That's all from BBC Africa Live 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 and scroll to the bottom to send us your African proverbs.

And we leave you with this picture from the Devil's Pool in the Victoria Falls in Zambia, posted by the cultural news site OkayAfrica:

Gbolahan Macjob
BBC News

The public hearing into Nigeria's controversial NGO regulatory commission bill is due in less than 24 hours.

It was proposed in 2016 to supervise and monitor non-governmental organisations in Nigeria but human right groups say it is a ploy to silence dissent.

Amnesty International has launched an urgent appeal to Nigerians to stop the bill from going through:

Civil rights group Enough is Enough has released a video on Twitter detailing the dangers of the bill, narrated by the former chairman of the national human rights commission, Chidi Odinkalu:

In the video he warns that, if the bill gets passed, one would have to get permission from the government before raising money in your church or mosque.

Three months ago, Nigerian senator Shehu Sanni vowed in a Facebook post to challenge the bill if it got to the upper chamber:

Liberia will hold a delayed presidential run-off vote on 26 December, the electoral commission chief told Reuters news agency.

Electoral Commission chairman Jerome Korkoya added that campaigning could start immediately but must end by 24 December.

The poll that was held up for several weeks after a candidate who was knocked out of the first-round vote decided to take his allegations of fraud to court.

Last week the Supreme Court dismissed the complaint from third-place finisher Charles Brumskine's Liberty Party.

The final round of voting is between ex-footballer George Weah and Vice-President Joseph Boakai.

Image source, Reuters / EPA

Read more: Court gives go ahead for run-off poll

Image source, AFP

Zimbabwe's political parties want voters to have an extra two months to sign up for next year's election after the political crisis disrupted the registration process, Reuters news agency quotes an opposition official as saying.

The ruling Zanu-PF party and opposition groups will ask electoral authorities tomorrow to extend next week's voter registration deadline into February, Reuters quotes Douglas Mwonzora of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change as saying.

Mr Mwonzora adds that last month's military takeover and the removal of former president Robert Mugabe has "disturbed a lot of things.

"During that period, many potential voters did not go out to register because there was serious political uncertainty in the country. After taking all this into account we realised that we need to extend the registration exercise. If we don't we will see voter apathy next year."

He is also quoted as saying that thousands of people of voting age previously excluded from voting because their parents are from other countries in southern Africa have only been able to register since a court ruling last week.

Image source, AFP

European governments are knowingly complicit in the torture and abuse of refugees and migrants in Libya, Amnesty International has alleged.

In an effort to stem migration, the EU is actively supporting a "system of abuse and exploitation" on Libyan shores, the group said in a report.

EU funds are going to authorities working with militias and people smugglers, the report says.

The EU said its work to help migrants made things better, not worse. It has provided ships, training and funding to the Libyan coastguard.

Libya is the main thoroughfare for migrants trying to reach Europe. Arrivals in Italy - the main destination for boat crossings - fell sharply following the provision of EU funds to the Libyan coastguard.

The country has spiralled into lawlessness since Nato-backed forces overthrew long-serving ruler Colonel Muammar Gaddafi in October 2011, with numerous armed militias vying for control.

James Copnall
Africa editor, BBC World Service

Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir is playing the US against Russia in an effort to get off the US list of states that sponsor terror, the oil minister Abdel Rahman Osman told me.

I asked him why Mr Bashir had gone to Russia and criticised America. He insisted that things are still good between Sudan and the US:

Two months ago the US lifted sanctions on the country - part of a thawing of relations between Washington and Khartoum.

Image source, Getty Images

A transgender woman has won a landmark case against Botswana's government to be recognised as female, reports Reuters news agency.

Tshepo Ricki Kgositau had sued the Botswana government for refusing to change the gender on her identity document from male to female.

In court papers, Ms Kgositau argued that she had since an early age identified as a woman and that the different gender on her identity document was causing her emotional distress and increased her vulnerability to abuse and violence.

Justice Leatile Dambe ordered that the document is changed within seven days, adds Reuters

In 2014, a judge overturned a government ban on a gay rights lobbying group, ruling that lesbians, gay people and bisexual people of Botswana be allowed to register and campaign for changes to the law. However, it reiterated that it was still illegal to engage in homosexual acts.

