Stanley Kwenda
BBC Africa

Chelsea’s on-loan defender, Fikayo Tomori, says he is open to playing for Nigeria's national football team.

Tomori, who helped Derby County reach the Championship play-off final on Wednesday evening, told the BBC that Nigeria was on his radar but he was not in a rush to make a decision.

“I thought about playing for England, Canada and Nigeria.

"I have played for Canada and I have played for England [at junior level]. At the moment I am playing for England so that’s what I am focused on but you never know what might happen in the future,” the 21-year-old said.

“I don’t feel it’s right for me at the moment to tie myself down to one place.”

Asked if he had been approached by Nigeria, the only one of the three countries he is eligible for but is yet to represent, Tomori said, “Not that I know of but we will see.”

Tomori was born in Canada to Nigerian parents but grew up in England, joining Chelsea at the age of eight.

Image source, AllSport

Currently the young defender is getting the experience of playing international football with England’s under-21s.

Tomori has just been voted the player of the year at Derby, where he has enjoyed a stellar season playing under former Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard.

Following his outstanding performances for Derby, he is now one of the few Chelsea on-loan players expected to get promotion to the Blues' first team following a transfer ban imposed on the club for signing foreign under-18 players.

As we've been reporting the presence of some barricades in Sudan's capital, Khartoum, has become a source of tension.

Talks on moving the country towards civilian rule have been suspended for three days by the country's military leaders, who demand protesters clear roadblocks.

The civilian leaders have released a map demarcating the area, in green, around the military headquarters where it says the barricades can stay up:

Many of the roadblocks beyond this area have been removed, but some remain, reports the BBC's Alastair Leithead.

He has sent us a picture of a stand-off between the army and protesters manning a barricade of bricks and metal gates.

Image source, Reuters

The head of the African Development Bank (AfDB) has heaped praise on Tanzania's President John Magufuli after the country posted annual economic growth figures of 7%.

AfDB President Akinwumi Adesina, who was visiting the head of state on Wednesday in Dar es Salaam, said the country's growth rate was one of the highest in the world, and compared well to the global GDP growth rate at just about 3.5%.

He described President Magufuli as a bold reformer, and a focused and determined man.

Mr Adesina said he was impressed that Mr Magufuli was working with other neighbouring countries, particularly with Uganda, on the construction of an oil pipeline.

The Tanzanian president has been criticised by human rights groups for cracking down on independent media and arresting opposition members.

Read: Five things Tanzania's President 'Bulldozer' Magufuli has banned

Emmanuel Igunza
BBC Africa, Malawi

Malawi’s electoral commission has begun distributing ballot materials to polling stations ahead of next Tuesday’s presidential and parliamentary elections.

The materials will be moved from the capital, Lilongwe, to more than 5,000 polling stations across the country.

The commission says slightly more than six million people have registered for the vote. The process will use a mix of manual and electronic methods.

While the voting will be paper-based, the transmission and final tally of the ballots will be electronic.

This is the first time the country will use this system.

Commission chairperson Jane Ansah has told the BBC that the country is well prepared for the elections, which analysts say will be closely contested.

"We have been preparing for a while now and we can assure the country that we will be holding a credible process," she told the BBC.

She also addressed concerns raised by some politicians that the poll could be rigged.

"All we have heard so far are just words and no concrete proof. But we believe that the system we have put in place is foolproof and we expect the election to be rigging-free.”

Malawians go to the polls on 21 May to elect a president, parliamentarians and local councillors.

Image source, AFP

Flamboyant Kenyan businessman Jared Otieno has been arrested for allegedly defrauding foreigners in fake gold deals, local media reports say.

The head of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) George Kinoti told privately owned newspaper The Star , externalthat Mr Otieno had been arrested at his palatial home in a suburb of the capital, Nairobi, on Wednesday evening.

Luxury cars belonging to Mr Otieno were towed away, while police also seized computers and documents.

Neither the businessman nor his legal representatives have responded to the allegations levelled against Mr Otieno.

The story has been making headlines in the local press in Kenya.

Image source, Getty Images

A Kenyan athlete is worried about her career after the world athletics' governing body introduced a rule to restrict the amount of the hormone testosterone in female runners.

