Welcome to BBC Africa Live, where we will bring you the latest news and views from around the continent.

BBC Africa Live
Tara John

That's all from BBC Africa Live today. You can 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 proverb:

Click here to send us your African proverbs.

And we leave you with this aerial view of Eritrea's capital, Asmara:

Efe Obada, who was a child refugee born in Nigeria and trafficked to the UK, has been picked for the new NFL season with the Carolina Panthers.

Learn about his extraordinary journey below:

Rana Jawad
BBC North Africa correspondent, Tunis

Image source, Getty Images

The United Nations Refugee Agency has renewed calls to allow safe passage for civilians trapped in areas of armed conflict in the Libyan capital Tripoli.

The city has been the scene of sporadic and deadly clashes between rival armed groups for eight days.

More than a week on since the violence erupted on the streets of Tripoli, the authorities and humanitarian agencies are beginning to count the cost of this latest rival militia conflict.

At least 47 people have been killed, and 1,800 families have since been internally displaced according to Libyan officials.

In times of conflict, Libyans often seek shelter with friends or family who live in what are deemed as safer areas of the capital.

However, the indiscriminate nature of some of the heavy firepower used, including medium and long-range ground missiles, puts everyone at risk.

Some schools have also been used as temporary shelters this past week, according to local residents.

The Libyan authorities also say that over 2,000 distress calls were made to emergency services.

The UN has described the situation as volatile, and unpredictable, making it hard for humanitarian agencies to reach people trapped by the fighting.

Will Ross
Africa editor, BBC World Service

Image source, AFP

The former Democratic Republic of Congo warlord, Jean-Pierre Bemba, has dismissed plans for his country's long-delayed presidential election in December, after he was excluded from standing.

He described them as a parody,

On Monday, DR Congo's highest court ruled that Mr Bemba was ineligible because of a conviction for witness tampering by the International Criminal Court. The ICC cleared him of war crimes charges on appeal.

Mr Bemba - one of six presidential hopefuls excluded - accused President Joseph Kabila of trying to ensure that his preferred successor did not face a serious challenge.

The former warlord returned home to Congo last month to a rousing welcome.

Another leading critic of Mr Kabila, exiled opposition leader Moise Kabumbi was prevented from returning home last month to register his candidacy.

Uganda's minister for ethics and integrity, Simon Lokodo, has banned a popular four-day international music and arts festival based on allegations that it is a "celebration of homosexuality".

Minister Simon Lokodo said the government had "information that open sex, noise, homosexuality, LGBTI will be part of" the Nyege Nyege festival, which is due to start on 6 September.

He also dubbed the festival a security risk, saying "there will be nudity and sexuality done at any time of the hour".

The festival is sponsored by South African telecom company MTN and its partners include Coca Cola and the British Council.

According to BBC's Patience Atuhaire in the capital Kampala, the festival is popular among young and urban Ugandans and has been an annual event since 2015.

Last year, the country's censorship board banned a Dutch film, The Dinner Club, after accusing it of "glorifying homosexuality" the Embassy of The Netherlands in Kampala said at the time.

Homosexual acts are illegal in Uganda and the LGBT community has faced physical attacks and social rejection.

Image source, Reuters

Mali's re-elected President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita promised to restore peace during his inauguration ceremony on Tuesday in the capital Bamako.

“I chose to place the re-establishment of peace and security at an absolute level of priority", he said as he was sworn in for a second term, Reuters reports.

His main challenge will be to address the increasing levels of attacks and inter-communal violence in the north and centre of Mali, correspondents say.

Mr Keita won the election with 67% of the vote during a second round of voting on 12 August His main rival, former finance minister Soumailia Cisse, said there was vote rigging and disputed the outcome.

Damilola Ade-Odiachi
BBC Africa - Business Reporter

Image source, Reuters

Africa’s largest mobile phone operator, MTN, says it has been hit with a $2bn (£1.5bn) tax bill by Nigeria just days after the country’s central bank slapped the company with an $8bn fine.

