BBC Africa Live
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That's all from BBC Africa Live for this week. 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 our wise words of the day:

Click here to send us your African proverbs.

And we leave you with this image of children in Cameroon's capital, Yaoundé, waiting to meet football star Samuel Eto'o. It is from our collection of the best pictures from this week.

Image source, Getty Images

A stranded motorist in Mozambique spent days trying to get from the port city of Beira to his home in Chimoio in the aftermath of Cyclone Idai, which has destroyed towns and villages in its path and left floods of up to six metres deep.

Graham Taylor, a Zimbabwean agriculture and forestry adviser who has lived in Mozambique's Manica province for 10 years, had gone to Beira on Friday to help his son with emergency repairs.

He told the BBC about his return journey and the scenes he witnessed days before any aid agencies arrived.

I left Beira on Saturday at around 9am. About an hour and a half out going west to Chimoio, I encountered huge flood waters crossing this main newly built highway - vast amounts of water half a metre deep, 6km-7km (four to five miles) wide.

I managed to get through this and reached a little sugar town called Lamego. It was here that I became stranded, as ahead it turned out was a further 7km of flooded road, and where I witnessed the most horrific scene.

About 95% of the houses had been levelled and destroyed, especially those constructed out of poles and mud. If there was a roof remaining, people were on it. There were people on rooftops and trees - families, kids and babies on trees as far as the eye could see.

Read Graham's full story on the BBC website

Image source, Reuters

BBC World Service

Hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets of Algerian cities for the fifth consecutive Friday to demand the resignation of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

The anti-government website, El Khabar, said the rain in Algiers had not dampened people's spirits; another website said that thousands also turned out in the cities of Relianze, Oran, Bouira and Tizi-Ouzou.

Demonstrations began a month ago when the 82-year-old president decided to stand again for office - but they continued after he said he would not contest a fifth term.

President Bouteflika also postponed upcoming elections, prompting largely peaceful protests calling for immediate change.

Here is a sample of images from Fridays protests in the capital, Algiers:

Image source, EPA

Image source, AFP

Image source, AFP

Image source, Reuters

Wahiba Ahmed
BBC Somali service

Image source, AFP

A judge in the self-declared republic of Somaliland has sentenced a disabled woman, who had accused a man of rape, to be flogged 100 times.

Her perpetrator has been sentenced to death by stoning.

The victim first reported the incident to local police in February 2018. She said she had been raped by a taxi driver in September 2017.

She did not report the incident immediately after the rape happened as she feared being stigmatised, but later went to the authorities after discovering that she was pregnant, her representatives told the BBC.

They said the police didn’t believe her because of the delay in reporting the assault.

The judge ordered the alleged perpetrator to take a DNA test as he had denied all claims made against him.

“Victims are being harassed by the system. What kind of message does this send to women who want to report crimes?" said Somaliland human rights lawyer Guleid Ahmed Jama.

"Women still fear going to police stations, and now they might be punished for coming forward."

The victim’s lawyer and human rights groups in Somaliland have lodged an appeal and are hopeful the sentencing will be overturned.

Last year, the passing of the first rape and sexual offences law in Somaliland made headlines internationally and it was celebrated as a victory for women.

Mr Jama told the BBC that when the legislation was passed “we all celebrated but the law has since been suspended and is under review, nothing has changed since it made headlines".

Parts of southern Africa have been left devastated after Cyclone Idai swept through Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe.

Hundreds of people have been killed and hundreds of thousands more affected.

Even though the cyclone hit Mozambique over a week ago, aid agencies are warning that the disaster is getting worse.

The BBC's Shingai Nyoka reports from Chimanimani in eastern Zimbabwe, one of the worst affected areas.

Image source, GETTY IMAGES

Kenyan actor Lupita Nyong'o says her latest film Us took an "emotional" toll on her and it was "exhausting" playing two different versions of the same character.

"This movie stretched me, it bent me, it cost me a whole lot," she told the BBC's Radio 1Xtra.

Us is a horror film written and directed by Oscar-winner Jordan Peele - the man behind Get Out.

In the movie a family of four - the Wilsons - are confronted by monster versions of themselves.

Lupita plays mum-of-two Adelaide Wilson and a scarier version of the character called Red.

To make Red sound distinctive, Lupita says she mimicked a voice condition called spasmodic dysphonia, external.

"It's a condition that's brought about by trauma, sometimes emotional, sometimes physical and sometimes inexplicable," she said.

"It's where your vocal cords start to spasm and they create this irregular abrupt pattern of air.

"So I had experienced someone speaking with that condition and I got curious about it."

