There was surprise in a Kenyan court when a suspect who had been held in a cell for women turned out to biologically be a man, privately-owned newspaper Daily Nation reports, external.

The suspect, Shieys Chepkosgei, was arrested for impersonation on Monday while working as an unregistered female nurse at a teaching hospital in Eldoret, western Kenya.

On Tuesday the magistrate said the suspect should be held until 24 June while the authorities carry out further medical examinations.

"As I issue this order I even do not know whether the suspect will be detained in male or female cells. I hope the investigating officer will use his wisdom to ensure that the suspect is detained at a right place," magistrate Charles Obulutsa is quoted by the Daily Nation as saying.

The suspect told the court that despite being born male she identifies as a woman, the Standard newspaper reports, external.

The Standard adds that the 29-year-old has participated in a number of marathon races as a woman.

She did not comment on the charges in court.

Kenyan news outlet Capital FM has shared this footage which they say shows Sudanese protesters being teargassed in Nairobi.

They were reportedly taking part in planned demonstrations in the Kenyan capital against the ongoing military crackdown in Sudan.

More photos of the solidarity march in Nairobi have been shared on Twitter:

Last week, a vigil for the victims of the crackdown in Sudan was also teargassed as the police said the organisers did not have permission for the gathering. It eventually went ahead.

Milton Nkosi
BBC Africa

Image source, Getty Images

South Africa’s leading pro-euthanasia activist Sean Davison is to serve three years under house arrest after he was found guilty of premeditated murder for helping three people to kill themselves.

Assisted suicide and euthanasia are illegal in South Africa.

The 57-year-old New Zealand-born forensic scientist is the founder of right-to-die organisation DignitySA.

He was arrested in September last year in connection with the death of his friend Anrich Burger in 2013, who had become a quadriplegic after a car accident. He pleaded guilty at Western Cape High Court to helping her.

He also admitted to helping Justin Varian and Richard Holland end their lives.

The presiding judge accepted a plea deal, meaning that Davison received a sentence of eight years in total, five of which are suspended.

If he is convicted of a similar crime in the next five years, he will have to serve the full eight year sentence.

Davison became a campaigner for the right to assisted dying after he was arrested in New Zealand in 2010 for helping his 85-year-old mother, who was ill with terminal cancer, to die four years earlier.

At the time, Archbishop Desmond Tutu gave him a character reference and wrote to the judge calling for leniency.

In the late 1990s, Davison had helped South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, chaired by Archbishop Tutu, to identify the remains of anti-apartheid activists.

On Wednesday, Davison left the court building in Cape Town escorted by his family without giving any comment to the journalists who were waiting outside.

Public mistrust of vaccines means the world is taking a step backwards in the fight against deadly yet preventable infectious diseases, experts warn.

The biggest global study into attitudes on immunisation suggests confidence is low in some regions, but the African continent is where trust is highest.

"There is a distinct difference between developed and developing countries," explains Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala of Gavi, the global vaccine alliance:

The Wellcome Trust analysis includes responses from more than 140,000 people in over 140 countries.

The World Health Organization lists vaccine hesitancy as one of the top 10 threats to global health.

Read more this topic:

• Do people in your country trust vaccines?
• What are vaccines and how do they work?
• Debunking vaccination myths for parents

Image source, Getty Images

The authorities in Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa, are banning motorbikes from the city's streets as part of an effort to reduce crime.

The administration believes that a rising number of thefts are being committed by people on motorbikes.

Addis Ababa Deputy Mayor Takele Uma said motorbike owners have just over a fortnight to find alternative transport before the ban comes into effect on 7 July.

In recent years, motorbikes have become increasingly popular in the city as a means to avoid traffic jams, but there they are not as commonly seen as in many other African cities such as Nairobi, the BBC's Kalkidan Yibeltal says.

Embassies and the postal service will not be affected by the ban.

Image source, AFP

Egypt is said to have lashed out at the UN, branding its calls for an independent inquiry into the death of former President Mohammed Morsi as an attempt to "politicise" events.

AFP reports Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmed Hafez as saying he condemned the UN's suggestion "in the strongest terms" and insisted it was "a case of natural death".

Egypt's 67-year-old former leader was buried on Tuesday, a day after he collapsed during a court appearance on Monday and died.

Morsi was the country's first democratically elected president but had been in custody since his removal by the military in 2013.

His family had long raised concerns over his treatment in prison and say that the authorities refused a request for him to be buried in his home town.

