Will Ross
Africa editor, BBC World Service

A new study carried out in 34 African countries suggests that more than a third of people on the continent have considered emigrating - most of them motivated by a hunger to find jobs and to escape poverty.

The research, by the organisation Afrobarometer, found that young adults and the highly educated were the most likely to consider leaving their country.

The most popular destination among potential emigrants was neither Europe nor North America but another African country.

The authors of the report say that unless African governments help increase job opportunities at home, they risk losing some of their most educated, motivated, and creative young people.

Read the full study by Afrobarometer, external.

Mali's President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita has criticised the speed of the army's response to Saturday's attack on the village of Ogossagou in which more than 130 people died.

Visiting the scene of the massacre he said: "I will not tolerate it taking more that two hours [for the military] to reach the scene. The vehicles of [the Malian army] must be constantly mobilised.

"We are not in peace time, we are in times of war," he added.

The attack on members of the Fulani ethnic group has been blamed on Dogon hunters.

But Dogon community members have denied this.

Read more: Behind the Dogon-Fulani violence in Mopti

In order to protect girls from abuse, a teachers union in the UK is campaigning for pupils to be taught about the practice of ironing breasts.

The practice, sometimes used in parts of West Africa, usually involves heating a stone or spoon on a flame then pressing, massaging or flattening the breast.

It is done to young girls to delay breasts from growing.

Those who carry it out say they are trying to stop men from sexualising girls.

"Time does not erase that kind of pain," a woman who went through it as a child explained to the BBC.

Another woman told the BBC that later on in life it made breast feeding extremely painful.

She told the BBC more about the long term effects in this video:

Read more on the BBC News website.

Will Ross
Africa editor, BBC World Service

Image source, AFP

The UN humanitarian agency, Ocha, says more than 1.8 million people in Mozambique have been affected by Cyclone Idai and some of them are in critical life threatening situations.

Aid agencies are warning that thousands of survivors have yet to receive any help, 12 days after it made landfall in southern Africa.

Mozambique's Minister of Land and Environment Celso Correia says efforts are being made to get food, shelter, water and medicine to people sheltering on higher ground.

He said the rescue need was coming down as the water receded but warned the area would take years to recover.

It’s been almost two weeks since Cyclone Idai hit southern Africa, killing hundreds of people.

In Zimbabwe, the district of Chimanimani is one of the worst affected areas. Homes have been swept away and bridges destroyed.

BBC Newsday spoke to Michael Mataure, a hotel owner in Chimanimani town:

Danish Crown Princess Mary Elizabeth has begun her official visit to Ethiopia with a morning run at the famous Meskel Square in the capital, Addis Ababa, says state-linked Fana Broadcasting Corporate, external.

She was joined by Africa's first black female Olympic champion, Derartu Tulu, and the minister for development cooperation, Ulla Tornaes.

The crown princess is expected to hold talks with Prime Minister Dr Abiy Ahmed and President Sahle-Work Zewde on further strengthening bilateral ties between Ethiopia and Denmark.

A flamboyant son of South Africa's scandal-hit former President Jacob Zuma has gone on trial on a charge of culpable homicide.

Duduzane Zuma is being prosecuted over the death of Zimbabwean national Phumzile Dube, who was killed when his Porsche collided with a minibus taxi in 2014 on a major highway in South Africa's economic heartland of Gauteng. He has pleaded not guilty.

The state withdrew a second culpable homicide charge related to the death Nanki Jeanette, another passenger in the taxi.

A South African journalist has tweeted a photo of Duduzane Zuma in court:

Duduzane Zuma first gained notoriety over his business relationship with the controversial Gupta family.

He was charged with corruption and conspiracy to commit corruption related to his dealings with the Guptas, but the state provisionally withdrew the charges in January in what was seen as a major victory for him.

Duduzane Zuma, his father and the Guptas have always denied being corrupt.

Tributes have been pouring in for famous Nigerian poet and novelist Gabriel Okara who has died at the age of 97.

Local newspaper Vanguard, external says Mr Okara from Bayelsa State in southern Nigeria died on Sunday evening after collapsing, a month before his 98th birthday.

The paper says Okara, referred to as the "Nigerian negritudist", was the first modernist poet of Anglophone Africa and was famous for his first novel, The Voice, published in 1964.

The Sun reports, external that his literary talent was discovered in 1953 when his poem, The Call of the River Nun, won an award at the Nigerian Festival of Arts.

The paper also says Okara wrote plays and features for broadcasting and that many of his unpublished manuscripts were destroyed during the Nigerian civil war between 1967 and 1970.

Here are some reactions on Twitter:

The Daily post newspaper reports that President Muhammadu Buahri has also paid tribute to Okara, external, saying he was "deservedly known as the founder of Modern African literature" and "will be fondly remembered for his immense contributions to the development of African literature, drawing on experience from his native Ijaw language".

Anne Soy
BBC Africa, Beira

Image source, Reuters

A ship carrying 2,000 tonnes of food, water and sanitary supplies donated by locals in Mozambique has arrived in the port city of Beira, which bore the brunt of Cylone Idai 12 days ago.

The tough task of distributing the aid begins now. Thousands are still stranded in little islands created by floodwaters.

Construction workers are rushing to repair damaged roads. Aid teams rely on limited air and water transport to rescue people and deliver supplies.

