That's it from today. To keep up-to-date with news from across the continent, listen to the BBC Africa podcast or check the BBC News website.

Today's African proverb has been:

Click here to send your African proverbs.

And we leave you with this picture of a de-horned black rhino taken today in Klerksdorp, South Africa:

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Getty Images

Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari has vowed "severe punishment" for officials who embarrassed the government by doctoring the record $31bn (£20.8bn) national budget he tabled in parliament in December. 

"I have been a military governor, petroleum minister, military head of state and headed the Petroleum Trust Fund. Never had I heard the words 'budget padding'," Mr Buhari said in a statement.

He added that Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udo Udoma, had worked so hard on the budget that he "became almost half his size during the time", only for "some people to pad it".

“It is very embarrassing and disappointing. We will not allow those who did it to go unpunished," President Buhari said.    

Image source, Alamy

Changes to the budget - the first presented by Mr Buhari since he took office - were discovered by journalists and lawmakers when it was debated in parliament, fuelling speculation that corrupt officials were behind the move. 

This included a sum of $50m which was "smuggled" into the budget of the ministry of education, while Health Minister Issac Odewale disowned what was presented to the parliament, saying some “rats” had added items into his budget. 

Read: Nigeria's 'budget mafia'

Image source, AFP

Italy wants Egyptian investigators to hand over the evidence on the killing of an Italian student killed in Cairo, reports Reuters news agency. 

"Cooperation with our investigative team can be and must be more effective," Italy's Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said during parliament's question time. 

Giulio Regeni disappeared on 25 January, and his mutilated body was found a week later dumped by a roadside.

Egyptian activists have suggested that Egypt's security forces may have been responsible for his death. He had been researching independent trade unions in Egypt, and had been critical of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's government.

Egyptian officials have denied that the security forces had a hand in his killing. 

Instead, they have suggested that the murder could have been motivated by crime or revenge.

Read more on the BBC News website.

The South African budget presented by Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan is trending on Twitter in the country, with people summing up their views: 

Benghazi residents have been celebrating after Islamist militants lost control of key parts of the Libyan city, where the uprising against former leader Muammar Gaddafi started in 2011. 

Local journalist Rami Musa told the BBC's Outside Source that "the joy is just indescribable".

Listen to him describe what it was like to return to his home for the first time in two years:

People are sharing pictures, showing cars driving back into the city, using a hashtag which translates as "Benghazi wins":

Image source, AFP

Researchers in the US say the Ebola outbreak in three West African states is likely to have led to nearly twice as many deaths as thought because it diverted health resources away from other deadly diseases. 

Their study calculates that this indirectly caused 10,000 more people to die in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia - almost as many as were killed in the Ebola outbreak. 

The researchers from the Yale School of Public Health say treatments for malaria, HIV/Aids and tuberculosis were the worst hit - because of the overwhelming pressure on health systems in the region.

Tamasin Ford
BBC Africa, Abidjan

Image source, Getty Images

The news that Burkina Faso ex-president Blaise Compaore is now a citizen of Ivory Coast has sparked rage in some camps and resignation in others.

But one thing for sure: it has surprised few. 

Mr Compaore is a long-time friend of Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara.  

When he fled Burkina Faso after he was ousted by his people in October 2014, he came straight to Ivory Coast and stayed in a government house in the capital, Yamoussoukro. 

Mr Compaore’s wife is also French-Ivorian. So legally his new citizenship is completely normal.  

But the issue is that Ivory Coast does not extradite its citizens.  

And an international arrest warrant was issued in December for Mr Compaore over his alleged role in the murder of his predecessor Thomas Sankara.  

People want to see justice for the murder of the man known by many across the continent as Africa’s Che Guevara.  

But with Mr Compaore enjoying Ivorian citizenship, it is unlikely he will ever go back to Burkina Faso.

He has always denied involvement in the 1987 murder of Sankara.

Ivorian fashion designer Loza Maleombho is in the spotlight after one of her designs was spotted in Beyonce's latest music video.

The outfit is worn by a dancer in the video for the US singer's song Formation.

Ms Maleombho started her fashion brand in New York, but later relocated production to Ivory Coast.

Her designs are now stocked in Nigeria, the UK and the US.

As part of the BBC's Women of Africa season, we put together a video of her fashion line: 

Image source, AFP

South Africa's currency fell by 2.25% against the dollar shortly after Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan delivered the national budget, AFP news agency reports. 

