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 in your proverb.

And we leave you with an image from our week in pictures.

It shows a supporter of Kenya's Orange Democratic Movement, which is part of the opposition Cord alliance, attending a rally in the capital, Nairobi:

Image source, EPA

The European Union (EU) has donated around $270,000 (£190,000) to help save the country’s medicinal plants, reports the BBC's Jean Claude Mwambutsa.

Traditional healers use the plants to make medicines but Rwandan forests are coming under increasing pressure due to population growth, putting the plants under threat.

So the EU is donating the money to be used to create medicinal plant gardens instead. 

The Rwandan government estimates there are more than 14,000  traditional healers in the country but only 2,400 of them are officially recognised.

Kenya police have tweeted a statement refusing to allow the opposition Cord alliance to resume its weekly demonstrations on Monday.

The opposition has been protesting against what it sees as bias within the electoral commission (IEBC).

But the police say a court order has banned demonstrations against the IEBC.

Last month, the police broke up opposition protests using tear gas, batons and live rounds.

South Africans can now exhale after holding their breath today, waiting to find out if the ratings agency Standard and Poor's (S&P) was going to downgrade its debt to junk status.

S&P didn't take that step, which could have had a damaging effect on the economy.

Many South Africans have been reacting to the news on Twitter:

And some are praising the finance minister:      

Mr Gordhan has just been on the radio reacting to the news and said the rating showed that the country was resilient, Reuters news agency reports.

But South Africa is by no means out of the woods. 

S&P says the outlook remains negative for the country:

The BBC's Tamasin Ford has been in Guinea's capital, Conakry, for a story on illegal fishing. 

She sent these photos of the beaches down at the city's Bonfe port, which are covered with a layer of rubbish more than a metre-deep in places. 

Initially, she says she couldn't figure out how the fishing boats could even get out of the harbour. 

But after a few minutes, she saw fishermen wading through the rubbish using their arms and legs to push off other boats, and then starting their engines only once they got further out to sea.

When she asked for a bin to put her used water sachet in, one of the fishermen laughed, took it from her hand and said "This is Africa!", before throwing it onto the ground. 

The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, says three people have been killed in South Sudan in clashes that broke out during a football match organised to promote peaceful co-existence. 

One refugee from neighbouring Sudan and two South Sudanese died in the fighting, in Maban county, near the Sudanese border. 

Tensions have been growing between refugees and locals for weeks over the alleged theft of pigs and goats. 

The UN says that the deaths provoked further inter-communal violence, in which scores of people were injured and several houses were burnt to the ground. 

Matthew Davies
Editor, BBC Africa Business Report

The ratings agency Standard & Poor's (S&P) has not downgraded its assessment of South Africa's sovereign debt.

There was some speculation that it would give it junk status, which would have created a problem for potential investors.

S&P left their rating at BBB - with a negative outlook – just one notch above junk status.

In response, the rand has been rallying on the currency markets.

Ghanaians have been remembering the more than 150 people who died in a fire at a petrol station in the capital, Accra, a year ago today.

The fire was caused after petrol spilt into flood waters and was then ignited.

At the time, the flooding was blamed on poor drainage, exacerbated by some drainage channels and rivers being blocked.

The big question a year on is whether anything's changed.

Accra's mayor Alfred Oko Vanderpuije told BBC Focus on Africa radio that the authorities are working to improve things.

But the BBC's Thomas Naadi says that a few weeks ago flooding affected the same area of the city as last year, suggesting that the problem has not been solved.

He adds that there is still no proper drainage in the city, and residents continue to dump rubbish in drains.

Image source, EPA

Since it's Friday, we thought you might like a second helping of our satirical series What's Up Africa (see earlier post on Why Ghanaians are ideal Guantanamo hosts).

This time Ikenna Azuike investigates how come the Selous reserve in Tanzania has lost 90% of its elephants.

About 340 migrants have been rescued and four bodies have been pulled from the sea after a boat capsized in the Mediterranean Sea, Greek officials say.

Others are thought to be missing from the boat which was found in international waters, 140km (86 miles) south of the Greek island of Crete.

Ships, helicopters and planes are engaged in the rescue operation.

Officials have said they believe the boat "left from Africa" though it is still not clear from where.    

In a separate incident, 117 bodies were recovered off the coast of Libya (see earlier entry).

Image source, Getty Images

Read the full BBC News story

The French government has said it will commit $200m (£140m) towards building a motorway between the Ugandan capital Kampala and the commercial eastern hub of Jinja, local Daily Monitor newspaper reports, external.

