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 Tuesday's wise words:

Click here and scroll to the bottom to send us your African proverbs.

And we leave you with this photo posted by Kenyan actress Lupita Nyong'o of herself and her Black Panther co-star Chadwick Boseman. In its first few days of release, the superhero film has taken double the amount expected at the box office and won legions of fans - including former US first lady Michelle Obama.

Image source, EPA

Mozambican authorities are, at last, moving all the families still living in the shadow of the gigantic rubbish tip in the outskirts of the country’s capital Maputo to safer areas.

Heavy rains caused huge mounds of waste, some 15m (49ft) high, to collapse onto seven homes yesterday morning, killing at least 17 people, including a two-year-old child.

Around 80 families who are still living front of the towering mountain of rubbish are being moved to temporary accommodation in another nieghbourhood of the city, says Minister of State Administration Carmelita Namashalua.

She told the BBC the move was necessary because they could be at risk if there is any further collapse

The government says search and rescue efforts will continue at the rubbish site until all survivors and missing people are accounted for.

Patience Atuhaire
BBC Africa, Kampala

Image source, EPA

Uganda’s police chief has played down rumours of foul play after three Europeans and a US national all died in the country within the last two weeks.

The deaths began with a 41-year-old male Swedish national, who was discovered in his room at the Sheraton Hotel in the capital Kampala on 5 February.

The next day, a Finnish man was found dead in his room at the Pearl of Africa hotel, also in the centre of the city.

Neither had any immediately apparent cause of death.

Eleven days later, an American man who had visited Murchison Falls National Park, in the west of the country, was found dead in his hut at a safari camp. He is said to have died from heart failure.

Two days after that - on this Monday - a German woman died at a hospital where she had been taken after collapsing while on a nature walk in the same national park.

The deaths, coming so quickly after one another, have led to rampant speculation - especially after local media reports indicated that the Finnish national was in Uganda on the invitation of officials from the Internal Security Organization.

The speculation was further buoyed after journalist Charles Etukuri - who was investigating the first two deaths for Uganda's New Vision newspaper - was bundled into a van by security services as he left his office.

No-one knew his whereabouts until he was released on Saturday.

He told his colleagues at the New Vision he had been interrogated about the case., external

"They believed I was deeply involved in the matter and that I had closely worked with the killers. That I knew much more than what I had written,” he said.

But Uganda's police, General Kale Kayihura, dismissed all speculation and insisted there was no foul play involved in the foreigners' deaths.

The police now say preliminary investigations indicate that the two men died from mixed drug intoxication, which included narcotics, while the letter in the dead man’s possession was later discovered to be a forgery.

However, the police chief did say arrests have been made, as investigations continue.

Jose Tembe
BBC Africa, Maputo

More than 3,000 people have been left without shelter on Mozambique's coast after their homes were flooded by torrential rain and a river which burst its banks.

Local authorities say 600 homes are under water in the central province of Zambezia, with parts of Maganja da Costa District inaccessible by road.

District administrator Angela Serrote told the BBC that six rescue boats had been deployed to assist residents and "carry medicines where they are needed".

"We also have pre-positioned tents," she added. "So, we are managing the situation. We don’t expect anything serious to occur. But we are ready to face it.”

Image source, AFP

The father of a boy who was hidden inside a suitcase in an attempt to smuggle him into Europe has been allowed to walk free from court.

Adou was just eight years old when a shocked border official spotted his figure - crushed into the fetal position - on an X-ray at the border of Morocco and the Spanish enclave of Ceuta in May 2015.

His father Ali Ouattara, 45, was waiting on the other side, having been promised by the smugglers that his son was being brought from his home in the Ivory Coast to Europe by car.

Attempts to have their son join them in Spain legally failed, Mr Ouattara explained, and after Adou's grandmother died, leaving him with just his 18-year-old brother, the family had resorted to paying a criminal gang 5,000 euros ($6,200; £4,400).

But after Adou was found inside the suitcase, the one-time French and philosophy teacher faced charges of facilitating his son's illegal entry into Europe and threatening the child's life.

Prosecutors were hoping for a three-year jail sentence, and the cruelty - and danger - of making the crossing this way was not lost on judge Fernando Teson.

