BBC Africa Live
Flora Drury & Farouk Chothia

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 a mouth-watering Ugandan dish:

The Egyptian writer and activist Dr Nawal El Saadawi says women need to fight for their rights on a global scale, rather than waiting for governments to make changes.

She told BBC Hardtalk's Zeinab Badawi: "I don't believe that the rights of women come from the government, from any government. I believe that women gain their rights by their own efforts."

Dr El Saadawi is a leading Egyptian feminist. She was banned from speaking in the Egyptian media and imprisoned under the government of President Anwar Sadat for her views.

You can see the Hardtalk interview in full on Wednesday 23 May 2018 on BBC World News and the BBC News Channel and after on BBC iPlayer (UK only).

Will Ross
Africa editor, BBC World Service

Image source, Reuters

The latest round of peace talks for South Sudan has ended without a deal being reached.

The East African regional body, Igad, had proposed a power sharing agreement with three new positions of vice president - one going to the exiled rebel leader, Riek Machar.

Mabior Garang, a member of the rebel forces known as the SPLA-IO, said the proposed deal was unfair as it maintained the status quo with power mainly in the government's hands.

Since President Salva Kiir and Mr Machar, his former vice-president, fell out almost five years ago, more than four million people have been displaced by conflict in South Sudan and thousands have been killed.

Image source, AFP

Three years after Tunisia was hit by a series of jihadist attacks, the country's tourism industry has finally undergone "real recovery".

According to Tourism Minister Selma Elloumi Rekik, who spoke with news agency AFP, revenue had increased a third in the first months of 2018 - and tourist numbers rose to their highest levels since 2014.

The country saw a significant drop in numbers following the deadly attacks on a museum in the capital Tunis, and then a beach hotel in Sousse.

"There is a significant improvement," Ms Rekik said.

According to the minister, the growth in tourists is not just down to a rise from its tradtional, European markets, but also visitors from China and Russia.

She expects visitor numbers to surpass 8m over the course of the year.

"People are coming back to Tunisia because there is security ... We are at the same level [of security] as any European city," she said.

Image source, Reuters

Medical charity MSF has said it does not believe "forced hospitlisation" is the answer to controlling Democratic Republic of Congo's Ebola outbreak after three patients left an isolation zone against advice.

According to the charity, the first patient - who was about to be discharged - left on Sunday, while another two were "helped to leave" by family members overnight on Monday.

One later died at home, another died after he was returned to hospital.

In a statement, MSF said "every effort" was made to stop them from leaving but "forced hospitalisation is not the solution to this epidemic".

Instead, "patient adherence" was key to stopping the deadly disease in its tracks.

"Medical and health promotion teams are working hard to explain to the local population what the symptoms of Ebola are, the importance of coming to health structures as quickly as possible if they suffer from symptoms, and the importance of isolation measures to contain the disease," it said.

• Read Africa Live's earlier post on the deaths here.

BBC Sport

Image source, Getty Images

The Moroccan Football Federation has written to Fifa to complain about US territories being allowed to vote to decide the 2026 World Cup hosts.

Morocco are bidding to host the tournament, against a joint proposal from the USA, Mexico and Canada.

Guam, American Samoa, the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico are able to vote on 13 June, but Morocco claim that is a conflict of interests.

The 2026 World Cup finals will be the first to feature 48 teams.

The BBC has learned the Moroccan FA first wrote to Fifa on 26 April, explaining that residents of Guam, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands are US citizens while those of American Samoa are US nationals.

It has now asked Fifa to inform the US territories of their inability to vote in order to allow for a fair bidding procedure.

Read more on BBC Sport

Kennedy Gondwe
BBC News, Lusaka

Image source, Ensemble

Two of the Democratic Republic of Congo's main opposition leaders have joined forces ahead of elections pencilled in for December.

Moise Katumbi, the former governor of the mineral-rich Katanga province and owner of football club TP Mazembe, and Felix Tshisekedi are currently on a tour of the United States to meet stakeholders to explain their agreement.

Mr Katumbi told the BBC from Washington: “Between me and Felix, according to the polls that have been conducted, we have 80% of the votes if elections are held today.

“We started with touring Africa and now we are in the United States to explain to various stakeholders that we have come together for purposes of uniting our country and working together ahead of the elections.

“We need everyone’s support, especially regional bodies like Sadc (Southern African Development Community), to ensure that elections are indeed held this year.”

The BBC was not able to independently verify the polling figures.

'Rumours'

Mr Katumbi also dismissed reports that Mr Tshisekedi had struck a deal with Mr Kabila to serve in his government.

“That’s not true because he doesn’t want to be part of a government that’s illegal. We have been touring together,” added Mr Katumbi, who currently lives in self-imposed exile in Belgium.

Mr Katumbi heads Ensemble, a coalition of political parties, while Mr Tshisekedi, of the Union for Democracy and Social Progress, is the son of the late veteran politician Etienne Tshisekedi.