Read more:

• Obituary: Egypt's brief president
• Morsi's trials and convictions
• Egypt country profile

BBC World Service

Image source, SOPA/Getty Images

The UN refugee agency says the number of people displaced by conflict around the world has reached more than 70 million - the highest figure it has ever recorded.

In its annual analysis of refugee trends, the UNHCR says the numbers of people forced from their homes by war and persecution are outstripping the ability to find safe solutions.

The country providing the most new asylum seekers in 2018 was Venezuela.

Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, told the BBC that poorer countries were bearing the brunt of the crisis, and wealthier countries should do more.

According to the UN data, more than two-thirds of all refugees come from just five countries:

• Syria (6.7 million)
• Afghanistan (2.7 million)
• South Sudan (2.3 million)
• Myanmar (1.1 million)
• Somalia (900,000)

At more than 1.5 million, Ethiopians were the largest newly displaced population in 2018, 98% of them internally, more than doubling the previous number. These were mainly attributed to inter-communal violence throughout 2018, with communities living along disputed boundaries most affected.

The BBC's Newsday programme spoke to Mr Grandi:

Read more on the BBC News website.

The US has agreed to help Kenya in its fight against corruption by refusing entry to Kenyans who have been found guilty of corruption, the privately-owned Daily Nation reports, external.

The US embassy in Nairobi told the Daily Nation that it was investigating all visa applications to see who has been involved in corruption.

It said it's taking the step to help Kenya, one of its key allies in the region, in its fight against graft.

US ambassador Kyle McCarter has been outspoken in his condemnation of what he has called "thievery".

BBC Monitoring
The world through its media

Image source, Sudan TV

The output of Sudanese state television is now firmly in the grip of the generals who took power after they overthrew President Omar al-Bashir in April, and is taking a relentless line of criticism against the opposition.

This marks a change in the behaviour of the channel.

Following Mr Bashir’s ouster, the Transitional Military Council (TMC) undertook several changes, including opening up Sudan TV programming to voices from the country’s protest movement and the opposition. The head of state TV and radio was sacked.

The National Intelligence and Security Service ended the pre-publication censorship of newspapers amid hopes of media reforms and an end to the repression that was widespread under Mr Bashir.

The broadcaster now plays patriotic songs and shows soldiers removing protest barricades in Khartoum. It has not been seen to broadcast any criticism of the TMC since the killing of dozens people at a sit-in protest in Khartoum in early June.

Sudan TV repeatedly criticises the opposition and protest leaders, who are no longer featured in a positive light in broadcasts. The channel has also accused the West of supplying drugs to the protesters.

Because of the ongoing internet shutdown that has paralysed the flow of information, the Sudanese public has become more reliant on television for news.

The TMC said the internet had been disconnected because social media posed a threat to the country.

A South African opposition MP says she is going to the police to report an allegedly racist incident, during which she says she punched a man in self-defence.

Phumzile van Damme was visiting Cape Town's V&A Waterfront when she got into a row with a white woman, she says in a video on her Twitter account.

It's not clear what the issue was but Ms van Damme said the woman refused to apologise.

"And then when I went out she was standing there with her family in a threatening manner... and I said 'why are you looking at me in a threatening manner?'

"And then she said 'it's because you're black.'"

The woman's son then insulted Ms van Damme and, according to the MP, he said that he could insult her because she was black.

She then said she punched him in the head in self defence.

The V&A Waterfront has apologised for the "unpleasant altercation" which it said it "did not handle with the necessary objectivity":

Catherine Byaruhanga
BBC Africa, Kampala

More than 3,000 people have crossed into Uganda since the start of violence in Ituri province in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the UN's refugee agency, UNHCR, says.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced within the Democratic Republic of Congo following fighting between the Hema and Lendu groups. New arrivals in Uganda are being screened for Ebola as parts of Ituri have experienced an outbreak of the disease.

Survivors of the fighting recount stories of people being killed and villages being burnt down.

Preparations have already been put in place because of concerns that people infected with Ebola could cross into Uganda.

Between late 2017 and early 2018 tens of thousands of Congolese crossed into Uganda fleeing another spike in violence between the Hema and Lendu communities.

"The situation, as we hear it from our colleagues on the ground, is quite dramatic," UNHCR spokesperson Andreas Kirchhoff said.

"We have only a sketchy picture because we don't have access to most of these areas. There's too much violence, too much insecurity."

About 10% of cases in the Ebola outbreak in eastern DR Congo have been in Ituri.

Last week, Uganda confirmed three cases of people infected with the virus. They had recently travelled from DR Congo and have since died.

Image source, Reuters

Attacks on two villages in central Mali have left at least 38 people dead.

