Africa Live this week: 21-25 May 2018, as it happened

1. Snake-bites listed as global health priority
2. Mother of Eritrean soul, Tsehaytu Beraki, dies
3. Bearded woman ‘undressed by Kenya police’
4. Ethiopia pardons more than 7,500 prisoners
5. Mozambique reopens 'extremist' mosques
6. Top Malian singer Kassé Mady Diabaté dies
7. Zimbabwe 'breaks marimba ensemble record'
8. DR Congo boat sinks 'killing 50 passengers'
9. Zambia frees prisoners to mark Africa Day
10. Kenyan MPs probe $88m ghost supplies scandal
11. Zambia launches national cleaning day
12. South Africa to launch first optical telescope
13. Niger Delta residents retain right to sue Shell
14. Seven killed in Libya bomb near hotel

Scroll down for this week’s stories

BBC Africa Live

Dickens Olewe & Lucy Fleming

That's all from BBC Africa Live this week. 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:

Every man is a prince in his own bed."

A Chewa proverb sent by Joseph Amazuwa Chirwa in Lilongwe, Malawi

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

And we leave you with this picture of Tanzanian model Miriam Odemba attending the screening of The Wild Pear Tree at the Cannes Film Festival in southern France. It is one of our best photos from this week.

AFP

Mother of Eritrean soul, Tsehaytu Beraki, dies

Tesfalem Araia

BBC Tigrinya

Legendary Eritrean musician Tsehaytu Beraki has died in exile in the Netherlands at the age of 79.

Regarded as the mother of Eritrean soul, Tsehaytu was a trailblazer for female musicians in the Horn of Africa – shaking off the conservative outlook of society in the 1960s.

In the region, she is on a par with her contemporary African pioneers such as South Africa’s Miriam Makeba and Tanzania's Bi Kidude.

Dubbed the “Sunshine of Eritrea”, she sang in Tigrinya and was a renowned player of the kirar, a bowl-shaped lyre.

She started her career aged eight, playing in local bars.

A singer, songwriter and dancer, she released several albums about love and politics – especially during the height of the Eritrean struggle for liberation.

Some of her memorable hits include Mejemerya Fikri and Abashawel.

Watch some of her performances:

SA leader marks 100 days with corruption probe

Milton Nkosi

BBC Africa, Cape Town

BBC

The president met jouranlists in Cape Town to mark his 100 days in office

South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa has been in office for 100 days and has announced a wide-ranging corruption investigation across government departments.

Mr Ramaphosa, who took over from Jacob Zuma on Valentine’s Day, has instructed the Special Investigation Unit (SIU) to probe any unlawful appropriation of public money by officials, and other irregularities.

To mark his 100 days, he met the South African National Editors Forum (Sanef) in Cape Town to reiterate his stance on rooting out corruption and bringing black and white communities together.

Race relations in the country seem to be at a low point - a far cry from when Nelson Mandela, Mr Ramaphosa’s mentor, was in office.

Since taking over, he has sacked 10 ministers, appointed a police commissioner, a head of crime intelligence and a head of the elite police unit, The Hawks.

His score is not perfect but even the opposition says he seems to be heading in the right direction.

Ethiopia pardons more than 7,500 prisoners

Bekele Atoma

BBC Afaan Oromo

More than 7,500 prisoners have been pardoned in the Ethiopian state of Oromia, bringing the number of those released there in the last year to more than 30,000.

Those freed in this round had not been found guilty of murder, rape or corruption, Taye Dendea, from Oromia’s justice bureau, told the BBC.

Ethiopia has been hit by a wave of political unrest in recent years.

Mr Taye, who was himself detained for some months for speaking to the foreign media during Ethiopia’s current state of emergency, insists there are now no political prisoners in the region.

Ethiopia has dropped cases against thousands of prisoners, including high-profile opposition leaders, in the last year.

The move has been welcomed by human rights groups but they say thousands more are still behind bars.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahimed took office last month hoping to quell the protests.

He has also pledged to release Andargachew Tsige, a UK citizen and opposition leader, who was seized in 2014 when changing planes in Yemen and forced to go to Ethiopia where he had been sentenced to death in absentia for his political activities.

Kenya's corruption scandals in tattoos

Cartoonist Victor Ndula has caricatured Kenya's ruling Jubilee Party as a man seeking to have his tattoos removed.

Each tattoo depicts a corruption scandal that have taken place since the party came to power in 2013.

The ink designs include the most recent scandal at the youth affairs ministry, which lost $88m (£66m) after suppliers were paid for goods that have not been delivered, according to auditors.

The others highlighted include imported maize allegedly being sold to the national food reserve for inflated prices.

Another, dubbed "chickengate", was about officials at the electoral commission who allegedly asked for kickbacks - coded "chicken" - in return for awarding a tender for election material.

Mozambique reopens 'extremist' mosques

Jose Tembe

BBC Africa, Maputo

Six mosques in northern Mozambique accused of harbouring Islamists insurgents have reopened after proving they haven broken links with armed groups.

They were shut down last year amid attacks in the Cabo Delgado province.

Cabo Delgado’s provincial director of justice, Alvaro Junior, said a seventh mosque would remain closed until its leadership had been reorganised.

He added that seven other mosques, believed to have been owned by fundamentalist groups, had been destroyed by the authorities.

Zimbabwe 'breaks marimba ensemble record'

Zimbabwean students have made history on Africa Day by becoming Guinness World Record holders as the biggest marimba ensemble, according to journalist Privilege Musvanhiri.

More than 200 marimba players from schools across the country gathered at Prince Edward High School in the capital, Harare, for the event known as ZiMarimba Fest.

According to Zimbabwe’s Chronicle newspaper, the world record was previously held by Oxley State School from Brisbane in Australia, where 108 people played marimbas in November 2016.

SA park owner weeps for poisoned lions

The owner of a private game park in South Africa wept in a video posted on Facebook as he discovered that his three lions and a tiger were poisoned overnight.

It is believed the big cats at Lugomaro Predator Park in northern Limpopo province were fed liver laced with the poison aldicarb, a pesticide more commonly known as "Two-Step" in South Africa, the News24 website reports.

Park owner Justin Fernandes said it was the worst nightmare of his life, and he was alerted to trouble when a wolf started barking in the early hours of the morning.

Two of the big cats were still alive and throwing up, but Mr Fernandes said he couldn't get a vet in time to save them.

According to News24, which has uploaded the Mr Fernandes' Facebook video, the cats had all been bottle-raised by the Fernandes family since birth:

It is not clear why the cats were targeted, but poachers sometimes sell animal body parts for use in traditional rituals.

Tanzania launches disease outbreak tracker

Researchers at Tanzania's Sokoine University have launched an app to monitor the spread of infectious diseases, which could be used to track the current Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, The East African newspaper reports.

Dubbed AfyaData, it analyses data collected from the field and submits it to a central server via an internet connection.

It then sends an alert to health officials if any abnormal pattern is identified.

Prof Raphael Chibuda, from Sokoine University, said AfyaData would be used to track diseases such as Ebola, Rift Valley Fever and other infectious diseases.

The app is also available as a web-based application and can send GPS information and photos while offline.

It can be downloaded on Google Play:

Afyadata

Zambia's mobile phone street sellers

Kennedy Gondwe

BBC News, Lusaka

In Zambia, the mobile phone sector is experiencing a boom.

Until recently, the country had just two operators but now has four - with more expected - and the country's mobile phone street vendors are becoming increasingly concerned about the new competitors.

Watch my report for Africa Business Report:

Zambia's mobile phone street sellers

UN gives $2m to stem Nigeria cholera outbreak

Ishaq Khalid

BBC Africa, Abuja

The UN has allocated $2m (£1.5m) to help tackle a cholera outbreak in the north-east of Nigeria.

At least 50 people have been killed by the disease since the end of March.

There have been more than 400 confirmed cases in Yobe state, where many people live in overcrowded conditions having fled their homes because of the Boko Haram insurgency.

The funds from the UN will help provide safe water for more than 1.6 million people and improve sanitation in the affected communities.

But the UN said more resources were needed especially now rainy season had set in and the risk of outbreaks and spreading of water-borne diseases was higher.

AFP

Cholera outbreaks are linked to contaminated water and food as well as poor sanitation

Ethiopia's foreign currency shortage hits small firms

Emmanuel Igunza

BBC Africa, Addis Ababa

Ethiopia's prime minister has warned that there will be no quick fix to the scarcity of foreign currency in the country.

Yet it seems that some sectors of the economy are getting preferential treatment when it comes to accessing hard foreign cash.

Watch my report for Africa Business Report:

Ethiopia's foreign currency shortage hits small firms

Why Africa’s volcanic soil swells legs

Podoconiosis is a painful condition that affects more than four million people across tropical Africa.

The characteristic swollen legs are caused by long-term exposure to irritant volcanic soils found in countries like Cameroon and Burundi.

One and a half million people in Ethiopia alone are living with podoconiosis.

Gail Davey from Brighton and Sussex Medical School and Addis Ababa University found that simple routines such as washing feet and wearing shoes helped to reduce acute attacks by 20%. She told BBC Health Check about her research:

Wearing shoes and washing feet can reduce symptoms

Algerian blogger jailed for 10 years for spying

Ahmed Rouaba

BBC News

An Algerian court has sentenced blogger Merzoug Touati to 10 years in prison for sharing sensitive information with a foreign country.

The court in the port city of Bejaia found Mr Touati, 30, guilty of "leaking intelligence to agents of a foreign country to damage the military and diplomatic interests of Algeria".

The prosecutors have sought life imprisonment.

Rights group Amnesty International has tweeted his picture saying Mr Touati was being imprisoned for simply for posting online:

The conviction is related to an interview Mr Touati conducted with an Israeli foreign ministry spokesman and posted on his blog in January 2017. He has been in custody since his arrest.

However, the court dropped the accusation of inciting armed disobedience against the state, which is punishable by death under Algerian law.

Mr Touati’s lawyer Boubakeur Essidik Hemaili told news agency AFP that his client was innocent as he "was exercising his rights guaranteed by the constitution. He can talk to whom he wants".

Mr Touati will appeal the sentence, according to his lawyers.

The Vice-President of the Algerian League to Defend Human Rights, Said Salhi, expressed his "disappointment" with the verdict.

Ten years in prison is very harsh given the facts."

Nigeria's reservation on free trade deal

Almost 50 African nations signed the African Continental Free Trade Agreement in March but Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari decided not to, saying he could not agree to anything that would undermine the country's manufacturers and entrepreneurs.

The BBC's Ijeoma Ndukwe went to the south-eastern town of Nnewi to see how growing intra-African trade would affect Nigerian brands.

Watch her report below:

Nigeria's reservation on Africa's free trade deal

Zambia frees prisoners to mark Africa Day

Kennedy Gondwe

BBC News, Lusaka

Zambia’s President Edgar Lungu has pardoned 464 prisoners to mark Africa Day, which is being celebrated across the continent on Friday.

But those released do not include prisoners convicted for the defilement of children, Home Affairs Minister Stephen Kampyongo has said.

Mr Kampyongo said it was within Mr Lungu’s powers as president to pardon prisoners.

Dozens of inmates also had their death sentences commuted to life, he added.

Al-Shabab 'raids Kenyan mosque'

Militants from Islamist group al-Shabab stormed a mosque in Kenya's border town of Mandera on Thursday night and forced residents to listen to a sermon for about five hours, Daily Nation newspaper reports.

"They arrived when a sheikh was delivering a sermon, snatched the microphone and ordered him to sit and listen. We were shocked,” a witness told the paper.false

The report says the sermon - which lasted from about 22:00 until 02:00 local time - was a tirade against the Kenyan government, local civil servants and security officials.

The incident is not the first in Mandera.

The militants, who mostly operate in neighbouring Somalia, have conducted several raids in the town.

Read: Who are Somalia's al-Shabab?

Sadio Mane sends 300 Liverpool shirts to hometown

Getty Images

Mane has 51 caps for Senegal

Sadio Mane has given 300 Liverpool shirts to locals in his hometown in Senegal, so they can wear them during the Champions League final.

The 26-year-old forward, who grew up in Bambali in the West African country, made the generous gesture before the Reds' clash with 12-time winners Real Madrid on Saturday.

He said:

There are 2,000 in the village. I bought 300 Liverpool jerseys to send to the people in the village, so the fans can wear to watch the final.

My mum and my uncle, they are all going to be watching.

Nobody in the village will work this day. I will be going back in the summer after the World Cup and hopefully I will be showing everyone a [winners'] medal."

Read the BBC Sport story for more.

Zambia launches national cleaning day

Kennedy Gondwe

BBC News, Lusaka

AFP

Edgar Lungu is going to be first out with his broom this Saturday

The Zambian government has introduced a national cleaning day to be held once a month.

The exercise is part of the “Keep Zambia Clean, Green and Healthy Campaign”, which President Edgar Lungu re-launched last month in a bid to raise cleanness levels in the southern African country.

Local Government Minister Vincent Mwale, whose ministry is overseeing the exercise, said it would kick off this Saturday with the president leading the cleaning.

He told journalists:

It is now a requirement as government policy that all citizens participate in the cleaning of their surroundings every last Saturday of the month."

He said only Seventh Day Adventists would be exempted from the exercise on a Saturday to allow them to worship, but they would be expected to get tidying the following day.

SA police investigate Bitcoin scam

Getty Images

Police in South Africa are investigating a scam in which investors lost 1bn rand ($80m, £60m) after investing in the cryptocurrency Bitcoin.

A company called BTC Global had promised its clients that they would earn 2% per day, 14% a week and 50% in a month.

A notice on the company's website says its services have been suspended.

It blames Steven Twain, the company's primary trader, for not following through with paying the investors.

It says that it has not heard from him and cannot do anything until Mr Twain resurfaces.

However, police say the company encouraged the alleged scam.

Police investigator Yolisa Matakata said, "This may prove to be the tip of the iceberg with potentially thousands more yet to discover they've lost money."

Reuters says that local technology news website mybroadband.co.za reported in March that more than $50m was lost by investors in BTC Global.

Trading in Bitcoin has been growing on the African continent but authorities have been warning that it could be promoting illegal activities.

South Africa's central bank said on Thursday it was in the process of determining whether cryptocurrencies complied with its financial surveillance and exchange control regulations.

Read: Why African millennials can't get enough of Bitcoin