Africa highlights: Zambia 'to discuss moving capital', Ethiopian sentenced for Facebook comments

Zambia is considering a proposal to move its capital from Lusaka to a nearly uninhabited district in the middle of the country, Lucky Mulusa the minister for national planning told AFP today.

It is the first official confirmation that a cabinet meeting to discuss the move is scheduled.

Is it a pipe dream?

Zambian journalist Mutuna Chanda says this is not the first time that the idea has been mooted. Some argue that the move maybe necessary as the development of Lusaka's central business district is now restricted by settlements surrounding it.

The question is how could the move be financed? The Zambian economy is struggling given that prices of the country's main export, copper, are still low.

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Nigeria's Senate has passed a long-awaited bill - the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill - that promises broad reforms to the nation’s oil and gas industry.

The legislation first started being discussed in parliament nearly 10 years ago.

The aim is make the dealings in the oil and gas sector, criticised for high levels of corruption, more transparent and commercially viable.

But the bill still needs to be passed by the House of Representatives.

Senate President Abubakar Bukola Saraki said “the importance and impact of this bill can never be overstated. Nigerians are ever closer to reaping the full benefits of our nation’s natural resource wealth”.

AFPCopyright: AFP

Fossils of an ancient human relative, known as homo naledi, found in South Africa, have now gone on display in a purpose built exhibition centre, near Johannesburg.

The 2013 find was considered the largest collection of fossil hominins ever discovered in Africa containing the bones of infants, children and adults.

People have been tweeting about the exhibiiton, including the paleo-anthropolgist behind the excavations:

But the people behind the exhibition say that there are still many unanswered questions including how had these bones come to rest in a deep underground chamber, and exactly how long ago did these relatives of ours live?

AFPCopyright: AFP

Chelsea wing-back Nigerian Victor Moses has praised manager Antonio Conte for resurrecting his career and giving him the "confidence to enjoy his football".

He was not favoured by former boss Jose Mourinho.

But he played 34 times this season as Chelsea claimed the Premier League title with a record 30 wins.

"I am more focused now than ever. I am enjoying my football again," he said.

This season, the forward was handed a new defensive role as he rejuvenated his Chelsea career and played an integral role in Italian boss Conte's first season in charge.

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South Africa's opposition Democratic Alliance leader Mmusi Maimane is travelling to Zambia in solidarity with his Zambian counterpart, Hakainde Hichilema, who is currently detained and is facing treason charges.

Tomorrow, a magistrate's court in the capital, Lusaka, is due to decide whether the charges should be dropped or whether the case should go to the high court:

Mr Hichilema's party has welcomed the news:

He is being held after the convoy he was travelling in got in the way of the presidential motorcade.

The case has led some to ask whether Zambia's reputation as a bastion of democracy is under threat.

Equatorial Guinea has been admitted as the 14th member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries - Opec - a source close to the country's oil minister told Reuters news agency today.

Equatorial Guinea, Africa's third-biggest oil producer, said in January it wanted to become an Opec member.

The country will be the sixth African Opec member and this addition could help raise the continent's influence as the body decides on global oil production and pricing, Reuters says.

Some people have been sending us pictures of how Africa Day is for them.

This Liberian, working in Somalia, seems pleased with the holiday to mark the founding of the Organisation of African Unity:

And back in Liberia, we've had a picture of the Monrovia skyline this morning:

And this person in South Africa is not feeling so celebratory:

Photographer Evgenia Arbugaeva captures the people maintaining the Amani Hill Research Station - a semi-abandoned research facility in the Tanga region, north-east Tanzania.

Started by the Germans in the late 19th Century as a botanical garden, the facility was converted by the British into a malaria research institution after World War Two.

The experiments have stopped, but many of the facility's former staff remain around the building, maintaining it and stopping the jungle from consuming this piece of colonial history.

Anu Anand asks what kind of a place the facility is today.

People across the continent are marking Africa Day - commemorating the founding of the Organisation of African Unity in 1963.

The South African government's Twitter account has shared this picture of President Jacob Zuma surrounded by the choir of the University of Pretoria:

The UN's representative in Somalia has tweeted pictures of celebrations in Mogadishu:

While this picture takes us back to the beginning in 1963:

Ostinato Records is teasing the audience with a track on Soundcloud from its forthcoming album Lost Somali Tapes from the Horn of Africa.

The project came about after a 10,000-cassette archive in Mogadishu of music from the 1970s and 1980s was uncovered evoking a completely different era.

Here you can enjoy Uur Hooyo or Mother's Womb from 1987:

In Kenya five police officers have been killed in a roadside bomb, a day after nine others died in similar attacks in the the country's volatile northern region.

The string of attacks is blamed on the Somalia-based Islamist group al-Shabab.

The group has vowed to sustain armed raids against Kenya until it withdraws its troops from Somalia.

A senior Kenyan police officer said despite the resurgence of al-Shabab attacks using improvised explosive devices, Kenya was determined to root out the Islamist militants.

Zambia is considering a proposal to move its capital from Lusaka to a nearly uninhabited marshland district in the centre of the country, national planning and development minister Lucky Mulusa told the AFP news agency today.

