BBC World Service

Image source, AFP

Algeria's ruling party, the FLN, has backed calls to declare the ailing president, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, unfit to rule.

The FLN's intervention - which is expected to be decisive - comes a day after the head of the army Lt Gen Ahmed Gaed Salah said a constitutional rule should be invoked to remove the president from office.

Protests against Mr Bouteflika began last month after he said he planned to stand for another term.

Under pressure, Mr Bouteflika then agreed to stand down after constitutional reforms had been passed.

But people continued to protest saying the move was a ploy by the president to stay in office.

The hashtag #BringBackOurCow has been trending in the western Ugandan town of Mbarara as residents have been complaining about a new monument at landmark roundabout in the city.

Up until 2017 a statue of a cow with long horns had been a main feature, but this was removed to make way for a clock tower that advertised the Airtel mobile phone company, the Nile Post reports, external.

The cow was associated with the cattle herding culture in the region, SoftPower News reports, external.

This week, new lights in the shape of a cow's face have been installed, but people were not happy.

Ugandans have been calling for the return of the original statue.

One letter, apparently from a local tourism body, said the importance of Rusiina, the nickname for the original statue, "is invaluable".

In response, Mbarara mayor Robert Mugabe Kakyebezi has said that the cow statue will be revamped, SoftPower news reports, external.

Elias Hordofa
BBC Afaan Oromoo

A group of Ethiopian MPs from the parliament's finance committee have uncovered huge waste in an investment project aimed at boosting farming in the west of the country.

Since 2010, the state-owned development bank has given loans worth 3.7bn birr ($129m; £98m) to investors from the Gambela region for 189 projects. But after visiting the projects the MPs found that 133 of them are not functioning properly.

They discovered that in 36 cases the projects seem to have been abandoned altogether.

During the visit to Gambela, regional officials told the MPs that the investors took the land for farming, cleared the area and then "disappeared".

The officials also alleged that some of the money was invested in other local businesses rather than farming.

Despite the growth of other sectors, Ethiopia's economy continues to be dependent on agriculture and improved agricultural productivity is considered essential for the future of the country.

Sammy Maina
BBC Monitoring

In Niger, at least 12 people are feared dead and several others injured in two suicide bombings in the south-eastern border region of Diffa, reports France-based Niger website ActuNiger, external.

"The simultaneous attacks by suspected Boko Haram terrorists, according to local sources, were carried out by two suicide bombers who were targeting several public buildings including the police station... with the provisional death toll being put at 12 (without counting the two suicide attackers) mostly civilians," said the report.

The attacks, which started at about 22:00 local time (21:00 GMT) on Tuesday night, took place in Diffa town.

The fire started by the explosions consumed several homes in the areas, including the neighbouring suburb of Dileram which houses a refugee camp.

There was panic throughout the night as some of the victims were burnt alive and several people are still reported missing. The injured have been evacuated to hospitals in Diffa.

Boko Haram militants have been carrying out attacks in this border region since 2015 and the heavy presence of security forces has not diminished the attacks that have been on the rise in recent days.

Jose Tembe
BBC Africa, Maputo

Image source, AFP

More than three dozen victims of the floods that followed following Cyclone Idai have been buried in mass graves in the district of Sussungenga after their bodies were found in an advanced state of decomposition.

These citizens tried to take refuge in the treetops but because of hunger, low temperatures and a delay in their rescue, they ended up losing their strength falling in the water.

The official death toll from the cyclone in Mozambique is now 534.

• Read: 'We heard sobbing for miles'

Marc Niyonkuru
BBC Great Lakes

Burundi has released on bail this afternoon three schoolgirls who were detained for allegedly scribbling on President Pierre Nkurunziza's picture in text books.

Their laywer Nyanzira Prosper says the investigation into the accusations against them will continue.

Milton Nkosi
BBC Africa, Johannesburg

The son of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has admitted to being paid by a company facing corruption allegations.

Andile Ramaphosa told News24, external on Wednesday that he was paid $140,000 (£106,000) by Bosasa, a company at the centre of a massive corruption scandal.

It is accused of bribing politicians to win contracts. The allegations have surfaced during an inquiry into government corruption, known as the Zondo commission. Bosasa has not commented on the allegations.

The president's son denied any wrongdoing but accepted: "It was a severe oversight on our part.”

Andile Ramaphosa also said that "in hindsight due diligence was not sufficiently carried out" by his company Blue Crane Capital ahead of his father becoming president in February last year.