Read the full story on the BBC website

Image source, Getty Images

Former South African President Jacob Zuma has waded into the national debate of how to deal with the crippling interruption of electricity in the country.

State-owned power utility company Eskom has been implementing daily power cuts designed to prevent a total collapse of the overstretched electricity grid.

Mr Zuma told local Business Day news site, external that a controversial nuclear deal with Russia, that he fronted when he was in office, could have averted the current crisis.

“The fact of the matter is nuclear could solve our problems, once and for all. Now we are in deep, we are therefore increasing the debt of the country with no hope to bring it down. That’s a problem," Mr Zuma said.

The plan to build eight nuclear plants, with the support of Russia and other countries at an estimated cost of around 1tn rand ($76bn; £59bn) was annulled by a court in 2017 following a legal challenge by environmental groups.

There were also allegations that the cost of the project had been inflated. The country currently has one nuclear plant.

Environmental groups say South Africa should rely more on renewable energy to meet its electricity needs.

Read more:

• Why the lights keep going out in South Africa
• Jacob Zuma - the survivor whose nine lives ran out

Sheila Kimani
BBC Africa, Nairobi

Today marks a triumphant milestone for Kenya's LGBTQ community after a court dismissed a challenge to the registration of the National Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (NGHLRC), as an association under the Non-Governmental Organizations Coordination (NGO) Act.

A leading activist from the community tweeted about the news:

The Kenya's NGO coordination board had refused to register the NGLHRC, saying that Kenya's penal code “criminalises gay and lesbian liaisons”.

In today’s ruling the judges said that human beings should not be denied their fundamental rights because of how they choose to live their lives.

They also said that Kenya was a diverse society, so morality and religion were irrelevant in determining whether an association should be registered or not.

The gay community is also eagerly waiting for another significant ruling, expected on 24 May, that is challenging the criminalisation of same-sex relationships in Kenya.

Aid workers are racing against time to get emergency supplies to hundreds of thousands of people affected by Cyclone Idai, which struck southern Africa a week ago.

A BBC correspondent in Mozambique says the mission is slow and challenging because so many people are on rooftops or other high places, inaccessible by road.

Our colleagues at Focus on Africa radio spoke to Aurio de Jesús Fernandes who was in the port city of Beira during the storm – and is now seeking shelter in Tete city 600 km (370 miles) away.

Image source, Getty Images

Read:Cyclone Idai: What are the immediate dangers?

Gaius Kowene
BBC Africa, Kinshasa

Image source, Getty Images

The US department of treasury has issued new sanctions against three officials of the Democratic Republic of Congo electoral commission, Ceni.

These sanctions relate to the two-year delay in holding general elections originally scheduled in 2016.

It comes a month after a visa ban was announced against the same officials and other high-profile members of former President Joseph Kabila's government.

The US says, external that under Corneille Nangaa's leadership, Ceni officials inflated the cost of the electronic voting machine contract by as much as $100m (£75m) for their own personal enrichment, and to fund the campaign of Mr Kabila’s hand-picked candidate, Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, ahead of last year's election.

Ceni's deputy head Norbert Basengezi Katintima is accused of withdrawing $80,000 from operational funds for his personally-owned hospital, which also had the contract for medical care for all the commission's employees.

He is also accused of bribing investigators to conduct an inaccurate audit of their financial activities.

His son Macellin Basengezi is accused of selling fuel for the voter registration teams which delayed the process in Kasai, an opposition stronghold.

This meant many voters weren’t able to take part in the elections.

Felix Tshisekedi was declared the winner of the 30 December presidential election which was marred by allegations of vote rigging.

The electoral commission has not responded to the BBC's request for a comment on the allegations.

Mary Harper
Africa editor, BBC World Service

The authorities in Cameroon say kidnappers have released an entire football team that was kidnapped on Wednesday.

They say some of the footballers were tortured. A ransom is reported to have been paid for their release.

The government blames Anglophone separatists for the abduction of the team which played for the University of Buea.

The footballers were seized by gunmen when they were practising on the university campus.

Kidnappings have become common in English-speaking Cameroon where the university is based.

Anglophone separatists have been fighting for an independent state of Ambazonia for the past few years.

We reported earlier that the Facebook and Twitter accounts of Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta had been deactivated following what his chief of staff said was "unauthorised access".

Local media have been reporting that the accounts have been taken down because parts of a tweet which had Mr Kenyatta's verbatim words had been politically sensitive.

The tweet said:

"If you are corrupt we will fight you. You can be my brother or my sister or my closest political ally, but if you are corrupt we will fight you.”