"I expected a much firmer austerity budget," Mohammed Nalla, head of strategic research at Nedbank, told AFP. 

"This budget will not be enough to help us avoid a credit downgrade in the near future, but it may have helped us buy a bit of time." 

In his budget, Mr Gordhan promised greater cooperation with the private sector in an effort to boost growth, which he forecast would drop to below 1% this year, AFP reports. 

Increased taxes on excise duties, capital gains, fuel, sugary drinks, alcohol and tobacco, as well as environmental levies, are expected to bring in an extra 18bn rand ($1.18bn). 

Image source, AFP

Mobile phone giant MTN says it is still seeking an "amicable settlement" with Nigeria over the $3.9bn (£2.8bn) fine imposed on it, AFP news agency reports. 

It had withdrawn a legal challenge over the fine, and had paid $250m towards a "settlement, where one is eventually, hopefully arrived at",  AFP quotes an MTN statement as saying. 

Nigeria's telecom regulator imposed the penalty last year after the South African-owned firm missed a deadline to disconnect 5.1 million unregistered Sim cards.

Nigeria is the MTN group's largest market, where it had more than 62.8 million subscribers by the second quarter of 2015. 

See our 13:23 post for more details

South Africa will introduce a tax on sugar-sweetened drinks from 1 April 2017,  Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan has said.

Eyewitness News called it, external a "surprise move" by Mr Gordhan. 

Critics will say the new tax is aimed at increasing the cash-strapped government's income, but the treasury said it was intended to tackle obesity:

Image source, AFP

Morris, a 15-year-old street child, has blown the Kenyan press away with his observations about his life.

The Standard says, external in its headline that he "dazzles Kenyans with his brilliant plea".

In the video, Morris says that there are a lot of talented people on the streets but they lack opportunity:

It was filmed by a volunteer of Homeless of Nairobi.

They wrote on their Facebook page, external that within an hour of posting it somebody offered to pay for a year of school.

Morris said that when he previously went to school he was so bright that he was nicknamed "Illuminati".

A BBC reporter has been tweeting about the finance minister's budget, which he presented in parliament:

The editor-in-chief of South Africa's Mail & Guardian newspaper has been tweeting about the national budget, delivered by Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan: 

Image source, Getty Images

Africa's mobile phone giant MTN says it has paid Nigeria $250m (£180m) to help end a dispute over its failure to cut off unregistered users, AFP news agency reports.

"Pursuant to the ongoing engagement with the Nigerian Authorities, MTN Nigeria has today made a... good faith payment of 50 billion naira ($250m)," MTN said in a statement, it reports. 

Nigeria's telecom regulator had initially fined the South African-owned firm $5.2bn, but the amount was later brought down to $3.9bn. 

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has not yet commented.    

Mary Harper
Africa editor, BBC World Service

Image source, AFP

Peace monitors in South Sudan say forces loyal to the former rebel leader, Riek Machar, will be deployed to the capital, Juba, next month. 

This is the first time the troops will go to Juba since the civil war erupted in 2013. Earlier this month, President Salva Kiir gave back Mr Machar his old job of vice-president. 

Thousands have been killed and more than two million displaced in two years of fighting between forces loyal to Mr Kiir and Mr Machar. 

A string of ceasefire deals have failed to hold.

BBC Africa Business Report presenter tweets about the South African budget being delivered by the finance minster: 

South Africa's Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan has been delivering his budget in parliament. Here are some of his comments:

Ummulkhair Ibrahim
BBC Africa, Abuja

Nigerian tweeters are campaigning against phone companies taking their airtime for text messages they did not subscribe to.

They are using the hashtag #NoToTelcommBully in an attempt to pressure the companies to deal with the problem:

Others say mobile phone service providers are continuously deducting their airtime for calls they did not make, unsolicited text messages, and caller tunes they did not buy.  

The telecom regulator has had meetings with Mobile Network Operators and issued warnings against ripping off  subscribers.  

Image source, AFP

South Africa's finance minister increased taxes and targeted what he called wasteful and corrupt government spending in a "crisis" budget aimed at preventing a ratings downgrade to junk status, AFP news agency reports. 

"There is no doubt about the fact that we are in crisis," Pravin Gordhan told a media conference ahead of his budget speech.   

Africa's most developed economy is struggling with shrinking growth, unemployment running at 25%, and widespread poverty.