That's all from the BBC Africa Live page today. Keep up-to-date with what's happening across the continent by listening to the Africa Today podcast or checking the BBC News website. 

A reminder of today's wise words:

Click here to send us your African proverbs.

And we leave you with this picture of Freetown barber Ronald taken by photographer Olivia Acland. 

Image source, Olivia Acland

A court in Liberia has freed two senior politicians on bail after they appeared in court on bribery charges, the Associated Press news agency reports. 

Varney Sherman, a lawmaker who is the chairman of the governing party, and  Alex Tyle, the speaker of the house of representatives, denied the charges when they appeared in court in the capital, Monrovia. 

See 14:14 post for more details

Image source, EPA

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has said he is "not a Yankee", as he addressed around 50,000 of his supporters at a rally held in the capital, Harare, to honour him on Africa Day. 

Image source, Reuters

The 92-year-old also ruled out the possibility of stepping down from office, and hit out at rival leaders in the ruling Zanu-PF party for plotting to succeed him. 

Mr Mugabe added:  

Today is Africa Day. It is meant to be a celebration of African unity but commenters on our Facebook page, external are divided over how much it means to them.

Tom-David Mbumwae from Livingstone in Zambia - where Africa Day is a public holiday - thinks Africans should focus on other things: 

The day is meant to commemorate the Organisation of African Unity, which went on to become the African Union (AU). But Raymond Williams from Freetown in Sierra Leone says there is nothing to celebrate about the AU:

Among one of the commenters who was positive about the day was Prince Akim O Malick from Douala in Cameroon:

The border between Senegal and the Gambia has reopened after a three month blockade by Senegalese lorry drivers, reports BBC Afrique.

The drivers were protesting against a rise in the tariff to enter the Gambia from Senegal.

It was increased from 4,000 CFA ($7; £5) to 400,000 CFA francs.

The Gambia is a thin sliver of land surrounded on three sides by Senegal.  

By far the shortest route between the southern Senegalese region of Casamance and the capital, Dakar, goes through but during the blockade the 420km (260-mile) journey from the north to south Senegal was twice as long:

Read more about the truckers who waiting at the border on the BBC News website.

Kenya police say the two suspects who have been arrested for planning attacks in the country were radicalised at a mosque in a slum in the capital, Nairobi. 

Kiguzo Mwangolo Mgutu and Abubakar Jillo Mohammed had intended to escape to Libya or Syria after carrying out the attacks, police added. 

Kenyan police say they have foiled a plot linked to the Islamic State (IS) group to carry out attacks in the capital, Nairobi, and the coastal city of Mombasa. 

Two people have been arrested and bows and poisoned arrows, along with material normally used to make home-made bombs, have been seized in a raid, police added. 

The arrested youth had been planning "retaliatory attacks"  following the arrest earlier this month of an IS-linked cell which had been planning a biological attack using anthrax,  police said. 

Prominent Cameroonian musician Anne Marie Nzie died overnight in the capital Yaounde.

She was 84. 

Called "the voice of Cameroon", she popularised the fast-paced Bukitsi music.

Here is one of her most watched videos on YouTube:

Abdinoor Aden
BBC Africa, Nairobi

Image source, AFP

Kenya’s Education Minister Fred Matiangi has admitted that there has been a massive misuse of education funds because of poor auditing and a compromised procurement system.

He made the admission after Kenya's anti-corruption commission released a report, showing how money meant for school books was used by head teachers and officials to fund illegal foreign trips.

Head teachers had sourced school material without properly accounting for how the money was spent. 

This, the report says, has affected students, forcing them to share books at a ratio of one to eight.   

The commission said the government had failed to take action against teachers accused of corruption.  

Image source, _

The above photograph of Anthea Malwandle in South Africa holding a placard stating she had a degree in chemical engineering and was jobless recently went viral on social media.

She had been job hunting for more than a year.

The BBC's Nomsa Maseko in the main city, Johannesburg, says it is not particularly uncommon to see people on the sides of the road advertising their labour. 

Ms Malwandle caught public attention because she is a graduate, but 17,000 of them are, in fact, are unemployed in the country.

Read Nomsa Maseko's article on the BBC News website.

Ghana is banning skin bleaching creams in August. 

Ikenna Azuike from our Satirical show Whats Up Africa asks why so few African countries have banned the dangerous products.

And he has come up with an utterly surreal reason: 

Brian Hungwe
BBC Africa, Harare

The crowd at the march to honour Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has swelled to about 50,000. 

The 92-year-old leader arrived at the march in the capital, Harare, with his wife Grace:   

Jonathan Paye-Layleh
BBC Africa, Monrovia

The speaker of Liberia's House of Representatives, who is accused of taking bribes, has reported to court. 

"I am here already," Alex Tyler told me on the phone from the courtroom.  

Police besieged his home earlier this morning in an attempt to arrest him. 

Mr Tyler is alleged to have received a $75,000 (£51,000) bribe from UK-based mining firm Sable in  2010, when it was trying to secure one of Liberia’s last large mining assets, the Wologizi iron ore concession. 

Both he and the firm have denied any wrongdoing. 

See 12:33 post for more details

A retired army colonel in Burundi has been shot dead and his son wounded in the latest attack in the capital, Bujumbura, police say, Reuters news agency reports. 

Rufyiri Lucien was shot as he sat in his car waiting for a gate to be opened in the Ngagara neighbourhood. 

"The victim was shot in the head while his son, who was opening [the gate] for him, was slightly injured," Moise Nkurunziza, deputy spokesman for the police, told Reuters.

Last night, gunmen killed a policeman and a civilian in the Ndava district in Burundi's central Mwaro region. 

The central African state has been hit by a spate of killings since President Pierre Nkurunziza survived a coup attempt and mass protests last year demanding that he step down after a decade in power. 

Image source, Reuters

For more read: Burundi's tit-for-tat killings

Abdirahman Koronto
BBC Somali service

Image source, Reuters

Somalia's president has called for "a better way" to bring home refugees from his country, with Kenya insisting that it will go ahead with its plan to close the world's largest refugee camp.

The Dadaab camp is home to more than 300,000 Somalis.

President Hassan Sheik Mohamed told me that forced repatriation was not in the best interests of either country.

Kenya says it wants to close the camp over security concerns, saying attacks on its soil have been planned there.

Read the full BBC story here

A French development agency will give Senegal a $39.5m (£27m) loan to build a solar energy plant, the AFP news agency reports,

PROPARCO said the 30-MW plant would provide power to about 226,000 people when it becomes operational next year. 

The plant is to be located about 100km (62 miles) north-east of the capital, Dakar. 

AFP quotes the World Bank as saying that 43% of people in Senegal do not have access to electricity. 

India's Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj has tried to allay the fears of Africans living in the country after a student from the Democratic Republic of Congo was beaten to death in the capital, Delhi, last week. 

African diplomats have described the killing of Masunda Kitada Oliver as the latest sign of "racism and Afro-phobia" in India, Associated Press news agency reports. 

The minister tweeted: 

Image source, Getty Images

A group of African embassies in Delhi have requested India to postpone a Africa Day celebrations following last week's killing of a student from the Democratic Republic of Congo.  

Masunda Kitada Oliver was beaten to death by a group of Indian men last Friday after an argument in Delhi.  

The Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICRC) has planned to celebrate Africa Day on Thursday to showcase African culture, food and literature.  

The embassies said they did not want to participate in Africa Day celebrations on Thursday because of repeated attacks on African students in India.

"This [the decision to not participate in Africa Day celebrations] is because the African community in India, including students, are in a state of mourning in memory of the slain African students in the last few years, including Mr Oliver," said Alem Tsehage Woldemariam, Dean of African Group of Heads of Mission.

Read more on the BBC News website.

Jonathan Paye-Layleh
BBC Africa, Monrovia

A Liberian lawmaker who is the chairman of governing Unity Party has been arrested over allegations that he bribed government officials in 2010 on behalf of a UK-based mining firm. 

“I have been arrested and I am going to court; I am in the traffic,” Senator Varney Sherman told me on the phone.

“They brought 25 policemen; it’s supposed to be the sheriffs, I don’t know why they brought all these police people,” he added.  

The chairman of the Liberia Anti-corruption Commission, James Verdier, told me “there is an indictment” against some of the people accused of corruption in a report, external released by campaign group Global Witness earlier this month. 

The report alleged that $950,000 (£647,000) in "bribes and other suspicious payments" were made in an effort to help UK-based mining firm Sable secure one of Liberia’s last large mining assets, the Wologizi iron ore concession.

Mr Sherman was a lawyer acting for Sable when the alleged bribes were paid. 

He has denied any wrongdoing.

In a statement to BBC Focus on Africa after the release of the report, the company said:

The BBC's Brian Hungwe has taken these pictures of the march in Zimbabwe's capital Harare which is being held to honour President Robert Mugabe on Africa Day.

People are carrying banners calling it a million man march, even though the crowd is nowhere near that size:

Another banner calls Mr Mugabe a visionary leader:

While this man decided to cover his face:

Our correspondent reported in his 10:55 post that thousands of President Mugabe supporters had been bused in from across the country for the march.