BBC World Service

The US is reported to have carried out an air strike on al-Qaeda militants in southern Libya.

The UN-backed Libyan government said the jihadists were targeted near the town of Ubari.

No details of any casualties were given.

The government said it had worked in coordination with the Americans on the raid.

The US has not commented on the report, but it has targeted both al-Qaeda and Islamic State group militants in Libya before.

Read: Why is Libya so lawless?

BBC World Service

Image source, AFP

The Angolan attorney general says the former governor of the capital, Luanda, is being investigated on corruption charges.

Higino Carneiro, who has been barred from leaving the country, is accused of embezzlement, corruption, abuse of power and money laundering while governor of the city.

Mr Carneiro was appointed to the role by former President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, who stepped down two years ago after nearly four decades in power.

The government of President Joao Lourenco has been tackling the corruption which allegedly took place during his predecessor's rule.

Read: Who is Angola's JLo?

Damian Zane
BBC News, Lagos

The last day of campaigning for Nigeria's presidential and legislative elections on Saturday coincides with Valentine's Day.

The electoral commission is linking the vote with the festival of love.

In a short video it posted on Twitter a young woman can be seen thanking her husband for the food, chocolate and flowers.

He responds by saying that it's the "time of the year where we celebrate love" but to also remember to love Nigeria and "do our duty" and vote.

The video then goes on to talk about the things voters should not do at the polling station, like selling votes and snatching ballots.

Companies are also trying to get in on the act.

Stanbic bank has used two finger prints, which are associated with voting, to make a love heart.

The advertisement says: "The future of the nation and those you love are in your hands."

Read: Who is leaving Africa's largest economy?

About 20 teenage girls have been rescued from a fire which swept through an Islamic boarding school in South Africa's coastal city of Cape Town, local media report.

Residents helped rescue the girls from classrooms at the Rahmaniyeh school on Wednesday, the reports add.

"Those girls were terrified, external…They were crying and shouting... The fire was too big… I just took them out of that place," a rescuer told the privately owned eNCA broadcaster.

Image source, AFP

Dozens of gold panners are feared to have drowned underground after heavy rains flooded shafts at two mines in Zimbabwe, police are quoted by the state-owned broadcaster as saying.

Rescue teams and pumps were being "activated", external to drain the water, and to search for the bodies and any survivors at the mines near Kadoma town, about 160 km (99 miles) south-west of the capital, Harare, police spokesman Clemence Mabweazara added.

The state-owned Herald newspaper reported that 23 miners had died, while the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) said 38 are feared to have drowned.

A told of 34 of artisanal miners went underground at Silver Moon Mine and another four at Cricket Mine before a heavy downpour caused them to flood, ZBC reported.

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
By Clare Spencer

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 we leave you with this picture of a young woman of the Surma tribe in Ethiopia, taken by Olga Michi.

Image source, Getty Images

The number of rhinos killed by poachers has fallen below 1,000 for the first time in five years, the South African government is quoted as saying by Reuters news agency.

Reuters says 769 rhinos were killed by poachers, down from 1,028 in 2017.

Environment Minister Nomvula Mokonyane is quoted as saying in the statement that the "significant progress" was thanks to dedicated staff on the ground and improved domestic and international co-operation.

South Africa is home to 80% of Africa's population, but there are only about 25,000 rhinos left.

Rhino horns are worth more by weight than cocaine, and traffickers go to great lengths to smuggle them out of Africa.

Image source, _

The media coverage of a sighting of a rare black leopard in Kenya has led to accusations of double standards after reports said it was the first sighting in 100 years.

"Collectively these are the first confirmed images in nearly 100 years of a black leopard in Africa," said researcher Nicholas Pilfold of the pictures taken by British photographer Will Burrard-Lucas.

However, an influential Kenyan tweeter pointed out that Kenyan photojournalist Phoebe Okall had taken a picture of a black panther in 2013:

Other tweeters expressed a similar view, saying the story had only been picked up because the photographer was white.

The story appeared in the African Journal of Ecology, external last month but it spread across the world's media after National Geographic covered it , external on Tuesday with a headline saying it was the first sighting of the black leopard in Africa in 100 years.

Kenya's Daily Nation newspaper went with, external the understated headline: "Another rare black leopard spotted in Laikipia, Kenya".

Image source, Getty Images

Nissan car company and Algerian partner Hasnaoui Group will invest $160m (£124m) to build a car assembly plant in Algeria,Reuters news agency reports.

The plant will start production in 2020 and will create 1800 new jobs.

Algeria banned car imports last year in an attempt to cut spending due to lower oil and gas earnings.

Nissan is the second-largest car maker in Japan.

The post-mortem for the body of Kenyan human rights activist Caroline Mwatha has been postponed until Monday.

It is following the unavailability of chief government pathologist Johansen Oduor, reports Citizen TV, external.

A fellow human rights activist Hussein Khalid is quoted in The Star newspaper, external as saying he is disappointed that is is not happening today, as planned.

Ms Mwatha worked documenting extrajudicial police killings in the capital, Nairobi.

She went missing last Wednesday and Amnesty International expressed their concern tweeting that they had hoped she would be found alive.

But police later said they believed she died from a botched abortion and arrested six people in connection with the alleged operation.

Image source, EPA

US President Donald Trump wants US-Somali Congresswoman Ilhan Omar to resign over her tweets which implied US lawmakers only support Israel because of lobby money.

“I think she should either resign from Congress or she should certainly resign from the House Foreign Affairs Committee,” he said.

The Minnesota Democrat, who is also the first American-Somali to be elected to the US Congress, has apologised for the tweets, as we reported on Monday.

She faced widespread condemnation for suggesting the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac) was buying influence for pro-Israel policies.

Republicans and Democrats alike said the tweets stoked anti-Semitic tropes about Jewish people and money.

Ms Omar released a statement "unequivocally" apologising for her tweets, following an apparent conversation with Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi about the row.

"Anti-Semitism is real and I am grateful for Jewish allies and colleagues who are educating me on the painful history of anti-Semitic tropes," Ms Omar said.

But Mr Trump called her apology "lame".

Girmay Gebru
BBC Tigrinya, Humera

A thawing in relations between Ethiopia and Eritrea saw key border crossings opened last September for the first time in more than 20 years.

Flights between the two countries had already restarted, but then most land crossings were subsequently closed as the authorities said they needed to sort out issues such as visas and what duty should be paid on goods.

These things are yet to be ironed out.

But a crossing in the west, near Sudan, did not reopen at any time last year - so in order to give people either side of the Humera-Omhajer border a chance to see each other, it was now been opened.

And since the first week in January queues of traffic have been lining up at the crossing.

In Humera, on the Ethiopian side, money changers are doing a brisk trade:

And bed sellers are also benefiting as businesses flourish. It is very hot in this region and people often use these beds to sleep out in the open at night:

People on either side of the border are happy to be reunited as families divided by the conflict are now able to visit each other – and some Eritreans, like the men below, have been coming to reclaim property they abandoned two decades ago.

A historic peace deal in July restored diplomatic and trade relations between the nations.

Shingai Nyoka
BBC Africa, Harare

Image source, Reuters

Zimbabwe’s cabinet has promised to repeal a controversial law long used to suppress the media.

The Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act has been the leading weapon in stifling media freedom.

During former President Robert Mugabe’s rule it was used to arrest journalists and shut down newspapers.

It places restrictions on media ownership and who can be employed as a journalist.

Parliament is expected to introduce three new laws to replace it.

The change is part of the package of political reforms that President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government has promised to implement to improve relations with the West.

Critics says the government has dragged its feet in changing laws that violate the constitution adopted in 2013.

BBC World Service

Image source, Getty Images

Lawyers for the Cameroonian opposition politician Maurice Kamto, who disputed the outcome of last year's presidential election, say he has been charged in a military court with rebellion and insurrection.

He was arrested two weeks ago after organising a protest in the coastal city of Douala.

The military court in the capital Yaoundé also charged 28 of Mr Kamto's supporters.

Dozens more are due in court later on Wednesday.

The veteran leader Paul Biya won a seventh successive term in October's election though Mr Kamto says he secured more votes.

BBC World Service

Image source, reu

Fifteen people are now known to have died in a stampede at an election rally in Nigeria on Tuesday.

It happened at a packed stadium in the city of Port Harcourt shortly after President Muhammadu Buhari had finished a speech.

There are reports that people rushed towards a gate which the police had only partially opened.

In the capital Abuja, President Buhari and his main rival - the former vice-president Atiku Abubakar - have signed an agreement in which they have pledged to promote peace and follow the legal process if there's a dispute after the vote.

Both candidates are due to hold separate election rallies in Abuja later.

Image source, _

Black Panther has been everywhere recently - but spotting one of the animals the famous superhero is named after in the African wilderness is a little more rare.

Wildlife photographer Will Burrard-Lucas, external found this creature at the Laikipia Wilderness Camp in Kenya and captured these shots.

Image source, _

Image source, _

Read the full BBC story here

Five people have died after a small plane carrying them crashed in Kericho, the west of Kenya.

At least two of the passengers were US citizens, US embassy in Kenya confirmed to US-based CBS News., external

The plane, piloted by a Kenyan national, was carrying four foreigners from Maasai Mara nature reserve when it crashed, AFP reports.

The police chief for the Rift Valley region said the plane was heading to Lodwar.

Emergency services were sent to the scene.

A Kenyan newspaper has tweeted a photo of the crash:

Image source, Getty Images

The Somali government has arrested an army officer over the killing of six al-Shabab suspects, Somali media report.

The suspects were shot in Bardhere, southwest of Somalia, earlier this year.

There was no trial before they were shot.

Farhan Mohamed Turba was arrested in the capital Mogadishu after lawmakers accused him of extrajudicial killings.

Last December, the Chief of Somali army Gen Dahir Aden Ilmi gave a shoot-to-kill order for al-Shabab fighters "wherever they are". He called for army officers to "show no mercy" to al-Shabab members in a video., external