The 800m Olympic bronze medallist Margaret Nyairera Wambui told AFP news agency, external that she feels her career is "slipping away from her" as she is one of those who could be affected by the new rules.

"I am very disappointed, I don't feel even like going on with the training because you don't know what you are training for," she added.

AFP reports that the athlete was set to attend the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Challenge athletics meeting in Nanjing city in China next week amid uncertainty over her future.

South African Olympic 800m champion Caster Semenya lost an appeal against the IAAF's new rules on keeping down levels of testosterone in female athletes.

On the campaign trail, Malawi's President Peter Mutharika has addressed rumours of his death, the BBC's Emmanuel Igunza reports.

Speaking in Salima, central Malawi, on Wednesday he scoffed at those peddling the stories on social media.

Addressing crowds atop a podium mounted on a police car, Mr Mutharika asked: “Does this look like a dead man to you?"

Malawians go to the polls in a general election next Tuesday.

The rumours of his passing followed last week’s abrupt cancellation of several campaign stops that had been planned across the country.

But on Wednesday hundreds met him in Salima as he campaigned for a second term in office.

He has promised to tackle poverty and build more schools across the country.

Mr Mutharika, who came to power in 2014, is facing a tough challenge from both Vice-President Saulos Chilima, who is running for the United Transformation Movement (UTM) and the candidate for the Malawi Congress Party, Lazarus Chakwera.

Catherine Byaruhanga
BBC Africa

Image source, Reuters

There’s a heavy deployment of security forces on the streets of the South Sudanese capital, Juba, with door-to-door searches being carried out in some neighbourhoods.

This comes ahead of planned street protests in towns across the country and in the diaspora.

The Red Card Movement is calling for President Salva Kiir to step down and democratic elections to take place.

The movement, a coalition of youth and women’s groups, says it is time for the ruling class symbolised by President Kiir to be removed.

They accuse the warring sides in South Sudan’s civil war of ripping the country apart.

In a speech on Wednesday, President Kiir warned that any violent attempts to overthrow his government will be met with force.

Over the past week, troop deployments have been stepped up across the capital including Freedom Square where demonstrators plan to gather.

Authorities say security searches are meant to find what they call "prohibited items" but the movement’s organisers believe they are being targeted.

Thursday’s protests are planned to coincide with the SPLA day, which marks the formation of the country’s army. Official celebrations to commemorate the day have been postponed to next week.

Peter Wakaba
BBC Nairobi

Kenya’s move to borrow from the international markets for the third time since 2014 has been greeted with surprise and condemnation by politicians and citizens worried about the East African state's ballooning debt.

The country just sold another dollar-denominated Eurobond to raise $2.1bn (£1.64bn) in two different tranches with a seven-year and 12-year tenure.

The offer was heavily oversubscribed, receiving bids worth $9.5bn, pointing to the attractive nature of terms and the confidence of investors.

On social media, some wondered if the foreign loan had received parliamentary approval while others said it was a move to grow the gravy train:

The money is expected to be used for budgetary support as well as repaying a previous $750m loan that is due in June.

This sale adds a total of $1.35bn to Kenya’s total debt, putting further pressure on the country's debt ceiling.

Kenya’s first and second dollar-denominated Eurobonds were sold in 2014 and 2018 respectively, with questions still lingering over how this cash was spent.

The government raised $2.75bn raised though the 2014 Eurobond, listed on the Irish Stock Exchange.

The money was meant to reduce government borrowing from the domestic market and in effect lower the interest rates in the country.

The second Eurobond in 2018 was floated on the London Stock Exchange and is also repayable in two tranches.

BBC Monitoring
The world through its media

In a bid to de-escalate tensions with the ruling military council, Sudan's opposition Forces for the Declaration of Freedom and Change (FDFC) have urged protesters to remain within the sit-in area in front of the army headquarters, the privately owned Baj News website reports.

"The Forces for the Declaration of Freedom and Change have announced the complete map of the sit-in square and asked the revolutionaries [protesters] to commit to its regulations, put roadblocks on the [area around the square] and retreat from the streets that are located outside the sit-in map area," the website said.

The FDFC also asked its "inspection committees to confirm that anyone who enters the sit-in square does not carry any kind of firearms and crude weapons".

