Africa highlights: Kenya's Ruto sued for child support, #ThisFlag pastor charged with subversion

Ndudu by FafaCopyright: Ndudu by Fafa

Rice is a big deal in Nigeria. But, despite being able to grow it, a lot is imported. 

So the BBC's Ijeoma Ndukwe looked into why that is.

She found a farmer who wants to grow more rice but can't afford the loans to invest in machinery. 

Joseph Jatau Kudu said the banks charge as much as 30% interest on loans.

"It's too high. We end up earning nothing," he told her. 

Without the money for tractors he has ended up farming manually - something which won't increase the amount of rice grown in Nigeria any time soon.

Read the whole story on the BBC News website

The BBC World Service programme Witness is today looking back at this day in 1990, when then South African President FW de Klerk announced an end to apartheid.

Listen here:

Freelance journalist and BBC contributor Celeste Hicks has written for the African Arguments website about Morocco's re-admission to the AU after 33 years. 

Here's some of what she says: "The key to the turn-around in Morocco’s relations with the AU appears to have been its targeting of particularly West African and Francophone African countries in recent years. 

"Moroccan companies have been on an aggressive ‘going out’ policy, from phosphate giant OCP signing deals to provide fertilisers to help African farmers, to banks such as Attijariwafa opening at least 3,500 branches across Africa, to telecoms and even car insurance companies offering new products and services."

BBC reporter Umaru Fofana reports that the new administration of Adama Barrow in The Gambia is ending the four-day work week. 

There will now be a half-day on Friday on top of regular Monday-Thursday hours.

Here's an important update from Ethiopia on our story earlier about deportees from the US being stranded at Addis Ababa airport.

I can confirm that there are no passengers stranded at the airport at the moment. Airport authorities say only seven Yemenis were deported from the US three days ago and used Ethiopian Airlines. They transited through Addis Ababa and were then taken to Djibouti from where they were to proceed to Yemen.

Ghana take on Cameroon in Franceville this evening at 19:00 GMT to decide who will play Egypt in the final of the Africa Cup of Nations. 

BBC Afrique's Genevieve Sagno met these Cameroon fans gearing up for the match in Franceville's market:

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Round the corner, she came across a Ghana fan who had been putting their sewing skills to good use:

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Both sides have had off the field distractions ahead of the match - Cameroon in a dispute over bonus payments and Ghana with an outburst on social media from their goalkeeper Razak "Spiderman" Brimah. 

Both teams insist those issues will not affect their performances on the pitch. 

This one could go to penalties again - neither side has looked convincing in attack - Ghana have scored four goals in four games so far - two of those from the penalty spot while Cameroon have scored just three times. 

It is still not certain whether Ghana captain Asamoah Gyan will have recovered sufficiently to play today while Cameroon have a fully-fit squad to choose from.

Listen to live commentary across Africa on the BBC World Service tonight.

More on the story that Kenyan Deputy President William Ruto is being sued for child support. He has tweeted, saying that he found his daughter's mother a job paying the equivalent of about $870 (£692) a month and sent her money for Abby's upkeep monthly.

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Reuters reporter Ulf Laessing has been to visit people who work at illegal makeshift oil refineries in Nigeria's Niger Delta region. There are thought to be hundreds of such facilities, processing stolen crude oil into refined products. 

The Nigerian government has been stepping up action to find and destroy the refineries - a move that Laessing says could drive young men employed there into the arms of militant groups. 

"The refinery is the only job I can find to feed my family," one father of three in his early 20s tells him. "It's very likely that we'll end up as criminals if the army closes us down."

You can read the full story here.

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More on the dog that has been put down after mauling Gambian President Adama Barrow's son to death last month. 

The animal, which had been certified rabies free, was put down on Tuesday, with a quick procedure. A government official said the dog belonged to the aunt of eight-year-old Habibu Barrow and had not attacked anyone before.  

Many homes in the upmarket area of Fajara, where Habibu was staying along with his mother and other siblings, have security dogs to ward off intruders.

Get the full story here.  

Getty ImagesCopyright: Getty Images

The International Court of Justice has ruled that it has the right to judge a border dispute between Somalia and Kenya.

Somalia wants its maritime boundary extended further south and took its case to the International Court of Justice.

Kenya argued that the court didn't have the jurisdiction to rule.

The court, based in the Hague, dismissed Kenya's argument today.

The two countries have been in dispute for years over a section of the Indian Ocean which is thought to be rich in oil and gas reserves. 

Reuters news agency says it may take years for the decision to be made on whether the Somali maritime boundary will be extended.

Algeria will hold parliamentary elections on 4 May, Reuters news agency reports the presidency as saying. 

Reuters adds that Islamist parties have already announced plans to join forces for the election in an effort to reduce the influence of the main pro-government parties. 

Pro-government parties hold a large majority of the assembly's 462 seats following the previous election in 2012. 

