In the meantime, keep up-to-date with what is happening across the continent by listening to the Africa Today podcast and checking the BBC News website.

A reminder of Today's proverb:

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And we leave you with this photo of Angolan biker posted to Instagram from the central town of  Luena:

South African President Jacob Zuma has strongly denied that a wealthy family alleged to have influence over him is able to appoint ministers. 

During angry exchanges, Mr Zuma told parliament that he alone chooses the cabinet. 

A senior politician has said he was offered the finance minister's job by members of the Gupta family. 

The Guptas deny the accusation.  

The 10-person short list for the African poetry prize, external awarded by the UK's Brunel University and Commonwealth Writers has been announced.

The judges had to whittle it down from 900 entries.

The 10 are: 

• Nigeria's Gbenga Adesina
• Ghana's Victoria-Anne Bulley
• Nigeria's Mary-Alice Daniel
• Nigeria's Chekwube O. Danladi
• Angola's Amy Lukau
• Kenya's Ngwatilo Mawiyoo
• Eitrea's Momtaza Mehri
• Mauritius' Saradha Soobrayen
• Somalia's Warsan Shire
• Zambia's Chimwemwe Undi

The winner, to be announced on 11 May, will get £3,000. 

Image source, Brunel

James Copnall
Africa editor, BBC World Service

Image source, Getty Images

Sudan has threatened to shut its recently reopened borders with South Sudan.

A senior aide to Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir accused South Sudan of supporting Sudanese rebel groups, something the government in Juba has always denied. 

The borders were only reopened in January, after years of tense relations between the countries. 

The Sudanese cabinet has also decided to change the special status accorded to South Sudanese citizens inside Sudan. They will now be treated as foreigners when it comes to access to education and healthcare. 

The relationship between the two Sudans was extremely bad after South Sudan seceded in July 2011, but it gradually improved after several cooperation agreements were signed the following year.

Suspected pirates have killed two members of Nigeria's security forces after ambushing their patrol team in the southern Rivers state, the army says.

"Our men displayed extraordinary gallantry. Unfortunately, an officer and a soldier who sustained various degrees of injury during the encounter lost their lives", it added.

"We are in pursuit of the criminals and will surely get them," army spokesman Captain Eli Lazarus is quoted as saying. 

Political tensions are high in the oil-rich state ahead of this weekend's local election re-run with a number of people being killed in recent days.

The re-run for seats in the Rivers state assembly and the national parliament in Abuja comes after court rulings on challenges to the initial results.

We reported earlier (see 11:25 entry) that Liberia's President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was in Ivory Coast to express her support for the country following Sunday's attack on the Grand Bassam beach resort.

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) say they were responsible for the attack in which 18 people died.

Other regional delegations have also been in the country.

And the office of Ivory Coast's president has been tweeting some pictures.

The leader of Ghana's delegation Defence Minister, Benjamin Kumbuor said that "Ghana and Ivory Coast are brother countries. If Ivory Coast can't sleep then Ghana can't sleep."

And Burkina Faso's Interior Minister Simon Compaore also came: 

He said: "Our support is total because we have ties of brotherhood and friendship. Anything that happens here can happen in Burkina Faso."

A hotel and cafe in Burkina Faso's capital, Ouagadougou, was hit by an AQIM attack in January in which 28 people died.

Niger's opposition candidate in Sunday's presidential election run-off Hama Amadou is "feeling better" after receiving treatment at a hospital in Paris, one of his aides told the AFP news agency.

The 66-year-old former premier and parliament speaker was airlifted on Wednesday from his prison, where he is being held on baby-trafficking charges, which he denies.

He came second in the first round on 21 February with 18%, far behind incumbent President Mahamadou Issoufou, who picked up 48%.

However, his party says he will boycott the Sunday's vote.

Image source, AFP

Ethiopia's Prime Minister Hailemariam Deslaegn says his country has received "very little" international aid and it has come "very late" in helping it deal with the impact of the recent drought, the AP news agency reports.

The government estimates that more than 10 million Ethiopians need food aid.

Mr Hailemariam told AP that he urges "organisations like Unicef to come in if they think this is a worst case scenario. Just talking is not a solution".

He recognised that there are lots of other emergency situations in the world but said his country "should not be neglected by any means".

AP reports that the US has given Ethiopia $532m (£370m) in humanitarian aid since October 2014 and that Ethiopia has spent $380m of its own money.

It's estimated that the country needs $1.4bn assistance in all.

Image source, AFP

Jonathan Paye-Layleh
BBC Africa, Monrovia

Liberia's corruption fighters are appealing to people's emotions in a new billboard campaign.

Liberia came 83rd in the most recent Transparency International perception of corruption index, external.

