African press review 4 July 2017

Nigerian army announces surrender of hundreds of Boko Haram insurgents. South Africa's ruling ANC party studies a power-sharing pact as Ramaphosa and Dlamini Zuma face a tense battle for the movement's top job.

We begin in Nigeria where Premium Times has breaking news about the surrender of 700 Boko Haram insurgents after coming being rounded up by troops.

The paper quotes Nigeria's Chief of Army Staff, General Tukur Buratai, as saying that the terrorists handed themselves over to army units around the fringes of Sambisa Forest in the north eastern Borno State on Monday.

Premium Times says it is able to report that the group includes key commanders and influential members of the terrorist organization, one of them figuring on the army's most wanted list of Boko Haram commanders.

According to the paper the army's spokesman, the military has been able to gather useful information from the terrorists who he claims were making useful statements adding that more of the insurgents were expected to hand themselves in from the besieged terrorist lair in the Sambissa Forest.

In South Africa, Cape Times has its eyes on a looming power struggle at the helm of the ANC as it prepares for its elective conference in December.

According to the newspaper, the party's leaders fear a bloodbath and a possible split over the party's top job between current Vice President Cyril Ramaphoza and former AU Commission Chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma.

Cape Times says President Jacob Zuma has thrown his weight behind a proposed power-sharing deal allowing one of the two presidential would become deputy president should he or she lose to the other in the race for the top spot.

The deal was reportedly submitted to the ANC national policy conference holding in Johannesburg by KwaZulu-Natal chairperson Sihle Zikalala.

And in Kenya, Daily Nation raises an alarm after the author of a sensational book on election rigging in the country went missing. The paper says that Newton Babior who authored "The Raila Conspiracy" disappeared on June 27, the day he was scheduled to launch the book in Nairobi.

The Nation reports that Babior, who is also author of the political biography titled The Living Legend, claims that the 2002 General Election, in which then President Mwai Kibaki was contesting against Uhuru Kenyatta, now President, was the only free and fair election ever held in Kenya.

According to the paper three weeks ago, the writer told the media that there was a conspiracy by the government  to block the sale of the book in Kenya before August 8.

Daily Nation says Newton Babior's book was printed in India in April this year, adding that the author had filed a complaint with the authorities about the seizure of a shipment of the book at the port of Mombasa port.