Security forces in Uganda's capital, Kampala, have deployed in a suburb which is seen as the stronghold of musician-turned-MP Bobi Wine, local media are reporting.

Bobi Wine, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, was prevented from leaving the country on Thursday night. He was hoping to travel to get medical treatment for injuries that he alleges were sustained while he was in custody.

Bobi Wine is facing treason charges but on Monday, a judge said he did not constitute a flight risk and granted him bail along with 32 other opposition politicians who had also been charged.

The army have described the allegation that Bobi Wine was tortured in custody as "rubbish" and a police spokesperson told the BBC that the authorities want to carry out their own medical tests.

Bobi Wine's lawyers are expected to go to court today to force the release of their client, the BBC's Patience Atuhaire reports.

Mayeni Jones
BBC News, Lagos

Image source, AFP

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is in Nigeria for the last leg of her West African tour, which has already taken her to Senegal and Ghana.

The trip aims to increase economic relations between West Africa and Germany, as well as work towards reducing the flow of migrants from the region to Europe.

During her meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari in the capital, Abuja, she is expected to discuss ways to strengthen economic cooperation between their countries, including how to improve regulatory conditions for foreign investors to Nigeria.

President Buhari and Chancellor Merkel will also touch on the subject of illegal migration, a key internal issue for the German leader, whose trip to West Africa has coincided with violent anti-immigration protests in eastern Germany.

Friday's African proverb:

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Click here to send us your African proverbs.

Welcome to the BBC Africa Live page where we'll be keeping your up-to-date with the news on the continent.

That's all from BBC Africa Live for now. Until then, 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 Thursday's wise words:

Click here to send us your African proverbs.

And we leave you with a photo of a farmer in Egypt rowing a boat on the River Nile:

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The Egyptian government has ordered a thorough investigation into hygiene standards at a hotel where a British couple were staying when they died.

John and Susan Cooper died after falling ill at the Steigenberger Aqua Magic hotel in Hurghada on 21 August.

The bodies of the couple from Burnley, Lancashire, will be flown back to the UK next week after post-mortem tests.

Egypt's attorney-general will lead a "thorough and independent" probe into food, water and air conditioning.

Read the full BBC story here

Catherine Byaruhanga
BBC Africa, Kampala

Image source, AFP

Ugandan pop star and MP Bobi Wine has left a hospital in the capital, Kampala, where he has been receiving treatment since he was released on bail on Monday.

His aides say he left through a back entrance in an ambulance and is being taken to the airport where he will board a plane to Washington DC for further treatment.

Bobi Wine, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, has been charged with treason after President Yoweri Museveni's convoy was allegedly stoned in northern Uganda earlier this month.

His allies say he was badly tortured by elite presidential guards during his detention. He walked on crutches when he appeared in court on Monday.

The court granted him bail, saying he did not constitute a flight risk.

Mr Museveni has denied Bobi Wine was tortured.

Tanzanian costume designer Joctan Cosmas Malule makes traditional outfits for use in films and music videos.

He says his designs are inspired by Africa before colonialism.

This is one of BBC Africa’s one-minute stories.

Filmed, produced and edited by Eagan Salla and Mark Sedgwick.

Chris Ewokor
BBC Africa, Abuja

The leader of Nigeria's senate, Bukola Saraki, has declared his intention to run for president in the 2019 election.

He made the announcement while addressing youth groups in the capital, Abuja, this afternoon:

Mr Saraki, who is Nigeria's third most senior politician after the president and the vice-president, recently defected from the governing All Progressives Congress (APC) to the main opposition People's Democratic Party (PDP).

He will now have to campaign to win the PDP primary election before going on to contest for the presidency.

President Muhammadu Buhari has said that he will run for a second term in 2019.

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Image source, Samuel Eto'o Fils/Steve Djouguela

Cameroon's ex-football captain Norbert Owona, who has been homeless for two years, has thanked Samuel Eto'o Fils for promising him a new house.

He told the BBC that the ex-Barcelona and Chelsea striker had recently visited him on a trip home.

Eto'o, who now plays for Qatar Sports Club, heard about the 67-year-old's plight after a documentary showed him sleeping on the streets of Douala, the main city in Cameroon.

Owona is now in hospital and waiting to have surgery on a hernia.

BBC Pidgin's Leocadia Bongben in the capital, Yaounde, said the former Indomitable Lion sounded weak but grateful on the phone.

"Eto'o Fils is a very kind man, very kind," he told her.

He added that the 37-year-old football star, a four-time African footballer of the year, had given him about $1,000 (£750) as well as promising to give him a new house.

"I have been homeless with no food to eat," he said.

The visit took place on Sunday 19 August at a hospital in the city of Douala, where Owona had been admitted after the documentary aired on Cameroon's Equinoxe Television earlier this month.

It showed footage of the former Union of Douala player sleeping rough and explaining that he had spent all his savings on medical treatment for his family.

Read more here

This week's episode of the BBC's programme, The Conversation, focuses on two award-winning authors, the Nigerian Chibundu Onuzo and the Zimbabwean Panashe Chigumadzi.