Though DR Congo’s electoral body has said elections will be held on 23 December, President Kabila has yet to publicly announce whether or not he will stand.

His tenure expired in December 2016.

Despite the constitution barring him from seeking re-election, there are suggestions he might amend it to stand again.

Mr Kabila took power in 2001 after his father Laurent Kabila was assassinated.

Thomas Naadi
BBC Africa, Accra

Ghana Football Association boss Kwesi Nyantakyi is being interrogated by the police after President Nana Akufo-Addo ordered an investigation into allegations of fraud against him.

Mr Nyantakyi was picked up by police at the international airport in the capital, Accra, after flying in from Morocco, local media reports.

Mr Nyantekyi is apparently caught on video sing the name of President Akufo-Addo and other senior government officials to induce "potential investors" to part with money.

He has not yet commented on the allegation.

The video is part of a TV documentary by well-known investigative journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas on corruption in Ghana football.

It is due to be broadcast on 6 June.

Mr Nyantakyi has been the president of the Ghana FA for more than a decade. It was under his presidency that Ghana qualified for the World Cup for the first time in 2006.

The Ghana Football Association is an autonomous body and it is unclear whether he will be forced to step down until the investigation is concluded.

• Watch this 2015 BBC video on Ghana's undercover journalist unmasked below, or click here to read Africa Live's earlier post on the allegations.

South African MPs have gathered in parliament to vote on the budget.

But it wouldn't be a proper parliamentary session without the sight of the opposition Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) red outfits walking out the chamber.

And they didn't disappoint:

A South African company has denied it only allows its black workers 60 second toilet breaks after they staged a protest outside one of its plants.

About 100 employees at Agrico in Lichtenburg, west of Johannesburg, took part in a demonstration on Tuesday, according to The Sowetan, external.

They alleged toilet breaks were restricted to a minute, and that they weren't allowed tea or cigarette breaks.

Furthermore, they alleged the restrictions did not apply to their white colleagues at the farming equipment manufacturing factory.

Albert Tshabadira told the newspaper: "It is not nice, we are always scared and work under severe pressure."

Agrico, which has branches across South Africa as well as one in Zambia, admitted to the BBC it requires employees to swipe into the toilets.

However, Paul Burger, a product manager at the Lichtenburg branch, said it did not count against their work days - although it does monitor how long they spend in the toilet.

He added the entire site was non-smoking, and said employees - whose work day, without overtime, runs from 07:30 to 17:00 - had previously voted to do away with tea breaks in favour of an hour-long lunch break.

Agrico's technical director Ronald Andrug told the Sowetan managers were allowed tea breaks, and admitted most managers were white.

Image source, Reuters

More details have emerged about the Ebola patients removed from isolation earlier this week.

The BBC's Anne Soy, who has been in the Democratic Republic of Congo reporting on the outbreak, says the three people were removed from a treatment centre in the city of Mbandaka by their families on Monday evening.

The World Health Organization's emergency communications officer Eugene Kabambi told the BBC the relatives demanded to take them to church for prayers.

The three were then whisked away on motorbikes, sparking an immediate police hunt.

Two of the patients later died and the third one has now returned to the isolation unit ran by the medical charity MSF.

The families of the three patients are being monitored and some of them have been vaccinated against the disease.

This incident presents a new challenge for health workers trying to stop the spread of the deadly disease.

So far, 27 people are believed to have died of Ebola, with at least 58 cases reported.

Shingai Nyoka
BBC Africa, Harare

Image source, AFP

Former Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s invitation to a parliament probe on missing diamond revenue has been postponed to next Monday.

Mr Mugabe was supposed to have appeared before parliament at 09:00 local time (07:00 GMT) this morning but was a no show.

MP Themba Mliswa, who chairs parliament's committee on mines, told the BBC there had been a communication breakdown.

“We decided it was unfair to ask him (Mugabe) to appear at 09:00 because of his age,” he said.

"He will now appear on Monday at 14:00."

Asked what action they would take if he was a no show, Mr Mliswa said Mr Mugabe would be summoned before parliament if he failed to show up three times.

“The implications would be the police bring you,” Mr Mliswa said.

During an interview in 2016, Mr Mugabe claimed $15bn (£11bn) in diamond revenue was missing through corruption.

The government has since said the amount was "figurative".

Mr Mliswa said the hearing would give the country’s former leader a chance to explain himself.

Ishaq Khalid
BBC Africa, Abuja

At least 45 people have been abducted by gunmen in the north-western state of Kaduna in less than 48 hours, reports from the area say.

Victims of the latest abductions include women and children, according to road transport union officials in Kaduna State.

They were seized as they travelled on a major highway linking northern Nigeria with the south on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Residents say gunmen stopped vehicles and herded the occupants into the bush in Birnin Gwari area.

There has been an upsurge in kidnappings for ransom in north-western Nigeria recently, with more than 80 people reportedly abducted in the region last week alone.

Meanwhile, in neighbouring Zamfara State, police were hunting for the wife and six children of a local politician kidnapped early on Tuesday.

