Barcelona have confirmed they will travel to play a friendly against newly crowned South African champions Mamelodi Sundowns on 16 May.

Sundowns had announced the match last week but the final details took time to organise causing speculation over whether it would actually take place.

The news has delighted fans keen to see some of the world's best players take on their team:

However, others are questioning how much it cost Mamelodi Sundowns to bring the European giants to Pretoria - especially in light of that fact the club's billionaire owner Patrice Motsepe was alleged to have paid close to $1m to bring Barcelona out for a one-off friendly.

You can read the full story on the BBC Sport website here.

An investigation has been launched after a Nigerian diplomat was found dead in Sudan, according to news agency Reuters.

The diplomat was found at home in the capital Khartoum on Thursday.

It is not known how he died.

However, al-Arabiya television described the death as an "assassination", while some on social media were discussing a knife attack.

• This story will be updated as more information becomes available

Three people have had their throats slit in an attack on a mosque in Durban, South Africa, reports IOL news., external

There are conflicting reports as to whether the victims survived the attack.

The Imam Hussain Mosque was also set alight, the security company on the scene told News 24, external.

Kenya's privately-owned Citizen website has published footage from the air above the dam which broke overnight, sending a wall of water cascading towards the homes below.

The path the water took can clearly be seen in the video:

At least 40 people are known to have died in the disaster near the town of Solai, near the Rift Valley city of Nakuru.

You can read Africa Live's earlier story here, or read the full story on the BBC News website.

• Africa Live will continue to follow this story for developments throughout the day, so keep checking back.

BBC Monitoring
The world through its media

A four-year-old boy ended up in an Egyptian court charged with assault after accused of kissing his classmate, three.

The boy's father - told the privately-owned al-Mehwar TV their nightmare had started after the girl's father saw him kissing her.

But it was finally ended after a judge sitting in a juvenile misdemeanour court in Damanhour, north-west of Cairo, decided to throw the case out.

The judge even hugged the boy before letting him go.

Photos of the boy and his father smiling broadly as they left court have been widely shared on social media.

But many have questioned how the case even came to be.

Rescue efforts are continuing in Nakuru County, Kenya, after a dam burst overnight.

More than 30 people are said to have died in the disaster which stuck Solai town.

Pictures of the aftermath show the town overwhelmed by mud, and people trying to find their loved ones - or simply recover their belongings:

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

You can read Africa Live's earlier story here, or read the full story on the BBC News website.

• Africa Live will continue to follow this story for developments throughout the day, so keep checking back.

Chimamaka Ihenacho
BBC Igbo, Lagos

Image source, AFP

All cultures have their superstitions and crucial dos and don'ts.

The Igbo people of south-eastern Nigeria used to take such beliefs very seriously – thinking that to transgress them would bring bad luck or even death.

These days such superstitions are more likely to elicit laughter – although some people might still adhere to them just in case...

Here are Igboland’s top five superstitious beliefs:

• Don’t step over a pregnant woman’s legs

Image source, AFP

Should an expectant mother be sitting on the ground with her legs outstretched, do not jump over her legs, walk around her - otherwise it is believed her baby will be born with a form of dwarfism. It is also thought that the child could end up looking like you instead of its parents.

• Don’t sweep at night

If a person starts getting busy with a broom after dusk, it is believed they will sweep away the family's wealth.

• Beware of unknown callers

If you respond to someone calling your name without checking to see who is calling you and then cannot locate the caller, you could be in trouble. Igbos believe that it may be God calling, and by responding you’ve agreed to meet your maker.

• Beware of bumping your left leg

It is a bad omen to knock your left leg against a stone, wall or any object. Superstition has it that you should abandon what you’re dong immediately –to carry on could endanger your life.

• Don’t whistle at night

If you whistle after dark you’re in danger of summoning up bad spirits. It is also believed that a whistler could be summoning snakes.

Image source, Getty Images

Zimbabwe's Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga has denied he uses skin whitening creams, reports News 24, external.

According to the Chronicle newspaper, he made the denial after being mocked on social media - with some cruel users dubbing him "Bleachy Chiwenga" and "General Ambi".

He took the opportunity to set the record straight at his sister's funeral, Zimbabwe's Herald newspaper adds, external.

