Tanzania’s High Court has ruled that there is not enough evidence to challenge the death penalty, which means that it will remain in place.

Human rights activists had filed a complaint saying it is unconstitutional as it breaches the right to life.

Nobody has been executed in Tanzania since 1994.

Some 500 convicts in Tanzania's jails face the death penalty or have seen their sentences changed to life prison terms.

More than 10 African countries across Africa still have the death penalty:

Image source, Getty

A woman who died this month of Ebola may have carried the disease into Rwanda, Reuters news agency quotes the World Health Organization as saying.

Rwanda has never had a recorded case of Ebola.

The Congolese woman was a fishmonger who vomited multiple times at a market in Uganda on 11 July, a few days before she died in Beni, Democratic Republic of Congo, we reported yesterday.

While infected, the woman had also gone to the Congolese city of Goma and Gisenyi in Rwanda on business, the WHO said that Uganda's health ministry suspected.

No-one has tested positive for the virus in the market where she vomited, ministry spokesman Emmanuel Ainebyona told Reuters.

Image source, Getty Images

Two people have been killed in a suicide bomb attack in Egypt's North Sinai, sources have told AFP news agency.

They said the attack hit security forces stationed near a car park in the city of Sheikh Zuweid, killing one member of the security forces and a civilian.

No-one has said they are behind the attack but there is a history of local affiliates of the Islamic State group attacking in the area.

A Nigerian imam, who saved 262 Christians from killer herdsman by hiding them in his mosque and home, has been honoured by the US government.

Imam Abubakar Abdullahi, 83, received the International Religious Freedom Award alongside four others from Cyprus, Sudan, Brazil and Iraq.

The imam had saved the Christians in Barkin Ladi area of Plateau state in central Nigeria who were running away from the killers.

More than 80 others were killed in the attack that targeted Christians in the area, and the number could have been more without the intervention of the imam.

The imam had told the BBC that he wanted to help because more than 40 years ago the Christians in the area had allowed the Muslims to build the mosque.

At the event that had US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo present, Imam Abdullahi was said to have "selflessly risked his own life to save members of another religious community, who would have likely been killed without his intervention."

The imam had previously received a "handshake and national honour” from Nigerian President Muhamadu Buhari.

Kalkidan Yibeltal
BBC Amharic Service, Addis Ababa

Residents of the southern Ethiopian city of Hawassa, where there has been tension over the declaration of a new regional state, told the BBC they have heard shots being fired.

Earlier this week, activists from the Sidama people said they would declare the new state on Thursday - a year to the day after the idea of a referendum on the new state was approved by the authorities.

The referendum, which should have been held within 12 months, has been delayed, but the electoral board said it would happen in the next five months.

That appeared to placate some Sidama activists but it seems that others were not happy.

In one area of Hawassa, Alamura, security forces have fired tear gas to disperse youths, witnesses say.

An eye witness told me he saw about 50 youths with rocks.

The mobile internet connection has now been shut down.

Youth started gathering in a central meeting place in the morning and witnesses say they saw some of them attempting to attack vehicles.

Image source, Getty Images

A Zimbabwean minister has said that a power company in Zimbabwe has had financial problems in part because customers have not paid their bills, reports The Herald newspaper, external.

The newspaper quoted the Energy and Power Development Minister Fortune Chasi as divulging the figures for the electricity authority, Zesa, to business leaders.

It goes on to quote him as saying that Zesa could not pay its own bills to buy in electricity from outside Zimbabwe and the country has been “plunged into darkness”.

In June power outages were increased to 18 hours a day.

Former world heavyweight boxing champion Anthony Joshua, who spent his early years living in Nigeria, has posted a video of himself visiting the famous Afrika Shrine club in the country's commercial hub, Lagos.

The club was built by musician Femi Kuti and named after the venue run by his father Fela.

The British-Nigerian boxer has been sharing highlights of his visit to Nigeria, which appears to have begun at the start of this week, on Twitter.

On the video of his trip to the Shrine, which has been watched more than 250,000 times, he can be seen welcomed by fans.

Joshua uses the Femi Kuti song Fight To Win to accompany the images, which he describes as "powerful moments":

Joshua lost his world title to Andy Ruiz in June and there have been talks of a rematch later in the year.