"The child's life was endangered, he was inhumanly curled up in a tiny suitcase, without ventilation," he told the court in Ceuta, according to news agency AFP.

Image source, AFP

However, it was 10-year-old Adou's testimony which saved his father from a long sentence.

The little boy said a "Moroccan girl" forced him into the suitcase, which made it difficult for him to breathe.

But Adou said Mr Ouattara - who has spent a month in prison - had always told him the journey would be made "by car" - and the court could find no evidence the family had known any different.

Mr Ouattara was ordered to pay a 92 euro ($114) fine, but could walk free.

"It's all over and we can begin to resume out lives, together, my wife, my daughter my son and I," he said, revealing the family would start a new life in northern Spain.

• Read our earlier post here.

Emmanuel Igunza
BBC Africa, Addis Ababa

Image source, AFP

Ethiopia’s foreign minister has defended the state of emergency declared last week, even as demonstrators staged boycotts in the north of the country.

Dr Workneh Gebeyehu met foreign diplomats in the capital Addis Ababa, telling them the move was necessary to restore calm in the country following months of violent protests which, he said, had threatened the country’s stability and economy.

But his meeting with the diplomats came even as people in Northern Ethiopia defied the state of emergency and boycotted work for a second day running.

Businesses and schools have remained closed since Monday and transport in the cities of Gondar and Bahir Dar have been paralysed by the strike action.

Local reports also say people in the Southern regions are also observing the strike.

The boycotts are similar to the one observed last week in Ethiopia’s largest region Oromia.

Meanwhile, the Amhara regional state has freed more than 300 people who were in prison, as part of releases promised by the government.

It all comes as Ethiopia is facing a tumultuous time. Last week’s abrupt resignation of Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn has thrown the country into its worst political crisis in years.

Parliament is expected to come out of recess to endorse the state of emergency and also choose the country’s new leader.

The 180-member council of the ruling EPRDF coalition is expected to meet soon to elect a new chairman - who will automatically become the next prime minister.

Hundreds of people have died and thousands arrested since anti government protests erupted in Ethiopia in 2015.

Robert Misigaro
BBC Africa

Remember the Nigerian story of a “money-eating snake”?

Well, similar things have happened in Burundi - only this time it was blamed on “magic”.

It happened at a local post office in Cibitoke province, western Burundi.

A man walked in with a 10,000 Burundi franc note (£4; $5.60) and asked to get some change.

The cashier placed the note with the rest of the money in his counter, but when he checked the counter again later on, to his surprise, all the money - totalling 23 million Burundian Francs, or some $16,000, had disappeared.

And the ten-thousand-note-man was nowhere to be seen.

The police spokesperson has confirmed the story to us and two men are under arrest pending investigation…

Stephanie Hegarty
BBC Africa, Lagos

Further details are emerging about a raid on Monday by suspected Boko Haram militants on a school in Yobe state in north-east Nigeria.

A teacher who met the militants at the school gate in Dapchi told the BBC he believed they were not looking for students, but intended to loot the school for supplies,

They left with some food about three hours later, and no-one has been reported injured. The school has been closed since the incident and is now guarded by army troops.

Witnesses said the militants entered the town, firing guns and letting off explosives at around 6pm local time.

By the time they reached the gate, many of the students and teachers had run into the surrounding bush.

The teacher said some of the students still haven’t returned - but he doesn’t believe they were taken by Boko Haram.

Read our earlier story on how close Nigerian troops came to capturing Boko Haram's leader here.

Shingai Nyoka
BBC Africa, Harare

Image source, Reuters

Zimbabwe’s late opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has been buried in his home town of Buhera in a final farewell which was attended by supporters, diplomats and senior representatives of the ruling Zanu PF party.

There were some surprises too, music legend Oliver Mtukudzi seneraded the gathering.

And then Tsvangirai was lowered to his final resting place, beside his first wife Susan.

But even in grief, the underlying tensions within the party he created and led, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), were apparent.

Image source, Reuters

Supporters booed the two leaders challenging the appointment of the new acting president Nelson Chamisa.

In his address Mr Chamisa said special meetings will be organised to find consensus on the party’s direction.

Analysts are in two minds about the MDC’s future.

Some believe without Tsvangirai, the party could splinter.

While others say his departure could re-energise the party with its new younger leadership.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa says he wants to help with "healing and atonement" following the Marikana massacre.

