BBC Africa Live
Natasha Booty, Ashley Lime & Naima Mohamud

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 checking the BBC News website.

A reminder of Friday's wise words:

Click here to send us your African proverbs.

And we leave you with image, from our selection of the best pictures of the week, of a Zimbabwean mother posing for the camera in the capital, Harare.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

A 23-year-old Nigerian woman, who was one of the 276 schoolgirls abducted by militant group Boko Haram in 2014, has earned an associate degree from a community college in the US.

The abduction of the schoolgirls sparked global outrage and ignited the #BringBackOurGirls campaign, which even Michelle Obama, then US first lady, took part in.

Palmatah Mutah, who escaped by jumping out of a Boko Haram truck, becomes the first "Chibok girl" to obtain an associate degree from an institution abroad.

She is one of 10 Chibok girls sponsored to go to school in the US by international human rights lawyer Emmanuel Ogebe.

About 112 of the girls remain in Boko Haram captivity. They have become victims of the world’s longest-running mass abduction, according to Mr Ogebe.

Read: How to protect the Chibok girls from reliving their horror

Image source, Getty Images

The Comptroller-General of the Nigerian Customs Service has urged Nigerians to stop eating imported rice.

"This rice is poisonous... but today, we are still consuming this rice," Col Hameed Ibrahim Ali said in a televised news conference, external.

Without providing any further evidence, Col Ali alleged foreign rice was often re-bagged with new, incorrect expiry dates and chemicals had been added which would make people sick.

He said rice smuggling was an issue the country's Customs Service had been trying to address for a number of years.

Last month the Rice Processors Association of Nigeria estimated that more than 20 million bags of rice were smuggled into Nigeria between January and March this year.

Co Ali's strongly worded warning follows allegations that some Nigerian Customs Service employees colluded with smugglers, external.

Mercy Juma
BBC Africa, Nairobi

Image source, Getty Images

A court in Kenya has ordered former President Daniel arap Moi to pay 1.06bn shillings ($10.5m; £8.2m) in compensation to a widow for illegally seizing her land.

This ruling is hugely significant for Kenya.

There have been numerous cases of land grabbing by high-ranking government officials and wealthy business people over the years but the victims generally have neither the will nor the money to fight back.

Corruption in the judiciary is another huge problem. When disputes are taken to court, they often drag on for many years.

Many hope that this will come to be seen as a test case and that it will send a message to powerful people that they can no longer simply seize land belonging to the less well-off.

Read more here

Kennedy Gondwe
BBC Africa, Lusaka

Image source, Getty Images

Zambia’s President Edgar Lungu has challenged mining companies that are unhappy with government policies to leave the country.

Mr Lungu is particularly unhappy with Mopani, the local unit for Glencore and Vedanta’s Konkola Copper Mines (KCM).

“I came for one reason, the people of Copperbelt want a divorce between themselves and the copper mining companies, KCM and Mopani,” he said on Friday as he arrived in the country’s Copperbelt region.

Vendata, the largest mining company in India, is being sued by people living in the Copperbelt for pollution in what has become a high-profile case at the High Court in Britain.

Vendanta denies any wrongdoing.

Mr Lungu says he is consulting with his attorney general on ways of disengaging mining firms that have been exploiting Zambians.

The government wants to introduce a sales tax but Goodwell Mateyo, the Chamber of Mines president, has warned that some companies will close down if the sales tax is implemented.

“We will follow the due process of the law - those who can’t stay with us, we will say let them go," President Lungu said.

Image source, Getty Images

Double Olympic gold medallist Caster Semenya will not be racing at the Diamond League meeting in Stockholm later this month, the organisers have told the AFP news agency.

Earlier in May, Semenya lost her appeal over a controversial gender ruling by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas), which ruled that female athletes with elevated levels of testosterone must take suppressive treatment in order to compete as women in some events.

The Cas ruling sparked a heated debate about gender, race and hyperandrogenism (a medical condition in which females have higher levels of male hormones).

Stockholm meeting director Jan Kowalski told AFP that the onus was on the athletes to ensure they did not compete in events they were not eligible to compete in.

"If they do compete in events for which they are not eligible, then - consistent with the approach taken in any case of athlete ineligibility - their results may be disqualified and any medals, points, or prize money forfeited," he said.

BBC World Service

Image source, AFP

A German museum has announced that it is returning to Namibia a stone cross that was erected on its coastline by Portuguese explorers in the 15th Century.

