Ugandan police say the head of telecommunications company MTN Uganda - a unit of South Africa's MTN group - has been deported for national security reasons.

The company's chief executive, Wim Vanhelleputte, was put on a plane to his native Belgium on Wednesday evening.

There has been no official explanation.

Last month, three foreign nationals working for MTN Uganda were also deported.

One of them, Elsa Mussolini, said she had been accused of inciting violence and funding the Ugandan opposition politician, Bobi Wine.

The musician turned politician is a critic of President Yoweri Museveni.

Our African proverb of the day:

Click here and scroll to the bottom to send us your African proverbs.

Welcome 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 for now. 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:

Click here and scroll to the bottom to send us your African proverbs.

And as it is Valentine's Day, we leave you with this photo of a boy selling a pillow shaped like lips in Ivory Coast's main city, Abidjan:

Image source, AFP

BBC World Service

Image source, AFP

Final campaign rallies have taken place in Nigeria before Saturday's tightly contested elections.

The two main presidential candidates headed to their home states - President Muhammadu Buhari went to Katsina in the north, while the former vice-president, Atiku Abubakar, made a final push for votes in Adamawa State.

A militant group from the Niger Delta has threatened to disrupt oil production should President Buhari be re-elected.

A different group of former militants endorsed the president earlier this week.

Correspondents say that in a country so reliant on oil, the militants have long been holding Nigerian governments to ransom by threatening to attack pipelines.

Read:

• 'New broom' president seeks clean sweep
• The operator who knows how to make money

Will Ross
Africa editor, BBC World Service

An autopsy carried out on a Kenyan activist who had been missing for several days has concluded that she died from a botched abortion.

A government pathologist conducted the autopsy on Caroline Mwatha in the presence of doctors representing the family and human rights groups.

The activist worked for a rights organisation that investigated abuses by the Kenyan police.

When she went missing for several days last week there were concerns that her disappearance could have been connected to her work.

Amnesty International said, following the autopsy, it had no reason to doubt that Mwatha had died from a botched abortion.

Mercy Juma
BBC Africa, Nairobi

The father of a six-month-old Kenyan girl, Samantha Pendo, has welcomed an inquest magistrate's ruling that police were responsible for her death during protests over disputed presidential elections in 2017.

In a BBC interview, Joseph Abanja described the ruling as a "Valentine’s miracle".

"I feel relieved and I am happy about the ruling. We have gotten the justice that we want but there are so many other people in Kenya that have not got theirs, so we still have a long way to go," he added.

Pendo was brutally assaulted by anti-riot police who broke into their home. She died three days later, while undergoing treatment at a local hospital.

See earlier post

From a peak in 2016, the number of Nigerians successfully reaching Italy across the Mediterranean has dropped significantly.

Many are them are being repatriated to Nigeria or held in detention centres in Libya.

BBC Reality Check investigates these changing migration patterns:

Image source, EPA

A Sudanese refugee detainee has received a top human rights award for exposing what he has described as Australia's "inhumane" treatment of asylum seekers.

Abdul Aziz Muhamat, 26, was held at the Manus Island detention centre after fleeing violence in Darfur.

Over six years, he sent thousands of WhatsApp messages to a journalist who told his story in a podcast.

The Martin Ennals Award recognised his "extraordinary tenacity and courage".

Mr Muhamat described the camp's conditions, which have long been criticised by the United Nations.

He said he was stripped of his name and referred to as a number- QNK002.

Prisoners were fed through a chain-link fence and treated worse than animals, he added.

Continue reading here or watch the video below:

Ashley Lime
BBC Africa, Nairobi

#MensConference and #mensconference2019 have been among the top trending topics in Kenya and South Africa on Valentine's Day.

It seems that some men escaped to a fictional conference to avoid spending time with their partners - and they imagined that they were enjoying themselves:

One man posted that he was expected to speak at the the conference, due to end on Saturday, about men's rights:

Some Twitter users have gone on to announce a women's conference:

Others decided that there was no escape for the men - and changed the date of Valentine's Day:

Image source, AFP

The campaign to elect Nigeria's next president is drawing to a close with accusations flying over the abuse of social media to spread misleading information.

"Political parties support and encourage the dissemination of divisive 'fake news' on their behalf but have little control over its development and spread," according to Jonathan Fisher, who is overseeing a project looking at the role of WhatsApp in Nigeria's election.

Continue reading the BBC Reality Check article here

Is it harder to be a teenager now than ever before?

Tayeb’s family have been making vases, jugs and other souvenirs from alabaster stone for generations.

The 17-year-old is even more committed to carrying on the family business after his father passed away several years ago.

Despite tourism in Egypt struggling in recent years, Tayeb remains optimistic that people will soon start visiting again in larger numbers. He dreams of expanding the business and selling Egyptian alabaster products around the world.

