BBC World Service

The US military says it has killed six Islamist militants in an airstrike in Somalia.

The attack in the Lower Shabelle region in the south of the country is the latest in a series that the US says has killed more than 60 al-Shabab fighters in the past month.

In a statement, the Pentagon said the latest attack was mounted to diminish al-Shabab freedom of movement and to increase pressure on its network in the area.

Read more: US attacks on Somalia's al-Shabab increase under Trump

In South Africa, at least three people died and 200 others were injured after a train collision at a station in Mountain View area north-west of the capital, Pretoria, an emergency service has tweeted.

At least one person has been killed and many others wounded after two passenger trains collided at a station north-west of South Africa's capital, Pretoria, local media report.

Emergency teams are at the scene treating victims.

A local journalist has been sharing pictures from the scene.

Our proverb of the day:

Welcome to BBC Africa Live where we'll be keeping you up to date with developments on the continent.

BBC Africa Live
Clare Spencer & Natasha Booty

That's all from BBC Africa Live for now. 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 Monday's wise words:

Click here to send us your African proverbs.

And we leave you with this shot taken by Gabonese photographer Yannis Davy Guibinga:

Chad's President Idriss Déby, who is also the current head of the Economic Community of Central African States ("Eccas" in English, or "Cemac" in French), is the latest international figure to condemn the attempted coup in Gabon.

"Any change against the constitution or armed seizure of power is an aberration and in violation of the African Union's founding principles", he said in a statement, external.

In December, Gabon's Constitutional Court amended part of the constitution to allow the vice-president, Pierre-Claver Maganga Moussavou, to hold ministerial meetings and to unblock pending cases.

France and the African Union have also condemned today's attempted takeover by a group of soldiers in Gabon.

Image source, Getty Images

The foreign minister of Belgium has urged the Democratic Republic of Congo to publish election results, reports AFP news agency.

"The important thing today is to publish the results of the elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo even if they do not please the powers that be," Didier Reynders is quoted by AFP as saying to RTBF broadcaster.

DR Congo was due to announce the presidential election result at the weekend but instead, on Sunday, election commission head Corneille Nangaa urged patience, saying that a week after the poll just over half of ballots had been counted.

The UN Security Council has pushed back a meeting about DR Congo to Friday.

Jose Tembe
BBC Africa, Maputo

An armed group attacked and killed seven people on Sunday in Northern Mozambique, reports O Pais newspaper, external.

The newspaper goes on to say that the attackers opened fire on the pick-up truck in Nangade which forced it to stop. They then reportedly beheaded the driver and killed the six passengers with machetes.

The attack occurred in Cabo Delgado, an area that has seen an increase in Islamist extremism.

Human rights observer Zenaida Machado suggests in a tweet that the targeting of civilians illustrates the militants are changing their tactics:

BBC World Service

The Egyptian media has ignored a major interview by President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi with CBS, which the US television network says Cairo tried to block.

One local news outlet, Mada Masr, says that the media office of the presidency issued instructions for major media outlets not to cover the interview.

The segment on the 60 Minutes current affairs programme was broadcast on Sunday night.

In the interview, President Sisi is closely pressed on his human rights record, as well as Egypt's co-operation with Israel under his leadership - which remains a sensitive issue at home and across the Arab world.

We are taking a moment to look at what is happening in the rest of the continent, aside from Gabon.

In The Gambia hearings that intend to investigate alleged human rights abuses committed during the 22-year regime of former President Yahya Jammeh have begun.

The exact numbers of people killed or tortured are yet unknown. The 11-member panel hopes to document the scale of the abuses by October 2020.

The hearings are being broadcast live on Facebook:

More than 1,000 witnesses are expected to testify. Among them are journalists, campaigners, and politicians who criticised Mr Jammeh's rule.

Just wearing a T-shirt calling for democracy was enough to incur the wrath of Mr Jammeh, leading to arbitrary detentions, often without trial, and sometimes death and disappearances.

But in January 2017, under a regionally brokered deal, Mr Jammeh was forced into exile after losing elections.

He went to oil-rich Equatorial Guinea where not much has been heard from him since.

However a recent video surfaced in which he appears to be dancing at an official function with his host, President Teodoro Obiang Nguema. This has led to renewed calls for his extradition to The Gambia to face trial.

• Read: 'I was tortured in the The Gambia'

After being briefly restored earlier today, internet access in Gabon has once again been restricted, according to the global internet access campaigner NetBlocks:

Gabon opposition leader Paul-Marie Gondjout has told BBC Focus on Africa that police and military are stopping and searching vehicles on main roads in the capital, Libreville.