The Red Cross says two field hospitals are en route to the country. The scramble to help the survivors of Cyclone Idai is on, but it’s just not fast enough.

And as the scale of the devastation becomes clearer, the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent say they are tripling their emergency aid appeal to more than $30m (£22.7m).

The death toll across Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi is more than 700 and it’s expected to rise as floodwater recedes.

Read: Was southern Africa prepared for Cyclone Idai?

Three senior judges in Kenya have proposed lowering the age of sexual consent to 16 years from the current 18 years, local newspaper The Standard reports., external

The paper says the three Court of Appeal judges are opposing lengthy jail terms imposed on young men for "sleeping with teens who were willing to be and appeared to be adults".

The judges cited a case where they reversed a jail term of 15 years imposed on a man for making a 17-year-old girl pregnant, says the newspaper.

The judges also said underage girls and boys often engage in sexual relations “with their eyes fully open”, reports the paper.

"Our prisons are teeming with young men serving lengthy sentences for having had sexual intercourse with adolescent girls whose consent has been held to be immaterial because they were under 18 years", the judges are quoted as saying.

Some Twitter users have rejected the proposal:

A driver who carried bricks in an ambulance in Uganda will be punished, the deputy speaker of parliament, Jacob Oulanyah, has said.

The driver "misused" the ambulance, and had breached public service rules, he added in a tweet.

The BBC investigates illegal and unsustainable fishing off the west coast of Africa to find out how one of the most fertile ecosystems on earth has been pushed to the brink.

Correspondent: Paul Adams

Video Journalist: Charlotte Pamment

Abdinassir Hikam
BBC Somali, Jigjiga

A mother and her four children have died after a device exploded in their village in Ethiopia's Somali region, local residents have told me.

One of the children found the device outside Dagahmadow village, and was playing with it when it detonated, they added.

The exact nature of the device is unclear, but it was believed to have been abandoned by fighters during the 1970s conflict between Ethiopia and neighbouring Somalia.

Image source, Getty Images

Tanzania's President John Magufuli has promised to give each player in the national football team a piece of land as a reward for qualifying for the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) for the first time in 39 years.

Mr Magufuli hosted the team at his official residence in the main city, Dar es Salaam, after they qualified for Egypt 2019 by beating Uganda 3-0 on Sunday.

"For the good work you have done to bring honour to Tanzania by qualifying for Afcon finals in Egypt, each player will get a parcel of land in Dodoma [the administrative capital]," the president said.

"I believe our players can put up a better show in Cairo, and go one place better by winning the title," he added.

Mr Magufuli had also donated about $426,000 (£322,000) to the under-17 team to help them prepare for the Afcon finals in their division, Tanzania's privately owned Citizen newspaper reported., external

Our proverb of the day:

Click here to send us your African proverbs.

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

BBC Africa Live
Ashley Lime and Natasha Booty

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

And we leave you with this photo of Cameroonian travel blogger Lee Litumbe:

Wycliffe Muia
BBC Monitoring

Image source, Eye Ubiquitous/Getty Images

An American company has claimed to have obtained a licence to grow marijuana in Kenya where the commodity is still illegal, the privately-owned Business Daily website reports, external.

"This is the first of several critical transactions that will transform [our company] into a relevant member of the burgeoning cannabis industry,” gushed GoIP Global Inc chairman Ike Sutton.

Mr Sutton says he met Kenyan officials to secure the deal, but the Kenyan government denied issuing any such licence.

"The lease term will be for 25 years and Kenya being on the Equator provides the best conditions for all-year round production," the chairman went on to say in the article.

While there is a trend towards legalisation in some parts of the US and Europe, progress has been much slower in African nations.

South Africa has the most liberal attitude perhaps, after its highest court legalised the use of cannabis by adults in private places.

Image source, FAMILY PHOTO

A South Sudanese activist who was studying for a PhD at Cambridge University has been charged with terrorism having already spent "eight months in detention with limited contact with the outside world", AFP reports.

The news agency says Peter Biar Ajak, 35, was detained in July last year following comments he made criticizing the failure of South Sudan's political leaders to bring five years of brutal civil war to a end.

At the high court in Juba, prosecutor Deng Acuil charged Mr Biar with sabotage against the state, banditry, possession of firearms and public disorder, according to AFP.

His six co-accused reportedly including businessman and philanthropist Kerbino Agok Wol, who has been jailed since April 2018.

Earlier this month, campaigners in Cambridge staged protests against Mr Biar's treatment.

Kennedy Gondwe
BBC News, Lusaka

A Zambian opposition leader has spent the weekend in police cells after he was arrested for allegedly defaming President Edgar Lungu.

Sean Tembo, who leads the Patriots for Economic Progress (PEP), made a series of posts on social media in which he questioned President Lungu’s mental state.

He accused Mr Lungu of possibly suffering from a mental illness, which he said might be to blame for what he called "recent poor decisions". It's a position he has stuck to despite the ruling party asking him to withdraw his statement:

Police spokesperson Esther Katongo confirmed the arrest.

Arrests of opposition leaders in Zambia are not new and there have been complaints about the shrinking tolerance levels among political players.

In 2017, police arrested key opposition figure Hakainde Hichilema after he allegedly blocked a presidential motorcade.

Last year, Fresher Siwale, another member of the opposition was arrested for questioning Mr Lungu’s nationality.