be transferred to an Italian coast guard vessel. "In Libya, if you do not kill, they will kill you," he said, adding that he feared he would be sent straight back home.

The Seefuchs, a ship operated by the humanitarian group Sea-Eye, carried the men to Catania, Italy, on Wednesday along with 16 other Libyans picked up on Sunday.

Already this year some 800 Libyans have reached Italy by sea, more than double the number for the whole of 2016, according to data collected by the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR).

The number is a fraction of the more than 100 000 non-Libyan migrants who have come to Italy from the country since January, but it suggests that the situation is deteriorating for Libyans in their own country.

Migrants travelling through Libya from elsewhere in Africa en route to Europe already face terrible conditions.

"For the past few months we have seen more Libyans," said Marco Rotunno, who monitors migrant arrivals for UNHCR in Sicily. "They mostly point to a lack of security as their reason for leaving. They talk about fighting, kidnappings, ransom and armed robberies."

Conditions in Libya have deteriorated sharply since a 2011 uprising that ousted Muammar Gaddafi.

Gangs frequently kidnap people for ransom, power and water outages are common, health services have been crippled and residents often have to queue for days to withdraw cash from banks due to a liquidity crisis.

The United Nations is making a new push to end the conflict that has opened the way for Islamist militants and armed smuggling groups who have sent hundreds of thousands of migrants to Europe.

In mid-September, fighting erupted in Sabratha, a people smuggling hub on the Western coast, after an armed group clamped down on migrant boat departures, prompting a cross-town rival to retaliate. As of Friday, at least 26 civilians and combatants had been killed and 170 wounded.

Islamic State militants conduct attacks in Libya as well, including one on Wednesday that killed at least four people and wounded 39.

UNHCR says there are still more than 217 000 internally displaced people in Libya and more than 278 000 who have recently returned home and who are considered people of concern.

Tekbali abandoned his hometown of Kikla, which is located southwest of Tripoli and said it was too dangerous to return.

His friend Rafat, who did not give his last name, said he was fleeing Libya after having been kidnapped by a militia in 2016. He was released after nine days when his father paid a ransom of 120 000 dinar (about R1.2 million) but said he feared a repeat.

A third man, 24-year-old Alaa, said he was persecuted in Libya because his father had fought in Gaddafi's military.

Tekbali said the five friends planned their voyage for a month and set out from a beach between Sabratha and Zuwara after paying 5 000 euros (about R80 000) to smugglers for the boat and the small outboard engine.

Nairobi - Kenyan police fired teargas and shots in the air on Monday as hundreds of demonstrators marched through the capital Nairobi to protest against proposed legal changes that would make it harder for the Supreme Court to annul an election.

Reuters television footage showed a sport utility vehicle ploughing into some of the protesters, severely injuring three, but it was not immediately clear who was responsible and the police made no immediate comment on the incident.

Kenya is due on October 26 to repeat a presidential election after the Supreme Court nullified an August 8 vote due to procedural irregularities. President Uhuru Kenyatta, who won the August election, will face opposition leader Raila Odinga.

Uncertainty over the coming election has created turmoil in the East African nation, which is a regional trade hub and staunch Western ally.

As the demonstrators marched towards the election board in Nairobi, a Reuters journalist saw men in plain clothes near security forces fire shots in the air. Police on horseback set up blockades to prevent protesters from accessing some roads.

Police also used teargas in the western city of Kisumu, Odinga's stronghold, to disperse protesters, though another demonstration in the coastal city of Mombasa passed peacefully.

Odinga's opposition alliance is threatening to boycott the October vote unless the electoral board changes some personnel - a stance he declined on Monday to clarify, in comments that suggested he was keeping his options open for now.

"This is a democratic society we live in. If I choose not to participate in the pre-rigged election process, it is my democratic right. No court can order me to do so," Odinga said in comments broadcast on Kenyan TV stations, without elaborating further.

"DECLARING WAR"

The protesters want to warn ruling party lawmakers not to pass an amendment to the election law that would limit the circumstances in which the Supreme Court could void an election on procedural grounds, opposition lawmaker James Orengo said.

"If parliament passes the law tomorrow, it will be like declaring war on the Kenyan people," he said.

Justin Muturi, speaker of the National Assembly, said the amendment could be debated when parliament reconvenes on Tuesday if lawmakers were keen to push it forward.

He said the key part of the proposed law stipulates that if a candidate boycotts an election whose date has already been set, the remaining candidate would win the contest without formal polls being held.

The government is keen to avoid a constitutional crisis if Odinga pulls out at the last minute, frustrating the court's order to hold elections within 60 days, Muturi said.

"We are trying to prevent a crisis should there be no elections," he told Reuters by phone.

The government-backed Kenya National Commission on Human Rights said on Monday in a report that at least 37 people had been killed in a police crackdown on protests that immediately followed the August vote - the highest death toll given so far.

The report attributed some deaths to "police using live bullets and a few from police bludgeoning using clubs". It named a 6-month-old baby girl, a 7-year-old boy, and an 8-year-old girl as being among the victims.

If we were to go with the popular, media-driven sentiments and narratives, South Africa would not be relating well with Zimbabwe.

South Africa could pretty well have aided a “regime change” in Harare that would have seen the back of Zimbabwe’s veteran leader, President Robert Mugabe.

It is something Western countries, chiefly Britain and America, have demanded of South Africa. Zimbabwe’s own opposition often looks up to their more powerful and richer cousins.

However, South Africa has resisted these pressures, something that confounds watchers.

This week, President Jacob Zuma rolled out the red carpet for President Mugabe for bilateral talks under the framework of the Bi-National Commission.

Zuma attended the same fixture in Harare last year and, in the latest recent event, the two countries signed five cooperation agreements in several areas, from trade to migration. Mugabe’s visit came under a cloud, due to the case in which his wife, Grace, allegedly assaulted a model, leading to a diplomatic incident.

This attracted frenzied reaction, but South Africa invoked diplomatic immunity to protect the Zimbabwean First Lady.

The incident was being flagged by the media ahead of Mugabe’s visit this week, but it was to miss the point completely. Perhaps more than many of us care to admit, South Africa actually needs Zimbabwe.

Welcome to the world of realpolitik. Zimbabwe is one of South Africa’s top five trading partners and goods up to the value of US$5 billion exchange hands.