That's all for today from the BBC Africa Live page. Listen to the Africa Today podcast and keep up-to-date with developments across the continent on the BBC News website.  

Today’s wise words: “No matter how big an eye is, two eyes are better than one.” Sent by Kelvin Lumbwe in Zambia.

Click here to send us your African proverbs.

And we leave you with an African asylum seeker in Italy getting his make-up done backstage prior to taking part in a special event at Florence's prestigious men's fashion show Pitti Immagine Uomo:

Image source, AFP

And if archaeology is more your thing, here's the largest intact fossil of the Basulosauruswhich, or "walking whale", which has gone on display today in Egpyt's Wadi Al-Hitan valley.   

Image source, AP

Nigeria’s Muhammadu Buhari today met the distraught parents of the kidnapped Chibok girls in the capital, Abuja.

After the closed-door meeting, the presidency released a statement saying he has set up a panel to investigate all aspects of the kidnapping and efforts to find them.

The president assured the parents he remained fully committed to his pledge to do all he could to save the girls and his military chiefs had made progress, with most territory retaken from the militants.

Chief of Defence Staff Gen Gabriel Olonisakin told the meeting that in the last three months the military has liberated more than 3,000 people kidnapped by Boko Haram in the north-east

He said that the military had the ability to rescue the Chibok girls, but added that intelligence was delicate and he did not want to do "​anything to jeopardise the lives of the girls", the statement said. 

The Gambia has reversed an order issued earlier this month that female civil servants cover their hair during working hours.

It followed a declaration by President Yahya Jammeh in December that the country was now an Islamic republic.

"Women are [President Jammeh's] best friends, they are his sisters and he is here for their wellbeing and happiness at all times," AFP quotes a presidential statement as saying.

"That being the case, this decision that makes them unhappy has been lifted." 

Image source, AFP

The Lagos High Court has demanded that a former militant kingpin in the Niger Delta appear to answer corruption charges.

Government Ekpemupolo, alias Tompolo, was one of the most important figures in the oil-rich Niger Delta until he agreed to an amnesty deal in 2009. 

Groups under his control were accused of kidnapping expatriate oil workers and attacking key oil facilities, crippling production of the country's biggest export. 

His company is accused of diverting 34bn naira ($170m; £120m) in the course of signing lucrative security contracts with government agencies to protect their interests in the Niger Delta. 

Local Punch newspaper reports that Tompolo has rejected the court's summons to appear. 

Read: Chasing West Africa's Pirates by BBC's Mary Harper

All police officers bearing arms must first have a psychological evaluation, Nigeria’s police chief says.

This is in light of “recent extrajudicial killings by some policemen in some parts of the country", a police statement said.

"The police has the constitutional duty to serve, and not to continue killing innocent and law-abiding citizens."

Inspector General Solomon Arase said police medical doctors should do such psychological tests ever three months.

Image source, Nigeria Police

Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh, an international relations student at Oxford, says the UK’s prestigious university is institutionally racist.

He is one of those campaigning to remove the statue of British imperialist Cecil Rhodes from a building at one of Oxford's colleges, and was interviewed on the BBC’s Today programme about the university chancellor’s reaction to the campaign.

Lord Patten said that if students did not demonstrate a “generosity of spirit” towards history and respect for the principle of free speech “they should think about being educated elsewhere”.

But Mr Mpofu-Walsh says the campaign is “doing exactly what Lord Patten says a university is for.

“The notion that Cecil Rhodes should be un-reflexively glorified… we think is no longer tolerable."

Listen to the interview below:

Omo Bello, who originally studied genetics in her native Nigeria, tells the BBC how she won a scholarship to train as an opera singer in France - and is now a sought-after soprano performing all over the world:

The declaration from the World Health Organization (WHO) that the Ebola epidemic in West Africa is over has been welcomed on our BBC Africa Facebook page, external and by those emailing to africalive@bbc.co.uk:

This reflects other comments that there is still more to be done to improve health services:

It's been a bad day for the Diack family. 