"Within the next 10 years, you will not be able to conduct business in Lusaka because of congestion," AFP reports Mr Mulusa as saying.

"The city is over-crowded, and so the sensible thing to do is move the capital out."

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The planning minister says that President Edgar Lungu's cabinet is due to discuss the move to Ngabwe district within the next two weeks.

It is about 120km (75 miles) north of Lusaka and according to AFP is often cut off when roads flood during rains.

However Mr Mulusa says the district is well-positioned in the middle of the country.

Nigeria moved its capital from Lagos to Abuja in 1991. And while Tanzania's capital, Dodoma, was designed in the 1980s government business is only slowly moving there from Dar es Salaam.

Commenters on the BBC Africa Facebook page have been debating the call by Nigeria's Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo that civil servants should work harder.

In a speech to civil servants he said:

Quote Message: No matter how much you pray and fast, our country cannot grow without some of us deciding to do the hard work that makes nations work."

No matter how much you pray and fast, our country cannot grow without some of us deciding to do the hard work that makes nations work."

Glenn Akuerter argues that Mr Osinbajo made an important point about the relative merits of working and praying:

Quote Message: This is what us Africans need to understand: that in as much as we exercise our religious beliefs by prayer and fasting, we forget that without employing our hands ideas continue to be a dream."

This is what us Africans need to understand: that in as much as we exercise our religious beliefs by prayer and fasting, we forget that without employing our hands ideas continue to be a dream."

But Uche Mario has a more cynical take:

Quote Message: Yes we will be doing the hard work while some criminals will sit in the capital, Abuja, looting and sharing every single penny of government money."

Yes we will be doing the hard work while some criminals will sit in the capital, Abuja, looting and sharing every single penny of government money."

And Anaebo Marcellinus Ebuka thinks that civil servants need to be motivated by pay not speeches:

Quote Message: Hard workers, eh? What's their pay like? We know what is needed but we only pontificate about it."

Hard workers, eh? What's their pay like? We know what is needed but we only pontificate about it."

MShep2Copyright: MShep2

The club of the world's main oil producers Opec has decided to extend cuts in output for a further nine months, Reuters news agency reports quoting Opec delegates.

This is in an effort to raise prices, but a decision to curb production five months ago failed to increase prices as they had hoped.

Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih is quoted by Reuters as saying that Opec members Nigeria and Libya would still be excluded from cuts as their output remains curbed by unrest.

Flying between the West African capitals of Freetown and Banjul, a journey of 700km (400 miles), should take about an hour.

But on a recent reporting trip, the BBC's Umaru Fofana found out to his dismay that because of the region's poor air connections, it can be quicker and easier to fly via Morocco or Belgium, although that might take a day, or even three.

Umaru decided that the best option was to drive from Freetown to Conakry, before flying to Dakar, Senegal's capital, where he spent the night before getting a connecting flight to Banjul the following day.

In Conakry, he met other travelers, most of them business people who complained about the hassle and expense of travelling around West Africa.

These were the options to resolve Umaru Fofana's travel dilemma:

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BBCCopyright: BBC

That is why this month BBC Africa Debate asks What will fix Africa's air transport? The programme is presented by Nancy Kacungira from Accra, Ghana. You can listen on the BBC World Service at 19:00 GMT on 26 May and afterwards on demand.

Ethiopian opposition politician Yonatan Tesfaye has been sentenced to more than six years after being found guilty of encouraging terrorism for comments he made on Facebook, the Addis Standard reports.

It adds that the court accepted his arguments for a minimum sentence.

Earlier this month, Amnesty International described the gulity verdict as "a miscarriage of justice".

He was arrested in December 2015 as a wave of anti-government protests in the Oromia region was gathering momentum.

The authorities objected to several posts including one in which he said the government used "force against the people instead of peaceful discussion".

Ethiopia has been criticised for using anti-terror laws to silence dissent.

The new director general-elect of the UN's World Health Organization is currently addressing people at the WHO's headquarters in Geneva about the importance of universal health care coverage - a way to pool resources so that everyone can benefit from health services:

On Tuesday, Mr Tedros was elected to lead the WHO, the first African to do so.

He will take office in July.

Zambia's President Edgar Lungu has pardoned 428 prison inmates to mark Africa Day, according to Zambia's Daily Mail and Lusaka Times newspapers.

Both are quoting a statement from Home Affairs Minister Stephen Kampyongo which says Mr Lungu was exercising his "prerogative of mercy" under the constitution.

Article 97 provides for "presidential pardon and substitution of severe forms of punishment imposed on convicted persons".

"We are confident that the pardoned persons have been rehabilitated and are ready for reintegration in society," Minister Kampyongo's statement is reported as saying.

ReutersCopyright: Reuters

The fact checkers at Africa Check have used Africa Day to take a look at some of the most popular questions that people ask Google about Africa.

'Is Africa a country and who is the president?' appear to be popular queries. No need to spend a lot of time on those, but Africa Check also lists:

• Does Africa have active volcanoes?
• How many African countries speak French?
• How many African countries have female presidents?

And one that surprised us:

• Is the African cherry good for pregnancy?

Africa Check says: "Several studies suggest the fruit has health benefits but we found no definitive research on its benefits during pregnancy."

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