Bekele Atoma
BBC News

Ethiopian Soldiers killed at least 15 people yesterday in Chelenko, in the east of the country, according to an Oromia spokesperson.

“They [soldiers] started shooting whoever they found on the street,” eyewitness Sufian Usman, who lives in the town, told the BBC.

Another resident who was in the hospital said that he counted up to 20 bodies, including a 10-year-old and a father and son.

People were protesting against the killing of Oromo citizen Ahimadin Ahmed Asasa by the Somali Regional special police, the Oromia regional government spokesperson, Addisu Arega said on Facebook.

Mr Asasa was shot in Sarkama near the border of Oromia and Somali regional states and died on his way to hospital.

Oromia regional state officials are investigating the killings, Mr Arega added.

Read more: What is behind clashes in Ethiopia's Oromia and Somali regions?

The UN has warned of a rise in trafficking of the synthetic opioid tramadol across West Africa, as one official revealed it is being found in the pockets of suicide bombers.

Seizures of the drug have skyrocketed since 2013, from 300kg (660lb) to more than three tonnes a year, the UN's Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said.

The opioid is known to be popular with Islamist militants Boko Haram.

The pills - which can be legally prescribed as painkillers - are thought to be used to calm the would-be attackers, with The Guardian previously reporting, external that members of the terrorist group stuff it into dates, which they then feed to children before sending them to their deaths.

Some 600,0000 pills bound for the group were seized on the Nigeria-Cameroon border in August.

Image source, AFP

The UNODC says the abuse of the drug - usually smuggled from Asia through the Gulf by criminal gangs - is escalating into a major health crisis in the Sahel, particularly in northern Mali and Niger, with sub-Saharan Africa's young population potentially providing traffickers with an even larger market.

One woman in northern Mali told the agency she regularly saw children little older than 10 walking around "after taking or being given pills in their tea in order to help reduce their feeling of hunger".

People taking the drug illegally are thought use a dose up to five times higher than usual medical prescriptions, the UNODC added.

Image source, Unknown

When a man was photographed holding a bag of snacks as he waited in line to vote in August it quickly captured Kenyans' imaginations.

Now #GitheriMan is to be honoured by the Kenyan state.

He joins the likes of governing Jubilee party blogger Pauline Njoroge, online activist Robert Alai and 56 others who are to receive a Head of State Commendation.

Not everyone is impressed:

But others disagree:

BBC Monitoring
The world through its media

Image source, ROMANOV EMPIRE WEBSITE

The Gambia has become the latest country to deny that it is selling a Siberian businessman land for his plan to revive the Russian monarchy.

The Gambia "has not signed any memorandum of understanding with the Romanov Empire represented by Arch Chancellor Prince Anton Bakov," theGambian president's website, externalsays

Mr Bakov told reporters back home that The Gambia had agreed to let him build artificial islands on its Bijol islets as a base for his Romanov Empire micro-state, in return for $60m (£44.8m) and use of the proposed hi-tech "smart city, external" of Saint Nicholas, theArgumenty i Fakty, externalwebsite reports.

But the Gambian government says it did not agree to Mr Bakov's proposal during his visit last month.

Government lawyers rejected the plans on the grounds that the Romanov Empire is "not a real state... and does not have the authority to enter into an international treaty," the president's website says.

Image source, ROMANOV EMPIRE WEBSITE

Read the full story here

Off the western tip of mainland Africa lay some of the most important vestiges of the transatlantic slave trade - the wreckage of ships that sank, as they were carrying thousands of African men, women and children to the Americas.

Now a team of scientists based in Senegal is trying to use the wrecks to learn more about this terrible period in human history.

Two Ethiopian artists known for producing work with a signature twist have created an exclusive piece for our colleagues at BBC Amharic.

"Usie Bekele and Yesufekad Endale are well known for painting upside down on the back of canvases then turning them upright for the big reveal," says the BBC's Kaleb Moges.

The painters say they do this because they "don’t want to turn our backs to our audience".

You can see both at work in the Facebook video below.

Yesufekad reads an excerpt from a book about a heroic figure in Ethiopian history, Tewodros II, while Usie paints on the back of the canvas in front of him.

At the end of the clip, Usie flips the canvas over to reveal a painting of Tewodros II.

Follow BBC News Amharic on Facebook, external

Our Zimbabwe correspondent Shingai Nyoka reports that the governing Zanu-PF party's first politburo meeting since President Mugabe left power has been postponed until tomorrow.

