Davidzo, a 15-year-old tobacco worker in Zimbabwe, has told Human Rights Watch (HRW) about feeling sick when carrying harvested leaves.

His testimony has contributed to a report by HRW which documents how children who work on Zimbabwe’s tobacco face serious risks to their health. (See previous entry).

According to HRW, Zimbabwean law sets 16 as the minimum age for employment and prohibits children under 18 from performing hazardous work, but does not specifically ban children from handling tobacco.

Its research was conducted the four provinces responsible for nearly all of Zimbabwe’s tobacco production and was based on interviews with 125 small-scale tobacco farmers and hired workers, including children or former child workers, in late 2016 and early 2017.

The watchdog is calling on the government to take urgent action:

The loser of the Sierra Leone presidential election has said he will challenge the result of the run-off vote.

Julius Maada Bio won just under 52% of the vote, beating ruling party candidate Samura Kamara by roughly four percentage points.

Mr Kamara said in a televised address that he was rejecting the National Election Commission's results.

"We dispute the results and we will take legal action to correct them," he said.

He added that the results "do not reflect the party's many concerns about massive ballot box stuffing, supernumerary votes, and other irregularities".

Mr Bio, a former military coup leader, was sworn in at a hotel less than two hours after he had been declared the winner.

Image source, Getty Images

The BBC's Umaru Fofana says it’s been a sometimes acrimonious campaign with the defeated candidate’s party accusing the electoral commission, foreign observers, civil society and journalists of being a part of an international conspiracy to hand the election to Mr Bio.

Even with the country’s deep rooted ethnic politics, tribalism came to the fore more prominently than ever before, our correspondent adds.

Read more on the BBC News website.

Shingai Nyoka
BBC Africa, Harare

Image source, AFP

Children and adults who work on Zimbabwe’s tobacco farms are facing serious risks to their health, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has warned.

The US-based watchdog says child workers it surveyed are at risk of acute nicotine poisoning or “green tobacco sickness”, caused by absorbing nicotine through the skin from tobacco plants.

The children reported experiencing nausea, vomiting, headaches, or dizziness while handling tobacco.

HRW has urged Zimbabwe’s government to take urgent steps to protect tobacco workers and global companies, including those in the UK, to ensure that they are not buying a crop produced by child workers.

Tobacco is Zimbabwe’s most valuable export commodity and in 2016 the country earned $933m (£664m) from tobacco exports.

The HRW research suggests the country's tobacco production has been tarnished by dangerous labour practices.

The government told HRW it had no documented cases of child labour.

Our African proverb of the day:

Image source, AFP

Click here to send us your African proverbs

Welcome to BBC Africa Live where we will bring you the latest news and trends 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 checking the BBC News website.

A reminder of today's wise words:

Click here to send us your African proverbs

And we leave you with a photo of Caster Semenya, the flag-bearer of South Africa at the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games in Australia:

Image source, Getty Images

Let's be honest, football fans don't always get along.

A bit of rivalry between the two sides is generally to be expected.

But this Senegalese team's fans are showing it doesn't always need to be like that.

Find out more by watching the video below:

Jose Tembe
BBC Africa, Maputo

An mystery fever is striking down people - mainly children - in the port city of Quelimane, Mozambique.

Health authorities are struggling to identify the malaria-like illness, which includes high fever, joint pain and headaches.

Dulce Santana told reporters it was not the first time she had brought her two year old in for treatment.

"I don’t know the kind of fever she is suffering from," she said.

"I’m not sure whether it is malaria or not. This is not the first time my daughter suffers from the same illness. When she takes medical examinations, nothing is diagnosed. This is frequent.”

Quelimane's chief medical doctor, Joaria Amisse, said they were investigating the issue.

“Patients have, indeed, complained of fevers. We are going to the ground to investigate the problem," he said.

"We are open to clarify any kind of health problem. The current situation caught us by surprise. But, it’s something we are going to learn about at the level of health units.”

Favour Nunoo
BBC Pidgin

Image source, Reuters

The more than 50 Ghanaians who tried to gain entry to Australia under the guise of covering the Commonwealth Games as journalists were caught out when they were unable to answer questions about sport.

The deportees, although in possession of genuine traveling documents, were arrested and detained after they failed to answer the sports-related questions which they should ordinarily be familiar with.

The country’s Deputy Sports Minister, Pious Enam Hadidze, says an investigation has been opened into the development.

However, he denied the ministry had anything to do with helping them get the visas in the first place - which Africa Live reported earlier here.

The denial came after one of the deportees told Ghana-based radio station, Atinka FM, that officials of the Ghana Olympics Sports Committee and the Ministry of Sports were paid between $2,000 and $5,000 (£1,400 - £3,550) to have their visas processed as journalists for the Games.

Image source, Getty Images

Tunisia have announced a friendly against Turkey on 1 June in Switzerland as the Carthage Eagles finalise preparations for the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

The Tunisian Football Federation (FTF) confirmed they will take on Turkey, , externalwho finished third at the 2002 tournament, at a yet to be determined venue.

This game comes five days after a high-profile trip to Lisbon where they face reigning European champions Portugal on 28 May.

Nabil Maaloul's men will base themselves in Switzerland before moving on to Russia for their final warm-up fixture against Spain in the city of Krasnodar on 9 June.

Tunisia beat Costa Rica 1-0 in Nice last week to make it two wins from two during the March international window, after a 1-0 victory over Iran.

Turkey and Tunisia have met on 11 occasions, drawing three of the games, with Turkey victors in eight matches.

Mary Harper
Africa editor, BBC World Service

Image source, EPA

A Malian jihadist leader has made his first appearance before the International Criminal Court charged with war crimes.

