BBC World Service

The leaders of Ethiopia and Eritrea are attending the re-opening of a key border crossing that's been closed for more than 20 years.

The event - coinciding with Ethiopian New Year - marks another step in reconciliation between the two countries, which fought a bitter border war during the 1990s.

Over the last week, soldiers from both countries have worked together to clear the huge boulders and barriers that have blocked the movement of people and goods across the frontier.

In July, Eritrea and Ethiopia signed a peace deal restoring diplomatic and trade relations.

South African star athlete Caster Semenya has hit back at her critics in a video put together by her sponsors, Nike.

The Olympic and world 800m champion features as part of the US sports giant's campaign - highlighting the stories of several sportsmen and women who have achieved extraordinary feats on and off the field.

The South African runner has previously been asked to undertake gender testing by athletics chiefs but no results have ever officially been made public.

The video plays Semenya's life backwards; from the running track to when she takes her first steps as a little girl.

She addresses her critics, saying:

It concludes, "That's too bad, I was born to do this."

Semenya is currently challenging a rule by athletics world governing body - the IAAF - that some female runners with naturally high testosterone levels, like her, will have to race against men or change events, unless they take medication.

She had called the decision "unlawful".

Listen to the BBC Inquiry podcast: Is Women’s Sport In Trouble?

Our African proverb of the day:

Click here to send us your African proverbs.

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

BBC Africa Live
Farouk Chothia

That's all from BBC Africa Live until Tuesday. 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 today's African proverb:

Click here to send us your African proverbs.

And we leave you with a photo of a trailer packed with goods in South Africa's commercial capital, Johannesburg:

Tomi Oladipo
BBC Africa security correspondent

The militant Islamic State (IS) group says its fighters carried out the attack in north-eastern Nigeria's Gudumbali town on Friday night.

The militants battled government troops for hours in the town.

Shortly after this claim, an IS-affiliated news agency, Amaq, published a video of what it said was an attack on the town of Zari, also in Borno State, in which at least 30 soldiers were killed on 30 August.

This coincides with the launch of the Nigerian Air Force’s Operation Thunder Strike Two against what it describes as “remnants of the insurgents”.

IS has an affiliate in Nigeria - the Islamic State's West Africa Province (Iswap), which is a faction within the Boko Haram group.

There seems to be a resurgence of attacks by Iswap after Amaq admitted in July that the militants had lost control of towns to the military. And the intensity of military operations implies a recognition of the threat they pose.

Image source, TWITTER

Anne Soy
BBC Africa, Nairobi

Image source, Getty Images

Aid programmes for refugees in East Africa are shutting down as Western governments reduce funding, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) says.

In a terse statement, it accused the US and Europe of having "xenophobic policies" which are pushing migrants and refugees out of their countries, while at the same time slashing funds that would be needed to take care of them closer to their homes.

"Fast and furious budget cuts are hitting the East Africa aid sector hard. If more funding isn’t found, malnutrition will rise, schools will close, and water-borne diseases will break out," Nigel Tricks, Regional Director of the Norwegian Refugee Council, said.

Uganda has about 1.5 million refugees - one of the largest in the world. However, it has so far received $158m this year, down from $346m in 2017.

NRC says a shortage of clean water and sanitation at a refugee settlement in the country led to a cholera outbreak.

"Rich nations should step up to support countries that are still accepting refugees. We have a window to avoid a refugee catastrophe in East Africa if we act now,” Mr Tricks added.

Aboubakar Famau
BBC Africa, Dar es Salaam

Image source, Getty Images

Lawmakers in Tanzania have been banned by Speaker Job Ndugai from entering parliament with fake nails and eye lashes.

Mr Nduga told me he had imposed the ban after Deputy Health Minister Faustine Ndugulile had raised concerns about the health risks posed by fake nails and eye lashes.

The ban would also apply to visitors to parliament, he said.

Lawmakers are also prohibited from wearing short dresses and jeans to parliament, Mr Nduga said.

Kenya's Civil Aviation Authority has denied reports that Ethiopian and Italian passengers nearly crashed while flying over its air space last month.

None of the pilots of two planes had filed an incident report, and air traffic controllers had done their job of keeping the planes apart, it added in a statement posted on Twitter.

For the first time cameras enter the world of one of Kenya’s most controversial police officers, who became national news after mobile footage showed him gunning down two apparently unarmed men in broad daylight in 2017.

BBC Africa Eye joins Corporal Ahmed Rashid as he seeks to rid the streets of gangsters and criminals in Eastleigh, Nairobi.

Reporter Jamal Osman hears from Rashid’s supporters and critics, and questions Kenyan authorities on the state of law and order in the country.

BBC World Service

Image source, Getty Images

The authorities in Egypt say that security forces have killed 11 militants during an exchange of fire in the city of al-Arish in North Sinai.

A security official said that the forces were acting on intelligence information that the militants were planning attacks against security forces.

He said five automatic weapons and large amounts of ammunition were seized.

Egypt has been battling an insurgency in Sinai peninsula since the removal of the Islamist President Mohamed Morsi by the military five years ago.

Image source, Getty Images

The Iraqi foreign ministry has summoned Algeria's ambassador in Baghdad to protest after Algerian football fans chanted the name of former ruler Saddam Hussein during a game.

The Iraqi Air Force team walked off the pitch in the 75th minute of their match against USM Alger in the Algerian capital, Algiers.

