BBC World Service

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The United Nations has called for an independent investigation into the sudden death of the former Egyptian president, Mohammed Morsi.

The UN Human Rights Office said that concerns had been raised over the conditions of Mr Morsi's detention, including access to adequate medical care and his prolonged solitary confinement.

Mr Morsi collapsed on Monday while appearing in court on spying charges.

He was buried overnight with his family in attendance.

The Muslim Brotherhood - to which Mr Morsi belonged - has accused the Egyptian authorities of slowly and deliberately killing him during his six years in custody.

Read more on the BBC News website.

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It's now commonplace for Western celebrities to ascend Tanzania's Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest mountain, for charity, but now the country's tourism minister wants homegrown stars to get in on the act.

In a Twitter appeal, Hamisi Kigwangalla urged people like the country's most popular musician Diamond Platnumz to take part in a charity climb in September.

He also wants top politicians, sports people, journalists and dozens of others to join his effort to raise money to help in the fight against HIV/Aids.

"The fight against HIV its not only for the government role but everyone should take part," Mr Kigwangalla was quoted in local media as saying.

Recent UN statistics suggested that the rate of HIV infections among young people is on the rise.

The tourism minister thinks that by involving Tanzanian celebrities in the charity climb young people are more likely to hear the message.

Image source, Getty Images

Randy Joe Sa'ah
BBC Africa, Bamenda

Image source, Getty Images

Residents have shown mixed reactions after an eight month curfew in north-western Cameroon was lifted, with some families saying they enjoyed seeing more of their husbands and fathers.

The curfew was originally enforced to contain separatist fighters who were inflicting heavy casualties on security forces, but it also encouraged men to go home early instead of staying out with friends.

"My attachment with my family has grown further because now my children see me more and I have no excuse to be out there," said one man.

One woman said she and her children enjoyed the curfew as her husband would come early instead of going out drinking.

The governor of the region has refused to explain his reasons for lifting the curfew but during the time it was imposed, the situation worsened with increased kidnappings, beheadings, banditry and arson.

Some residents say they continue to go home early in order to stay safe.

Image source, Getty Images

Sierra Leone's first lady, Fatima Maada Bio, has defended her decision not to campaign on female genital mutilation (FGM), describing it as "a controversial subject that I'm trying to really remove myself from".

Ms Maada Bio, who is a passionate advocate for women's rights including early marriage and rape, said that as a "circumcised woman" herself, she has not seen enough evidence to campaign on the subject.

"It's not like I am not passionate about it, it's just that I don't know much about it," she told BBC Focus on Africa.

She said she has been circumcised since she was a child and does not know what life is like otherwise.

She said that neither of her two daughters are circumcised, not because she does not believe in the practice, but because they are scared of injections and pain.

A Kenyan court has postponed the judgement of four people charged in connection with the 2015 massacre at Garissa University in 148 people were killed - most of whom were students.

Chief magistrate Francis Andayi said he had not finished writing the judgement as he was still going through submissions made by the defence and the prosecution teams.

The ruling is now expected at 10:00 local time (07:00 GMT) on Wednesday 19 June.

The suspects are alleged to have been in communication with the four gunmen and are charged with conspiracy to commit a terrorist act and belonging to a terrorist group.

In the university attack on 2 April 2015 four armed militants belonging to al-Shabab shot students in their dormitories before rounding up and killing dozens more.

It was the deadliest attack in Kenya since al-Qaeda's bombing of the US embassy in Nairobi in 1998, which killed 213 people.

Read more: Who are the victims?

The suspension of Ethiopia's premier league is due to come to an end with the much-delayed Ethiopia Coffee-Mekelle match expected to kick off on Tuesday afternoon.

The football authority suspended the league almost a fortnight ago just as the season was approaching its climax. The suspension came after a row over the rescheduling of the Coffee-Mekelle game.

It was supposed to have been played on 2 June at Coffee's ground in the capital, Addis Ababa. But police said it should be postponed because of tensions between fans.

The last time the two teams met in Mekelle, northern Ethiopia, Coffee supporters were attacked and political slogans were displayed in the stadium.

Attempts to reschedule it at a neutral venue and behind closed doors failed.

The Ethiopian Football Federation then suspended the league to hold talks with all the teams "in order for the rest of the games to be peaceful".

It has allowed Tuesday's game to go ahead in front of a crowd in Addis Ababa as the police have guaranteed security.

The other teams will resume playing at the weekend.

There are three rounds of matches left to play and Mekelle are just three points adrift of league leaders Fasil with a game in hand.

Image source, Getty Images

Ferdinand Omondi
BBC Africa, Nairobi

The United Nation’s new environment director wants countries to exit from the highest polluting sources of energy.

Inger Andersen starts her new role in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, as the country embarks on a controversial coal-powered project.