First, Lamine Diack, the Senegalese former head of world athletics body the IAAF was accused of "conspiracy and corruption" in a damning report by the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada). 

Shortly afterwards, the international police body Interpol issued a notice calling for the arrest of his son Papa Massata Diack on charges of bribery, money-laundering and corruption. 

The notice alerts Interpol's member countries, which include Senegal where he lives, that he is wanted by French police. 

Papa Massata was named alongside his brother Khalil in the Wada report, which accused the pair of trying to extort money from Turkey's Asli Alptekin Cakir, winner of the Olympic 1500 metres gold medal at London 2012. 

The report says that Papa Massata Diack asked the athlete for €650,000 ($700,000, £490,000) to avoid a potential drugs ban. 

Last month, he said he totally rejected accusations by French prosecutors that he had any role in alleged extortion and bribery.  

Abdirahman Koronto
BBC Somali service

After more than two decades without any regulations, Somalia's media is now bound by a new law which could put many journalists out of a job.

It stipulates that they must all have a university degree in journalism - and also pass a government test when they register with the media commission, which will soon be set up.

Some feel this is far too harsh a regulation given that during the anarchy of the long civil war, no universities offered journalism qualifications.

A university specialising in media has been established as the country emerges from years of conflict, but its students will not graduate until at least 2018.

And one-year journalism masters courses are not yet available.

"We could all be put in jail for being illegal journalists in Somalia," one colleague in the capital, Mogadishu, said.

However, others believe that given the danger of reporting in Somalia, journalists should be well qualified.

Read more on Somalia's media laws that come into effect this week

Image source, AFP

More than two-thirds of South Africans think that the future is bright for people living in the country, regardless of their race, according to new research reported in South Africa's Times newspaper, external. 

There were high levels of confidence among women and young people in particular, the paper adds.

The survey by independent research company Ipsos was, however, carried out before a recent wave of media controversies related to race in the former apartheid state. 

Image source, AFP

Zimbabwe's Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa has said that he personally protected white farmers during the controversial land reform programme, when many farms were occupied by ruling party militants, local Southern Eye paper reports, external.

He made the remarks at a memorial service in his home Midlands province for Estelle Theresa Coetzee, the wife of a prominent farmer and businessman.

It was attended by several Zanu-PF politicians, hundreds of farm workers and white farmers, the paper said.

“I have kept this a secret, but let me tell you now: The majority of you are still here because of Neville [Coetzee] and his wife,” Mr Mnangawa is quoted as telling the mourners.

“Every morning they would be at my house bothering me left and right to protect you. If you did not know it, it’s because of the good nature of the Coetzee family, who I have worked very well with over the past 40 years, that you are still here,” he said. 

There are not that many white farmers left in Zimbabwe, with several thousand of them forced to abandon farming in the last 16 years.

The seizure of land is seen as a key factor in Zimbabwe's economic meltdown since 2000.

Piers Edwards
BBC Sport

It’s a damning report for Lamine Diack, which suggests both corruption and nepotism at the highest level of sport.

And it's not only Diack who is named in the report, but also his two sons. Papa Massata is already banned for life by the IAAF Ethics Commission for his role in attempting to cover up Russian doping. 

The involvement of another son, Khalil, is a new line – both he and Papa are accused in the report of trying to extort money from a Turkish athlete.

Mr Diack has previously denied allegations of corruption. 

Follow live updates from the Wada news conference

Image source, Getty Images

The World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) has said the former head of world athletics, Senegal's Lamine Diack, "organised and enabled conspiracy and corruption" within the sport's governing body. 

The Wada report said Mr Diack appeared to have "personal knowledge" of fraud and extortion within the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). 

Mr Diack was arrested and charged in France in November. The report also said he "must have been aware" of the extent of doping. 

He has previously described corruption allegations against him as "surreal".

