Kennedy Gondwe
Lusaka

Image source, AFP

Members of Zambia’s main opposition party have submitted a motion in parliament for the impeachment of President Edgar Lungu.

The motion, which was submitted to parliament yesterday, has been signed by a third of lawmakers mainly from the United Party for National Development.

Others that have signed up are Chishimba Kambwili and Harry Kalaba, two former ministers and members of the ruling party.

The lawmakers have cited gross misconduct and corruption as some of the reasons they want Mr Lungu impeached.

Even though Zambia's next general elections is not until 2021, there's already heightened political activity in the country.

BBC Monitoring
The world through its media

Image source, Getty Images

At least 15 people have been killed and many injured after a car bomb detonated in a busy street of Mogadishu yesterday, according to the pro-Al-Shabab news website Somali Memo.

The Islamist militants al-Shabab said they were behind the attack.

We reported yesterday that we were aware of 14 deaths.

At the time an eyewitness told news agency AFP the "huge" blast was caused by a car bomb near the tea shop in the Wehliye Hotel.

Another witness, Mohamednur Abdirahman, said: "Most of the casualties are... people who were spending time to take tea".

The attack, the latest in a series of bomb blasts that have hit the capital in recent times, may be an indication that an ongoing leadership wrangle within the government is undermining the security situation in the city.

Image source, Getty Images

South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa has said that the government will continue to pay legal fees of the scandal-hit former president, Jacob Zuma.

Mr Ramaphosa said in a statement on Thursday that an agreement had been struck to continue the payments , externaluntil a court finds Mr Zuma had acted in his personal capacity rather than as head of state.

He said that the deal also requires his predecessor to repay the money if he's found personally culpable of the charges.

According to main opposition party Democratic Alliance (DA) the state has so far spent 15m rand ($1.2m; £900,000) in Mr Zuma's legal fees.

The former president - who resigned last month after intense pressure - faces 18 charges of corruption relating to a government arms deal in the late 1990s.

The charges had been dropped in 2009 just before he became president but they were recently reinstated by the National Prosecuting Authority.

The BBC's Andrew Harding reports that the opposition parties say the money spent so far has been used on time-wasting appeals and legal challenges designed to thwart justice and spare Mr Zuma the humiliation of a criminal trial.

He adds that opposition parties are planning to go to court themselves, to challenge South Africa’s government decision to continue paying the former president's legal fees.

Read: Jacob Zuma - the survivor whose nine lives ran out

BBC Monitoring
The world through its media

A new Egyptian social media platform similar to Facebook appears to have been launched in Egypt. And the name is EgFace, external.

Lebanese news site An-Nahar says, external the site appears to have been built in a hurry less than two weeks after Egypt's communications minister announced that Egypt would launch its own social network.

Egyptians online ridiculed the idea announced in 12 March, with many suggesting that it was an attempt by security authorities to gather information about users and monitor their accounts.

Many Facebook accounts have been recently closed and several online users arrested for "inciting against the state, army and police".

Anna Holligan
Reporter BBC News, The Hague

Image source, Getty Images

Police in Spain have rescued 39 women and girls who were smuggled over from Nigeria, kept in caves and forced to sell sex.

They were coerced into leaving home with voodoo threats, then exploited as prostitutes to pay back 30,000 euro (£26,209) debts.

According to Europol, the criminal cartel had links to the Eiye brotherhood, one of the most influential fraternities in Nigeria.

The gang was allegedly operating clandestinely all over the world - pumping money back into the network.

Some 89 people were arrested during raids last November, including a famous, but as yet unnamed DJ, accused of acting as a pimp across a number of provinces.

He was caught flying back into Spain after recording a music video.

Detectives at Europol described it as one of the largest operations against human trafficking in Europe.

• Read more on the long-running investigation by the Spanish police.

Our African proverb of the day:

Click here to send us your African proverbs

Welcome to BBC Africa Live where we will bring you the latest news from around the continent.

That's all from BBC Africa Live today. Keep up-to-date with what's happening across the continent by listening to the Africa Today podcast or check the BBC News website.

A reminder of today's wise words:

Click here and scroll to the bottom to send us your African proverbs.

And we leave you with this photo of Cameroon's President Paul Biya visiting Beijing today to drum up business deals.

China is Cameroon's biggest investor, accounting for two-thirds of all direct foreign investment.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Reuters

Nigeria will not abandon the last Dapchi girl held in captivity, President Muhammadu Buhari has promised.

Only one schoolgirl was not returned by Boko Haram militants after she reportedly refused to convert from Christianity to Islam.

All the other surviving girls taken along with her on 19 February were unexpectedly returned to the town of Dapchi on Wednesday morning.