He said that this was both reassuring and worrying, adding that "we see order, but we don't know what is going on".

Mr Gongjout said that with President Bongo out of the country since October, his deputy should be sworn in as head of state.

In December, Gabon's Constitutional Court amended part of the constitution to allow the vice-president, Pierre-Claver Maganga Moussavou, to hold ministerial meetings and to unblock pending cases.

"The country needs to be run and we have no government, no head of state," Mr Gongjout said.

The rebel soldier who reportedly led the coup attempt in Gabon has been arrested, according to the Gabonese government, who also say that two of his commandos have been killed.

The statement from the presidency says security officers "stormed the [state radio] building, shot dead two members of the commando and released the hostages", RFI reports.

"The situation is under control," the statement added.

It was Lt Kelly Ondo Obiang's voice that people listening to state radio in Gabon heard in the early hours of Monday calling on citizens to "rise up".

Image source, YouTube

A leading member of Gabon's main opposition party has called on the president to address the nation following this morning's attempted coup by a group of soldiers that the government says are now under arrest.

Paul-Marie Gondjout told the BBC:

Reports say President Ali Bongo had suffered a stroke, but that has not been confirmed.

President Bongo was flown to Morocco in December from Saudi Arabia where he had been in hospital since 24 October after falling ill at an economic forum.

After an extended period of silence, the Gabonese presidency eventually admitted in November that Mr Bongo was "seriously ill".

The spokesman for Gabon's main opposition party has denied any knowledge of a link to the five soldiers who attempted a coup earlier today, according to Radio France Internationale, external.

Claye Martial Obame Akué is quoted as saying that he wasn't aware of any link between the soldiers and Jean Ping - the leader of the La Coalition pour la Nouvelle République (The Coalition for the New Republic).

He said that no soldiers were close to Mr Ping.

He did, however, add that President Ali Bongo should leave power, as he asserted that Jean Ping won the 2016 election.

BBC Monitoring
The world through its media

Gabonese state TV's news channel, Gabon 24, continued to broadcast during the early morning without mentioning the coup attempt while it was happening.

Instead, it aired repeated recordings of foreign news stories, along with stock promotional material about Gabon.

The main channel of Gabonese state-run RTVG, known simply as Gabon Television, also didn't mention the coup attempt - instead broadcasting recorded entertainment until programming was replaced by coloured bars. The channel's signal later went off the air altogether.

The leaders of the short-lived coup attempt first announced their intentions on state-run RTG1 radio, also known as Radio Gabon.

Forces opposed to the coup attempt later managed to take RTG1 radio off the air.

Gabon's President Ali Bongo is a man of many faces.

To some, he is a spoilt, playboy prince who sees ruling the oil-rich Gabon as his birthright; a one-time funk singer who stepped into his father's shoes to continue his family's 50-year rule.

He dabbled in music with his 1977 album A Brand New Man, produced by funk legend James Brown's manager, Charles Bobbit.

"Let me be your darling, Your everything, 'til the end of time," Bongo crooned on the title track:

To others, he is a reformer - a man who, they would argue, was voted into power democratically by the masses.

His supporters also point to his role in attempting to diversify Gabon's oil-dependent economy, in the face of declining oil reserves.

But his recent ill health has pushed tensions to the surface in this country of just more than two million people. On Monday morning, a group of soldiers tried - and apparently failed - to take control.

Among their stated reasons was an attempt to "restore democracy" following the 2016 election, which Mr Bongo narrowly won amid accusations of fraud and acts of violence.

Image source, SYLVIA BONGO ONDIMBA/ INSTAGRAM

• Read more: From playboy prince to Gabon's president

The Gabonese soldier who was reportedly on the run after attempting a coup has been arrested, according to Radio France Internationale, external.

The French broadcaster says that security services found Lt Kelly Ondo Obiang hiding under a bed in a house near the state broadcaster.

He had reportedly run away from the radio station after broadcasting a plea to the military and civilians to rise up against the Gabonese government.

Four others were arrested earlier today but he managed to get away.

Global internet access campaigners NetBlocks report that the internet has been restored in Gabon.

The campaigners reported that it was blocked from 06:00 to 10:00 local time (05:00 to 09:00 GMT).

Internet Intelligence, the internet research arm of technology company Oracle, note that intenet blackouts are a familiar thing in Gabon.

They say around the 2016 presidential election the internet was blocked every night for 23 nights:

It is not clear who ordered telecoms companies to shut down the internet.

But Netblocks adds that sometimes the order may not come from the incumbent government: