Image source, Getty Images

The coach of English Premier League football team Crystal Palace has just said in a press conference that he isn't dismissing the idea of signing Togolese striker Emmanuel Adebayor from Tottenham Hotspur.

Adebayor hasn't played this season so far after Tottenham Hotspur said he wasn't in their plans.

"He's there for somebody to look at, the question is are we the right club for him, is he the right player for us? Can't dismiss anyone," said Alan Pardew.

This comes a day after Adebayor's previous coach Harry Rednapp wrote , externalthat signing the striker is a "no-brainer".

Following the news that a new case of Ebola has emerged in Sierra Leone, the BBC's Umaru Fofana tweeted this picture of someone selling bushmeat on the roadside: 

Scientists believe eating bushmeat is how Ebola was first transmitted to humans.  

Read: How world’s worst Ebola outbreak began with one boy’s death

British Prime Minister David Cameron was forced to confront the situation in Libya this week when he was quizzed by MPs, writes the BBC's Brian Wheeler.

Image source, PA

"The failure to engage in nation building has created a breeding ground for ISIL hasn't it?" asked Andrew Tyrie.

Mr Cameron replied that the international coalition's operation at the end of Col Gadaffi's rule "clearly didn't work".

The UK is reportedly preparing to send 1,000 "non-combat" troops to help the new government stabilise Libya and stem the advance of so-called Islamic State.

But the Ministry of Defence told BBC News no decisions have been made about future deployment.

The BBC's Umaru Fofana has said on Facebook , externalthat loud demonstrations have been taking place this morning outside the public hospital in Magburaka, Sierra Leone.

The protesters are demanding an explanation from the health authorities as to why nobody was told that a 22-year-old who was discharged from the hospital had Ebola.

She since died and her family washed her body - something that can spread Ebola.

Sierra Leone officials had confirmed another death from Ebola, hours after the World Health Organization declared the latest West Africa outbreak over. 

The Winnipeg Sun reports, external that 10 Somali orphans have arrived in Canada after their right to stay in Saudi Arabia was taken away from them when their father died:

Image source, Winnipeg Sun

Their father worked in the Somali Consulate in the Saudi Arabian city Jeddah.

Their mother had already died of cancer. And when he died of diabetes their documents were confiscated and they were stripped of their legal right to stay in the country, according to their Go Fund Me page, external.

It adds that they were born in Saudi Arabia and did not speak Somali.

They will be looked after by a Somali foster mother in Canada.

Abdourahmane Dia
BBC Afrique

The BBC has confirmed media reports in Burkina Faso saying that the judiciary there has issued an international arrest warrant against Guillaume Soro, the current speaker of parliament in Ivory Coast. 

Burkina Faso's ex-Prime Minister Isaac Zida had already said that Mr Soro had been heard on a recording advising a former Burkinabe Foreign Minister Djibril Bassole on how stage a successful coup. 

Mr Bassole is under arrest in relation to September's short-lived coup.

Mr Soro has always denied that his voice is the one on the tape.

Image source, AFP

The #ZumaMustFall hashtag is trending in South Africa as people comment on the giant billboard that's gone up this morning in Cape Town (see 11:21 post).

Some locals on Twitter are noting the reaction the billboard is getting:

And others have put in a comedic twist, turning the billboard into an advert for Nando's, a grilled chicken outlet:

Sierra Leone officials have confirmed a death from Ebola, hours after the World Health Organization declared the latest West Africa outbreak over.

The country was declared free of the virus on 7 November, and the region as a whole was cleared when Liberia was pronounced Ebola-free, external on Thursday.

Tests on a person who died in northern Sierra Leone proved positive, an Ebola test centre spokesman told the BBC.

The WHO has warned, however, that more flare-ups are expected.

The Sierra Leone death occurred earlier this week.

Reuters news agency is reporting that the victim was a 22-year-old female student.

Reuters also cites a local charity saying that she went to hospital but was treated as an outpatient.

Image source, AP

Pumza Fihlani
BBC News, Johannesburg

A massive "Zuma Must Fall" billboard that went up in central Cape Town this morning is causing a stir on social media.

A South African radio station has tweeted a photograph of it - and it looks like it's seven floors high.

There is a lot of speculation over who paid for it and many on Twitter are accusing the opposition Democratic Alliance.

The DA's national spokesperson Phumzile van Damme has said they are not responsible for the advert. 

"It isn’t ours," she is quoted as saying by the News24 website, external.  

South Africa's sports minister has tweeted his satirical take on the billboard:

Mary Harper
Africa editor, BBC World Service

There are contradictory accounts of who exactly was attacked this morning in Somalia.