ThinkstockCopyright: Thinkstock

Human rights groups and individual activists in Egypt have been targeted by a large and sophisticated phishing campaign, The Intercept reports.

The website quotes from a joint investigation carried out by the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) and Citizen Lab, which call the campaign Nile Phish. 

The Intercept says the targets may have been tricked into providing personal information, such as passwords for Google or Dropbox accounts. 

"Our collaborative investigation has documented at least 92 messages sent by Nile Phish, many highly personalized, and sent as recently as January 31, 2017," says Citizen Lab.

EIPR said it believed an Egyptian state agency was behind the attacks.

“I have no doubt that this is either a state agency or a stage agency-sanctioned campaign,” said Gasser Abdel Razek, the executive director of EIPR. “Who else would be interested and willing to invest the time and effort into this kind of coordinated social engineering except the state?”

The Egyptian authorities have not commented.

ReutersCopyright: Reuters

Police in the Democratic Republic of Congo have fired tear gas at more than 100 supporters of veteran opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi who died on Wednesday. 

The mourners had congregated at a makeshift candle-lit shrine outside his house in the capital, Kinshasa, but violence soon erupted in the nearby streets. 

Mr Tshisekedi died in Belgium at the age of 84. 

Analysts say his death leaves opponents of President Joseph Kabila seriously weakened in their bid to force him to leave office. 

Mr Kabila has already stayed on beyond his constitutional mandate and efforts are underway to ensure he steps down by the end of this year.

Thai customs officials have seized their biggest ever haul of smuggled pangolin scales, worth about $1m (£800,000) for their use in traditional medicine products.

An official said the scales had been labelled as fish scales but were much bigger than that. They had also been falsely identified as coming from Turkey when their real origin was Congolese, he said:

BBC reporter Ferdinand Omondi has tweeted this picture of a document that appears to show that Kenya's Deputy President William Ruto is being sued for failing to provide child support.

The document says that Mr Ruto has "totally eschewed and/or neglected his parental responsibility". It says the minor is "in dire need of, and is entitled to, basic necessities since the plaintiff/mother is not able to adequately provide for her".

Mr Ruto said on Twitter that his 11-year-old child, Abby, was "well catered for" and "busybodies should keep off".

The BBC's revelations about the illegal trade in baby chimpanzees from West Africa triggered an outpouring of emotion on social media about the cruelty suffered by these adorable animals

And this raises questions about how our attitudes to our closest relations in the natural world have changed.

Some people who contacted me volunteered to adopt Nemley Jr, the infant rescued from traffickers after the BBC investigation.

Many expressed outrage at the wealthy buyers in China, South East Asia and the Gulf states whose demand encourages poachers to go on raids in the jungles.

There has also been a new burst of fury at celebrities posing with chimps.

Read more here about our changing attitudes to chimpanzees.

People tweeting in Lagos, Nigeria are demanding the right to stage an anti-government rally on Monday after the police reportedly said the event would not be allowed to take place because criminals might hijack it:

Nigeria's Premium Times reports singer 2Face Idibiam, who is organising the protest, is demanding an "urgent explanation into the reckless economic downturn nationwide".

 His most recent Instagram post urges people to unite on Monday: 

More reaction to the arrest of Zimbabwean pastor Evan Mawarire:

Quote Message: The trumped-up charge of subversion brought against Pastor Evan Mawarire is absolutely ridiculous and a total sham. Coming after a similar charge against him last year, it is designed to make him stop his human rights activism and to punish him for speaking out about the declining human rights situation in Zimbabwe.

The trumped-up charge of subversion brought against Pastor Evan Mawarire is absolutely ridiculous and a total sham. Coming after a similar charge against him last year, it is designed to make him stop his human rights activism and to punish him for speaking out about the declining human rights situation in Zimbabwe.

Quote Message: The authorities must immediately and unconditionally release Pastor Evan Mawarire, as he is a prisoner of conscience imprisoned solely for the peaceful exercise of his rights. from Amnesty International deputy regional director for Southern Africa Muleya Mwananyanda

The authorities must immediately and unconditionally release Pastor Evan Mawarire, as he is a prisoner of conscience imprisoned solely for the peaceful exercise of his rights.

AFPCopyright: AFP

The head of Libya's UN-backed government has told EU officials that the bloc must provide more money if Tripoli is to help in reducing the flow of African migrants to Europe, Reuters has reported.

Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj was speaking in Brussels ahead of an EU leaders' meeting in Malta where new efforts to stem migration are expected to be backed.

The EU is to increase aid to train the Libyan coastguard and build better camps in Africa, EU sources say.

As the weather warms in the Mediterranean area in the coming months, more migrants are expected to attempt the crossing from Libya to Italian territory, the sources say.

More than 180,000 people crossed from Libya to Europe last year. More than 5,000 are believed to have died in the attempt.