They discuss with Kim Chakanetsa their paths to success - from being outsiders at school to getting published in their 20s.

Students at a university in South Africa gave up on writing an exam - and started protesting that it was too difficult, local media reports say.

The incident happened during a philosophy exam at the University of Limpopo in the remote northern part of South Africa.

Videos have been posted on social media about the protest, with at least one student seen walking on a desk:

A student who asked not to be named told Sowetan Live that they were expecting a mix of difficult and easy questions, external, and were shocked that the exam was far more difficult than they had expected.

She said:

Another student said:

Emmanuel Igunza
BBC Africa, Addis Ababa

Image source, Fana Broadcasting Corporate

A military helicopter has crashed on the outskirts of Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa, killing all 18 people on board, officials say.

The plane was flying from Dire Dawa city in eastern Ethiopia to a town just outside Addis Ababa, when it came down.

The dead include 15 soldiers and three civilians, local reports say.

The cause of the accident is unclear.

Investigators and a search-and-recovery team have been dispatched to the area, officials say.

Pumza Fihlani
BBC News, Johannesburg

Image source, AFP

The scenes of violence and looting in parts of South Africa's most famous township, Soweto, have split public opinion.

Some have condemned the attacks on foreign nationals and their shops, while others are out to show on social media that it was the selling of expired goods which triggered the conflict.

There are fears that the violence could escalate, like in May 2008 when 62 people - including 21 South Africans - were killed.

A Coptic Christian woman has been appointed as a provincial governor for the first time in Egypt.

Manal Awad Mikhael has been sworn in as the governor of Damietta.

She is the second woman ever to be appointed governor in Egypt.

Another member of the Coptic Christian minority was also sworn in as a governor amidst more than 20 new appointments across the country.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Mobile phone giant MTN has accused Nigeria's central bank of damaging investor confidence after it accused the company of illegally transferring $8bn (£6.1bn) abroad.

The allegations against MTN had been investigated by the Senate, Nigeria's upper parliamentary chamber, and it found that the company "did not collude to contravene foreign exchange laws", the firm said in a statement.

MTN was law-abiding, and would vigorously defend its position, it added.

"The re-emergence of these issues is regrettable as it damages investor confidence and, by extension, inhibits the growth and development of the Nigerian economy," MTN said.

See earlier post for more details

The court of appeal in Senegal has upheld a five-year prison sentence handed down to a prominent opposition politician.

Khalifa Sall, the mayor of the capital, Dakar, was convicted earlier this year of the fraudulent use of public funds.

Mr Sall has described the charges against him as politically motivated.

The ruling bars him from running in elections next year, for which he had been seen as a potential rival to President Macky Sall.

Image source, AFP

Image source, Getty Images

The US embassy in South Africa has tacitly rebuked President Donald Trump over his controversial tweet about the killing of white farmers and the government's land reform plans, the respected Foreign Policy publication has reported, external.

The embassy sent a cable, which was entitled “Despite Crime Epidemic, Farm Murders Down" and said that there was “no evidence that murders on farms specifically target white people or are politically motivated,” Foreign Policy reported.

“Farmers suggested that they are more vulnerable to violence because of the remoteness of the farms and inadequate responses of law enforcement agencies, but they also noted that farm violence has never resulted in any kind of land seizure,” according to the cable, which Foreign Policy said it had obtained.

Last week, Mr Trump caused a storm by tweeting that he had asked Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to closely study "land and farm seizures and expropriations and the large scale killing of farmers" in South Africa.

BBC World Service

UK Prime Minister Theresa May has announced her country has signed a security pact with Kenya.

As part of the deal, the UK will help build a cybercrime centre in the capital of Nairobi to tackle child sexual abuse.

Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta said that the bond of friendship between his country and the UK had been deepened after the pact was signed.

Mrs May said the UK intended to become the largest investor in the G7 in Africa by 2020.

Mrs May said the co-operation on security would help make both countries more secure.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, MTN

Nigeria’s central bank has fined four leading banks a combined sum of $16m (£12.3m) after they were accused of helping the country’s largest mobile phone operator, MTN, to illegally transfer $8bn abroad, reports BBC Africa business correspondent Dami Ade-Odiachi.

The banks and MTN have been ordered to refund the money.

The banks under fire are Standard Chartered Bank, Stanbic IBTC, Citibank and Diamond Bank.

They were first investigated for breaching Nigeria’s foreign exchange rules in 2016 but were eventually cleared by the Senate, the upper house of parliament.

Nigeria’s laws allow for the repatriation of funds but with certain restrictions.

MTN has denied the allegations of illegally transferring money abroad.

Stanbic IBTC said in a statement that it was engaging the central bank over the issue. The others are yet to comment.

MTN is Africa’s largest phone company and was hit with a $5bn fine by Nigeria’s telecommunications regulator in 2015 for failing to comply with a government order to disconnect five million unregistered numbers. The fine was later cut to $1.7bn.

MTN has over 50 million Nigerian customers and the country accounts for over 30% of the company’s business.