Videos filmed inside the stadium showed Algerian supporters chanting “God is greatest! Saddam Hussein", Arab News reported, external.

Iraq's foreign ministry spokesman Ahmed Mahjub condemned the ex-Iraqi leader's "horrible glorification", the report added.

The president of the Iraqi Football Association, Abd-al-Khaleq Masoud, has threatened to resign if the Algerians are not punished.

Saddam Hussein was deposed by the US led invasion in 2003 and was later hanged.

Image source, Reuters

Tanzania's President John Magufuli has urged couples to keep reproducing, saying only "lazy people" opted for birth control, the local Citizen news site has reported.

Speaking in the mainly rural Mearu district in eastern Tanzania, Mr Magufuli said family planning had led to a declining population in Europe, and a workforce crisis.

The Citizen quoted him as making the comments in the presence of the UN Population Fund representative in Tanzania, Jacqueline Mahon, and Health Minister Ummy Mwalimu.

Addressing a rally in an area where there are many farmers, Mr Magufuli said:

Mr Magufuli's comments were condemned by MP Cecil Mewambe, who said in parliament:

At least two people - including a baby - have been killed in an explosion at a gas station in Nigeria's central town of Lafia, reports the BBC's Abdullahi Kaura Abubaker from the scene.

More than 30 people are being treated in hospital for burns, he adds.

Some of them have suffered severe burns, our reporter says.

The cause of the blast is still unknown, but eyewitnesses say a gas canister blew up.

The BBC's Mayeni Jones has tweeted a video of the scene:

BBC World Service

Image source, AFP

At least two people have been killed and another 10 injured in Libya in an attack by masked gunmen on the headquarters of the state oil firm.

Security forces in the capital, Tripoli, engaged in a gun battle with the attackers and explosions were heard inside the building.

The firm's chairman, Mustafa Son'allah, was evacuated safely.

Firefighters smashed windows to enable staff to flee.

The United Nations Support Mission in Libya condemned the attack while the Italian ambassador called it cowardly. No group has said it was behind the assault.

Ethiopian and Italian passengers planes nearly crashed in Kenyan airspace on 29 August, Kenyan media reports.

The collision was averted when the pilot of one of the planes made a sudden climb to avoid the oncoming flight, the reports say.

A news site has tweeted a video of the near-collision between the two boeings:

Kenyan officials blamed a strike by air traffic controllers at Ethiopia's main international airport in Addis Ababa for the near-collision, The East African reports on its news site, external.

A pilot, however, said the planes were in Kenyan airspace, and it was the responsibility of Kenya's air traffic controllers to guide the planes, the news site reports.

See update

An Egyptian hotel worker has been arrested in Saudi Arabia after he was seen in an online video, eating with a fully veiled Saudi colleague, the kingdom's labour ministry has said.

In the video widely shared on social media, the two eat at a desk and wave at the camera.

At one point, the woman, dressed in a robe which leaves only her hands and eyes visible, feeds the man a piece of food.

An inspection team visited the hotel in Mecca - Islam's holiest site - and detained the Egyptian for working in a field restricted to Saudis, a ministry statement said, Reuters news agency reports.

The hotel owner was also summoned “for failing to adhere to spatial controls for employing women”, Reuters quoted the statement as saying.

Official regulations state that workplaces should provide a private setting for female employees, separate from males, but this does not always happen, Reuters reports.

Thea arrest of the Egyptian has drawn mixed reaction on social media, the Jordan-based al-Bawaba news site reports.

One Twitter user described the arrest as "insane":

Another Twitter user disagreed, saying: “You should punish the company’s owner and then the people who appeared in the video."

Image source, Reuters

An armed group is reported to have stormed the headquarters of the National Oil Corporation (NOC) in Libya's capital, Tripoli.

Security forces clashed with the armed men at the landmark building in the centre of the city, and several blasts and gunfire could be heard, witnesses say.

Last week, the UN announced a truce between warring militias had been agreed in the capital.

A UN-backed government is nominally in power in Tripoli.

However, militias occupy much of the rest of the country.

Read the full BBC story

Image source, AFP

Ugandan police may not have heard the gunshots which killed senior police officer Muhammad Kirumira because of the loud noise from a nearby church, President Yoweri Museveni has said.

Gunmen on a motorcycle taxi, known in Uganda as a boda boda, shot dead Mr Kirumira on Saturday as he was driving near his home in Bulenga town in the central region.

A woman who was also in the vehicle was also killed.

His killing was the latest in a series of fatal shootings of politicians and police officers, raising fears about growing insecurity in Uganda.

Mr Kirumira was the former district commander of Buyende, and a video in which he urges people to expose the "mafia to save the state" has been widely circulated on social media since his death:

Speaking on state television on Sunday night, Mr Museveni denounced the killers as cowardly pigs.

He added:

Mr Museveni vowed that police will fill the security "gaps" that killers were exploiting, and added:

BBC World Service

Image source, EPA

Reports from Somalia capital, Mogadishu, say a car packed with explosives has destroyed a local government building causing casualties.

Witnesses saw huge clouds of smoke above the city in Hodan district, following a massive explosion and gunfire.

One report said five people had been killed and a number injured.

It's not known who was behind the attack.

The Islamist militant group al-Shabab carries out frequent bombings and gun attacks in Mogadishu and other parts of Somalia.