BBC World Service

Image source, AFP

Thousands of people are suffering as a result of the latest outbreak of violence in South Sudan, the charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) says.

Villages have been looted and burnt down and health facilities attacked in Leer and Mayendit counties in the north of the country, it adds.

Many have fled and are hiding in the bush or in swamps, MSF says.

Civil war broke out in South Sudan five years ago after President Salva Kiir fell out with his then Vice-President Riek Machar.

The UN says more than four million people - one in three people in South Sudan - have been displaced by the violence.

The editor-in-chief of Zimbabwe's state-run Herald newspaper has tweeted a cartoon poking fun at exaggerated claims being made by leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) Nelson Chamisa whilst on the campaign trail.

It follows a Twitter row earlier in the week when Rwanda's President Paul Kagame denied ever meeting Mr Chamisa after the Zimbabwean politician said he had advised him on how to "turn around" the East African country.

The mouse is misquoting an MDC slogan “Chisa Mbama Chisa”, which is a play on Mr Chamisa’s name meaning he’s as hard hitting as a slap – instead saying that opposition leader is lying.

Will Ross
Africa editor, BBC World Service

The Ugandan authorities are coming under pressure to tackle the alarming rate of kidnappings which until recently had been extremely rare.

The police say there have been more than 40 reported kidnappings this year and most victims are women.

In one recent case a family in central Uganda was told to pay around $1,000 (£750) for the release of a daughter.

Relatives only managed to raise $300 and the kidnappers killed her.

The police say they have set up a new call centre to deal with the issue but they say many of the cases are hoaxes, as people stage-manage their owns kidnaps in order to get ransom money.

Favour Nunoo
BBC Pidgin, Accra

The arrest in Ghana of a student who staged a placard protest metres away from First Lady Rebecca Akufo-Addo has caused outrage on social media.

Reginald Sekyi-Brown held up the placard with the inscription #OpenUGMCnow, a reference to the University of Ghana Medical Centre, while the first lady was at a sod-cutting ceremony for the construction of a pediatric intensive care unit at a teaching hospital in Ghana's capital Accra.

The OpenUGMCnow is a campaign about the failure of government to open the $217m (£163m) medical centre for public use because of an impasse between the university and the health ministry over who will manage the facility.

In a video circulating on social media, the student walks up to the podium while the first lady delivers a speech, catches her eye as she pauses briefly to look at his placard before continuing with her speech.

Moments later, the student campaigner was arrested and detained at Accra's Korle-Bu police station.

Although no formal charges have been pressed, police and some government functionaries say his actions posed a security threat to the first lady, a claim most social media users have rubbished.

According to Accra Police Command spokeswoman Afia Tenge, the police “don’t need to see a person physically with a weapon before we whisk them away”.

She added that officers interrogated Mr Sekyi-Brown to find out who he was, what he was holding and whether he had any ulterior motives.

Mr Sekyi-Brown was granted bail yesterday evening and asked to report to the police again as investigations continue.

Ghanaians who want to use the University of Ghana Medical Centre have given the government until tomorrow to open it or face more protests.

Catherine Byaruhanga
BBC Africa, Kampala

Image source, AFP

There’s confusion in Uganda over how a new tax on social media usage will be implemented. It is expected to come into force in July once signed into law by the president.

Appropriately enough, Ugandans are using social media to share their disapproval for the new law which will require them to pay a flat rate of 200 shillings ($0.05; £0.04) every day that they log on social media apps like WhatsApp or Facebook. Mobile money transactions will also be taxed at a rate of 1%.

Experts and at least one major internet service provider have raised doubts about how a daily levy would work. The government is struggling to ensure all mobile phone SIM cards are properly registered.

Social media has become an important political tool in Uganda for both the ruling party and opposition. Access to platforms was shutdown during elections in 2016.

• See our earlier post for more details

An oil baron who was accused of plotting a coup in oil-rich Equatorial Guinea has died in a freak accident at his mansion in London, the UK-based Daily Mail news site reports, external.

A close friend said Ely Calil, 72, broke his neck, apparently after falling down the stairs at his multi-million pound property, the report said.

Calil - a UK national of Lebanese origin - was alleged to have plotted the coup in 2004 with ex-UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's son, Mark Thatcher, and former British commando and businessman Simon Mann.

The coup attempt was foiled, and Mann was arrested in Zimbabwe and extradited four years later to Equatorial Guinea.

In 2008, he was sentenced to 34 years in prison, although a year later he was released after being pardoned by Teodoro Obiang Nguema - the man he plotted to overthrow.

The Daily Mail quoted Mann as saying the coup failed because Calil promised "many things and failed to deliver".