Mr Ramaphosa, who was a non-exective director of the Lonmin platinum mine when 34 striking miners were shot dead by police in 2012, has been accused of putting pressure on authorities to end the strike.

A judicial commission of inquiry cleared Mr Ramaphosa in 2015, but, as the BBC's Pumza Fihlani pointed out on 2014, the Marikana issue was a blemish in an otherwise spotless reputation enjoyed by the ANC politician.

Mr Ramaphosa tackled the issue in parliament in Cape Town today, saying:

It is unclear exactly what he means.

Some have questioned why Mr Ramaphosa did not use his union experience to negotiate a settlement with those working at a platinum mine northwest of Johannesburg.

The striking miners were demanding higher wages when police opened fire on them. The officers involved said they were acting in self defence after being threatened by strikers carrying weapons such as knobkerries (clubs), machetes and spears, as well as firearms.

The miners eventually returned to work after accepting a pay rise of up to 22%.

Image source, AFP

Oxfam's chief executive Mark Goldring has said he is sorry for the damage the charity has done to the people of Haiti and the wider efforts of aid workers.

About 7,000 people have stopped making regular donations to the charity in the ten days since it emerged some of its staff used prostitutes in Haiti, MPs have heard.

Mr Goldring is facing questions from MPs on the International Development Committee about the sexual misconduct of some staff after the 2010 Haiti earthquake.

The scandal is wide-reaching, with a high-ranking former Oxfam staffer accused of paying for prostitutes while working in Chad, and other members of his staff are alleged to have used prostitutes in the charity's premises.

He said today:

Mr Goldring also apologised for remarks made about murdering babies in cots which he made in defending Oxfam.

In an interview with British newspaper The Guardian last week, he said, external: "The intensity and ferocity of the attack makes you wonder, what did we do? We murdered babies in their cots?"

Mr Goldring, who joined the charity in 2013, said he was "deeply sorry" for the comments that he had made while "under stress".

Chris Ewokor
BBC Africa, Abuja

Image source, AFP

The case of the pro-Biafra separatist leader Nnamdi Kanu has been delayed once more due to his absence from court.

The leader of the Indigenous People of Biafraland (Ipob) and three others are facing treason charges for agitating for a breakaway state from Nigeria.

But Mr Kanu, a former estate agent, has not been seen since last year when the military invaded his home - and he was again missing from court today.

Of the other three, who are being held in jail, one looked sickly. He was assisted into the prison vehicle which brought them to court room in Abuja.

Yesterday, Mr Kanu's wife told the BBC she does not know where her husband is, while the presiding judge has asked his lawyer and sureties to produce him on the next hearing date or show cause why his bail should not be revoked.

The government, meanwhile, is asking the court to declare him wanted for failing to fulfill the conditions of his bail.

In the meantime, it looks like the other three will be tried separately when the court resumes their trial in March.

Hear what Uchechi Kanu told the BBC:

Ibrahim Haithar
BBC Monitoring, Nairobi

Two Kenyan pilots who were held by a rebel group in South Sudan for over a month have now returned home. They landed in Nairobi a short while ago where they were met by family members.

Rebels seized the pair early last month when their plane crashed in the Upper Nile region, reportedly killing a woman and some livestock.

The two pilots were released yesterday following intense negotiations involving South Sudanese government officials and their Kenyan counterparts.

Image source, Ferdinand Omondi / BBC

Image source, Ferdinand Omondi / BBC

Robert Mugabe may no longer be Zimbabwe's leader, but the country will still mark his birthday with a public holiday.

Zimbabwe's new government has said tomorrow - 21 February - will continue to be known as Robert Gabriel Mugabe Youth Day.

Mr Mugabe, who was ousted from power in November last year after three decades as president, will turn 94 on Wednesday.

However, our reporter Shingai Nyoka says the day will be without the extravagant celebrations seen in previous years.

Meanwhile, a picture of Mr Mugabe, his wife Grace and the African Union Commission's Moussa Faki Mahamat has created quite the stir on social media.

As one social media user notes, Mrs Mugabe "looks particularly happy".

Every year 2.6 million babies around the world don't survive beyond a month.

A report published by Unicef says many of these deaths are preventable.

