That's all from the BBC Africa Live page today. 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 our African proverb of the day: 

Click here to send us your African proverbs.

And we leave you with this photo by the BBC's Christian Parkinson of his view at work today in Cape Town, South Africa:

Kenyan Senator Paul Njoroge is alleged to have shot in the air to stop workers from closing down a Shell petrol station he operates. 

Kenyan news channel NTV have tweeted a picture, which has been spreading across social media, of the alleged incident:

A spokesman for Vivo Energy Kenya, the distributor and marketer of Shell-branded products, said the senator opened fire when the firm's CEO Polycarp Igathe visited the petrol station today.

Mr Igathe went to the petrol station, which the senator runs as a retailer, to discuss closing it down, spokesman Rob Foyle told the BBC. 

Mr Njoroge "wasn’t stocking the service station with fuel", Mr Foyle said. 

Kenya's Star newspaper reports , externalthat the trouble started after workers moved in and demolished part of the station entrance before taking away fuel pumps.

Mr Njoroge arrived shortly afterwards to stop the demolition, having obtained an order from a court in Naivasha town in western Kenya preventing the fuel company from interfering, taking over or terminating his contract until the case is heard, the report adds. 

Mr Njoroge became involved in a heated argument with the workers, some of whom continued with the demolition, forcing the senator to fire in the air, according to the Star.

He denied that the petrol station had run out of fuel and said the take-over was meant to cancel his deal with Vivo Energy so that a rival trader could get the premises, it reported.

Image source, Getty Images

South African Airways has cancelled flights to Nigeria's capital, Abuja, during six weeks of scheduled repairs to the international airport's runway, AP news agency reports. 

It joins British Airways, KLM and Air France in rejecting a government proposal to divert flights to northern Kaduna city and take passengers by bus on a journe of about 250km (155 miles) to Abuja, AP adds.

The agency this is a three-and-a-half-hour ride on a road notorious for accidents and kidnappings.

Officials say repairs, starting on 8 March, cannot be carried out at night because the runway at Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport is in a shocking state of disrepair. 

A South African Airways plane was damaged on landing there in August. 

Other airlines have called it dangerous. 

Lack of maintenance affects infrastructure across Nigeria.

Image source, AFP

The University of Lagos in Nigeria's commercial capital has banned both male and female students from wearing tight-fitting clothes, including trousers, skirts and blouses, local newspapers report.

They quote a management circular as also banning “all clothes which reveal sensitive parts of the body such as the bust, chest, belly, upper arms and the buttocks". 

The circular adds: 

This tweeter is not impressed: 

Two private media channels have been taken off air in Togo, officially for breaching licensing rules, AFP news agency reports.

Television station La Chaine du Futur and City FM radio were ordered to stop broadcasting. 

Mathias Ayena, from the official regulator, told AFP that neither channel obtained the proper authorisation before they started broadcasting in 2007. 

"We're simply asking those in charge of these media to make the necessary request and we will study it," he added.

Amnesty International said in a statement that the sanction was disproportionate and "an attack against freedom of speech". 

Alex Duval Smith
BBC News, Abidjan

Ivory Coast's Special Forces, involved in a mutiny at the Adiake barracks in the south-east, have accused their commanders of stealing part of their salaries. 

Local media reports one soldier claiming he has received only $80 (£64) of his $400 monthly salary. 

There has been sporadic gunfire from inside the base of the Special Forces at Adiake, which is near the border with Ghana.

The Ivorian Special Forces number up to 800, and report directly to the president's office. 

The government and military authorities have not yet commented on the protest.

Image source, AFP

Hundreds of people in the Democratic Republic of Congo's capital Kinshasa have been trying to clear water from their homes after a sudden flood, reports BBC Afrique.

The flood came this morning after a violent storm.

A witness told the BBC that people are making money by carrying others on their backs across the road.

People have been tweeting their videos of the floods:

Residents in Ivory Coast's south-eastern Adiake town have been speaking to AFP news agency about the mutiny by elite troops which are supposed to be fiercely loyal to President Alassane Ouattara.

Mariame Coulibaly told AFP by telephone:

An unnamed resident added: 

Somalia's election for a new president is happening tomorrow. 

But it is a little different from other elections - it's being held in the airport, amid tight security, and it isn't a one-person-one-vote. Instead MPs will choose the president.

Our one-minute-video explains the unique situation:

Image source, Issouf Sanogo

Avram Grant has ended his time as Ghana coach after more than two years in charge of the Black Stars.

The Israeli's contract is shortly to expire he said there would be no renewal.

Grant said he had met with Ghana FA president Kwesi Nyantakyi and informed him "the time is right for me to move on to a new challenge".

He led Ghana to the Africa Cup of Nations final in 2015 and the semi-finals this year.

"The passion and loyalty of the supporters is something I'll always remember," he said.

Read more on BBC Sport.

Image source, AFP

The US ambassador to Zimbabwe was a "leftover from a terrible era" and should "go and hang on a banana tree", President Robert Mugabe's spokesman George Charamba has said, the state-run Herald newspaper reports, external. 

His comments came after the US Embassy in Harare tweeted a statement, condemning the "unwarranted and continued detention" of #ThisFlag protest movement founder Pastor Evan Mawarire and the "incarceration" of Pastor Patrick Mugadza, who predicted Mr Mugabe, 92, will die on 17 October:

The newspaper said Mr Charamba did not have any kind words for the ambassador, Harry K Thomas Jr, who was appointed by the Obama administration. 

It quoted Mr Charamba as saying:

Pastor Mawarire has been charged with subversion following his return from the US last week. 

Pastor Mugadza was arrested on 16 January, and charged with "insulting people of a certain race or religion" for prophesying Mr Mugabe's death, according to his lawyer. 

Image source, PATRICK MUGADZA

This new species of gecko has been discovered in the Tsingy cave formations of northern Madagascar:

Image source, F. GLAW

When grasped by a predator it loses its skin, which has amazed researchers:

Image source, F. GLAW

The reptile, named Geckolepis megalepis, has the largest scales of any known gecko.

The scales can grow them back in a matter of weeks.

Read more on the BBC News website.

The militant Islamist group in Somalia, al-Shabab, has ambushed a convoy belonging to the African Union force in the country. 

The attack took place near the town of Mahadaay, in the Middle Shabelle region, around 120km (75 miles) north of the capital, Mogadishu. 

Local people told the BBC Somali service that fighting with heavy weapons continued for at least an hour, but there has been no information about casualties.

Alex Duval Smith
BBC News, Abidjan

An elite unit of soldiers in Ivory Coast has opened fire at a military barracks in Ivory Coast.

It comes a month after elements in the broader army staged a 48-hour mutiny over pay and conditions.

The uprising in the south-eastern town of Adiake, near the border with Ghana, is also understood to be over pay.

A resident in Adiake told the BBC the first shots were heard around 07:00 local time. Everyone remained then indoors, and schools and businesses are closed.

The mutineers are in the Ivorian Special Forces – a detachment that is rarely seen in public and considered arch-loyal to the government.

As such, their protest is a surprise.

The Special Forces did not join last month's mutiny over unpaid bonuses.

According to Ivorian media, their commander, Genl Lassina Doumbia, has held back daily bonus payments for their role in guarding the nearby border with Ghana.

The military authorities and the government have not yet commented.

Image source, Getty Images

Our previous post mentioned that Madonna, who has been given permission to adopt two more children from Malawi, founded a children's charity in the country.

Her work with that charity has been embroiled in controversy and has involved a "rocky" relationship with the authorities, AFP news agency reports. 

The singer was stripped of VIP status by former President Joyce Banda's government in 2013 and accused of being "uncouth" and wanting eternal gratitude from the country for her adoptions, AFP says. 

It adds that the dispute was over alleged mismanagement of plans for a girls' academy in Malawi, to be funded by Madonna. 

Ms Banda was ousted in 2014 elections and the new president, Peter Mutharika, moved to repair relations, saying "my government has always been grateful for the passion Madonna has for this country". 

But in July Madonna said she would not revive plans for the $15m (£12m) academy.

However, her charity is funding a surgical unit for children at the Queen Elizabeth hospital in the commercial hub Blantyre, AFP adds.

BBC Newsbeat reminds us that Madonna, who has been granted permission to adopt two more children from Malawi, originally denied that she was in the country to adopt. 

On 25 January, a Malawian government spokesperson told news outlets the 58-year-old singer had appeared in court and had "filed an application expressing interest" to adopt two children.

But Madonna said she was there only for charity purposes.

"The rumours of an adoption process are untrue," she said in a statement.

"I am in Malawi to check on the children's hospital in Blantyre and my other work with Raising Malawi and then heading home."

Madonna founded children's charity Raising Malawi in 2006, the same year she adopted David.

Last summer she took David, first left in this picture, and Mercy, fourth left, to visit the orphanages where they lived before being adopted:

Image source, Getty Images

The star's two other children - Lourdes, third left and Rocco, fifth left - are from previous relationships.

Image source, AP

Madonna will adopt four-year-old twin girls, Esther and Stella, from Malawi, AFP news agency reports. 

A court in the poor southern African state approved the pop star's request to adopt the pair, adding to the two children she had previously adopted from Malawi.

A leading newspaper in Malawi has tweeted:

Image source, AFP

US pop star Madonna was in court in Malawi's capital, Lilongwe, when a judge gave her permission to adopt two more children from the southern African state, judiciary spokesman Mlenga Mvula said, Reuters news agency reports, 

It quoted him as saying: 

Madonna adopted a child from Malawi in 2006 and another in 2009.

See earlier post for more details

Three police officers and one assailant have been killed in an attack on Banro Corp's Twangiza gold mine in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the company has told Reuters news agency. 

"There was an armed attack by robbers and the police opened fire to respond to the assailants," Banro's vice president for government relations, Desire Sangara, was quoted as saying.