The victims are reportedly mostly from the Dogon ethnic group and Monday's attacks on Gangafani and Yoro appear to be the latest round of violence in a series of ethnic clashes.

A government statement quoted by the AFP news agency describes the incidents as "terrorist attacks".

Earlier this month, 35 people died when the Dogon village of Sobame Da was targeted.

In March, more than 130 Fulani people were killed in an attack on a village, also in central Mali, by armed men wearing traditional Dogon hunters' clothing.

President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita has called for an end to the cycle of violence but people are now criticising his government for failing to stamp it out.

Read more:

• The hunting society accused of a massacre

Image source, Reuters

Ethiopia's state-run monopoly telecoms provider has apologised for the internet shutdown that lasted for more than a week.

A statement issued on Tuesday evening was the first official recognition that there had been a break in service.

"It is known that the internet service was interrupted intermittently throughout the country since 10 June," Ethio Telecom said.

"We sincerely extend our apologies to our customers for the inconvenience."

However, no explanation was given for the shutdown. Last week, Ethio Telecom told BBC Amharic that it did not have a mandate to talk about the reasons behind the outage.

It is widely believed that the internet was blocked to prevent exam cheating as the shutdown coincided with the nationwide school exam season.

The last exam was on Tuesday and online access has now resumed.

The blackout affected many parts of the country. The service came back in the capital, Addis Ababa, on Friday afternoon but was down in much of the rest of Ethiopia.

It returned sporadically over the week, but not for long periods of time.

On Tuesday, a group of lawyers said they were going to sue Ethio Telecom for acting unconstitutionally by denying people the right to access information.

Ethio Telecom said customers would not be charged for the week they spent without online access.

Wednesday's African proverb:

Click here to send us your African proverbs.

Welcome to BBC Africa Live where we'll be keeping you up to date with news and developments on the continent.

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 today's wise words:

And we leave you with this picture from a street transformed by Ghanian artist Serge Attukwei Clottey in the capital, Accra:

Umaru Fofana
BBC Africa, Freetown

A post-mortem is being carried out on a sex worker who was murdered in Sierra Leone after giving evidence in the trial for the murder of another sex worker.

Memuna Jabbie's throat was slit and her naked body was dumped in a mangrove swamp along the Lumley Beach in the west of the capital, Freetown.

Another sex worker was dumped on the same beach almost four years ago.

Then, Hannah Bockarie was gang-raped before she was bludgeoned to death.

Memuna and Hannah were best friends.

They were believed to have been together when Hannah was abducted 2015 and Memuna has been testifying in her murder trial.

Last seen alive on Monday last week, her body was discovered on the following day but the news only came to public attention on Monday.

Her sister, Salamatu Jabbie, says that Memuna had been locked up for initially refusing to testify because she was concerned for her safety but did eventually give evidence.

The police would not comment on the matter saying only that they were busy putting their facts together.

Thomas Naadi
BBC Africa, Accra

More than 30 shops owned by Nigerians have been locked by unidentified men in Ghana’s second largest city, Kumasi.

This follows a longstanding row with Ghanaian shopkeepers who accuse Nigerian traders of selling inferior products.

The Nigerian businesses at a vehicle spare-parts trading hub known as "Suame Magazine", say that since last Thursday, unidentified men have been closing their shops with padlocks.

The police intervened, but their shops were forcibly closed again this week.

The police have assured Nigerian traders that their businesses will be protected.

Image source, Universal Images Group/Getty Images

Nigerian media has been captivated by a story of a man who allegedly smashed cars belonging to staff at the country's embassy in London because he was unhappy with the service he was given.

A video of the Monday incident - which the BBC has not independently verified - has been shared online with some news sites reporting that the man has been arrested.

The Premium Times reports, quoting a diaspora group - Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM) - that the man had arrived at the embassy to pick his new passport but did not have the requisite receipt to allow him to get the document.

He then allegedly went ahead to smash the cars parked outside the embassy.

NIDCOM said in a statement that the man's action was "despicable and condemnable."

The London Metropolitan police told the BBC that that there were no reports for the alleged incident.

Mary Harper
Africa editor, BBC World Service

Officials in the Democratic Republic of Congo say up to 4,000 people have fled their homes following a recent surge of ethnic violence.

The governor of the eastern Ituri province, Jean Bamanisa Saidi, said the level of displacement was overwhelming.

More than 160 people have died in fighting between Hema herders and Lendu farmers over access to land and water and in revenge attacks.

Eyewitnesses describe people being burned in their houses or killed with machetes.

There are fears the large movement of people could hamper efforts to control the Ebola outbreak in the region.