BBC Africa Live
Damian Zane

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 check the BBC News website.

A reminder of today's wise words:

And we leave you with this picture from the Instagram account of photographer Maheder Haileselassie. She's currently sharing pictures from a trip to the Eritrean capital, Asmara, in the wake of the recent reconciliation between Ethiopia and Eritrea.

Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari appears to be putting on a brave face following a wave of defections of lawmakers from his All Progressives Congress (APC) party.

In a tweet he wished them "the very best":

Fifteen senators have left the APC, which means that Mr Buhari no longer has a majority in the upper house of parliament.

More than 30 APC members of the lower house have also left the party.

As Italy has turned away NGO ships rescuing migrants in the Mediterranean, the Western Mediterranean route to Spain is now the most popular with migrants trying to reach Europe.

More people have arrived so far this year than in the whole of 2017.

Setting off from the shores of Morocco, many take enormous risks trying to cross to Europe on flimsy toy boats.

BBC World Service

Morocco and the European Union have signed a new fishing agreement at the end of four rounds of talks.

Morocco will receive more than 50m euros ($58m, £44m) a year, up from 40m euros, in return for allowing 128 fishing vessels from EU countries to fish in Moroccan waters.

The number of Moroccan sailors working on board these trawlers will also increase.

The agreement excludes fishing off the coast of the disputed Western Sahara region.

Kalkidan Yibeltal
BBC Amharic Service, Addis Ababa

Two rival synods of Ethiopia’s largest faith group, the Orthodox Church, have agreed to unite ending more than two decades of acrimony.

The two church councils have long been accused of mirroring the country’s political extremes aligning themselves one with the government and the other with the opposition in the diaspora.

Some say the union is indicative of Ethiopia’s new political atmosphere.

The church which was often associated with the country’s ruling elites for centuries has a large following in Ethiopia.

More than 40% Ethiopia’s 100 million population are members of the church.

A split in senior leadership occurred in 1991 when then-head of the church Abuna Merkorios went into exile.

He and his devotees accuse the ruling party that came to power around the same time of forcefully abdicating him and interfering with the elections held to replace him.

Image source, Getty Images

Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni has called for investment from India into his country's healthcare sector.

Mr Museveni wants to stem the flow of Ugandans seeking treatment in India as part of a series of measures reduce the trade deficit with India.

The announcement came after the Ugandan president met India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Kampala.

The prime minister also pledged $200m in credit for Uganda, Mr Museveni has tweeted:

Will Ross
Africa editor, BBC World Service

Five civil society activists in Niger are due to be released from prison, after a court in Niamey gave them three-month suspended sentences for organising an illegal demonstration in March that led to clashes with the police.

Those to be released include well-known campaigner Ali Idrissa Nani.

The prosecution had been calling for them to spend three years in prison.

Around 10 people who took part in the protest against new tax rules were given six-month sentences.

Human rights groups, including Amnesty International, denounced the trials as politically motivated. They have called on the authorities to immediately release other human rights defenders detained in Niger.

Another activist, Lirwana Abdourahmane, was given a one-year sentence for contempt of court after alleging that the judiciary was corrupt.

Egypt and Liverpool striker Mohamed Salah is on the shortlist for best men's player of last season drawn up by football's world governing body Fifa.

Salah scored 46 times for club and country during 2017-18, helping Liverpool to the Champions League final in his first season at Anfield.

He is joined by the likes of five-time Ballon d'Or-winner Cristiano Ronaldo and World Cup-winner Kylian Mbappé on the 10-man shortlist.

The decision is made by public vote which closes on 10 August. The winner will be announced on 24 September.

Kenyan Dhanji Liladhar Parmar, who rose to fame in the 1960s as the man behind former President Jomo Kenyatta's leather jackets, has died at 85, the Standard newspaper reports, external.

He made a jacket for the country's first president at his father's tailoring workshop in Nakuru, the newspaper adds.

Mr Kenyatta's patronage made the young tailor a household name.

Later in life, Mr Parmar went on to become a well-known philanthropist.

Nakuru Governor Lee Kinyanjui is quoted as saying that Mr Parmar was a true patriot.

Image source, Getty Images

Uganda's NBS TV has been providing wall-to-wall coverage of the visit of the leader of the world's biggest democracy.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has now arrived after a visit to neighbouring Rwanda but NBS journalist Samson Kasumba-Mulun was at the airport hours before he landed.