A video shows him explaining it was not a skin whitening cream, but an illness which caused the patches.

"I had this skin sickness that affected my whole body from beneath my feet to my back and the journalists started saying I was using skin lightening creams, but that was not the case. I was sick," he said.

He said treatment in South Africa failed to work - but herbs did.

“This is what had affected me, and had also affected my wife,” said Mr Chiwenga.

The UK government has apologised to Libyan Abdul Hakim Belhaj and his wife, Fatima Boudchar, who say an MI6 tip-off led to their capture and his torture by Colonel Gaddafi's forces.

Attorney General Jeremy Wright said the settlement with the couple included a £500,000 payment to Ms Boudchar.

Mr Belhaj says MI6 helped the US kidnap him in Thailand in 2004 to return him and his wife to Libya.

Read more on the BBC News website.

Most of us never consider how the salt we use on a daily basis ends up in our kitchens.

But for one community in south-western Uganda, mining the salt is taking its toll.

Watch the video above to find out more.

The death toll has risen to 32 after a dam in Kenya burst overnight.

The walls of the Patel dam was breached after heavy rains in Nakuru.

Buildings were swept away and dead bodies have been discovered covered in mud.

The search and rescue effort is still underway - this video shows volunteers searching for survivors last night:

Sammy Awami
BBC Africa, Dar es Salaam

A new report accuses the Tanzanian government and some foreign safari companies of a series of human rights abuses against the indigenous Maasai people.

The report, released today by independent policy think tank, the Oakland Institute, details cases of arrests, evictions and beatings of Maasai people.

The Maasai people allege the government is using conservation laws to evict them from their traditional pastures in favour of high earning tourism - a claim the government denies.

Tourism has been Tanzania's largest foreign exchange earner for almost a decade, contributing an average of $2bn (£1.5bn) annually.

But according to the Maasai testimonies collected in the report, the foreign companies have been denying them access to their ancestral land and key water sources, and have been co-opting local police in beating and arresting them

One of the accused companies has previously told the BBC the Maasai people are only blocked from water sources during the July to December hunting season - which coincides with the dry season.

The government, on the other hand, has consistently denied allegations of human rights abuses, and says the conservation laws were created to conserve and protest ecosystems around conservation area.

Last year, the government terminated a 25-year-old hunting concession with the UAE royal family-owned company OBC as it launched an investigation into the company’s dealings with former tourism ministers.The findings of that investigation are yet to be made public.

A Nigerian woman is suing the US customs agency after it seized tens of thousands of dollars which was earmarked to build a free medical clinic in Imo state.

According to the Washington Post, external, Anthonia Nwaorie was carrying $41,000 (£30,000) in her hand luggage as she boarded a flight in Houston, Texas, in October.

But before she reached the plane, she was stopped by US Customs and Border Protection.

Ms Nwaorie, a 59-year-old nurse who became a US citizen in 1994, initially thought they had concerns over her citizenship, but then heard them talking about smuggling.

Eventually, it emerged she had failed to fill in the proper paperwork declaring the money - which she was allowed to take out of the country.

But despite the authorities - which decided not to pursue a case - being obliged to return the money, they said they would only do so if she signed a "hold-harmless agreement”, taking away her right to sue the federal government.

As a result, she is still waiting for her money to be returned, and has decided to take legal action to force them to return the cash.

In the meantime, all hopes of setting up a permanent, free clinic to help her community back in Imo state have been put on hold.

She told the Post:

US Customs and Border Protection refused to comment on the case to the Post, as it was on-going.

You can watch a short clip about Ms Nwaorie and her fight to get her money back below.

Nomsa Maseko
BBC Africa, Johannesburg

Image source, AFP

Afrikaner lobby group Afriforum is heading to court to challenge a decision by the previous South African government to grant Grace Mugabe diplomatic immunity.

Zimbabwe’s former first lady is accused of assaulting model Gabriella Engels with an electric cord at an upmarket Johannesburg hotel, where her two sons were staying, in August last year.

Mrs Mugabe was expected to appear in court over the incident, but, in a controversial turn of events, the South African government granted her diplomatic immunity which allowed her to leave the country in the middle of the night.