The development comes after the head of the military council, Lt Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, announced a 72-hour pause in talks with the FDFC on the formation of a transitional government until barricades were removed from main roads in Khartoum, the railway line was reopened and protesters ended provocations against the armed forces.

Image source, EPA

BBC World Service

Three days of national mourning have been declared in Niger in the wake of an attack that left more than two dozen soldiers dead.

The bodies of 11 more soldiers have been found, bringing the total number killed in an ambush on Tuesday to 28.

The troops were patrolling Tongo Tongo village near the border with Mali when armed men opened fire on them.

The authorities have not said who carried out the attack but it took place in the same area where four US special forces and four Niger troops were killed by Islamist militants in 2017.

This year jihadists have stepped up their activities in the Sahel region, particularly along the porous borders between Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso.

There are reports of massive power cuts across Ethiopia, affecting homes and businesses.

The government is said to be rationing power but has not confirmed this nor explained the reasons behind the power cuts.

BBC Amharic's Kalkidan Yibeltal has been speaking to Karnie Sharp of our radio programme, Newsday, about the cuts:

Image source, Getty Images

Some pregnant women are being forced to give birth on the floor at the hospital in eastern Uganda's Tororo town due to a shortage of beds in the maternity ward, the local privately owned Daily Monitor newspaper reports., external

"We come with our own mats to deliver because we are told the beds are not enough but we cannot blame the midwives because they try doing everything possible to deliver us safely. They are also constrained," a woman told the paper.

The official in charge of the maternity ward, Grace Atim, was quoted as saying that the ward had only six old beds, when about 18 women deliver daily.

Ms Atim says medical staff help women "deliver from the floor, which is unhygienic but we have no option".

But the State Minister of Health for General Duties, Sarah Opendi, said the beds at the maternity wing were enough, the daily reports.

"People should know that women do not deliver at the same time," Ms Opendi was quoted as saying.

South African Saray Khumalo has become the first black African woman to scale Mount Everest, the world's highest mountain, local media reports say.

This was her fourth attempt to reach the 8,850m (29,035ft) summit, and she finally achieved her goal on Thursday morning.

Ms Khumalo - a business executive - is being praised on Twitter for her achievement:

Snakebites have been a hidden health burden and people avoid talking about it, an expert on snakebites has told BBC Newsday.

Dr David Williams, who travels the world collecting snake venoms to help develop new treatments, says those most-affected are the poorest of the poor.

In fact, around the world one person dies from a snakebite every four minutes.

Snakesbites are often not seen as a health problem but something wrapped in superstition and sorcery in many communities, he adds.

Well now $100m has been pledged by the Wellcome Trust to develop new anti-venoms and improve access to life saving treatments.

Listen to Dr Williams' interview with BBC Newsday:

Image source, Getty Images

Talks on moving Sudan towards civilian rule have been suspended for three days by the country's military leaders, who demand protesters clear roadblocks.

In a televised statement, the Transitional Military Council (TMC) said barricades outside a designated zone in Khartoum should be removed.

The setback comes hours after the TMC and the opposition agreed a three-year transition period to civilian rule.

Shots were fired on Wednesday as soldiers tried to clear barricades.

Protesters in Khartoum said at least nine people were wounded, but that figure could not be verified.

Read the full BBC story here.

Image source, Getty Images

Zimbabwe's government has so far paid $64m (£50m) in compensation to 93 white farmers who had land seized under a controversial programme aimed at increasing black ownership of farms, the state-run Herald newspaper quotes Finance and Economic Development Minister Mthuli Ncube as saying.

The $64m was paid over the last decade for "immovable improvements" that the commercial farmers had made on land, Mr Ncube said.

“In 2018 alone, $12m was paid to 29 farmers. In the 2019 national budget we set aside US$53m for the same purpose,” he added.

The government had identified all farmers who still needed to be paid, and was now involved "in a verification exercise to trigger disbursements", Mr Ncube said.

“Compensating the affected farmers is a noble idea and is in keeping with our constitutional dispensation,” he is quoted by the Herald as saying, external.

Read: A country divided over land

Our African proverb of the day:

Click here to send us your African proverbs.

Welcome back to BBC Africa Live for the latest news and views from around the continent.

Rosie Blunt
BBC Africa Live

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 and check the BBC News website.

A reminder of our wise words of the day:

And we leave you with this photo of a puff adder eating a wattled starling.