Mann added:

Image source, Getty Images

BBC World Service

A court in Ghana has sentenced a 20-year-old man to seven years in prison with hard labour for taking part in a video of a gang rape which was widely shared on social media.

Ernest Asare and four others raped a teenage girl last year.

The other perpetrators, who are under 18, were also found guilty by the court in Kumasi and have been referred to a lower court for sentencing.

The video showed a teenage girl being held down on a mattress as they took it in turns to rape her whilst laughing and mocking the victim.

Ugandans who use the internet messaging service WhatsApp will be charged a daily tax of 200 shillings ($0.05; £0.04) after parliament approved a controversial new law on Wednesday.

It comes into force on 1 July, and will also apply to other social media apps like Facebook.

Mobile money transactions will also be taxed, with a 1% levy on the total value of each transaction.

President Yoweri Museveni was quoted in Ugandan media last month as saying social media platforms are used "mainly for gossip".

Human rights activists disagree. “It’s part of a wider attempt to curtail freedoms of expression,” blogger Rosebell Kagumire told Reuters, external.

At least three MPs have criticised the new rules as "double taxation", according to the privately-owned Daily Monitor newspaper.

Kyaddondo East MP Robert Kyaggulanyi, aka Bobi Wine - as well as Joshua Anywarach and Silas Aogon - said that because users access WhatsApp through taxed airtime, an additional tax would infringe their rights.

Another MP, Patrick Nsamba of the ruling party, said the tax will hurt the poorest most:

Image source, South Africa's Department of Education/Twitter

South Africa's education minister Angie Motshekga has condemned a school for allowing girls to expose their buttocks and breasts in a choir competition, saying it was undignified and promoted their "sexual objectification", the local Times Live news site reports, external.

It quoted her as saying in a statement:

The choir master, however, defended the performance at a competition in Mthatha - the main town in the Xhosa heartland of Eastern Cape province - on Friday.

The lead singers took off their traditional blankets (umbhaco) and danced with only small aprons (inkciyo) during a segment which focused on Xhosa tradition, the unnamed choir master was quoted by the Daily Dispatch newspaper as saying.

“We are proud of our Xhosa tradition. We are proud of inkciyo. We are proud of Xhosa women and girls‚” he added.

Our African proverb of the day:

Image source, AFP

Welcome back to Africa Live, where we will bring you the latest news and views from around the continent.

BBC Africa Live
Flora Drury & Dickens Olewe

That's all from the Africa Live page for 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 and scroll to the bottom to send us your African proverbs.

And we leave you with this picture of a little girl skipping a rope from africashowboy:

Andargachew Tsege, the British citizen who spent four years on death row in Ethiopia as a political prisoner, addressed crowds in the capital Addis Ababa last night after his release:

“Well, it’s been a really great day. I'm very surprised by the reception I received from my fellow countrymen, and I'm quite happy. And I'm very grateful to all the people. who campaigned all over the world for my release.”

The Ethiopian government had accused him of plotting a coup and he was sentenced to death in absentia in 2009.

Watch below:

Nkechi Ogbonna
Visual journalist, BBC Africa

Nigeria's north-eastern states are in the midst of recurrent cholera outbreaks, with more than 1,000 suspected cholera cases and 31 deaths recorded since February.

Borno, Yobe and Adamawa currently having active outbreaks, with the number of cases increasing rapidly in recent days.

In Adamawa State, a total of 482 cases, including 13 deaths, have been reported so far.

The cholera outbreak in Yobe State started at the end of March, with a total of 404 suspected cases, including 15 deaths reported as of 21 May.

In Borno State however, the cholera outbreak started on February 13, with a total of 19 suspected cases been reported as at May 20, all coming from Kukawa area.

Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, chief executive of the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control, said in a statement the recent increase in cases is down to the rainy season.

However, earlier this month the United Nations, through the Nigeria Humanitarian Fund, allocated US$2 million to support the response to the deadly cholera outbreak in north-east Nigeria, which could affect thousands of people.

A 27-year-old Austrian has become an up-and-coming second-hand clothes mogul in Kenya, local newspaper The Standard reports., external

Benjamin Gsell started his business in September 2017, six months after he arrived in the East African country.

Mr Gsell tells The Standard he worked in Dubai in a marketing role for five years and used $54,000 (£40,000) from his savings and some from a business partner to start the business.

He says he imports the clothes from the UK.

"I sell a bale at $40 and $187, depending on what’s inside, as well as sell some items on retail to boost profits," he is quoted as saying.

He says he is not worried about threats to ban the importation of second-hand clothes saying the government has been talking about it for years.

"We also want to expand into other East African countries, such as Tanzania and Uganda, as well into key markets in West Africa, like Ghana, Benin, Togo and Nigeria, in 2019," he adds.