Al Hassan Ag Abdoul Aziz Ag Mohamed Ag Mahmoud was the leader of the religious police in the city of Timbuktu when it was controlled by Islamists from 2013.

He is accused of rape, sexual enslavement and the destruction of cultural monuments.

Mr Mahmoud was arrested in Mali and transferred to The Hague last week.

Vicki Momberg - who is facing two years behind bars for a racist outburst which left South Africans appalled - was back in court today to appeal against her landmark sentence.

And the first thing everyone noticed was her interesting choice of hairstyle...

The cornrow hairstyle is more usually worn by people of African descent - the very people Momberg insulted so terribly when she went on a rant at the police, using one of South Africa's most racist words a total of 48 times.

As a result, she has spent the last week in prison - and may be there for another two years if her appeal against the sentence handed down by a judge in Johannesburg is not successful.

And so it was unsurprsing the pictures of her new look immediately sparked reaction on social media:

This may not be the last people are seeing of the cornrows, as Momberg will be back in court next week after the hearing on whether she can be given leave to appeal was postponed.

Chris Ewokor
BBC Africa, Abuja

Hundreds of people took to the streets of Nigeria's capital, Abuja, earlier today to protest against the continued detention of pro-Iranian Shia leader Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky.

The crowd converged near Eagles Square - at the entrance to the civil service secretariat's main building.

The protest blocked off the main roads to the secretariat, leading to a heavy traffic hold-up for motorists going into the city centre.

The protesters say they have been prevented by the police from holding their daily rally at their usual venue, Unity Fountain.

The police say they have been ordered to block the fountain, and would not allow any rally to be held there.

Mr Zakzaky was arrested along with his wife in 2015 in a military crackdown which led to more than 300 members of his Shia group, the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN), being killed.

The military accused the group of trying to assassnate the army chief. It denied the allegation.

Image source, AFP

Sierra Leone's ruling party candidate appears to have a slim lead as the election count nears it close - but many opposition strongholds are yet to report, according to news agency Reuters.

The agency says the tallies it has seen suggest Samura Kamara of the All People's Congress (APC) secured 50.8% of the second round vote.

That is only a lead of around 30,000 votes, however, and Julius Maada Bio of the Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP) got more votes in the remaining districts in the first round, it reports.

The final result is not expected today.

Chris Ewokor
BBC Africa, Abuja

Gunmen have killed at least two police officers and a civilian in a raid on a police station in Kogi State, central Nigeria.

The gunmen - said to number about five - rode on motor bikes into the police station at about 0200 on Tuesday and started firing sporadically.

Reports say the gunmen were armed with AK-47 rifles, initially opening fire to scare people away before they moved straight into the station and killed the two policemen on duty, along with a suspect in a cell.

It is not clear why they attacked the police station but they allegedly made away with at least one police rifle and then ransacked the station for more guns and ammunition.

Kogi state police spokesman Willy Aya told the BBC they have opened an investigation into the attack.

He could not say if the attackers were just armed bandits or members of any militant group.

Suspected Boko Haram militants have previously attacked parts of Kogi state – mainly in Okene town and the capital, Lokoja. Reports indicate that the insurgents operate a militant cell in the state.

Milton Nkosi
BBC Africa, Johannesburg

Image source, AFP

The death of South Africa's veteran anti-apartheid activist Winnie Madikizela-Mandela at the age of 81 has sparked a national debate about how she should be remembered.

The more traditional sections of society, including her staunch supporters, want us to remember her as a faultless woman.

Others, particularly those who are still in the trenches fighting the old battles in favour of white supremacy, want us to remember Mrs Madikizela-Mandela as a violent and deeply flawed individual.

But anyone who wants to truly understand the Winnie Madikizela-Mandela I knew needs to go back in time and trace the steps of humiliation she suffered under the racist system of apartheid.

Read more of my blog here

Australian organisers of the Commonwealth Games have sought to make light of the embarrassing mistake of listing England as an African country in the official programme, AFP news agency reports.

"There was an overprint. We found out about it maybe 10 days ago. We went and spoke to England and said, 'Congratulations, the Commonwealth's changing and it has since Brexit, and you are now a part of Africa'," Mark Peters, chief executive of the Gold Coast Games, was quoted as saying.

"Sometimes you make mistakes and we copped it."

See earlier post

British-Somali artist Aisha Mohamed's has been speaking to the BBC about why she chose to focus on black women's hair for her latest project.

You can hear what she has to say below:

Image source, AFP

A Kenyan registrar has revealed he has a backlog of more than 80,000 birth certificates - because the official paper is yet to be sent to his office.

Kenya's Citizen newspaper, external revealed the problem after speaking to officials at the Kisii Civil Registrar office.

Registrar Mathew Khayota said people in the Kisii central, Kisii south, Kitutu central and Marani areas have been given "registration entry numbers" to those who have placed applications with the office.

According to the website, the problem arose after parents were told to produce birth certificates to their children's schools, and could take up to two months to sort out.

However, there is good news for newborns and those seeking a passport: Mr Khayota says they have held back some of the paper to print a few, select certificates.

An armed separatist group in Cameroon, the Ambazonian Defence Force (ADF), has denied it was behind the kidnapping of 12 European tourists, Reuters news agency reports.

"ADF does not take hostages. ADF arrest enablers and collaborators and does not arrest foreign nationals," Cho Ayaba, a leader of the Ambazonian Governing Council, to which the ADF is loosely affiliated, told Reuters.

The 12 were freed in an operation by the military, a government statement said.

Six municipal workers were rescued in a separate operation, it added.

The government blamed "armed terrorists" for the abductions.

See earlier post for more details