New Zanu-PF party leader Emmerson Mnangagwa was due to address the top decision-making body today in preparation for the extraordinary congress on Friday. It is the first step in rebuilding his party.

The central committee will now take place on Thursday.

Sources told the BBC that Mr Mugabe will not be attending the meetings - his family left on a chartered Air Zimbabwe flight for the East Asia last night.

Image source, AFP

Gbolahan Macjob
BBC News

A Nigerian woman is set to make history if she wins Romania's version of The Voice. Meriam Jane Nduibisi received a standing ovation following her performance on Sunday's live show:

One of the judges ripped the buzzer off his chair in excitement to show his interest in mentoring Nduibisi.

All the judges turned their chairs unanimously in approval of her singing talent.

This marks a big change in attitudes in the country towards outsiders according to Romanian equality campaigner Ana Craciun.

It is the second time a Nigerian has been on the show, following Tobi Ibitoye's 2015 run which saw him go all the way to the final before coming third.

Ibitoye told me that If Ndubuisi wins, she will be the first black person to do so.

BBC World Service

Image source, AFP

South African officials are to investigate whether the embattled international retailer, Steinhoff, breached the country's corporate laws.

The move comes a week after Steinhoff admitted accounting irregularities and its chief executive resigned.

Sources familiar with the company say it is now considering selling some of its portfolio of 40 businesses to plug a liquidity gap.

More than $14bn (£10bn) were wiped off the value of Steinhoff's shares last week. While there's been a slight recovery, they're worth a quarter of their value before the crisis began.

Image source, AFP

Baguettes are big business in Algeria - a former French colony - where the authorities have criticised a co-operative of bakers for raising baguette prices by more than 30%, Jeune Afrique reports, external.

Consumers angry at having to pay 15 dinars ($0.13; £0.10) for their baguettes instead of the usual 10 dinars moved the trade ministry to act, condemning the bakers' "unilateral decision" which was "illegally implemented", the news site adds.

Algeria is believed to be the world's biggest consumer of baguettes - an estimated 70 million are baked in the country every day according to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization.

So important is the staple that the price has been fixed at 8.50 dinars per baguette since 1996, by government executive order.

Bakers however say they have been forced to make losses because of this enforced pricing:

Footballers have taken to Twitter to congratulate Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah for winning the 2017 BBC African Footballer of the Year.

His international teammate Omar Gaber was among those to praise Salah on social media, saying: "Congratulations well-deserved 'Picasso'."

Mahmoud Hasan "Trezeguet" was another Pharaoh to react:

Arsenal midfielder Mohamed Elneny also had his say:

Diaa Elsayed, external, a former Egypt youth team coach who had an early influence on the forward, said: "Congratulations Salah, God Bless you."

Another person to have followed Salah's career from an early age is former Egypt star and 2008 BBC African Footballer of the Year, Mohamed Aboutrika: "Congratulations, you made us proud, the best is yet to come."

Voting is expected to take place later today in the Ugandan parliament to decide whether the presidential age limit can be adjusted.

Previous debates on the bill have caused raucous scenes, with MPs even throwing chairs and punches in the chamber.

The age-limit issue is controversial because long-standing President Yoweri Museveni is said to be 73 years old and the limit for re-election is capped at 75.

Praising the longevity of his cattle today in a tweet, President Museveni came in for mockery from social media users:

Some saw Mr Museveni's tweet as a thinly veiled reference to his own age and ability:

Others were less reserved in their judgement:

While others tried their best to get a presidential invite:

BBC Monitoring
The world through its media

Mohamed Salah winning the BBC African Footballer of the Year award is huge news in his native Egypt today.

TV presenter Ibrahim Fayeq said Salah has "become a source of happiness for the Egyptian people", while talk show host Ame Adeeb said he "is an example in terms of ethics, playing and training… This is Egypt's son".

State-run newspaper Al-Ahram newspaper carried a front-page headline calling him "The Egyptian pharaoh".

Image source, Al-Ahram

Former Egypt international Mido tweeted: "Congratulations for the BBC award and God willing it will be a prelude to winning the [Caf] African Player of the Year".

A famous Egyptian comedian named Salah Abdallah called the Liverpool forward “the pride of Egypt and the Arabs".