Africa Live: 27-31 May 2019 as it happened

Opposition supporters and the police have clashed in Sierra Leone's capital Freetown.

Our reporter Umaru Fofana is at the scene at the headquarters of the All People's Congress (APC) and told the BBC's Focus on Africa radio programme that armed riot police formed a ring around the building and fired tear gas canisters.

Hundreds of APC members and supporters were trapped at the headquarters where they had assembled following a high court verdict which found nine of the APC MPs elected last year were to lose their seats due to procedural irregularities.

The APC had previously declared 30 May and 31 May as "red days" and had called its supporters to dress in red - the official colour of the party - to protest against the political situation in the country.

Our reporter spoke to the APC secretary-general Osman Foday Yansaneh, who expressed disgust "at the reign of terror" being unleashed on his party, with police firing tear gas inside the building. Mr Yansaneh said some of their party leaders had been arrested.

Police told the BBC that they were provoked by APC supporters but declined to comment further.

Some Twitter users published videos of police using tear gas:

Armed Islamist militants have killed at least 15 people in the central Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado, local newspaper Opais reports.

The incident occurred when a group of militants, locally known as al-Shabab but not known to be affiliated with the Somalia-based militant group of the same name, attacked a passenger car on Tuesday, the paper says.

The attackers decapitated eight people and burnt them inside a car, eyewitnesses told Opais. Seven other people were killed at a health centre.

Insurgents have been carrying out armed robberies of passenger vehicles in the area recently, in addition to attacking villages, where they kill civilians and set fire to houses.

The militants have so far killed more than 200 people - most through decapitation and over 600 houses have been set ablaze.

BBCCopyright: BBC

The authorities in Zimbabwe say more than 730 white former farmers have registered to receive government compensation in relation to land seized nearly 20 years ago.

Those considered eligible will each receive an interim payment of $10,000 (£7,900). The farmers believe they are owed up to $9bn in total.

But the authorities say only improvements will be compensated for - not the land itself, which they argue was seized illegally during colonial rule.

Thousands of white farmers were forced from their farms between 2000-2001, as part of former President Robert Mugabe's policy to give land to the majority black population.

The move was blamed for the country's economic collapse and received international condemnation, resulting in sanctions from the US and EU.

Zimbabwe's white farmers: Who will pay compensation?

@RNCWorldWideCopyright: @RNCWorldWide

Camir Nkurunziza, a Rwandan refugee in South Africa and political activist, was shot dead on Thursday in Cape Town, a member of the exiled party, the Rwanda National Congress (RNC), has told the BBC.

Mr Nkurunziza was until recently a member of the RNC, which campaigns against the government of President Paul Kagame.

Before he fled Rwanda he had served in the presidential guard.

Mr Nkurunziza's car was hijacked before he was shot, the RNC's Epimaque Munyaneza said.

He may have been killed in a shoot-out between the police and the hijackers.

Police in South Africa have not confirmed Mr Nkurunziza's death but told the BBC they were investigating the reports.

In 2013, one of the RNC's founders, Patrick Karegeya, was killed in his hotel room in Johannesburg.

Another opposition figure, Kayumba Nyamwasa, survived an assassination attempt in 2010, also in South Africa.

The RNC blames both attacks on the Rwandan authorities.

Rwanda has denied involvement in either case, although shortly after Mr Karegeya's death, President Kagame said: "You can't betray Rwanda and not get punished for it."

AFPCopyright: AFP

Malawi's opposition leader Lazarus Chakwera has rejected the results of last week's presidential election. He says he is filing a high court petition to have it annulled.

Lazarus Chakwera has described the election results as daylight robbery and called them a crime against democracy and Malawians' decency as a people.

Mr Chakwera's Malawi Congress Party had earlier won a brief halt in the release of results, saying there had been glaring irregularities. The final results were close, with the incumbent Peter Mutharika winning 38% of the vote, and Mr Chakwera 35%.

The fact that Mr Mutharika was sworn in just a day after the results were declared suggests the authorities were keen to avoid further disputes about the poll.

During the swearing-in ceremony, Mr Mutharika said the opposition had to accept there could only be one winner.

U-Dream GlobalCopyright: U-Dream Global

A group of teenagers has built an aeroplane in South Africa.

The 20 teenagers, from various backgrounds and across South Africa, plan to travel in their four-seater aircraft from Cape Town to Cairo in June.

They plan to cover over 10,000 km (6,213 miles) flying through Namibia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia and Eritrea before they reach Egypt.

The operation is part of a programme called U-Dream Global, an aviation outreach initiative that aims to inspire young South Africans.