Campaigners fear Kenya is turning its back on its green goals.

Ms Andersen told me that she recognised the legitimate needs countries have to provide electricity to their people but suggested that renewable energy should be prioritised.

Kenya's main electricity supply comes from hydroelectric power with the country increasing investment in geo thermal, off-grid solar and wind energy.

Last week environmentalists poured onto the streets of Nairobi protesting against a coal plant being constructed near the coastal resort town of Lamu.

There are fears the country's first coal-fired power station would radically increase greenhouse gas emissions, threatening the environment and marine livelihoods.

Image source, Getty Images

• Read more:Row over Chinese coal plant near Kenya World Heritage site of Lamu

Mansur Abubakar
BBC Pidgin, Kano

Image source, Yawale Nababa

Nigerian police have arrested two singers over a music video with lyrics criticising Kano Governor Abdullahi Ganduje.

The lyrics accuse the governor of loving money "more than a thief".

But the video only shows the side of the singer's head, which some have complained make it difficult to identify him.

One singer, SK, whose real name is Sanusi Abdullahi was arrested on Saturday and has been in detention since.

But another singer, AJY Yakassai, was arrested on Tuesday morning. Police say he was trying to flee the state.

SK's family are pleading for him to be released following Yakassai's arrest.

The Democratic Republic of Congo is a hotspot of injury and death from snakebites and anti-venom is hard to come by.

The people who often find the snakes are fishermen - as they are caught in the fishermen's nets on the Congo river.

Here is a cobra that has entered a fishing trap belonging to fisherman Shadrack Ifomi:

Image source, Hugh Kinsella Cunningham

He has been fishing the river systems his whole life and has been bitten several times but fortunately by smaller species of vipers only.

Here, fisherman Patrick Atelo displays a live mamba on the River Ruki:

Image source, Hugh Kinsella Cunningham

The snake was spotted close to the village and, because of the mortality rate of bites, snakes are feared and often killed as soon as they are seen.

Photographer Hugh Kinsella Cunningham has been documenting the issue and capturing close-up portraits of some of the world's most dangerous snakes, see more on the BBC News website.

Jonathan Paye-Layleh
BBC Africa, Monrovia

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A wounded elephant has gone on the rampage in rural north-western Liberia, killing a 58-year-old man and his son, state radio has reported.

The elephant had apparently been shot by poachers in the dense forests of Gbarpolu county, and making its way in the forests, it encountered the man, killing him instantly.

The man's son, who had gone looking for his father when they lost contact with him, was also attacked and killed by the elephant.

Rwanda's national airline RwandAir launched their first flight between their capital Kigali and the Chinese city Guangzhou early on Tuesday morning.

Guangzhou is known as the "world's factory" because it is a hub for manufacturing and Africans come to Guangzhou for short periods to buy goods to ship back to Africa.

So many Africans headed to Guangzhou that in the 2000s the city’s Xiaobei area became known as "Little Africa", reports the South China Morning Post, external.

Image source, Getty Images

The self-declared republic of Somaliland has shut down two private TV stations for spreading anti-government sentiment, according to Somali news service Goobjoog.

The armed forces stormed the headquarters of private stations Eryal and Horyaal and ordered them to close down, Goobjoob reports.

Editors told local media that the closures happened without prior notice.

Mary Harper
Africa editor, BBC World Service

Image source, Reuters

Health workers in Uganda have received clearance to start using experimental vaccines for the Ebola disease.

Last week two people who had travelled from the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo died from Ebola in Uganda.

People who came into contact with them have already received experimental vaccines.

The head of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom has been visiting Uganda and DR Congo.

The outbreak in DR Congo is the second worst on record, with more than 1,400 people dying of the disease.

Image source, Getty Images

Two NGOs in Tanzania have filed a formal complaint to an African Union body over the government's "expulsion and exclusion of pregnant girls from public schools, external".

The Center for Reproductive Rights along with the Legal and Human Rights Center (LHRC) say the government is violating the rights of adolescent girls by denying them education.

The complaint was filed to the African Union's Commission on Human and People's Rights on the grounds that Tanzania is not sticking to commitments it has signed up to.

In June 2017, President John Magufuli sparked outrage when he said that pregnant students should be expelled from school and not allowed to return.

The law he was referring to had existed for a while but had not been implemented.

“While both boy and girl students may face interruptions to their schooling, girls disproportionately bear the harshest consequences under the Tanzanian law," LHRC's Fulgence Massawe said in a statement.

"Pregnant school girls have a right to education and should be supported to stay in schools."

The NGOs quote a recent government survey that found that one in four Tanzanian women aged 15 to 19 are mothers.

They say schools are not teaching sex education and students do not have the information they need to prevent pregnancy.