The cross, which stands atop a stone pillar, is one of the few objects that testify to Portuguese occupation of the area.

The important navigational landmark was taken to Berlin in 1894, at a time when Germany controlled what was then the colony of South-West Africa.

Namibia's ambassador to Germany hailed the restitution at a ceremony in the German Historical Museum in Berlin.

He said it was important for the reconstruction of Namibia's own history.

Read the full story here

Femicide - the killing of a woman or girl on account of her gender - is a global issue.

Activists in Kenya say there has been a spike in violence recently, with 40 women reported to have been killed this year alone.

BBC Africa has visited the county of Busia in western Kenya which has been the scene of several high-profile cases.

Video producers: Anthony Irungu and Hassan Lali for BBC News Factfinder.

BBC World Service

Al-Shabab militants in Somalia have begun making their own explosives, according to documents seen by the Reuters news agency.

A confidential UN report links the development of homemade explosives by the Islamist extremists to an increase in bombings in the Somali capital, Mogadishu.

The allegation is based on analysis by a panel of experts of samples taken following 20 attacks.

The UN has not commented on the report.

Since September, there have been at least 19 car- or truck-bomb attacks by al-Shabab in which five people or more have died.

An internal report into sexual harassment at the African Union (AU), which many commentators say is the institution's #MeToo moment of reckoning, external, still has not been made public six months after its completion.

South Africa's Mail and Guardian newspaper quotes an anonymous AU employee as saying, external:

Senior AU representatives are among those implicated in the report, according to the Mail and Guardian.

The newspaper says it has seen an "abridged version" which includes, it says, the following "stunning allegations":

• Sexual harassment is pervasive in the institution, with some senior departmental staff positioning themselves as "gatekeepers" and demanding sex in exchange for jobs

• Corruption is "systemic, entrenched and widespread"

• Bullying and harassment of staff is “prevalent”

• Women are under-represented at decision-making levels

• There is “rampant abuse of authority” by some commissioners, directors and supervisors.

Image source, AFP

Image source, Getty Images

The first black female director in competition at the Cannes Film Festival has said she was inspired by her "need to see black people on screen".

French-Senegalese Mati Diop made history on Thursday when Atlantics became the first film made by a woman of African descent to be screened in the festival's 72-year history.

Diop said she was "moved" but also "a little sad" at the achievement.

"It's pretty late and it's incredible that it is still relevant," she said.

"My first feeling to be the first black female director was a little sadness that this only happened today in 2019.

"I knew it as I obviously don't know any black women who came here before. I knew it but it's always a reminder that so much work needs to be done still."

• Read the full story here

Ishaq Khalid
BBC Africa, Abuja

Image source, RawPixel.com

Nigerian authorities say they are working to shut down a fraudulent online investment scheme called Loom Money Nigeria that is particularly popular with young people.

Victims of the investment scam make an upfront payment than can range from $3 to $40 (£31).

The scheme is operated through closed social media groups, mainly Facebook and WhatsApp, and promises as much as eight times return on investment within 48 hours of payment.

Nigeria's Securities and Exchange Commission says the people running the scam have not yet been identified.

It is also not clear how many people have fallen prey to the fraudulent investment initiative or how much money has been lost.

Jean Claude Mwambutsa
BBC Great Lakes, Kigali

The Rwanda Investigation Bureau has paraded before the media a leading member of a rebel movement.

Callixte Nsabimana, alias Sankara, who is a spokesperson for the National Liberation Front (FLN), appeared in public for the first time since he was captured in Comoros on 13 April and secretly handed to Rwandan authorities.

Rwanda accuses Mr Nsabimana of acts of terrorism and he faces life imprisonment, in line with the country's new law on terrorism.

Mr Nsabimana did not speak during his public appearance. His lawyer said his client preferred to remain silent.

Mr Nsabimana has previously declared war on the Rwandan government and has said that the FLN was responsible for last year's deadly attacks in south-west Rwanda.

The authorities in both Rwanda and Comoros have not commented on the secret extradition of Mr Nsabimana. But on 30 April Rwanda's foreign minister admitted that he was in custody.

Image source, Getty Images

Somali-born US Congresswoman Ilhan Omar is among those to have criticised the plans for a new US immigration system - designed to favour younger, better educated, English-speaking workers - announced on Thursday by President Donald Trump.

Under the new system, border security would be beefed up and a tougher line taken on asylum seekers.

"We can't turn our backs on the asylum seekers. It is quite devastating to hear the way that he [President Trump] speaks about humans who are just looking for a new day, or who are running from devastating situations. I was one of those," said Ms Omar.