Residents complain Nigerian authorities have not fulfilled their promise of deploying hundreds of soldiers to help them combat attacks by armed bandits.

• Read more: How my hometown became a bloodbath

Zimbabwe's government has condemned Deputy Finance Minister Terence Mukupe for reportedly saying the army will not accept opposition leader Nelson Chamisa as president.

Mr Mukupe's comments, if true, were "reckless" and did not reflect the position of the government, ruling Zanu-PF party and the military, acting Minister for Information Simon Khaya Moyo said in a statement.

Such comments “amount to direct contempt” of President Emmerson Mnangagwa and "imperil national peace and stability", the statement added.

Image source, Getty Images

Mr Mukupe was quoted by the privately owned NewsDay website dismissing Mr Chamisa, 40, as a "child", adding the generals who forced ex-President Robert Mugabe to resign in November would not hand power to him.

“How can we say, honestly, the soldiers took the country, practically snatched it from Mugabe, to come and hand it over to Chamisa?

“This country, where it is now and where it is coming from, needs a grown up, a steady hand, a person who can stabilise things,” he was quoted as saying. , external

Mr Chamisa plans to run against Mr Mnangagwa, 75, in elections due later this year.

He sees himself as the successor of veteran Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who died in February aged 65.

His numerous attempts to dislodge Mr Mugabe from power failed.

Milton Nkosi
BBC Africa, Johannesburg

The resignation of Supra Mahumapelo as premier of South Africa's North West province is a clear indication of how divided the governing party still is, some five months after its elective conference led to former business tycoon and trade unionist Cyril Ramaphosa taking power.

In the end, 49-year-old Mr Mahumapelo could not even bring himself to say the word “resigned”. He instead chose the phrase “early retirement".

Image source, AFP

There is no doubt that President Ramaphosa quietly encouraged this move.

Mr Mahumapelo is, after all, the man who forced him to abandon the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHGM) in London last month, and to rush back home to deal with the violent protests demanding Mr Mahumapelo's removal.

It was also quite telling that ANC Deputy Secretary-General Jessie Duarte emphasised that “there will be no recriminations” following Mr Mahumapelo's resignation.

She said that Mr Mahumapelo - who still seems to be in the trenches fighting for former President Jacob Zuma - will work for unity in the troubled province.

The government has already taken the drastic step of taking over the day-to-day running of the province.

President Ramaphosa faces the mammoth task of keeping the ANC together ahead of next year’s general election.

However, problems within the ranks of the opposition will help the ANC cross the finish line.

• Read our earlier post here.

More than 50 people have died after a cyclone hit Somaliland, the vice-president of the self-declared republic has said.

Abdirahman Abdullahi Ismail told reporters the death toll was likely to rise, as a number of people were still missing.

Tropical cyclone Sagar struck the Horn of Africa over the weekend, making landfall in Somaliand and Djibouti on Saturday.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) estimated it has affected some 669,000 people in Somaliland.

Two people have also died in Puntland, and another two in Djibouti, according to UNOCHA.

It added that "80% of livestock in affected areas were killed", with reports indicating about 700 farms had been destroyed.

Image source, AFP

A deadly Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has a clear "potential to expand", the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned.

"We are on the epidemiological knife edge," Peter Salama, who is in charge of emergency responses at the WHO, said at a special meeting to discuss the crisis in Geneva.

"The next few weeks will really tell if this outbreak is going to expand to urban areas or if we are going to be able to keep it under control," he added.

WHO said 58 cases of Ebola have been recorded since the outbreak was declared on 8 May. There have been 27 deaths, it added.

Will Ross
Africa editor, BBC World Service

Image source, AFP

Senior officials of an exiled Ethiopian opposition party, the Oromo Democratic Front or ODF, have arrived in the capital Addis Ababa for peace talks with the government.

The ODF formed five years ago after its members broke away from the Oromo Liberation Front - which took up arms against the government in the 1970s.

The recently elected Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed, is an Oromo - the largest ethnic group in Ethiopia - and he has called for reconciliation in order to unite the country.

Any potential dialogue with the OLF would be more complicated as it has been defined as a terrorist organisation.

South Africa's embattled North West province premier has stepped down after allegations of corruption in his administration led to violent protests.

Supra Mahumapelo's resignation was welcomed by Ace Magashule - secretary-general of the ruling African Nation Congress (ANC) - who praised it as a "selfless decision", according to the party's official Twitter account.

The government imposed direct rule over North West province earlier this month, following the outbreak of violent protests in April.

Clashes took place in the area where protesters are demanding jobs, housing and an end to corruption.

Mr Mahumapelo's administration has been accused of corruption and the misuse of state funds - accusations he denies.

South African cricket star AB de Villiers has announced he is retiring from international cricket, saying it is the turn of others to step up.

De Villiers said he had "run out of gas" after 14 years of playing at the top level.

In a video released on Wednesday, he reiterated his dedication to South African cricket, saying he "has no plans to play overseas".

You can watch the full video below:

Read more on BBC Sport.