Five of the girls are believed to have died.

It is not known where the extremists - who are said to be in the midst of negotiations with the government for amnesty - are keeping her.

But President Buhari said it was Nigeria's duty to find her, and bring her back to her parents.

"The lone Dapchi girl will not be abandoned," the presidency said in a statement on Thursday afternoon.

Nigeria's president is set to meet the Dapchi school girls released by Boko Haram militants on Friday.

However, questions are still being raised over the deal which was struck to free the 105 girls and a boy released by the jihadists on Wednesday.

Information Minister, Lai Mohammed, has assured the BBC no ransom was paid.

Instead, he revealed their shock when the group - who they were already in negotiations with over a possible amnesty - took the girls.

According to Mr Mohammed, they resumed discussions after they realised they had carried out the abduction.

"If they returned and lay down their arms and renounce their membership of the insurgency then we will give them free passage and they can return to society," he explained.

"Amnesty means you have forgiven them in exchange for permanent cessation for hostilities."

He also explains why the government decided to strike the temporary ceasefire deal with Boko Haram, which allowed fighters to return the girls to Dapchi.

Listen to what he has to say below:

Umaru Fofana
BBC Africa, Freetown

Image source, AFP

With just five days to go to the presidential run-off vote, a row has broken out between Sierra Leone's electoral commission and the national police force.

The National Electoral Commission (NEC) has accused the police of "unwarranted and unannounced" visits to their offices in three towns, two of which will prove key in determining who becomes the country’s next president.

In a press release, the election body says these visits risk compromising next week's polls. The NEC also reminded the police that it alone has the authority to run elections in the country.

The police hit back saying it has the backing of the law to probe allegations of election malpractice, 200 of which they say they are currently investigating.

They also asked for the NEC executive secretary to be released to them for questioning, which the commission now says it has done.

The police statement does not specify who lodged the complaint about the alleged electoral fraud. But it comes in the wake of all major parties crying foul, in particular the governing APC which was narrowly beaten to second place in the first ballot.

The death toll in a blast in Somalia's capital Mogadishu has risen to 14.

Abdiazis Ali Ibrahim, a spokesman for the security ministry confirmed the number of dead, but added a word of warning.

"The toll could be higher," he said.

According to eyewitnesses, a vehicle packed with explosives detonated outside a busy hotel earlier today.

Read more about the latest attack in our earlier posts here.

Image source, Getty Images

A Kenyan court has ruled that the forced anal examination of men suspected of being gay is unlawful, after rights groups argued the tests are a form of torture.

Homosexual acts are illegal in Kenya, as in most African countries. Gay sex is punishable by up to 14 years in prison.

Until today's ruling, Kenya was one of at least eight countries worldwide where men suspected of being gay are subjected to forced anal testing. The others - according to Human Rights Watch (HRW) - are Cameroon, Egypt, Lebanon, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uganda, and Zambia.

Today's decision by the Court of Appeal overturns a previous ruling from 2016 on the legality of such examinations, and whether they violate an individual's privacy.

HRW, external says the "cruel, inhuman and humiliating" process usually involves medical personnel "inserting their fingers, and sometimes other objects, into the anus of the accused. In other cases, men are ordered to strip naked and bend over or lie down with their feet in stirrups while doctors “visually” examine their anal regions".

Following today's ruling, a lawyer for Kenya's National Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission said: "The humiliation and pain caused by these useless anal examinations will follow our clients for the rest of their lives."

LGBTQ campaigners hope the ruling will influence another court case under way to decriminalise gay sex.

• Read: 'I fled so-called gay conversion in Kenya'

A paramedic employed by the Somali capital's only ambulance service is among the injured in today's blast.

Aamin Ambulance revealed Omar Shiekh Mohamed - "an active and long serving" member of their team, dedicated to "save [the] lives of others in Mogadishu" - was receiving treatment.

The ambulance tweeted this picture of other staff members waiting to take people to hospital:

One eyewitness told news agency AFP the "huge" blast was caused by a car bomb near the tea shop in the Wehliye Hotel.

Another witness, Mohamednur Abdirahman, said: "Most of the casualties are... people who were spending time to take tea, there was devastation and buildings were damaged."

Scroll down for our previous story on the attack.

Militant group al-Shabab says it is behind a blast outside a busy hotel in the Somali capital Mogadishu, news agency Reuters reports.

The terror group's military spokesman said they had killed "10 people, including soldiers and officers".

However, Abdikadir Abdirahman, who is the director of the city's sole ambulance service, Amin, put the death toll lower, at six.

He said 22 people were injured.