As a result of MTN’s woes in its most lucrative market, the company’s shares have dropped by about 20% in under a week.

MTN says the office of Nigeria’s attorney general calculated that the company owes $2bn in taxes related to the imports of equipment and payments to suppliers done over the last 10 years.

The company disputes the amount and said it has already settled the bill with a $700m payment.

MTN’s tax issues were revealed in a statement outlining the background of the $8.1bn Nigeria’s Central Bank said had been taken out of the country illegally.

The central bank says that if MTN returns the money, the mobile phone operator will receive a refund in Nigeria's currency, the naira.

The South African company was previously 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 $1.7 bn.

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

Will Ross
Africa editor, BBC World Service

Image source, Getty Images

South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa says political leaders have agreed to work hard to increase Africa's exports of finished manufactured goods to China, rather than just raw materials.

Speaking at the conclusion of a two-day China-Africa summit in Beijing, President Ramaphosa said China would build an institution in Zimbabwe's capital, Harare, to help achieve this goal.

On Monday, President Xi Jinping announced $60bn (£47bn) of funding for Africa - $5bn of that to boost China's imports from Africa, the vast majority of which are currently raw materials including oil.

President Xi said relations between China and Africa have never been stronger and said with the support of a combined population of 2.6 billion, both regions faced a brighter future.

Read more: Xi denies money being spent on vanity projects

Image source, EPA

A man has been detained by Egyptian security forces after an explosive device detonated close to the US embassy in Cairo, security officials say.

The embassy posted on Twitter that it was aware of the incident and warned American citizens to avoid the area:

A witness told news agency Reuters that she heard a blast and saw a man who was wearing a backpack "on fire".

Reuters reports that the man was then thrown on the ground by security forces and the fire was extinguished.

The area was cordoned off soon after the incident, the report says.

Parents are outraged after more than 30 girls from a Kenyan boarding school had to spend cold night out in a field.

The girls, who attend Nasokol Secondary in West Pokot, were allegedly thrown out by their headmistress for poor grades, according to local reports.

Many of the girls are on a football scholarship programme which had previously taken a relaxed approach to the payment of school fees and academic performance, the Kenyan Daily Nation reports.

But the school's new principal has allegedly taken issue with the poor results of some girls and scrapped her predecessor's policy, causing the group of 15 to 17 year-old girls to be thrown out of school on Monday evening.

BBC World Service

An arbitration tribunal has ruled that Egypt must pay a Spanish-Italian joint venture $2bn (£1.6bn) in compensation for failing to honour a gas supply contract in the wake of the turmoil unleashed by the Arab Spring.

The case was taken to arbitration by Spain's Unión Fenosa Gas four years ago after Egypt stopped supplying gas to one of the joint venture's liquefied natural gas plants as the country faced internal energy shortages.

The tribunal found that in stopping the gas supply, Egypt had contravened a bilateral investment protection treaty with Spain.

Analysts say that the $2bn compensation is likely to be paid in the form of renewed gas supplies rather than in cash.

Egypt is expected to resume gas exports following a number of significant natural gas discoveries in the country

Vumani Mkhize
BBC Africa Business

South Africa's economy is in recession for the first time since 2009 following two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth.

So it seems that Ramaphoria – the positive wave brought by President Cyril Ramaphosa’s ascension to power in February - appears to be officially over.

The news has come as a surprise to many analysts as they expected the economy to narrowly avoid a second quarter of decline.

The second largest economy in Africa is reeling: rising fuel prices, increased cost of living and an unemployment rate close to 30% is a stark indicator of how much work President Ramaphosa will have to do to rescue the country from a cliff edge.

Image source, StatsSA

Statistics South Africa said the economy contracted at an annualised rate of 0.7% in the second quarter, and this follows a 2.6% negative growth in the previous three months.

The biggest contributor to South Africa’s recession has been a massive 29% decline in agricultural output.