She added:

In his address at the White House, President Trump proposed moving away from the current system that favours applicants with family ties to the US.

"The biggest change we make is to increase the proportion of highly skilled immigration from 12% to 57% and we would like to even see if we can go higher," he said.

Image source, Getty Images

Police in South Sudan's capital, Juba, are enforcing a ban on nightclubs and restrictions on the opening hours of bars, spokesman Major-General Daniel Justin has told BBC Newsday.

"The order is in place and we're implementing it, meaning nightclubs are shut down. The city council has received a lot of complaints from residents that they're being disturbed by these nightclubs the whole night," he said.

In a Facebook post on 11 May, Augustino Jadalla Wani - the governor of Jubek State, which includes Juba - ordered the closure of nightclubs and cut bar hours in order to curb "immoral acts".

News site Sudan Tribune, external says the governor authorised bars to open from 14:00 GMT to 19:00 GMT.

The order also requires that couples produce marriage certificates before they are allowed to stay in hotels.

A Zimbabwean-born academic who is to have a statue of her likeness unveiled outside New York's Rockefeller Centre has told the BBC she was shocked by the honour.

"I'm just so humbled, it is unbelievable," Tererai Trent told BBC Focus on Africa.

"When my name came up I never took it seriously," she added.

The monument, which will be officially unveiled in August, is intended to recognise Tererai Trent for her role in promoting equality and empowerment for girls and women.

Her statue will stand alongside new statues of other prominent women, such as media mogul Oprah Winfrey, conservationist Jane Goodall, actress Cate Blanchett, activist Janet Mock, chemist Tracy Dyson and Olympic gymnast Gabby Douglas.

As a child Ms Trent was prevented from going to school, but she taught herself to read and write with some help from her brother and his school books.

She went on to earn her PhD in the US, where she is a university professor, and also formed Tererai Trent International - a foundation which seeks to provide quality education in rural communities in Zimbabwe.

She told BBC Focus on Africa:

Veteran SuperSport presenter Robert Marawa says he has been sacked from his job via a text message.

SuperSport - a South African-based television broadcaster with a viewership across the continent - responded by tweeting that Marawa had been "personally advised" of its decision earlier this week.

"SuperSport is in the process of an exciting refresh of its local presenter line-up, which will be unveiled as part of our new football season campaign," it added.

Image source, Getty Images

A High Court in Kenya has ordered former President Daniel arap Moi to pay nearly $10m (£8m) to a family for illegally acquiring their 53-acre parcel of land 36 years ago, local media reports say.

Privately owned newspaper Daily Nation, external says on 21 September, 1983, the former head of state ordered officials to register the land, owned by former chief Noah Kipngeny Chelugui, under his name.

The paper says Mr Moi then sold the land 24 years later to a company owned by the Jaswant Rai family.

Kenya's leading TV station Citizen TV reported that the judge said the acquisition of the land was done in an "unlawful manner", external, and "not worthy of any constitutional protection".

In its ruling, the High Court in Eldoret in Kenya's Rift valley region said Mr Moi's action was unlawful and ordered both the former ruler and the Kenyan company Rai Plywood, linked to the Rai family, to pay Mr Chelugui's family about $10m, which is the current market value of the land.

The former chief's 85-year-old wife and son sued Mr Moi, Rai Plywood and other entities.

Image source, Getty Images

Kenya's Chief Justice David Maraga has called for changes to the Sexual Offences Act, which criminalises consensual sex between teenagers, local media reports say.

“There is an obvious injustice of filling up the jails with teenage offenders who get intimate with fellow teenagers as they experiment in their adolescence,” he was quoted by local newspaper Daily Nation, external as saying at a seminar in the capital, Nairobi, on Thursday.

Image source, Getty Images

Mining giant Anglo American has opened a $62m (£48m) platinum smelter in Zimbabwe, the country's first such refinery.

Its investment is seen as a boost for President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who has been trying to improve relations with foreign companies since he ousted long-serving ruler Robert Mugabe is 2017.

"We are determined to increase our visibility and to be among the leading producers of platinum in the world," Mr Mnangagwa said, as he opened the smelter in Shurugwi, more than 300km (186 miles) south-west of the capital, Harare.

Mine chairman James Maposa said Anglo American had "heeded the government's beneficiation call, a key pillar of Zimbabwe's goal to create value, employment and accelerate industrial development".

Zimbabwe has the world's biggest platinum reserves after South Africa.