Agnes Seemela, one of the teenagers building and flying the aircraft, spoke to the BBC's Newsday about the experience. She was involved in building the wings of the plane and the horizontal and vertical stabilizer.

"I'm like a kid in a candy store. The plane takes off on the 15th June in Cape Town."

Like most teenagers, Agnes had no previous experience in aviation.

"I learnt it all during this amazing journey," she told Newsday.

Awetar MultiMediaCopyright: Awetar MultiMedia

A mobile phone app that gives users access to an archive of Ethiopian music is being launched in the capital, Addis Ababa.

The app - known by the Amharic word Awter - has taken five years to develop by a team that included well-known composer Elias Melka.

The developers say that a huge range of Ethiopian music will be available covering all genres and languages.

Users will pay 4.50 birr ($0.16, £0.12) to download a single song and 15 birr ($0.52, £0.41) to download an album.

The people behind Awter say the main idea is to raise revenue for all those involved in creating the music. Piracy has meant that the artists and producers rarely get money for their work.

Any tracks downloaded on Awter, which will be available to Android phone users, will not be shareable in order to maximise revenue.

State telecoms company Ethio-Telecom backed the project and will also take a share of the profits.

reuCopyright: reu

Sudan has withdrawn the work permits for members of staff working for Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera and it has shut down its Khartoum office, the station said.

No reason was given for the decision, Al Jazeera added.

The station has regularly broadcast footage of demonstrations in Sudan.

The closure comes after the head of Sudan's Transitional Military Council (TMC), Abdelfattah al-Burhan, traveled to Saudi Arabia on Thursday for a summit.

In 2017, Egypt, the UAE and Saudi Arabia broke off diplomatic ties with Qatar, accusing it of terrorism, which it denies.

Sudan has been run by the TMC since long-time President Omar al-Bashir was toppled last month, but it has struggled to return the country to normality.

Protesters, emboldened by Mr Bashir's downfall, have continued to stage a huge sit-in outside military headquarters in the capital, demanding full civilian government.

On Thursday, a spokesman for the military council said in a televised statement that the protest encampment represented “a danger to the revolution”.

"Pastor Ng'ang'a" has been a top search on Google in Kenya after a video of the controversial church leader warning his congregants not to disrespect his wife has been widely shared.

Pastor James Maina Ng'ang'a, who is the head of the Neno Evangelism Centre, can be seen insulting and threatening members of his church.

In a mixture of English and Swahili he said:

Quote Message: If you continue to disrespect my wife I will kick you out of my ministry, I don’t care who you are!

If you continue to disrespect my wife I will kick you out of my ministry, I don’t care who you are!

Quote Message: I swear I will excommunicate you from this church... This time I will show you my power. If you don’t respect her, leave my church and go start your own. You are stupid and rubbish!"

I swear I will excommunicate you from this church... This time I will show you my power. If you don’t respect her, leave my church and go start your own. You are stupid and rubbish!"

It is not clear how his wife was disrespected.

This is not the first time Pastor Ng’ang'a has caused controversy.

In March, he was charged for allegedly threatening a journalist who had reported on the lack of transparency in the way that pastors deal with money.

He has not commented on the charges.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has appointed a US diplomat, James Swan, as the new special envoy to Somalia to replace Nicholas Haysom, who was expelled from the country by the Somali government some six months ago.

The government had accused Mr Haysom of "shaming" the world body by acting like Somalia's ruler before declaring him a persona non grata.

Mr Haysom had raised concerns about the killing of protesters allied with ex-militant Islamist Mukhtar Robow.

Security forces were allegedly involved in the deaths of about 15 of the protesters and the detention of about 300 people, the UN says.

The new special envoy is an experienced diplomat and senior foreign service official who has mostly worked in Africa.

He served as US ambassador to Djibouti from October 2008 to June 2011. In August 2013, he was appointed as the US ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Burundi has threatened to break off relations with the UN envoy to the country, AFP news agency reports quoting UN diplomats.

A Security Council meeting on Burundi that was supposed to take place earlier this week was postponed without warning after the country said it would cut ties with Michel Kafando, AFP says.

Burundi wants the Security Council to end the meetings on the situation in the country, which happen every three months.

In 2015, Burundi was hit by a political crisis after President Pierre Nkurunziza said he would run for a third term.

The Burundian government says that the internal political situation in the country, including next year's election, is not an issue for the international community, AFP reports.

A fungus - genetically enhanced to produce spider toxin - can rapidly kill huge numbers of the mosquitoes that spread malaria, a study suggests.

Trials, which took place in Burkina Faso, showed mosquito populations collapsed by 99% within 45 days.