It's the "my closest political ally" part that has been deemed controversial as it has been interpreted as targeting Mr Kenyatta's deputy, William Ruto.

The two leaders are political allies but their relationship is reportedly strained.

A video of Mr Kenyatta's speech, with that controversial part erased, has been widely shared online but it has not escaped the attention of many that it had been altered.

Watch it below:

Nairobi News website has since tweeted another video, which includes the controversial part of President Kenyatta's speech.

Watch it here:

Kenyans have accused their government of ignoring an estimated one million drought victims in the north-western Turkana region.

However, the authorities say this figure is "normal" and that deaths being reported are not directly related to the drought.

Turkana is one of Kenya's poorest counties and is situated in the extreme north-west.

It is also one of the driest and least developed regions of the country.

BBC World Service

Security sources in Chad say at least 23 soldiers have been killed by Boko Haram jihadists, one of the deadliest such attacks in the country.

The attack occured in Dangdala near Lake Chad, an area where Boko Haram is active.

The Islamists are largely based in Nigeria, but stage regular raids into neighbouring Cameroon, Chad and Niger.

Chadian troops serve in a regional task force fighting Boko Haram.

Read more: Who are Nigeria's Boko Haram Islamist group?

Ethiopia is getting its "first female comic book superhero". She's a young woman called Ement Legesse and stars in a comic called Hawi.

Her story is a historical fantasy set in modern-day Ethiopia and draws on the country's rich past.

BBC Newsday presenter Shaimaa Khalil spoke to the founder of Etan Comics, Beserat Debebeshe.

Thomas Naadi
BBC Africa, Accra

An eyewitness has shared these pictures with me from an accident scene in Kitampo town in central Ghana, where over 50 people were killed when two buses collided early on Friday morning.

Police say the bus caught fire.

"Most of the passengers in both vehicles died at the spot. A number of them with varying degrees of injuries have been rushed to hospital," a police spokesperson said.

Others are trapped in the two vehicles and are yet to be rescued.

We will update you as we get more information.

Image source, Anas Sabit-Kaskiya

Image source, Anas Sabit-Kaskiya

Zimbabwe's President Emmerson Mnangagwa has been tweeting about ongoing relief efforts in the devastated south-eastern part of the country following Cyclone Idai.

He hailed Zimbabweans for helping in the relief efforts especially in the town of Chimanimani, which was devastated by the storm.

"We have set up a 19 point plan to help the affected communities, intensifying the search for the missing and ensuring food relief, free medical services, temporary shelter and clean water while working to prevent disease outbreaks, restore social services and relocate settlements," he tweeted.

Officials say at least 259 people have died and 217 people are missing in Zimbabwe. About 200,000 others have been affected.

Mr Mnangagwa has declared Saturday and Sunday as days of national mourning:

Thomas Naadi
BBC Africa, Accra

Dozens of people have been killed after two buses collided at Kintampo town in central Ghana.

The exact number of casualties is unknown at the moment but a local government official has told the BBC that over 50 have died and several others injured.

The police and fire service are currently at the scene of the accident.

We will update you as we get more information.

All social media accounts for Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta have been deactivated after someone gained "unauthorised access", his chief of staff has tweeted.

Nzioka Waita gave no details how it happened but added that the platforms will be restored after "remedial action".

Mr Kenyatta's Twitter and Facebook account have millions of followers.

Privately-owned newspaper The Star reports, external that a tweet deemed politically sensitive, that was posted this morning, was the reason behind the deactivation of the accounts.

The Star shared a screengrab of the tweet:

Image source, The Star/ Twitter

The paper reports that the mention of "my closest political ally" in the tweet could be referring to Mr Kenyatta's deputy, William Ruto.

Mr Ruto's supporters have been critical of Mr Kenyatta's latest war against corruption that has resulted in the arrest and questioning of top government officials, saying that it was a witch-hunt against his deputy.

They say that people seen as close to Mr Ruto were being targeted.

The relationship between the two leaders, who ran on a joint ticket in the 2013 and 2017 elections, is said to have been strained recently, especially after Mr Kenyatta called a truce with opposition leader Raila Odinga.

Mr Odinga and Mr Kenyatta - who were engaged in a bitter contest in the 2017 election - agreed to work together in 2018 for the sake of "peace in the country".

Their close relationship and Mr Odinga's increased profile since the truce are being seen by some as a political manoeuvre to scuttle Mr Ruto's plan to succeed Mr Kenyatta as president.

Read more: The handshake that left millions of Kenyans confused

Friday's African proverb:

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