Ashley Lime
BBC News, Nairobi

East Africans are complaining on social media that Beyoncé is not featuring any Swahili-speaking artists on her album to accompany the Lion King remake.

The track list was released on Wednesday and the album will be available from Friday, to coincide with the release of the Disney film. It reads like a who's who of top African musicians - but most are from Nigeria.

The Lion King features characters with Swahili names, including the protagonist Simba (meaning lion), so people in East Africa are wondering where the Swahili speakers are in the music.

Beyoncé’s new song, Spirit, has attracted particular criticism as tweeters say the Swahili in the song is not sung in an authentic way.

The song opens with Swahili lyrics.

"Uishi kwa mda mrefu mfalme," a voice chants twice, with a deeper voice responding"uishi kwa".

The phrase means: "Long live the king."

Some have suggested East African artists who might have done a better job:

Others are saying this has not included everyone it should have:

This is not the first time that the Lion King has raised the ire of Swahili speakers.

Last year, some Kenyans took offence when they learned that Disney had registered a trademark for the Swahili phrase "Hakuna Matata” (which translates as "no worries") for their merchandise.

Image source, AFP

The chief prosecutor of a UN tribunal has accused South Africa of failing to co-operate in the arrest of a fugitive sought over his role in the Rwandan genocide, reports AFP news agency.

Legal sources told AFP that the man in question, the head of the presidential guard Protais Mpiranya, was key figure in Rwanda before the genocide.

Serge Brammertz told the UN security council that his office has been trying to work with South Africa since August last year but it was not until this week that he finally received a message promising help.

Eight fugitives remain at large after the 1994 genocide where more than 800,000 people were killed, reports AFP.

A former Kenyan television presenter who misled the police about the death of her three-year-old son in 2014, has been handed a 10-month jail term by an Australian court. She was immediately released on parole.

Esther Arunga, 38, was convicted of being an accessory to murder.

Australian Associated Press, external quoted prosecutor Danny Boyle as saying that Arunga called emergency services and told them that the boy had fallen down the stairs. But an autopsy revealed Sinclair died “as a result of a severe blunt force such as punching or stamping or similar” and his injuries were inconsistent with a fall.

She later admitted that she lied in order to protect her husband, Quincy Timberlake.

According to Kenya's Standard newspaper, external, it was not until Mr Timberlake was involuntarily admitted to a mental health facility that Arunga changed her statement. She told police that she went to the bathroom on the night of 17 June 2014 to find her husband hitting Sinclair in the stomach before throwing the boy against the wall.

Judge Boyle said although Arunga did not interfere with evidence, her inaccurate account delayed investigations and her husband’s arrest.

The head of a medical charity that is at the forefront of dealing with the Ebola outbreak in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo has called for a "change of gear" in the approach.

A statement from Joanne Liu, the international president of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), came after the World Health Organization declared the Ebola crisis a "public health emergency of international concern".

"The signs are clear, people are still dying in the communities, health workers are still infected, and transmission is still going on," Dr Liu said.

"The epidemic is not under control."

Contact tracing does not appear to be working, she added.

MSF is calling for "better access to vaccination for the population" over all.

At the moment, vaccines area available for front-line health workers, people who have been in contact with Ebola patients and others who may be in danger.

Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari has told people to ignore a recent call by an influential group from the north of the country that asked Fulani herders to leave the south.

The Northern Elders Forum (NEF) , externalhad asked herdsmen to return to the north, where they said, their safety and that of their property could be guaranteed.

A statement released by the president's spokesman, Garba Shehu, questioned the intentions of the NEF and others for "delving into issues with unsolicited, ill-intentioned advice".

The statement said "all citizens of Nigeria are free to move and live within any part of the country they please, whether or not they are originally from there".

Recent clashes between farmers and herdsmen have killed hundreds and displaced many more, especially in Nigeria's central region.

Most southern governors rejected a national plan to build settlements for herdsmen in their states, prompting the federal government to withdraw the idea.

Earlier this week, former President Olusegun Obasanjo wrote an open letter to President Buhari, warning of a "Rwanda-style genocide" in Nigeria, if the president failed to act on security issues in the country.

Image source, Getty Images

A Tanzanian startup BioBuu Limited is breeding maggots to recycle waste into animal feed.

You may not like them, but founder Kigan Compton is fascinated by them and says he enjoys watching them wriggle around.

His company is looking at scaling up the model for use in other East African countries.