Read: Five things Tanzania's 'Bulldozer' president has banned

Well known Kenyan blogger Robert Alai has been arrested for allegedly sharing pictures of dead policemen who had been killed in an attack carried out by Islamist militant group al-Shabab.

At least eight police officers were killed by a roadside bomb on Saturday in the north-eastern Wajir county.

Al-Shabab said it was behind the attack near the border with Somalia.

The police say that sharing the pictures is the same as supporting "terrorists":

The picture Mr Alai shared on Twitter showed dead bodies piled on top of each other in the back of a truck allegedly taken during the recovery operation. He said that it was disrespectful to the security officers.

He said he was acting on behalf of police officers who deserve "dignity and honour":

Kaleb Moges
BBC Amharic

Image source, Reuters

A group of Ethiopian lawyers are planning to sue the country's state-run monopoly telecoms provider over the internet shutdown, which is now in its eighth day.

They argue that it amounts to denying citizens access to information, which they say is unconstitutional, lawyer Yohannes Enyew told BBC Amharic.

The blackout, which began last Tuesday, is affecting many parts of the country. The service resumed in the capital, Addis Ababa, on Friday afternoon but appears to be down in much of the rest of Ethiopia.

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

The text messaging service has also been shut down since Thursday.

Ethio Telecom has not commented on the reasons behind the shutdown. But people believe it is aimed at stopping people cheating in school exams, which are currently under way.

Mr Yohannes admitted that the case could take months to reach a conclusion but he wants to create an awareness that it is possible for citizens to sue companies.

He said that if the case failed on constitutional grounds the lawyers would attempt to sue Ethio Telecom for loss of earnings.

According to Netblocks, an organisation which monitors freedom of access to the internet, a one-day shutdown of the internet costs Ethiopia at least $4.5m (£3.6m).

The lawyer, who also teaches law at a university, said that his students had not been able to access study materials because of the shutdown.

Mayeni Jones
BBC News, Lagos

Children were used as suicide bombers in a triple suicide attack in Borno, north-east Nigeria on Sunday, the UN's children's charity, Unicef, says.

At least 30 people were killed and more than 40 were injured in the attack.

Unicef says multiple reports say the attack was carried out by a boy and two girls. Their ages are not yet known.

The attack happened outside a hall where people were gathered to watch television in the town of Konduga.

According to Unicef, five children have been used in suicide attacks since the beginning of the year.

In 2018, 48 children were used as human bombs, including 38 girls.

President Muhammadu Buhari has commiserated with the families of the victims and promised to bring the perpetrators to justice.

The attack is believed to have been carried out by the Boko Haram jihadist group, which has been operating in the region for a decade.

Although it has lost territory to the Nigerian armed forces, the group still carries out regular attacks in the north-east.

Image source, AFP

Tanzania's interior minister has told police officers to stop assaulting motorcycle taxi riders.

MPs have complained that police are stopping the riders - known as boda-boda drivers - over traffic offences and then beating them up.

Minister Kangi Lugola told parliament: "Policemen are only allowed to give them a fine... but should not beat them or confiscate their motorcycles.

"It is our responsibility to protect those youth who are trying to eradicate poverty and create employment for themselves."

Following his announcement, boda-boda drivers are happy that the issue was raised in parliament but they are still worried that it will not have an affect on the police, reports the BBC's Aboubakar Famau.

"This is a victory for all boda-boda drivers in the country. We were tired of being arrested and our motorcycles being taken frequently," one driver told BBC Swahili.

Image source, Getty Images

Countries like Nigeria, Ghana, Ethiopia and Kenya could be paying up to 30 times more than the recommended price for medicines, a new report says, external.

US-based Center for Global Development (CDG) says that lower to middle-income countries are losing out when purchasing what it calls branded generic drugs.

Report author Amanda Glassman told BBC Newsday that one of the problems is that many countries are buying these branded drugs when it would be cheaper to acquire what she described as "unbranded quality-assured drugs" - guaranteed medicines which do not have a internationally recognised drug company name associated with them.

She also said that many countries do not have a coordinated drugs purchasing policy meaning that they are unable to negotiate a lower price.

The kinds of medicines affected range from basic pain killers, to statins to treat blood pressure and herceptin for breast cancer treatment.

The CDG says affordable drugs are necessary and in their absence "lasting health gains will remain elusive".

Image source, AFP

France finished top of Group A after a twice-taken penalty by Wendie Renard gave them victory over Nigeria in an incident-packed Women's World Cup game.

The initial penalty - awarded after a video assistant referee review for a foul on Viviane Asseyi - hit the post.

But keeper Chiamaka Nnadozie was ruled to have moved off her line early and Renard slotted the re-taken spot kick.

Despite losing 1-0, Nigeria still have a big chance of making the last 16 as one of the best third-placed teams.

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