The researchers say their aim is not to make the insects extinct but to help stop the spread of malaria.

The disease, which is spread when female mosquitoes drink blood, kills more than 400,000 people per year.

Worldwide, there are about 219 million cases of malaria each year.

Conducting the study, researchers at the University of Maryland in the US - and the IRSS research institute in Burkina Faso - first identified a fungus called Metarhizium pingshaense,which naturally infects the Anopheles mosquitoes that spread malaria.

The next stage was to enhance the fungus. "They're very malleable, you can genetically engineer them very easily," Prof Raymond St Leger, from the University of Maryland, told BBC News.

Read more: GM fungus rapidly kills 99% of malaria mosquitoes, study suggests

Getty ImagesCopyright: Getty Images

AFPCopyright: AFP

The umbrella group leading the protests against the military authorities in Sudan has warned of an increased risk of violence against demonstrators outside the army headquarters in the capital, Khartoum.

The Sudanese Professionals Association said it held the Transitional Military Council (TMC) responsible for the deaths of three people over the past two days, and said the army was deploying reinforcements around the protest site.

A military spokesman said the area had become a threat to the country.

The TMC has governed the country since last month's overthrow of long-serving President Omar al-Bashir. It is currently negotiating with civilian leaders about the transition to democracy.

In a separate development, the military council has closed the offices of Qatar-based broadcaster Al Jazeera and withdrawn its staffs' work permits.

Nearly 150 refugees and asylum seekers have been flown from the Libyan capital, Tripoli, to the Italian capital, Rome, by the UN's refugee agency, the UN says.

Those taken are from Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan and Somalia and many of them need medical attention and are suffering from malnourishment.

Among those relocated are 65 children, 13 of them below a year in age. One of the children was born just two months ago.

Many people hoping to make their way to Europe end up in Libya being held in poor conditions in detention centres. The situation has worsened as the fighting around Tripoli has intensified.

“More humanitarian evacuations are needed,” Jean-Paul Cavalieri, the head of the UNHCR in Libya said.

“They are a vital lifeline for refugees whose only other escape route is to put their lives in the hands of unscrupulous smugglers and traffickers on the Mediterranean Sea.”

As the war in Libya intensifies and threatens the lives of the migrants, the UNHCR reiterated its call to states to urgently come forward with further offers of humanitarian assistance and evacuations in order to bring detained refugees in Libya to safety.

State House KenyaCopyright: State House Kenya

Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta has used an historic visit to a mosque to call on Muslims to help in the fight against extremism, his office says.

Mr Kenyatta went to the Jamia Mosque in the capital, Nairobi, to break the fast on Thursday night.

His office says it was the first time a sitting Kenyan president visited and prayed at a mosque.

Mr Kenyatta called for unity in the country and said that the Muslim community "should work closely with the government in fighting crime and extremism", according to a statement from his office.

“When we see violence occasioned, this violence is not occasioned by Muslims or Christians but by criminals.

"It is this criminal that we fight because they are enemies of Muslims and Christians and all other religious groups,” Mr Kenyatta is quoted as saying.

There have been several attacks carried out in Kenya by the Somali-based militant group al-Shabab in recent years.

Among the most deadly was an attack on a university campus in Garissa in2015 in which nearly 150 people died. In January this year, at least 21 people died in an attack on a hotel and office complex in Nairobi.

State House KenyaCopyright: State House Kenya

Friday's African proverb:

Quote Message: A cow is caught by its horns; a person by his words." from A Sotho proverb sent by Teboho Maqoabikane, Maseru, Lesotho

A cow is caught by its horns; a person by his words."

BBCCopyright: BBC

Click here and scroll to the bottom 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 BBCAfrica.com.

A reminder of our wise words of the day:

Quote Message: It is fire that one can put out; no-one can put out smoke." from A Yoruba proverb sent by Popoola Oluwaseun Johnson in Lagos, Nigeria

It is fire that one can put out; no-one can put out smoke."

Click here and scroll to the bottom to send us your African proverbs.

And we leave you with this picture taken in Zimbabwe's second city, Bulawayo:

AFPCopyright: AFP

Crowds in Kinshasa are still awaiting the arrival of the body of the father of Democratic Republic of Congo's new president, two years after he died in Belgium.

Opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi died in Brussels in February 2017 at the age of 84. But his body remained in a fridge in a morgue for two years because of political tensions with former DR Congo President Joseph Kabila.

Then his son, Félix, was elected as president in December 2018.

According to Etienne Tshisekedi's brother, Archbishop Gerard Mulumba, once the body arrives at the airport it will be taken to the Martyrs' stadium in the capital, Kinshasa, for mourning.