BBC Africa Live
Damian Zane

That's all from BBC Africa Live for this week, but you can keep up-to-date with what's happening across the continent by listening to the Africa Today podcast or check the BBC News website.

Our African proverb of the day:

Click here to send your African proverbs.

South African 800m Olympic champion Caster Semenya is about to run what could be her last 800m race before new rules restricting testosterone levels come into force. You can follow the action on this BBC Sport live page.

And we leave you with this image from our selection of the best pictures of the week showing a resident of Djenne, Mali, as he helps to render the ancient Grand Mosque with a new coat of mud.

Image source, AFP

Two ambushes by armed men in Mali's central region have left 18 civilians dead, AFP news agency reports quoting officials.

Twelve died in an incident on Wednesday near the village of Tigula when they went out to investigate a blast that killed a soldier. A further six from the same community were killed when they went to find out what happened to the original group, AFP reports.

"Having heard the explosion, villagers went towards the scene... when terrorists intervened to execute them," a local official is quoted by AFP as saying.

Nichola Mandil
Juba

Celebrations to mark World Press Freedom day in South Sudan were postponed for the funeral of former BBC reporter Alfred Taban, who died last weekend in Uganda aged 62.

Taban was also the founder and former editor-in-chief of the Khartoum Monitor.

It was Sudan's first independent English-language paper - launched in September 2000 and renamed the Juba Monitor after South Sudan became independent in 2011.

He gave up journalism and took up politics in 2017 and became a member of parliament.

Taban was regarded as a champion of media freedom in South Sudan.

His daughter has tweeted that the way to honour him is through bringing unity and peace to South Sudan. The country is still fractured by a civil war that began in December 2013.

James Copnall
BBC News, Khartoum

A top official in Sudan's military council told me it will not allow civilians a majority on the supreme council set to rule the country during a transitional period.

Lt Gen Salah Abdelkhalek - and the rest of the military council - clearly don't want to see their power eroded.

They fear that if they are a minority in a supreme council, they will simply be out-voted every time.

In fact, stating that he might accept a 50-50 split could be seen as a concession: the military had already suggested that the council should be made up of seven soldiers and three civilians.

Of course, negotiations are often carried out partly through public declarations, and mainly behind closed doors.

In private, there are numerous attempts to break the current deadlock between the military and the protesters.

Elsewhere in the interview, Lt Gen Salah pushed an old line - that without the military chaos would ensue; and repeated a well-worn denial - the armed forces hadn't targeted civilians in the past, he said.

People who lost family members in Darfur, the Nuba mountains, or what is now South Sudan will simply not believe that.

Image source, AFP

Read more: Sudan army rejects civilian majority in ruling council

Jose Tembe
BBC Africa, Maputo

Image source, Reuters

The health authorities in the cyclone-hit northern Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado say they have found 14 cases of cholera there.

Cabo Delgado Director of Health Anastacia Lidimo said that since Cyclone Kenneth struck last week cases of diarrhoea have also been increasing. Currently there are 69 people with the disease.

But, she said, the authorities are "ready to tackle the situation".

Thirteen-year-old Lubabalo Gibson dreams of carrying on his family legacy and becoming a professional jockey.

BBC Africa Eye follows his journey as he takes part in a major horse race as part of a rite of passage passed down through the generations of Xhosa men in South Africa's Eastern Cape.

Produced and directed by: Christopher Clark; filmed by: Shaun Swingler; edited by: Bernard Kotze; executive producer: Diana Neille

BBC World Service

The World Health Organization says it expects the number of deaths from the Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo to pass the 1,000 mark today.

WHO Deputy Director General Dr Michael Ryan says all efforts to control the spread of the disease are being hampered by continuing violence in the region.

Numerous rebel groups are active in eastern Congo and there is also deep mistrust of health workers.

Some people still refuse to believe the Ebola virus is real.