The blast took place outside the Hotel Wehliye, on the Makka Almukarramah road, which is a common target for al-Shabab, which is battling the UN-backed government in Somalia.

• This is a developing story, so keep checking back for more.

Dodging hippos along the Niger River, photographer Aisha Augie-Kuta reached the remote village of Norandé.

It is here that she connected with a community that, despite its proximity to the river, faces a daily struggle for clean water.

In Niger, nine out of 10 people do not have a decent toilet and half the population does not have access to safe water.

Drinking dirty river water exposed people in Norandé to potentially fatal diseases, including cholera and diarrhoea, as well as regular bouts of stomach pain and dermatitis.

Recently, a borehole for drinking water was drilled, and the village now has working latrines. But the community is still in need, as drought threatens their still-limited water supply.

Image source, Aisha Augie-Kuta / WaterAid

Image source, Aisha Augie-Kuta / WaterAid

"I'm disabled and so is my wife," says 40-year-old Soumaila Soumana. "So I am not able to do anything to earn money for my family. It's only thanks to the help of the community and of my wife's family that my family survives.

"Before, we would go far into the bushes, with all that risk that involves, to take care of our toilet needs."

The family, who have two-month-old twins Hassana and Housseina, used to drink water raw from the river, which was contaminated with bacteria.

"What we fear in the future is if we again have a problem getting drinking water because the well runs dry or breaks down, because the means to drill another is beyond the capacity of the community," he says.

Image source, Aisha Augie-Kuta / WaterAid

Image source, Aisha Augie-Kuta / WaterAid

• Read more on the BBC News site

Image source, AFP

A large crocodile which terrorised a Zimbabwe hospital for two hours - blocking anyone from entering or leaving - has been shot dead.

The crocodile had apparently positioned itself at the gates of St Patrick's Hospital, in the town of Hwange, and was charging anyone who dared to come near.

According to Bulawayo24.com, external, the reptile's appearance took the community by surprise - especially because the nearest large body of water was 10km (six miles) away.

Chief Shana told the news outlet that, based on local belief, there was a suspicion the crocodile was hunting someone it had failed to finish off properly earlier in the day.

However, the hospital said no-one had been admitted with crocodile-related injuries.

Parks and wildlife authority spokesman Tinashe Farawo confirmed they had shot the crocodile, saying they had to put it down "because it had become a threat to life".

She told the news agency AFP the increase in rains meant there had been several recent reports of crocodile attacks in the country.

One woman was killed in the capital Harare as she crossed a stream, while another boy escaped in the south-east of the country.

Alex Duval Smith
BBC Africa, Dakar

Image source, AFP

Malian Prime Minister Soumeylou Boubeye Maiga has called off a planned visit to the contested northern town of Kidal in the wake of rocket attacks on French and United Nations bases in the area, according to people travelling with him.

Mr Maiga, who is on a national tour ahead of elections in July, had pledged to include the Tuareg bastion in the journey.

But this morning the bases on the outskirts of Kidal were hit by rockets. The French force, Barkhane, said five of its soldiers had been injured.

The last time a high-ranking politician from Bamako visited Kidal was in May 2014 when Prime Minister Moussa Mara spent several hours there.

The visit was followed by a disastrous Malian military offensive to retake the town from separatist groups. At least 60 soldiers were killed.

At least five people have died in an attack on a busy road in Somalia's capital Mogadishu, the news agency AP reports, external.

Captain Mohamed Husein told the agency a number of people were injured.

The attack took place near the Weheliye hotel, on the Makka Almukarramah road, the agency said.

• This is a breaking news story. We will continue to update Africa Live readers as more comes in.

Thomas Naadi
BBC Africa, Accra

Image source, AFP

The deposits of more than 700,000 people in Ghana are under threat amid a crisis in the country's financial sector.

The Central Bank paints a grim picture of a financial sector in desperate need of help after it emerged microfinance institutions and the Rural and Community Banks owe the depositors more than $160m (£113m).

More than 200 of the country's 566 licensed microfinance institutions - which provide loans to small businesses - have registered as being in distress or have collapsed.

In the banking sector, 37 out of 141 rural and community banks are facing the same fate.

Earlier this week the Central Bank stepped in to prevent the local uniBank from imminent collapse after it suffered persistent cash shortfalls and regularly fell below cash reserve requirements.

The Central Bank says it had to act to protect depositors and other creditors - and to rein in further risks to the country's wider financial system.

It revoked the licenses of two other local banks last year for similar reasons.

It is now making plans to prevent any further problems, announcing reforms to the microfinance sector hoping to improve their performance and safeguard the funds investors and depositors.