Read the BBC Sport story for more

Image source, Getty Images

Read BBC Africa Sport's Piers Edwards on Lamine Diack's legacy

Egyptian footballer Mohamed Elneny has been signed by Arsenal, the Premier League team’s manager Arsene Wenger has confirmed. 

The 23-year-old midfielder, who spent three years with Swiss side FC Basel, has reportedly cost about £5m ($7.2m).

"An experienced Egypt international, he helped his country to the quarter-finals of the London Olympics in 2012," Arsenal said in a statement, external welcoming him to the club.

Wenger said Elneny might be available to face Stoke on Sunday.

Image source, Getty Images

The year 2015 has been declared the driest year on record in South Africa, which is currently experiencing severe drought.

The country's weather service said average annual rainfall was about a third lower than usual, and the lowest since records began in 1904:

• Average rainfall in 2015: 403 mm
• Average rainfall in 1904: 608 mm. 

The drought, blamed on the El Nino weather system, has had a disastrous impact on agriculture.

South Africa has had to import more food than usual, at inflated prices because of the weakness of its currency, the rand. 

Read more: Cattle dying in South Africa drought

Image source, AFP

Anne Soy
BBC Africa health correspondent

Image source, AFP

It is a huge relief that the most devastating outbreak of Ebola is over. Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea now face the mammoth task of recovery.

The outbreak affected virtually every sector in these three countries. It exposed their weak health systems, which collapsed under the pressure of the epidemic. 

Yet these countries are also badly affected by other deadly diseases, like malaria and tuberculosis, which were mostly ignored during the outbreak.

More than 17,000 Ebola survivors are dealing with a wide range of complications and social stigma. They include orphans with an uncertain future. 

The economies of the three countries were also adversely affected. Sierra Leone was one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, with double digit growth figures. But Ebola sank it into severe recession.

The road to complete recovery will be long and treacherous. It will no doubt continue to test the resilience of the three countries.

Following reports that the family of former Unita rebel leader Jonas Savimbi are suing over his "outrageous" portrayal in a video game (see 12:18 post), we've taken a closer look at his role in Call of Duty: Black Ops II.

Savimbi features in a level of the game called "Pyrrhic victory", where he leads Unita forces in a fictional battle against MPLA fighters in 1986. 

In the game, Savimbi urges his men forward on the battlefield, shouting:

"Here they come. Here they come my brothers... Fight my brothers. Death to the MPLA!"

At the end of the level, Savimbi's character can be heard laughing and boasting about how many MPLA fighters have been killed. 

The game uses the real-life historical involvement of the CIA in Angola, who supported Savimbi's rebels, as a premise for its own fictional universe. 

Image source, Activision Blizzard/Call of Duty game play

Etienne Kowalski, a lawyer for the game's publisher Activision Blizzard, said Savimbi is represented "for who he was... a character of Angolan history, a guerrilla chief who fought the MPLA", AFP news agency reports. 

Mr Kowalski said the video game shows Savimbi in a "rather favourable light" as a "good guy who comes to help the heroes", AFP adds.

Abdullahi Kaura Abubakar
BBC Africa, Abuja

Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari has just arrived to meet parents of the kidnapped Chibok girls.

They have been waiting for an audience with him as they mark the 600th day since their daughters were taken by Boko Haram militants.

But journalists are not party to the ongoing meeting as we were asked to leave.

We were told this was because security issues would be discussed.

Image source, AFP

Egyptian security forces have arrested two people for managing multiple Facebook pages they said were being used to support the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood and encourage protest, the Interior Ministry said, Reuters news agency reports.

Interior Ministry spokesman Abu Bakr Abdel Karim is quoted as saying that between them they managed 47 accounts.

He said they were arrested "on charges of inciting against state institutions and spreading the ideas of the Muslim Brotherhood".

They had also "been calling for marches on 25 January", which is the fifth anniversary of the start of the uprising that ended Hosni Mubarak's almost 30-year presidential rule.