The lobby group AfriForum, which is representing Mrs Mugabe’s alleged assault victim, wants the high court to annul the diplomatic immunity from prosecution granted to the former Zimbabwean first lady.

Mrs Mugabe has denied attacking the model and said she was defending herself from a knife wielding and intoxicated young woman.

The application by AfriForum will be heard over two days and, if successful, it would pave the way for South Africa’s National Prosecuting Authority to resume legal action against Mrs Mugabe.

The first cases in the recent outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo were reported back in December, a World Health Organisation (Who) spokesman has said.

Eugene Kabambi told news agency Reuters:

There are two confirmed cases of the virus and 17 deaths in the north-west of the country, the DR Congo's health ministry said on Tuesday.

The incident in the town of Bikoro comes more than a year after an outbreak in the country killed four people.

In 2014, more than 11,000 people were killed in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.

Image source, Reuters

An eyewitness to the aftermath of the burst dam in Kenya said they had found bodies stuck in mud.

"We found 11 of the bodies covered with mud at a coffee plantation and these are people who may have been escaping but could not make it due to the force and speed of the water from the flooded dam," he said.

"Most of them are women and children who could not have been able to run fast, and the elderly."

This was according to a senior police officer at the scene who spoke to AFP news agency on condition of anonymity.

The officer added that the emergency workers had spent the night combing through engulfed houses to retrieve the bodies of the victims and had only covered about half of the affected area.

Read more on the BBC News website.

Footage of a toilet attendant doing battle with massive rats in a Nigerian airport bathroom has gone viral.

The video was apparently shot in the male toilets at Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, in the capital Abuja, and shows the attendant taking on the rodent with a mop as the man behind the camera laughs.

The short clip was shared by Moji Delano on her Twitter feed, and quickly had people talking - with people divided between laughter and disgust:

Others, however, took pity on the rats:

The death toll in the Kenya dam disaster has risen to 27, according to a local police chief.

Gideon Kibunjah told news agency AFP more bodies had been retrieved since the search and rescue effort began.

"It is a disaster because most people were asleep when the tragedy occurred and their houses were swept away," he said.

Minister of the Interior CS Fred Matiangi, who arrived in the affected area, near the town of Solai in Nakuru County, this morning, tweeted this picture:

The area, some 190km (120 miles) north-west of the capital, Nairobi, had been experiencing heavy rains.

Last night people nearby heard a loud bang as The Patel dam in Nakuru County broke its walls. It swept hundreds of homes downstream.

Peter Mabae, a member of the Nakuru County Assembly, said he feared the final death toll would be far higher than the current count.

"More than 50 are injured and have been taken to hospital in Subukia," he told reporters. "We are also very worried as many residents are unaccounted for and we fear they could be buried under the rubble, especially those from the lower areas."

Read more on the BBC News website, or read Africa Live's earlier post here.

Image source, Getty Images

South Africa's president has called on the signatories of the Iran nuclear deal to "honour their commitments" after Donald Trump announced he was withdrawing the US from the agreement.

Cyril Ramaphosa spoke out after Tuesday's announcement, which has thrown the entire agreement into question.

In a statement presidency said Mr Trump's decision was noted "with deep concern", praised the agreement as a "significant achievement" towards the peaceful resolution of conflict.

It also called on the US to "not prevent the remaining parties from honouring their commitments" to the deal.

Mr Rampahosa added:

The 2015 agreement, which curbed the country's nuclear activities in return for the lifting of sanctions imposed by the UN, US and EU, was agreed between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council - the US, UK, France, China and Russia - plus Germany.

But Mr Trump argued that the deal was "defective at its core", saying he would pull out and reimpose sanctions.

Other signatories to the nuclear accord say they remain committed to it.

Alex Duval Smith
BBC Africa, Dakar

A Catholic priest is in custody after being charged with rape in Ivory Coast.

Father Anderson Sylvain Kouame Abe has been suspended from his role until further notice, a spokesman told a press conference at Abidjan's Saint Paul's cathedral.

The spokesman said the priest, serving in the Diocese of Abidjan, was arrested on 13 April in relation, to ''the rape of a young girl''.

Her age, name and details of the attack were not given.

The announcement ended weeks of speculation.

According to the rules of the Roman Catholic Church, only men who abstain from sex may be ordained and serve as priests.