The funding, which will constitute about 90% of the total needed to complete the project, will come through France's overseas development agency (AFD), the paper adds.  

Ugandan officials say the planned toll road would have at least four lanes, going up to eight lanes in certain sections. 

Currently there is no dual carriageway. 

The road between Jinja and Kampala is one the busiest and most congested roads in the region, serving as the main eastern export route for Uganda as well as landlocked Rwanda, Burundi and eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

Construction is due to start in early 2017, though it has been delayed already. 

Image source, Daily Monitor

Tunisia have beaten hosts Djibouti 3-0 with Naim Sliti impressing on his competitive debut.  

The win means that Group A of the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers will only be settled with the final round of ties in September.

Later today, Cameroon can qualify for the finals in Gabon with a win in Mauritania.

The other game on Friday sees Libya playing Morocco.

Twenty more matches over the weekend complete the penultimate round of qualifiers.

Read more from BBC Sport.

Image source, Getty Images

Somalis on Twitter have been using the hashtag #ErdoganWelcomeToSomalia, external to mark the visit of the Turkish president's to the capital, Mogadishu.

The president was only in the country for a few hours, so one user has also been using the hashtag to wish him farewell.

As we reported earlier, while in Mogadishu President Erdogan opened Turkey's new embassy, which is near the beach in the Old Port area of the city.

The BBC's Ibrahim Aden has taken some pictures of the front and back of the grand-looking building:

Thirty-eight Malawians travelling back home from South Africa were left stranded for weeks by the road side when their bus broke down close to Johannesburg.

It is not clear whey no-one was able to repair it.

Passengers told the BBC’s Christian Parkinson that local residents and community leaders had helped them with food and water.

One passenger gave birth to premature twins according to Eyewitness News, external and was later taken to a nearby hospital. 

  Soul was one of those stuck:  

The passengers told our reporter that they had left their personal belongings by the side of the road to make more living space on the bus.

Hilda and her son Desire were also travelling on the bus:

South African media report that the passengers were eventually provided with temporary accommodation and the bus company owner confirmed a new bus had been sent to take them to Malawi.

Abdourahmane Dia
BBC Afrique

The announcement by Senegal's President Macky Sall that imprisoned former minister Karim Wade could be released from jail before the end of the year has generated a lot of reaction.

Wade, who is the son of the former President Abdoulaye Wade and was nicknamed "the minister of the earth and the sky" while in office, was sentenced for six years for corruption in March last year.

Opposition leader Idrissa Seck said he suspected a deal had been struck between President Sall and his predecessor. 

Two prominent civil rights organisations, Forum Civil and Y'en a Marre (trans: "we're fed up)" say if Wade is released for political reasons, it would be a blow to the fight against corruption.

Image source, AFP

The Red Crescent in Libya have told the BBC that the number of bodies that have now been recovered on a beach in western Libya has risen to 117.

The dead are believed to have been migrants from sub-Saharan Africa who drowned while attempting to reach Europe, but it's not clear exactly when they died. 

They were washed up on a beach near the city of Zuwara, from which many unseaworthy boats are believed to have set out for Italy packed with migrants.   

Image source, EPA

#RememberJune3 is still trending in Ghana (see earlier entry) as people reflect on the deaths of more than 150 people killed in a fire at a petrol station a year ago today.

The fire started after petrol that had spilt into flood waters during heavy rain was ignited accidentally.

President John Mahama laid a wreath at the site of the fire.

People have been tweeting pictures from the ceremony:

Another tweet reminds us of the destruction that was caused by the fire:

The Twitter account for the office of Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has tweeted pictures from the official opening of his country's embassy in Somalia's capital:

One journalist has been tweeting about how much the embassy reportedly cost:

Image source, AFP

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has named a 10-member team of refugee athletes, external to compete in the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, the first-ever refugee Olympic team. 

Five are from South Sudan, two from Syria, two from the Democratic Republic of Congo and one from Ethiopia. 

Some will compete in swimming, others in judo, and the majority in track and field. 

The team will march behind the Olympic flag, and if any of the athletes wins a medal the Olympic anthem will be played at the medal ceremony. 

The IOC has said it set up the team to send a message of hope to refugees all around the world.  

It has produced a brief promotional video., external

Satirist Ikenna Azuike from What's Up Africa explains how Ghana is helping ease of one of President Barack Obama's biggest policy headaches, by hosting two former Guantanamo Bay detainees.

With the help of a melting ice cream, Ikenna carries out his own social experiment to prove the US president made the right choice.