Several treatment centres have been attacked in recent months. In April, Cameroonian epidemiologist Dr Richard Valery Mouzoko Kiboung was killed in an attack at the university hospital in Butembo.

The Ebola outbreak which began last August is already the second deadliest in history.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, AFP

Thousands of protesters have rallied in the main square of the Algerian capital for the 11th weekly mass demonstration in a row.

Chants of "we will not shut up" were heard as people called for the resignation of those in power a month after long-serving leader President Abdelaziz Bouteflika stepped down, Reuters news agency reports.

Slogans on banners included "you must go" and "thieves you have destroyed the country", Reuters adds.

The protesters want free elections, due on 4 July, and an end to corruption, including the removal of all officials linked to the former president.

Image source, AFP

Diplomats from Europe, the US and other countries have criticised the Ugandan authorities' decision to suspend dozens of journalists on allegations that they had breached minimum broadcasting standards.

Uganda's media regulator ordered 13 TV and radio stations to suspend 39 staff - including some senior editors.

The move was widely seen as a punishment for stations that had broadcast this week's arrest of musician turned opposition MP Bobi Wine.

He has been released on bail.

In a joint statement, the diplomats urged the Ugandan government to respect the rule of law and allow all Ugandans, regardless of their political affiliation, to exercise their basic democratic rights.

Image source, AFP

South Africa's general election is just five days away and we've been evaluating some of the pledges made by the governing African National Congress (ANC).

During the election campaign in 2014, the ANC promised to deliver one million homes in the next five years.

So what happened and how good is its record?

The South African government says 3.2 million homes were built from 1994 to 2018.

There was a dramatic growth in construction in the early years of ANC rule (1994-1999).

But after reaching a peak in 1999, the rate of house-building has slowed, particularly over the past few years.

Just under 580,000 homes were delivered during the first four years of the ANC's current term, 2015-18.

And although data for the fifth year is not yet available, this rate of delivery falls considerably short of the promise made by the ANC at the last election.

Image source, .

Read more here: South African elections: Has the ANC built enough homes?

Aid agencies are now able to deliver aid to the thousands of people affected by Cyclone Kenneth, which hit the Mozambican north coast a week ago.

The BBC's Lebo Diseko joined an aid flight delivering high energy biscuits:

More than 40 people were killed by the tropical storm and over 200,000 affected.

Aid agencies had struggled to reach affected areas in the immediate aftermath of the storm.

Kalkidan Yibeltal
BBC Amharic Service

Officials from the Ethiopian regions of Amhara and Benishangul Gumuz are working together to try and deal with an upsurge of ethnic clashes that has left many dead, Amhara region spokesperson Asemahegn Asres has said.

In recent weeks, Amharas have been attacked in Benishangul Gumuz and Gumuz have been targeted in Amhara.

Federal police and defence forces have been deployed to the affected areas and things are now calming down, Mr Asemahegn told a press conference.

He warned people against engaging in retaliatory attacks.

Soldiers in Benin have sealed off the roads around the house of former President Thomas Boni Yayi, AFP news agency reports.

The area close to his home, Cadjehoun, has attracted protesters angry with the way Sunday's legislative elections were conducted.

Opposition parties were, in effect, excluded from running after very high registration fees were charged.

Protests started soon after the first set of results were released on Wednesday, AFP says. Troops and demonstrators have clashed and up to three people have been killed, it reports.

Benin has been seen for a long time as a model for peaceful democracy on the continent.

Image source, AFP

Guinea and Liverpool midfielder Naby Keita will not be able to play for two months after picking up an injury in the Champions League semi-final against Barcelona.

The groin injury could mean that he will be unable to play for Guinea in June's Africa Cup of Nations.

"It will keep him out for at least two months. Bad news for us and for Guinea with the Africa Cup of Nations coming up. Not nice," Liverpool boss Juergen Klopp said.

People are marking World Press Freedom day by looking at whether things have improved for journalists across the globe.