Image source, StatsSA

The president told parliament last month that his cabinet was working on a stimulus package for the economy; and South Africa is seeking $100bn (£78bn) investments from international investors.

Statistics South Africa had said in 2017 that the economy was in recession, but its figures have since been revised.

Nomsa Maseko
BBC Africa, Johannesburg

South Africa’s state security minister Dipuo Letsatsi-Duba has visited the scene of an explosion near Cape Town in which eight people died following an explosion at a munitions factory on Monday.

She expressed shock during the visit and said the government is still waiting for the outcome of the investigation into the cause of the blast.

Residents who live in the area described hearing a loud bang that rattled windows and doors.

The company has assured residents that the plume of smoke that followed the blast is not a health risk.

The factory produces explosives and propellants for civilian and military use.

Read our earlier story for more

Image source, Getty Images

The Italian defence minister, Elisabetta Trenta, has said the blame for the current conflict in Libya lies partly with France.

She said on social media that when France pushed for military intervention in 2011 against Libya's then-leader Muammar Gaddafi they put their own interests ahead of those of the Libyan people.

An international coalition, led by the United States and Nato, intervened in Libya on the basis of a UN mandate to protect civilians.

Italy allowed Nato forces use its airbases, but the prime minister of the day, Silvio Berlusconi, said he opposed the operation.

Read: How Libya holds the key to solving Europe's migration crisis

Will Ross
Africa editor, BBC World Service

Image source, Getty Images

Amnesty International says hundreds of people have been detained and tortured by the South Sudanese authorities during the civil war which began in 2013.

The rights group says many of them are political detainees accused of being linked to the opposition and there have been cases of detainees being sexually assaulted.

It says there are also cases of enforced disappearances.

Amnesty says the South Sudanese government has become increasingly intolerant of any form of criticism.

A spokesman for President Salva Kiir, Ateny Wek Ateny, denied the allegations of torture and said more than 20 political detainees were recently released and no more than three were still being held.

Basketball star Lebron James flew into Germany to watch the Olympic 800m champion Caster Semenya, according to a Twitter post by the South African athlete.

Semenya was competing in the Internationales Stadionfest (ISTAF) and won the women's 1000m on Sunday.

In a tweet on Monday, she said James "made my year for showing up to watch me race".

James' associate, Randy Mims, who goes by the nickname Ernie Ramos, shared a video of the NBA superstar arriving to an IAAF race.

Semenya is currently challenging a controversial IAAF testosterone ruling that stipulates that female runners with naturally high testosterone levels will have to race against men or change events unless they take medication.

Read more: Olympic champion will challenge 'unfair' IAAF testosterone ruling

Pumza Fihlani
BBC News, Johannesburg

Image source, Reuters

South Africa’s State Security Minister Dipuo Letsatsi-Duba is expected to visit the scene of an explosion in Somerset West, outside Cape Town, on Tuesday following the deaths of eight people.

They were killed in a blast at a munitions factory late on Monday. It is not clear at this stage what caused the explosion but residents reported hearing a loud bang which rattled doors and windows.

The authorities are carrying out investigations and making sure that the site is safe.

Meanwhile, shocked community members have gathered outside the factory to show their support for families who lost their loved ones.

They will be holding prayer services during the course of the day, according to local reports.

Read more: Eight killed in munitions explosion in South Africa

BBC World Service

Image source, Getty Images

The highest court in the Democratic Republic of Congo has barred the opposition leader, Jean-Pierre Bemba, from running in the presidential election due in December, upholding a ruling by the electoral commission.

Mr Bemba, a former warlord, was ruled ineligible because of a conviction at the International Criminal Court for bribing witnesses.

The popular opposition figure was recently acquitted of war crimes by the court after spending 10 years in detention. Last month he returned home to a rousing reception from his supporters.

He was thought be one of President Joseph Kabila's most feared electoral rivals.

Tuesday's African proverb:

Image source, Getty Images

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