And to make sure he was in shape for the actual arrival of Mr Modi, Samson did some stretches on the Tarmac.

He posted some pictures of him in action and it seems Samson's suit may have got in the way of him doing a full yoga workout.

Nigeria's Senate President Bukola Saraki has been at the centre of controversy on Tuesday.

In the morning his aides say he was blocked from leaving his house by police and later in the Senate he announced that 15 senators had left the governing All Progressives Congress (APC).

But he remains an APC member.

Is he going to jump ship?

The chances are "very, very high", Mr Saraki told Reuters news agency.

The Senate President is the third most senior politician in the country.

Image source, Getty Images

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi is now in Uganda on the latest leg of his Africa trip.

Mr Modi has flown in from Rwanda and is due in South Africa for the Brics summit.

The Brics group is made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

Nigeria President Muhammadu Buhari's party has been hit by a second wave of defections in one day.

It has been announced that 38 members of the house of representatives have left the All Progressives Congress. This news comes after 15 senators in the upper house of Nigeria's parliament, the Senate, had made a similar move.

This means that in the Senate the main opposition People's Democratic Party now has a majority.

In the 109-member house, the PDP has 58 senators, the APC has 48 senators and representatives from three other opposition parties hold the remaining seats.

Democratic Republic of Congo Health Minister Oly Ilunga Kalenga has announced that the Ebola outbreak in the country's Équateur province is over after 42 days without a new case.

The virus first appeared in April, external. Since then, there have been 54 cases: 33 people died as a result of contracting Ebola while 21 survived, the minister says, external.

People who had contracted the virus as well as others who may have been at risk were given an experimental vaccine.

This was the ninth Ebola outbreak to hit the Democratic Republic of Congo in a decade.

Read more: Ebola: How a killer disease was stopped in its tracks - BBC News

Mayeni Jones
BBC News, Lagos

A spokesperson for the main opposition People's Democratic Party has welcomed the defection of 15 Nigerian senators from the governing All Progressives Congress (APC),

Kola Ologbondiyan called the defections a great development for Nigerian democracy.

He said the party could now save Nigeria from what he termed the “draconian policies of the sitting president”.

The APC conceded this was not good news for the party, but stressed that though the party has lost its senate majority it still has a majority in the house of representatives.

This could not come at a worse time for President Muhammadu Buhari whose position has been weakened by a potential split in his party and multiple security challenges.

Image source, Getty Images

South Africa President Cyril Ramaphosa has said that China has made investment commitments worth $14bn (£10.7bn).

The announcement came at the end of a meeting between Mr Ramaphosa and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping.

Mr Ramaphosa said the Chinese money will be invested across the economy, including infrastructure development and agriculture.

Bernard Kiwia is the social entrepreneur behind Twende - an innovative incubation hub.

People who go to the innovator school in Tanzania have come up with more than 100 inventions including avocado oil presses, soap cutters and a wheelbarrow which distributes fertiliser.

This BBC series was produced with funding from Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Ishaq Khalid
BBC Africa, Abuja

The defections in Nigeria of 15 senators from the governing All Peoples Congress (APC) will make it more difficult for President Muhammadu Buhari to get legislation passed as he has lost his majority.

The battle between the senate and the executive may get worse as an impeachment process against the president could be started by the senate. But it's unlikely that this would reach a conclusion as elections are due next February.

The APC could go to court to challenge the defections and demand that the senators' seats are declared vacant.

The president's of China and South Africa have been speaking after their meeting in Pretoria.

President Xi Jinping has called for closer relations between China and Africa according to this tweet from South Africa's government news agency.

President Cyril Ramaphosa welcomed Mr Xi ahead of tomorrow's summit of Brics nations.

It's been a busy day so far for the leader of Nigeria's senate, Bukola Saraki.

Fresh from the drama of him being blocked by police from his leaving his home, Mr Saraki has now told the senate that 15 senators from the governing All Peoples Congress (APC) have defected and joined the opposition People's Democratic Party.

This now puts the APC in a minority, an aide to Mr Saraki says.

President Muhammadu Buhari's APC is facing a number of challenges, including a breakaway faction of his party and a coalition of opposition parties who have agreed to field a single candidate in next year's presidential election.