Ethiopia has been hosting a major conference on journalism to mark the day. The country has seen a dramatic turnaround in the way that journalists are treated, reports the BBC Emmanuel Igunza.

Just a year ago it had a reputation for locking up more journalists than any other country on the continent. But since coming into office in April 2018, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has overseen widespread reforms including the freeing of dozens of jailed journalists and bloggers.

While celebrating that change, the Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ) is concerned that the situation is getting worse in Tanzania.

It is trying to highlight the case of journalist Azory Gwanda who went missing in November 2017:

There has been growing concern over a media crackdown in Tanzania.

In March, the East African Court of Justice ruled that sections of Tanzania's Media Services Act restricted press freedom and freedom of expression. It called on the Tanzanian government to repeal the act.

South African Olympic 800m champion Caster Semenya has been tweeting a series of cryptic messages in the wake of the Court of Arbitration for Sport decision to reject her appeal against new rules which could force her to lower her testosterone levels.

She is due to run in what may be her last 800m race later on Friday in Doha.

It is not clear yet what she is going to do and on Thursday she appeared to hint that she might retire.

On Friday morning she tweeted: "Don't fear failure. Fear being in the exact same place next year as you are today."

It's not clear what the message implies about her future, but it certainly suggests that she is not going to do nothing.

Read more:

• Who is Caster Semenya?
• Why is her case important?

@TheEllenShow is trending on Twitter in Kenya at the moment after US TV host Ellen spoke to a Kenyan woman, Achieng Agutu, on her programme.

She said that Ms Agutu was spotted among audience members after showing some great dance moves in the pre-show warm up.

Ellen then surprised her guest by bringing her parents and brother, who she hadn't seen for two years, on to the set:

Ms Agutu spoke about how hard she worked and studied in the US, to the obvious approval of the audience.

Despite some positive comments from people enjoying the story. Ms Agutu is being criticised in Kenya.

She said she improved her English through watching the musicians perform on the Ellen Show, after which she went to a local cybercafe, in her hometown in western Kenya, to download the lyrics.

But some commenters on Twitter think she has misled people as English is a compulsory subject at school:

But others have come to her defence:

Scientists investigating a possible connection between the average temperature that people have tea and cancer of the oesophagus have suggested that people in Kenya, particularly in the west, drink the hottest tea in the world.

The study, published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, external, looks into trying to explain why there are many cases of the cancer in western Kenya. "Thermal injury from hot food and beverages" has been mooted as a possible cause, it says.

According to a summary, the researchers have not drawn any definitive conclusions but suggest that the evidence should be evaluated further.

But Cancer Epidemiology has published a tea temperature chart indicating that, among the countries surveyed, Kenyans like it the hottest - at 72.1C.

Image source, Cancer Epidemiology

The US has opened a new embassy in Zimbabwe's capital, Harare, to display the "enduring friendship" between the two nations, the State Department has said.

In a statement, it said the building included "design elements reminiscent of Great Zimbabwe and locally sourced material, such as brick and black granite, that reflect our appreciation for Zimbabwe's culture and responsible use of natural resources".

Zimbabwe's state-run Herald newspaper, external described the embassy compound - built at a cost of about $300m (£230m) - as a "structural behemoth", which was believed to be one of the US' largest embassies in Africa.

The newspaper added that despite the US continuing to impose "illegal" sanctions on Zimbabwe, the US ambassador to Harare, Brian Nichols, struck a conciliatory tone at the opening ceremony.

He praised the government's efforts to "align" laws with the constitution and promised to strengthen trade and investment ties, the Herald reported.

Here is a photo posted on Twitter of the ribbon-cutting ceremony:

With an agreement to protect the planet’s biodiversity being drawn up in Paris next week, the BBC's Victoria Gill met young farmers in Madagascar who live at the front line of the tension between humans and the natural world.

They're learning new skills to farm sustainably so that Madagascar doesn't lose any more of its forest.