Read: How the US and Rwanda have fallen out over second-hand clothes

A man accused of being involved in a shootout on Monday which left a nine-year-old girl dead near the South African city of Durban has appeared in court.

Sibonelo Mkhize is alleged to have been part of a group of three men who exchanged fire with Sadia Sukhraj's father after they snatched her from a car.

Her father, Shailendra Sukhraj, who is a well-known pastor in the area, was taking her school when the incident happened in the driverway, news 24 reports., external

Mr Sukhraj chased and fired at the car.

Mr Mkhize was arrested after the speed away car crashed, a second suspect was found dead while another is on the run.

In court, Mr Mkhize had visible blood stains on his green jersey. His lawyer said he had been assaulted by police officers at Durban Central Police Station and asked he be transferred to another one.

He is facing two counts of murder and a charge for theft and kidnapping.

A bail hearing will be held on Thursday.

Rana Jawad
BBC North Africa correspondent, Tunis

Image source, AFP

As the word spread of Tunisian Prime Minister Youssef Chahed’s imminent appearance on television to address the nation, many here assumed they were about to witness a resignation, because the ruling party and the president himself were pushing for one this month.

Instead, Tunisians witnessed an assertive chief of cabinet speak of his intention to press ahead with his economic reform plans, which includes unpopular austerity measures.

And then he delivered a stunning critique of his own political party, Nidaa Tounes - not to mention the president's son, Hafidh Caid Essebsi, head of the secular party.

Over the past two years, the ruling party, which is led by the president’s son, Hafith Caid Essebsi, increasingly lost its power base and has been riven by internal rifts that caused it to split in 2016.

Mr Chahed has been in power since August 2016, when his predecessor was unceremoniously voted out of office by the parliament for allegedly failing to deliver economic reforms to stimulate growth, and create jobs.

Today, Mr Chahed is facing a similar battle, but it comes against the backdrop of divisions in opinion between unions, party blocs and civil society over the best way forward.

But he is not going down without a fight, accusing his own party's "weakness" of "threaten[ing] the path to democracy".

The Tunisian prime minister’s message today is clear: unlike his predecessors, he is here to stay, and see the country through what will be a difficult political and economic journey.

UN human rights experts have called on the Kenyan government to take action over the "unacceptable" harassment of environmental activists fighting a factory they allege has left thousands exposed to lead poisoning.

Alfred Ogola, Wilfred Kamencu, Anastacia Nambo and Kavumbi Munga and several others are due to testify against a lead smelter as part of a class action lawsuit against the government and the smelter itself.

But, the UN said in a press release, they have now been subjected to threats following the first hearing against the plant, outside the coastal city of Mombassa, on 17 May.

“Unknown people have visited their homes at night repeatedly banging on their doors, yelling at them to come out of their house,” the experts said. “One of them had been attacked with an unknown substance which caused eye problems and swelling.

“It is unacceptable that they are repeatedly threatened, harassed, intimidated and assaulted and no one has been held accountable.”

The experts have contacted the government on three separate occasions about their concerns: they have yet to receive a response, the release said.

Lead poisoning, in the most extreme cases, can be fatal, with children more vulnerable than adults.

Milton Nkosi
BBC Africa, Johannesburg

Image source, Reuters

South Africa's National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) is considering appealing a high court decision after a judge unfroze assets belonging to the controversial Gupta family worth more than $20m.

The judge, sitting in Bloemfontein, said authorities had failed to prove that the Indian-born family had laundered money from state funds meant for poor farmers and taken it to their private bank accounts.

The decision was a big blow for South Africa's corruption fighting unit. In dramatic raids a few weeks ago, police seized more than 40 properties including mansions, luxury cars and aircraft belonging to the Guptas.

The family is known to have very close links to former president Jacob Zuma.

Officials close to the case told the BBC that as soon as the hand written judgement by Judge Phillip Loubser can be typed out, consultations will begin in earnest to decide whether they will appeal the ruling.

The success of this case will have an impact on current President Cyril Ramaphosa’s reputation, as he campaigned on an anti-corruption ticket to win the leadership of the governing party late last year.

Tributes have been paid after one of the icons of Arab cinema - Madiha Yousry - died in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, aged 97.

During a career spanning seven decades, Yousry starred in more than 90 films and a dozen soap operas.

Nicknamed The Dusky Lady of the Nile, Youssry's first role was in the 1942 film No Love and her last was in the movie The Terrorist in 1994.

She played alongside some of the greatest names of her time, including Omar Sharif.

In 1998 she became a member of the upper chamber of the Egyptian parliament.

Yousry married four times and had one son, who died in a car crash at the age of 26.