Newsday's Alan Kasujja went to meet Mr Compton - and his maggots:

Senegalese designer Sarah Diouf has posted images of her clothes worn by musician Beyoncé in her video for the song Spirit.

The song is part of the album: Lion King The Gift which features several African musicians and is to be released on Friday.

In the video, Beyoncé appears in designs made by Diouf's brand Tongoro, external, which makes all its clothes in Senegal.

This isn’t the first time Beyoncé has worn Tongoro, she dressed in its designs while vacationing in Italy in 2018:

Diouf, quoted in Cosmopolitan, external, described the brand as a "100% Made In Africa label".

Beyoncé has described, external the song Spirit, and the rest of the Lion King album, as a "love letter to Africa", and said she wanted to ensure that it consisted of "the best talent from Africa".

Spirit opens with Swahili lyrics.

"Uishi kwa mda mrefu mfalme," a voice chants twice, with a deeper voice responding"uishi kwa".

The phrase means: "Long live the king."

Activists from the Sidama region in southern Ethiopia had been expected to declare the area as a new federal state within Ethiopia on Thursday, but that may have been headed off.

The country's electoral board has now promised to hold a delayed referendum on the issue in the next five months.

Sidama's top administrator, Qarre Chawicha, has urged people to be patient.

Thursday marks a year since the idea of a referendum was approved by the administration of the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples' Region (SNNPR), which currently governs Sidama.

Legally, the referendum should have been held within this time but the electoral board failed to organise it saying that it was undergoing reforms that have now been completed.

A demonstration in SNNPR's main city, Hawassa, does not appear to be planned for Thursday but some activists may symbolically raise a flag, the BBC's Kalkidan Ybeltal reports.

SNNPR - one of Ethiopia's nine states - is made up of dozens of ethnic groups and there has been concern that if the Sidama are granted their own federal state, other ethnic groups will also try to break away.

Nigeria settled for bronze at the Africa Cup of Nations after beating Tunisia 1-0 in the third-place match.

Odion Ighalo scored the only goal in a slow-paced game between the two losing semi-finalists in Cairo, meaning that Nigeria have now finished third in eight Afcon competitions.

Before the match, many Nigerian fans could not muster the enthusiasm.

One sports viewing centre in the country was philosophical hours before the game, with a board outside encouraging people to watch the match saying "half bread is better than none":

After the victory, some fans were still not satisfied:

Though others chimed in with the "half-bread" philosophy:

Whatever the result, some Super Eagles' supporters were keen to declare their undying loyalty:

The Afcon competition ends on Friday when Algeria face Senegal in the final.

Democratic Republic of Congo Health Minister Oly Illunga has welcomed the move by the World Health Organization to declare the outbreak of Ebola in the country a public health emergency of international concern.

But Dr Illunga told the BBC the new designation would change little on the ground, as Congolese medics had been treating the epidemic as an emergency for almost a year.

He stressed that Goma was fully prepared for further cases of the virus following the first case in the city.

And, like the WHO, he said that any restrictions on cross border travel and trade would risk deepening the crisis.

It is only the fifth time that such a public health emergency has been declared.

On Wednesday, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom said: "It is time for the world to take notice."

Read more:

• Ebola outbreak in five graphics
• 'A gruesome game of whack-a-mole'

Somalia-born US lawmaker Ilhan Omar has tweeted "I am where I belong" after supporters of President Donald Trump chanted "send her back" at a rally on Wednesday evening.

The chants began after Mr Trump mentioned her name during his speech.

This comes after a row erupted over a series of tweets the president posted last week about four congresswomen who had criticised his immigration policies.

"Why don't they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime-infested places from which they came," he wrote.

Out of the four women, Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib, three were born in the United States.

Ms Omar also posted lines from Maya Angelou's defiant poem Still I Rise:

Ms Omar, 37, is the first Somali-American, first African-born American, and one of the first two Muslim American women to serve in the US Congress.

She was born the youngest of seven siblings in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, in 1981. Her mother died when she was two years old.

Raised by her father and grandfather, the family fled the country during the Somali Civil War and spent four years in a Kenyan refugee camp before moving to the US in 1995.

Read more:

• Ilhan Omar: Who is Minnesota's Somalia-born congresswoman?

Thursday's African proverb:

Image source, George Wafula/BBC

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