Africa highlights: Monday 20 February 2017, as it happened

Summary

Nigeria's powerful Muslim leader links polygamy to poverty and terrorism
Kenyan court suspends bid to install surveillance devices on phones
Guinean musician arrested after protest call
Women in eastern Libya need 'male guardian' to go abroad
Mobile snooping order in Kenya suspended
Zimbabwe's president says 'America is for Americans'
Parts of South Sudan hit by famine
Tanzania deputy health minister condemns gay people
US concern over DR Congo 'killing of civilians'
Orlando Pirates appoint Swedish coach
Email stories and comments to africalive@bbc.co.uk - Monday 20 February 2017

Live Reporting

Hugo Williams and Farouk Chothia

Emir of Kano to restrict polygamypublished at 10:40 Greenwich Mean Time 20 February 2017
Image source, AFP
Image caption,
Lamido Sanusi wants the new law to protect women and children
Nigeria's influential Muslim leader - the Emir of Kano, Lamido Sanusi - is planning to introduce a law which would stop men from taking more than one wife if they did not have the means to support them.
In a speech on Sunday Mr Sanusi said that a connection had been established between polygamy, poverty and terrorism, Nigeria's widely read Punch newspaper reports, external.
Local media quotes the powerful religious leader and former governor of the central bank saying:
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Those of us in the [mainly Muslim] north have all seen the economic consequences of men who are not capable of maintaining one wife, marrying four. They end up producing 20 children, not educating them, leaving them on the streets, and they end up as thugs and terrorists."
The emir discussed different areas to be covered by the wide-ranging family law, which he said would be passed by the Kano state government:
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The law will address what Islam says on marriage, it will outlaw forced marriages, it will make domestic violence illegal, it will put in conditions that you need to fulfil before you can marry a second wife, it will spell out the responsibilities of a father beyond producing a child."
He added:
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It is a big law which covers a whole range of issues from consent to marriage, to maintenance to divorce, to maintenance of children and inheritance. It will be the first time in northern Nigeria that a Muslim law on personal status will be codified."
Read: Will the emir ruffle feathers?
Risk of thunderstorms in southern Africapublished at 10:23 Greenwich Mean Time 20 February 2017
BBC Weather
Parts of central South Africa, Lesotho, southern Botswana and Swaziland are at risk of severe thunderstorms over the next few days from the remnants of Tropical Storm Dineo.
There is a risk of flash flooding where these thunderstorms occur.
Four people were killed when Dineo hit Mozambique last week.
Tanzania deputy minister battles critics over anti-gay threatspublished at 09:26 Greenwich Mean Time 20 February 2017
Image source, AFP
Image caption,
Uganda's gay community has also faced government-led attacks
Tanzania's deputy health minister continues to take on his critics on Twitter, after threatening last week to publish a list of gay men whom he alleges are selling sex online.
Hamisi Kigwangalla, writing in a mixture of English and Swahili, has been taking on those critical of his anti-gay rhetoric, saying that homosexuality is unnatural:
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The deputy minister has been condemned by some users on Twitter who say that his comments could encourage intolerance against the gay community in Tanzania:
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In one of his responses, the deputy minister, who is a medical doctor, suggested that homosexuality was simply an urban lifestyle, adding that in the village he is from in the west of the country, there were no gays at all.
His comments follow the government's decision to ban 40 private health centres from providing HIV and AIDS-related services, accusing them of promoting homosexuality, which is illegal in the country.
Gay sex between men is punishable by up to 30 years in prison in Tanzania.
Read more: Where is it illegal to be gay?
Famine declared in South Sudanpublished at 09:05 Greenwich Mean Time 20 February 2017
Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,
Civil war and an economic collapse have been blamed for the situation in South Sudan
A famine has been declared in parts of South Sudan, the first to be announced in any part of the world in six years.
The government and the United Nations report that 100,000 people are facing starvation, with a million more on the brink of famine.
A combination of civil war and an economic collapse have been blamed.
There have been warnings of famine in Yemen, Somalia and north-eastern Nigeria, but South Sudan is the first to declare one.
Last week, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) warned that more than 20 million people may face starvation in a series of famines over the next six months.
The WFP's chief economist, Arif Husain, said a combination of wars and drought meant that for the first time in recent years, aid workers were now talking about four simultaneous famines in separate parts of the world.
He added that despite record levels of international humanitarian aid distribution, there was not enough to look after all the people in need.
Mugabe backs Trump's nationalismpublished at 09:00
Image source, AFP
Image caption,
Mr Mugabe is the world's oldest leader
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe says he agrees with US President Donald Trump's "America for Americans" policy.
In his first comments on Mr Trump's presidency, Mr Mugabe said he was surprised by his election victory, but he did not "like Madam Clinton to win either", referring to defeated Democratic candidate Hilary Clinton.
"But anyway when it comes to Donald Trump talking of American nationalism... America for Americans - on that we agree. Zimbabwe for Zimbabweans," Mr Mugabe said, in excerpts of an interview published in the state-owned Herald newspaper, external.
He added that Mr Trump should be given a chance to prove himself.
"I do not know. Give him time. Mr Trump may even re-look [at] sanctions on Zimbabwe," Mr Mugabe said.
Mr Mugabe's full interview is to be broadcast on state television tonight to coincide with his 93rd birthday tomorrow.
Mr Mugabe also said that he would continue to rule, as most people felt there was no acceptable replacement for him.
He has been nominated by Zanu-PF as its candidate in next year's presidential election.
Mr Mugabe has ruled Zimbabwe since independence in 1980.
Today's wise wordspublished at 09:00
Our African proverb of the day:
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The grass is itchy when there is a lot of it. "
A Luo proverb sent by Belkos Palenga, Gulu, Uganda
Click here to send us your African proverbs
Good morningpublished at 09:00
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