Our reporter Lebo Diseko has travelled to Malawi, where the number of infant deaths is dropping.

Here's how they did it.

Imogen Foulkes
BBC News, Geneva

Image source, Reuters

The UN refugee agency is warning of a "humanitarian disaster of extraordinary proportions" in the south-eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo).

The region, with a population of around three million, now has more than 630,000 people internally displaced, the refugee agency said.

Since January an upsurge in violent clashes between Congolese forces and militias has caused thousands to flee.

The UN, speaking with those who have fled, has recorded 800 "protection incidents" in the first two weeks of February alone, including killings, abductions, and rape.

The UN refugee agency received less than $1 a day in 2017 for its programmes for the internally displaced in DRC.

In 2018 it is appealing for $368.7m (£264m) for its operations in DRC, $80m of that for internally displaced.

Image source, Getty Images

Film-maker Rungano Nyoni said she felt "genuine shock" when she was named a Bafta winner.

The Zambian director, who moved to Wales aged eight, won the outstanding debut prize for her film I Am Not A Witch - about a young Zambian girl at a witch camp.

"It was a real big shock - I know people say that, because I've watched these awards," she told the BBC's Good Morning Wales:

Nyoni, who spent a month in a so-called "witch camp" in Ghana researching the film, has been praised by equality campaigners for highlighting the issue.

"Films on under-reported or little known gender abuses are very important as they can bring these often hidden issues to the public's attention and force them into the light," Shelby Quast, director of the charity Equality Now, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

"Bringing these stories to light can help survivors, civil society and communities to hold their government and duty bearers to account."

Hear more from Nyoni below:

Image source, AFP

The trial of an Ivorian man who tried to smuggle his eight-year-old son across the Spanish border in a suitcase is due to begin today.

Ali Ouattara is facing a possible three-year jail term if he is found guilty of attempting to get the little boy into Europe illegally, and endangering his life.

But Mr Ouattara told news agency AFP he was not worried.

"I'm going to this trial with a lot of confidence because I'm not a human trafficker," the 45-year-old said.

The boy was found inside the case after it was put through an X-ray machine at the border between Morocco and Ceuta, a Spanish enclave in North Africa.

It was being pulled by a 19-year-old woman in May 2015.

His father, a former philosophy and French teacher in Ivory Coast, had paid 5,000 euros ($6,200; £4,400) to smugglers to get his son into Spain, where the family had been living.

But he was not told he would be smuggled in a suitcase.

Mr Ouattara's attempts to be reunited with his son legally had failed, he said.

The trial begins in Ceuta today. Mr Ouattara's son, who has been living in France with his mother and sister, is expected to return.

Pop star Madonna has called her son, David Banda, "the future president of Malawi" in a tweet praising the 12-year-old.

The US singer has six children, four of whom she adopted from Malawi.

The singer has reportedly had a fractious relationship with Malawi's authorities.

In 2013, Malawi accused Madonna of "bullying state officials", exaggerating her contribution to the country and demanding VIP treatment.

Madonna's manager accused Malawi's government of having a "grudge" against the singer's charity, Raising Malawi, which she founded the same year she adopted David.

Last year, Malawi granted Madonna permission to adopt two more children, and she became mother to twin baby girls Esther and Stella Mwale.

Ferdinand Omondi
BBC Africa, Nairobi

South Sudanese rebels have released two Kenyan pilots who were captured more than a month ago after their aircraft crashed.

A rebel spokesman said the Kenyans were freed after an insurance company paid more than $100,000 (£71,620) in compensation for the death of a civilian killed when their plane hit the ground.

After more than a month in captivity, Captain Pius Frank Njoroge and co-pilot Kennedy Shamalla are reported to have arrived safely in the the South Sudanese capital Juba.

A spokesman for the Kenyan foreign ministry told the BBC the two men would return to Kenya later today.

Rebels seized the pair early last month when their plane crashed in the Upper Nile region, reportedly killing a woman and livestock on the ground.

The rebels had initially demanded a payment of more than $200,000 but agreed a compromise after negotiations with Kenyan officials.

A rebel spokesman insists the payment was not a ransom, but compensation for the deaths.

Kenyan pilots flying cargo and commercial operations to South Sudan had threatened to strike in support of their colleagues as the negotiations dragged on.