We spend a day with Tayeb as he shows us what it's like to grow up in Egypt.

Being 17 is a series created by the BBC World Service and Radio 1 Newsbeat looking at how 17-year-olds all over the world spend their Saturdays.

Video journalist: Matt Wareham

As the saying goes, the early bird catches the worm and 61-year-old Nigerian Abubakar Shettima has taken that to heart.

He has already taken up his place at the polling unit in Plateau state two days before voting starts in the presidential election.

Mr Shettima told the BBC's Umar Yunus that he wanted to be the first person to cast a vote.

Meanwhile, in Kano, in the north of the country, the BBC's Mansur Abubakar met Mama Amina outside the offices of the electoral commission.

She has been selling food there since 1983 and says that the election period is the best time for her as the office is always busy.

Read: Nigeria in nine maps and charts

Image source, AFP

Mali will play Senegal in Sunday's final of the Under-20 Africa Cup of Nations in Niger, in a repeat of the opening Group B encounter.

Mali needed penalties to beat Nigeria after a 1-1 draw to book their place in the final, while Senegal beat South Africa 1-0 in the other semi-final.

Senegal's coach Youssouph Dabo says the final will not be a repeat of the group encounter which his side won 2-0.

"Facing the Mali be a different match because it is a final," he insisted.

"We beat them in the first game but I said it after that game that they can go far, so I am not surprised to see them in the final," he added.

Read the full BBC Sport story here

The candidates in Nigeria's presidential election are making their final pitches before voting on Saturday.

Campaigning is supposed to end by midnight local time (23:00 GMT), so there are only a few hours left to change people's minds.

The main challenger to President Muhammadu Buhari, Atiku Abubakar, has released a video message on Twitter.

He has campaigned under the slogan "let's get Nigeria working again" and in the video he urges people come out to vote.

He says that "every vote counts" and that "the future of Nigeria is in your hands":

President Buhari is due to address the nation at 19:00 (18:00 GMT), but he has just tweeted a short video from a speech he made about infrastructure.

He says that the opposition People's Democratic Party (PDP) did not improve roads and health centres in the 16 years it was in power from 1999 to 2015:

Bidhaan Dahir
BBC Somali service

Image source, AFP

Some leading Muslim clerics in the self-declared republic of Somaliland have urged their followers not to celebrate Valentine's Day, saying it is contrary to the teachings of Islam.

The clerics made similar appeals in previous years, but have been more vocal in their opposition this year.

Some people disagree with them, arguing that celebrating love has always been part of the culture of Somalis - and one of their most celebrated poets, Elmi Bodheri, is said to have died of love, external.

But the Muslim clerics still object because the day gets its name from St Valentine, a Christian priest from Rome in the third century AD.

Despite growing wealth in some commercial centres, Nigeria is also home to more people living in extreme poverty than any other nation.

Almost all candidates in its fiercely contested presidential election, due on Saturday, have promised to focus on improving living standards.

BBC Newsday's James Copnall has visited one of the poorest areas of the commercial capital, Lagos, to find out what people think of their promises:

Elections in Nigeria come with style - special cloth is commissioned and tailors are busy as traditional attire takes on a political edge.

Arike Adesida (above) wears a tailor-made dress for a rally in the commercial hub of Lagos and says she wants President Muhammdu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to win a second term.

Enthusiastic crowds, dressed in party colours, have also been attending gatherings for Mr Buhari's main rival Atiku Abubakar, standing for the People's Democratic Party (PDP).

Kemi Raji, part of a group of women who call themselves "Atiku Babes", says: "We love Atiku. We know that he can change our lives and change our children's lives."

Continue reading here

Will Ross
Africa editor, BBC World Service

Image source, AFP

An inquest magistrate in Kenya has ruled that five police commanders were responsible for the death of a six-month-old baby who was beaten on the head during protests in 2017 after disputed presidential elections.

Angry people took to the streets of Kisumu in the west of the country shortly after President Uhuru Kenyatta was announced as the winner of the election.

Samantha Pendo was struck on the head by anti-riot police at her parents’ home.

The baby died in hospital three days later.

Ferdinand Omondi
BBC Africa, Nairobi

Image source, AFP

The High Court in Kenya has sentenced to death a senior policeman who killed a suspect by severely beating him whilst he was in custody about six years ago.

Such a conviction is extremely rare, despite the fact that human rights organisations have documented hundreds of cases of brutality and killings carried out by Kenyan police.

The officer, Nahashon Mutua, was in charge of a police station in the capital, Nairobi, when his victim, Martin Koome, was brought in following a domestic brawl.

The court heard that Mutua tortured the suspect and beat him repeatedly with a metal bar, leaving him bleeding badly with wounds on his head and fractured ribs.

The officer had earlier tried to frame an inmate for the murder.