Kenya says it was not their base in el-Ade which was attacked, but al-Shabab says that more than 60 Kenyan soldiers - part of the African Union force there - died.

The AU mission in Somalia - Amisom - have tweeted that their soldiers were attacked.

Al-Shabab are usually particularly accurate when talking about what they may have done, even if the death toll that they talk about may be exaggerated.

Al-Shabab - after having been pushed out of many areas of Somalia by Amisom and Somali government forces - have adopted a tactic of either carrying out spectacular attacks on sites in Mogadishu and Kenya or big attacks on AU bases.

A Kenyan military spokesman has told the BBC that al-Shabab claims that it killed more than 60 Kenyan soldiers in today's attack is "propaganda".

Colonel David Obonyo said that it was a Somali military base in el-Ade that was attacked, but that base was very close to where Kenyan soldiers, fighting with the AU's Amisom force, are stationed.

He said they then got involved in the fighting, and that clashes are continuing.

Image source, Getty Images

The United Nations human rights chief says he has evidence that Burundian security forces gang-raped women while searching the homes of suspected opposition supporters, Reuters news agency reports. 

Zeid Ra'ad al Hussein said the abuses occurred in the immediate aftermath of rebel attacks in mid-December against three military camps. 

"All the alarm signals, including the increasing ethnic dimension of the crisis, are flashing red," he said in the statement.

The AU force in Somalia, Amisom, says its troops were attacked earlier today, an attack the Islamist militants Al-Shabab say they carried out.

Kenya's ministry of defence says it was a Somali army base that was attacked.

Here’s a few details on who Amisom are:

• Amisom stands for African Union Mission in Somalia 

• The regional peacekeeping force was created in 2007

• They are in the country to “provide support for the Federal Government of Somalia in its efforts to stabilize the country”
• The bulk of the forces come from Uganda, Burundi, Djibouti, Kenya, Ethiopia and Sierra Leone
• There are 22,126 troops and police in Amisom

Read more on the Amisom website, external

Image source, AFP

Somalia's government, based in the capital Mogadishu, only controls part of the country.

The AU force is backing the government in its attempt to defeat al-Shabab.

This map from September 2015 - which includes the location of el-Ade, where today's attack happened - shows who is in control of what in Somalia.

Image source, BBC/Updated September 2015

It is still not clear if it was an African Union base, belonging to its Amisom mission, or a Somali army base that was attacked this morning in el-Ade.

Kenya's army - whose soldiers are part of the Amisom force - says the Somali army was targeted, but al-Shabab militants say that the Kenyans were the target.

Al-Shabab have attacked Amisom before including in June last year, when Burundian Amisom soldiers were killed.

There was also an attack on Ugandan Amisom soldiers in September 2015.

Image source, AFP

Somalia has not had a government in charge of the whole country for more than 20 years, during which there has been a lot of conflict there.    

Al-Shabab emerged and gained support from some by promising people security.

It advocates the Saudi-inspired Wahhabi version of Islam, while most Somalis are Sufis, and it pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda.

There have been reports that some members of al-Shabab have switched their loyalty to the so-called Islamic State group.  

It still has control in some rural areas and is believed to have between 7,000 and 9,000 fighters.

Read more on the BBC profile of al-Shabab

Image source, AFP

The AFP news agency is quoting a Somali army colonel Idris Ahmed giving details of today's al-Shabab attack in el-Ade.

He said: "There was suicide attack followed by the fighting and it seems that the base was stormed.

"And there was heavy fighting which caused casualties."

He did not confirm whether it was the Kenyans at the African Union base in el-Ade which was targeted or a Somali army base.

Tomi Oladipo
BBC Africa security correspondent

Despite some recent set-backs the Somalia-based Islamist group al-Shabab is keen to stress that is the force to be reckoned with in Somalia. 

This is a message to the Somali and African Union forces and to those Islamists who have recently split from al-Shabab. 

It is true that the group exaggerates the scale of its attacks but whether or not the death toll from today’s action is as high as claimed the AU force - Amisom - will be reminded of the lingering threat. 

It says a lot for the militants to be daring enough to strike close to a Kenyan base and engage troops in hours of combat. 

They have done this before, carrying out major attacks on the Ugandan and Burundian contingents of Amisom - as well as targeting the Somali government.

Mohammud Ali Mohamed
BBC Somali, Nairobi

The attack on the military base in the Somali town of el-Ade - close to the Kenyan border - comes as leaders from Somalia's regions are concluding two days of talks on how the elections can be held in the country.

This is significant as security is a big concern when it comes to holding elections.

The numbers of people killed in the attack on a military base in Somalia are unclear. 

The BBC's African Security correspondent explains why this might be:

The KDF stands for the Kenya Defence Forces.