His son's company signed a contract offering advisory services with Bosasa – now called African Global Operations - earning his business a monthly fee of $16,000.

Two men have been charged with a series of offences including rape after a group of British schoolgirls was attacked at gunpoint in Ghana.

A number of armed men entered accommodation where the pupils and their teachers were staying during a school trip to the west African country in December.

Police said a Ghanaian security guard was shot and the female victims were "subjected to serious sexual assaults".

Some of their possessions were stolen.

Police in the UK said Ishmael Akyene, 34, a Ghanaian national, had been charged by Ghanaian police with 14 counts of robbery, one count of rape, one count of conspiracy to rape, one count of possession of a firearm, one count of possession of an instrument intended for unlawful entry and one count of money laundering.

A second man, Daniel Akpan, 29, a Nigerian national, has been charged with 14 counts of robbery, two counts of rape, one count of conspiracy to rape, one count of possession of a firearm, one count of possession of an instrument intended for unlawful entry and one count of money laundering.

Both men have been remanded in custody.

Image source, AFP

Pope Francis is due to visit Mozambique, Madagascar and Mauritius in September, the AFP news agency quotes the Vatican as saying.

Mozambique's President Filipe Nyusi invited the Pope on a visit to the Vatican last year.

In a response, he joked that he would come "if I'm still alive".

Pope Francis visited Kenya, Uganda and the Central African Republic in 2015 and Egypt in 2017. He is due in Morocco at the end of the month.

Teklemariam Bekit
BBC Tigrinya

Image source, Getty Images

In Libya, refugees at a camp run by the UN's refugee agency, the UNHCR, are dying of tuberculosis and other illnesses, an Eritrean refugee has told BBC Tigrinya.

Yonas Mehari said four people had died at the camp in north-western Zintan town in February and March, and nine had died earlier from treatable diseases.

The UNHCR in Libya could not be reached by BBC Tigrinya for comment.

Mr Yonas said many of the sick refugees were not treated quickly enough, and doctors sometimes visited the camp only once in three weeks.

‘’The medical centre [at the camp] is unhygienic and the facilities and medical equipment are scarce," he said.

Another Eritrea refugee, Kidane Mengesteab, said he got tuberculosis in September 2018, and had been isolated with other patients in a section of the camp.

Doctors gave him medicine, but then "disappeared" leaving him without medication for a month.

Then the doctors came back and gave him medicine for three months. He has not seen the doctors since, even though he has run out of medication, Mr Kidane said.

Peter Wakaba
BBC Nairobi

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta has defended his government’s response to the food shortage and drought in the north of the country that has been criticised by some citizens and the opposition.

Last week, Deputy President William Ruto said that reports of deaths from starvation were "fake news".

President Kenyatta told the BBC that government data showed that there had been an improvement in managing the effects of the drought compared to previous years.

He said the situation could have been much worse were it not for early interventions by his government.

Some local government officials have reported that there have been some deaths as a result of starvation.

The BBC has been reporting on concern over the response to the drought.

Image source, Getty Images

Olympic 800m champion Caster Semenya says Lord Coe's claim that "gender classification" is needed to protect women's sport, has "opened old wounds".

Coe is president of athletics' world governing body, the International Association of Athletics Federations.

Semenya, 28, is challenging the IAAF over its bid to restrict levels of testosterone in female runners.

The United Nations Human Rights Council called the plans "unnecessary, humiliating and harmful".

Coe, who won two Olympic titles at 1500m and has been head of the IAAF since 2015, told Australia's Daily Telegraph last weekend: "The reason we have gender classification is because if you didn't then no woman would ever win another title or another medal or break another record in our sport."

In a statement from her lawyers South Africa's Semenya, who took gold at the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Olympics said: "The scars Ms Semenya has developed over the past decade run deep.

"Reading the comments of Mr Coe this weekend opened those old wounds and the reference by the Daily Telegraph (Australia) to 'the muscle-packed Semenya' is just the latest illustration of how the issues have been distorted by innuendo.

"Mr Coe is wrong to think Ms Semenya is a threat to women's sport."

Read more: Caster Semenya: Lord Coe comments on 'gender classification' in athletics 'opens old wounds'

BBC World Service

Image source, Reuters

Algeria's ruling coalition partner, the RND party, has added its voice to that of the head of the army and urged President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to go.

The RND is chaired by former Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia who's a long-term supporter of Mr Bouteflika said the RND was grateful to the 82-year old leader for his services to the country.

On Tuesday, army chief Lt Gen Ahmed Gaed Salah said that the president should be declared unfit to rule and removed from office.

Mr Bouteflika has rarely been seen in public for years due to health problems.

Mass protests against the president began a month ago when he announced his intention to stand for a fifth term.

We've been reporting that five cholera cases have now been confirmed in Mozambique in the aftermath of Cyclone Idai.

The Reuters news agency has been speaking to Ussein Isse, a senior Mozambican health official, who expressed concern about what might happen next.

"[Cholera] will spread. When you have one case, you have to expect more cases in the community," he is quoted as saying.

The World Health Organization is sending 900,000 doses of a cholera vaccine, Reuters reports.

Image source, AFP

Nigeria’s Bayelsa state has started an inquiry into the impact of spills caused by multinational businesses.

The Bayelsa State Oil and Environmental Commission is in charge of the inquiry and invited Archbishop of York John Sentamu to chair it.

The commission’s aim is for oil companies to agree to a global standard of behaviour, conducting their operations in Bayelsa, reports Bloomberg, external.

The archbishop told the BBC's Newsday programme that multinationals should act in the same way they do in other places "where they react very quickly".

He added that the commission is investigating the impact of oil spills over the next few days and will produce a report which may recommend a change in the law that oil companies will have to abide by.

He said in a letter to The Guardian, external that the global community "reacted with horror" to the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 and the Montara spill in Australia in 2009, while spills in the Niger Delta "are ignored".

"Oil spills a persistent feature of life in Bayelsa. While four million litres of oil are spilled annually in the US, 40 million litres are spilled in the Niger Delta," he added.

Image source, GIANLUIGI GUERCIA/AFP/Getty Images

South Africa's electoral commission, the IEC, has changed the ballot paper to prevent confusion of colours and logos for parties that look too similar in the upcoming 8 May elections, news site Times Live reports., external

The IEC says in the past it used a random draw to determine which party comes first on the ballot paper and then all parties follow in alphabetical order, Times Live says.

However, for the upcoming elections, the IEC appointed the Human Sciences Research Council to look into the usability of the ballot paper and enhance the design.

It concluded that voters could be confused by the similarities of some parties and they should be separated on the ballot paper.

The lives of the LGBTQ community in many parts of Africa are often hidden because of anti-homosexuality legislation and social norms which deem same-sex relationships wrong.

But one activist has been travelling around the continent trying to undo this by helping people to tell their stories.

Selly Thiam, founder of the website None on Record: Stories of Queer Africa, external, told the BBC;s Newsday programme how she started the project.

The Mozambican authorities say that cholera has emerged in the aftermath of Cyclone Idai, AFP news agency reports.

"We have five cases of cholera which have been confirmed. This is in Beira and the area around," Mozambique's Environment Minister Celso Correia is quoted by AFP as saying.

More than 450 people in Mozambique died as a result of the cyclone, which ripped up buildings and submerged parts of Beira and much of the land nearby.

Image source, Reuters

Four people were killed in central Mali in an attack on a Dogon village that followed a separate attack on a Fulani village on Saturday that killed 154 people, the UN mission in Mali Minusma says.

"This spiral of violence must stop immediately," Minusma chief Mahamat Saleh Annadif says in a statement, external.

The UN mission says that the attack on the Dogon village of Ouadou happened on Saturday night just hours after the massacre in Ogossagou.

Among the dead was a girl, Minusma says.

On Monday, President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita called on the military to act more swiftly to protect the populaiton.

On Tuesday, the UN's High Commissioner for Human Rights said that 600 people had died in communal violence in Mali since March last year.

Read more: Behind the Dogon-Fulani violence in Mopti

A senior government official in Uganda has urged the country's youngest rapper, Fresh Kid, to focus on schooling rather than music.

Florence Nakiwala, the minister of state for youth and children affairs, asked Fresh Kid to stop performing and stay in school.

Ms Nakiwala expressed concern that Fresh Kid, whose real name is Patrick Ssenyonjo, missed school since he was always busy working when other children his age were studying.

Despite his managers constantly stating that the artist is a pupil at primary school, Ms Nakiwala warns in a video in the local language Luganda, aired by privately owned NBS Television,, external that he should not be used for their financial gains.

"In the Ugandan constitution, there are laws that regulate the children of the nation. It prohibits child labour for any child between zero to 18 years of age," Ms Nakiwala is quoted as saying, external.

Her remarks have generated mixed reactions on Twitter: