Africa round-up: Friday 5 June 2015

The Women's football World Cup gets under way in Canada on Saturday and is poised to be the biggest edition of the competition yet.

The tournament has been expanded to 24 teams and will last almost a month, with record crowds expected.

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BBC Sport look at the some of the personalities and plotlines to watch out for over the next four weeks.

Today the What's Up Africa team has one thing on their mind:

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Their latest satirical film tries to find out why there's a lot of hypocrisy surrounding the subject.

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But some don't practice what they preach:

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See more from the What's Up Africa team on Focus on Africa on BBC World at 17:30GMT or watch it here.

Dozens of would-be suicide bombers have been killed as Nigerian troops repelled an attack in the troubled north-eastern state of Borno, the army says in a statement.

"Rocket propelled grenades, bombs and over 12 rifles were captured from the attackers," it added.

It comes after scores of people were killed in two separate attacks last night in Yola and Maiduguri blamed on the Boko Haram militant group.

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Ghana's Fire Service officials have been giving details about the cause of Wednesday's fire at a petrol station in the capital, Accra, in which some 150 people died.

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"There was a spillage at the Goil filling station and because the area had already been flooded, the fuel that spilled travelled a longer distance covering a lot of homes situated around the filling station," spokeswoman Harriet Nunoo told BBC Focus on Africa radio.

"As the fuel was travelling, it came into contact with naked light, then it set a blaze, floating on the water back to the filling station and there was also an explosion," she added.

#ThisMustStop is still trending in Ghana's capital, Accra, with people blaming politicians for not using the money they have to clean the city up. 

Others on Twitter say that residents need to stop littering the city.

It is thought that blocked drains helped contribute to the flooding in the city.

The popular Kenyan broadcaster and former CNN correspondent Jeff Koinange has paid a $20,000 fine after being found guilty of contempt of court.

Koinange, who hosts a popular talk show in the country, was sentenced with two others.

They were found guilty of going against court summons that had barred them from broadcasting defamatory statements about a prominent business.

A Malawian football fan who was assaulted in post-match violence has died in hospital in Blantyre after succumbing to serious head injuries.

Godfrey Mwale, who was a 24-year-old college student, was attacked about 500m from the Kamuzu Stadium on 10 May, after a Super League match involving Surestream FC and Red Lions.

It is the second death from football violence in Malawi in two years and Sports Minister Grace Chiumia wants more to be done to tackle the problem.

South African football team Orlando Pirates have acknowledged the pulling power of Lionel Messi's Barcelona and changed the kick-off time for their match on Saturday.

The Soweto club have brought forward by five hours the Confederation Cup game against Guinean side Kaloum.

This is so the match does not clash with the European Champions League final on Saturday evening.

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Some parts of Kenya's capital, Nairobi, have become impassable because of the mud that was left on the streets after recent heavy rains.

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People in the suburb of Eastleigh have been trying to clear the streets of the mud.

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Business people here are accusing the government of not doing what is needed to help keep the streets clean.

But the office of the local MP says that it is the local business people who are responsible for blocking the drains with the waste thrown on the streets.

Many on the continent still rely on wood and charcoal for their energy needs and they are spending a lot more on each unit of energy than people in Europe or the USA, a new report from the Africa Progress Panel says.

The BBC's Yusuf Ibrahim Yakasai has been meeting women in a rural area close to Kano, northern Nigeria, who still rely on charcoal.

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Aisha says she fetches wood from the bush to use as cooking fuel, but she also uses old cloth.

An elephant orphanage expected to take care of about 40 calves that have lost their mothers to poachers or other causes has been opened in Arusha, Tanzania.

The country is losing at least 30 elephants a day and within the last four years, it has lost about 60,000 out of 110,000 elephants, according to a recent government survey.

Tourism Minister Lazaro Nyalandu recently told the BBC that the trend was worrying and the full causes of the loss will be fully investigated.

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Kenya's Interior Minister Joseph Nkaissery says the proceeds from poaching are being used to finance the activities of a Kenyan separatist group, the Mombasa Republican Council.

Mr Nkaissery posted a statement on his Twitter account, announcing the arrest of 14 people in connection with the seizure of elephant tusks sent to Thailand from Kenya.

"Intelligence gathered so far confirms a growing nexus between poaching and financing and facilitating crime, including terrorism," the statement says.

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Zimbabwe's army will not get involved in evicting thousands of unlicensed vendors from the streets of the capital, Harare, the country's Newsday newspaper reports.

The deadline for them to leave their pitches expires on Monday and it is thought many of them will not leave voluntarily.

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The local government had enlisted the army to help in moving the vendors, but now Defence Minister Sydney Sekeremai says the army will not be joining the police, the newspaper says.

The decision came after activists questioned the army's involvement in civilian affairs.

Togo's President Faure Gnassingbe is in Ghana to commiserate with the country after an estimated 150 people died in a fire at a petrol station.

He has been with Ghana's President John Mahama visiting survivors in hospital.

Meanwhile, people are trying to clean up from the floods that have damaged many homes.

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The rain has stopped for now.

The eldest son of Zimbabwe's first lady Grace Mugabe has been convicted for culpable homicide and fined $800 (£522) for knocking down an unidentified man in the capital, Harare, last February.

"I regret and want to apologise for the incident," Rusell Goreraza, 31, who is Mrs Mugabe's son from a previous marriage, told the court.

Regional magistrate Douglad Chikwekwe said he would have considered cancelling the accused's license and giving him a custodial sentence given the loss of life, but opted for fine because he was remorseful and a first-time offender.

At least 5,000 sailors were attacked by pirates last year in three of the world's busiest sea routes - with more than a quarter of these attacks occurring in the Gulf of Guinea in West Africa and off the coast of Somalia, a new report says.

Governments and ship owners have spent more than $2bn (£1.3bn) on various security operations in the west of the Indian Ocean, the US-based group Oceans Beyond Piracy says.

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It appears to have paid off as piracy incidents have reduced significantly in the coast of Somalia.

However, it appears to be increasing in the Gulf of Guinea where experts say most pirate attacks are not reported, making it difficult to properly assess the threats sailors face in the region.

At least 31 people have been killed in an explosion in the town of Yola, in north-east Nigeria, emergency officials say.

Last night's blast in a busy market also injured 38 people.

More than 80 people are known to have been killed within the last week in a series of attacks blamed on the Boko Haram militant group.

Analysts say the group may have intensified its attacks to challenge the newly-installed President Muhammadu Buhari, who has vowed to crush them.

Ghana beat Panama 1-0 to make it through to the last-16 of the Under-20 World Cup as Group B winners.

Emmanuel Boateng scored the only goal of the game in the 74th minute.

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South Africa's Sports Ministry has described the story in the Mail and Guardian newspaper about a leaked letter referring to the $10m paid for diaspora football as "regurgitation".

It says that the attempt by the newspaper to link it to allegations of bribery in connection to hosting the 2010 World Cup is "sensational reporting".

The ministry adds that the letter shows that the diaspora programme was pursued as government policy.

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Investigators have gone to the scene of Thursday's fire at a petrol station in Ghana's capital, Accra, which killed an estimated 150 people.

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They have been hearing accounts from local residents. One man said that someone was smoking a cigarette which was then dropped on the fuel that had spilled out from the petrol station.

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Shouting broke out as officials continued their questioning.

The spokesperson from the investigators says they have established that there was a spillage from the petrol station which mixed with the floodwaters, it then went into houses and came into contact with cooking fires.

Thirty people have been arrested in connection with a recent murder of a French national in Ebonyi state, south-east Nigeria, police say.

The body of Dennis Magnan, 62, was found dead in a bush on Monday morning.

He was travelling with his wife from Lagos by road and stopped at a village close to Ebonyi to spend the night when they were attacked.

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The rain has started falling again in Ghana's capital, Accra, as the city is cleaning up from the damage caused by the flooding earlier this week.

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The South African Football Association (Safa) and the government has dismissed the story in the Mail and Guardian newspaper about a leaked letter referring to the $10m paid for diaspora football.

US investigators have alleged that this was a bribe to secure the hosting of the 2010 World Cup.

The Safa spokesman says the letter is not new:

The sports minister has also tweeted:

Kofi Annan has called for more investment in renewable energy sources in Africa, he says the continent is wasting a lot of money on fossil fuels.

This month's BBC Africa Debate discusses the continent's energy future. There has been suggestions that Africa could emerge as a "global renewable energy superpower". So could this be the solution to Africa's power trouble?

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The head of the African Union commission has sent her condolences to Ghana: 

The BBC's Milton Nkosi, who is a frequent visitor to South Africa's Lion Park, reports on the safest way for visitors to view the animals. He says the best way to keep safe is to close all your vehicle's windows.

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However, in the cub section, you can stroke a lion, but do not touch the head and tale and the lion will enjoy the stroke.

The UN mission in Libya (Unsmil) says it has received "thousands of messages from Libyans gravely concerned about the deteriorating conditions in their country".

It says there is a demand for dialogue between all the warring factions in the country and it urges all sides to take part in the next round of peace talks due to start in Morocco on Monday.

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I am in Nima, a poor suburb of Accra, where many cars were washed into the drains by the heavy rain and flooding. A clean-up operation is underway and most of the cars have now been cleared.

The people here are trying to salvage their possessions which were damaged by the floods. I have seen people bring out their refrigerators and TV sets, all of which have been destroyed.

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Many internet services have also been affected.

The government knows that one of the problems is that houses and other structures are blocking rivers and waterways which help cause flooding and the president is now saying this will be dealt with.

Ghanaians are using #ThisMustStop to vent their feelings following the fire and flood disasters which have led at least 150 people dead.

Many blame those in power for not doing enough to ensure flooding does not happen:

But there are others who call on the residents of the capital, Accra, to take some responsibility themselves:

A leaked letter purportedly from the head of South Africa's World Cup organising committee Danny Jordaan appears to show South African authorities seeking an indirect route for the transfer to Fifa the $10m US prosecutors say was a bribe.

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US prosecutors say the money was a bribe to Fifa officials to help secure South Africa's 2010 World Cup bid.

South Africa says it was a legitimate payment to fund Caribbean football.

At least 80 people are known to have been killed within the last week in a series of attacks blamed on the Boko Haram militant group across north-eastern Nigeria.

In the latest attack, a bomb explosion killed 10 people last night outside a market in Yola, Adamawa state, according to the Nigeria's national emergency agency.

Analysts say the militants group may have intensified their attacks to dare the newly-installed President Muhammadu Buhari, who vowed to crush them.

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Mr Buhari has visited neighbouring Niger and Chad urging closer regional cooperation to defeat the group who he described as "mindless" and "godless".

Former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has called on governments and international organisations to invest more in Africa's energy sector, saying about 621 million people on the continent have no access to electricity.

"The two major blocks to African developments are energy and infrastructure, I think Africa does have an opportunity to leap-frog some of the polluting processes other countries have used to develop and go straight to clean energy," he told the BBC's Newsday radio programme.

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Today Africa spends about $21bn (£13.7bn) on fuel subsidies, these subsidies usually help the rich and the middle class not the poor, if one can redirect the billions that go to these subsidies to offer access to the poor we will be moving ahead," he added.

Ghanaians are clearing up after the fire and flood disasters which have killed at least 175 people.

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Throughout the night and into this morning the emergency services have been removing particularly the cars and other rubbish that have been washed into the big gutters.

So if more rain comes it is hoped the drains can flow freely.

This post originally said that flags were flying at half-mast at Flagstaff House, the office of the president, but we have amended it because we have since learnt this is not the case.

A letter purportedly written by former South African Football Association president Danny Jordaan and leaked to the Mail and Guardian newspaper, appears to add weight to allegations that the South African government went to great lengths to hide a $10m (£6.5m) money transfer, which it insists was not a bribe.

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Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula this week insisted the money was a legitimate payment to support football development in the Caribbean. But a US indictment claims the money actually went into the pockets of senior Fifa executives in exchange for supporting South Africa's bid to host the 2010 World Cup.

Today's African proverb: "A horse may take you to the battlefield, but it will not fight for you." An Amharic proverb from Ethiopia sent by Abebe Mekuria, Woodbridge, Canada.

Welcome to the BBC Africa Live page where we'll be keeping you up to date with news developments across Africa.