Fighting corruption in the last years of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf's tenure has proved an uphill struggle.

This month’s BBC Africa Debate will look at corruption.

The programme will be recorded on 23 March in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and broadcast two days later.

Listeners can use #BBCAfricaDebate on social media to get involved.

Mohamed Fajah Barrie
BBC Sport, Freetown

Sierra Leone will go ahead with their friendly match against Malawi after the Sierra Leone Football Association (SLFA) secured a venue.

The Leone Stars will face the Flames at the Siaka Stevens stadium, Freetown, on 22 March, their first match at home since they hosted Seychelles in July 2014.

The match was almost cancelled over a $10,000 fee demanded by the now sacked country's sports minister Paul Kamara.

The SLFA told BBC Sport: "We will not pay any cash for the use of the stadium."

The country was banned from hosting international matches following the outbreak of deadly Ebola virus in 2014.

Read the full BBC story here

Some residents of northern Cameroon have praised a military court's decision to sentence 89 members of militant Islamist group Boko Haram to death after finding them guilty of terrorism charges. 

Two other people were acquitted by the court on the same charges in January. 

Speaking to the BBC Hausa service from Garoua, one person said:      

Another person says:

Human rights groups have called for the reform of Cameroon's justice system after it emerged that those convicted have no right to appeal against the judgement. 

See our 09:15 post for more details  

Image source, AFP

Football's world governing body Fifa appears is trying to clarify a statement yesterday that gave the impression that it thought South Africa won the right to host the 2010 World Cup through bribery.

On Wednesday, in a legal submission to the US authorities, Fifa said that a payment to support the African Diaspora in the Caribbean region was "in reality... a bribe".

In a Fifa statement today described as a clarification, the organisation says it "does not allege that South Africa bought the World Cup with bribes".

It was merely pointing to documents that accuse "certain individuals of criminal behaviour".

Image source, AFP

However, the clarification does not appear to rule out the possibility of South Africa offering a bribe.   

Earlier, South Africa's Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula denied that any bribe was paid and described the allegation as despicable (see 11:40 entry).

In Sierra Leone, the recent flare-up of Ebola is now over, Reuters news agency is reporting the World Health Organization (WHO) as saying.

It has gone 42 days without any new cases, but the WHO has warned that the virus could return.

Sierra Leone has reached this point before - last November - and then new cases emerged.

The WHO says that nearly 4,000 people died in Sierra Leone as a result of the Ebola outbreak.

Southampton's Kenyan midfielder Victor Wanyama will resume playing this coming weekend after serving a five-match ban imposed on him by his club for picking up three red cards this season. 

Southampton host Liverpool on Sunday. 

He says the enforced lay off has proved to be a difficult period. 

BBC Africa's Peter Musembi caught up with Wanyama at Southampton's training ground, and first asked him how playing in the English Premier League has helped his career.

In South Africa, the accusations surrounding the Gupta family and their alleged influence on ministerial appointments has got a lot of people talking on Twitter.

The Guptas have denied the allegations.

Now South African ex-pats have joined in.

Comedian Trevor Noah hosts the US satirical TV programme the Daily Show.

He's been sharing a joke:

A Kenyan teacher who gives classes against violent extremism says he doesn't regret losing out on a $1m (£690,000) world's best teacher prize.

Ayub Mohamud lost the Varkey Foundation prize on Monday to Palestinian Hanan Al Hroub.

Mr Mohamud was nominated for his de-radicalisation classes at a school identified as a recruiting ground for Islamist militants in a suburb of Kenya's capital, Nairobi.

''I am very grateful to be recognized and to be amongst the 10 finalists, it shows I'm truly appreciated," he told the BBC's Abdinoor Aden.

Image source, AP

Egypt says a search for the resting place of the pharaonic Queen Nefertiti has revealed possible "organic material" inside empty spaces behind two walls in the tomb of Tutankhamun.

The antiquities minister said radar scans carried out in November pointed to "different things behind the walls".

A more advanced scan will be conducted later this month to ascertain whether the empty spaces are in fact chambers.

A British Egyptologist believes Nefertiti, who ruled in the 14th Century BC, was buried there.

Read the full BBC story here

The speaker of South Africa's parliament has ordered the country's opposition leader Mmusi Maimane to leave the chamber.

The speaker said that he ignored her calls for him to sit down.

Mr Maimane was trying to ask President Jacob Zuma a supplementary question about the appointment of ministers and the alleged influence of the Gupta family.

All members of Mr Maimane's Democratic Alliance party then walked out.

Image source, SA Parliament

One MP then shouted: "You're protecting the Guptas."

To loud cheers from his party's MPs, South Africa's President Jacob Zuma has told parliament that there is no minister who was appointed by the Guptas.

He told the opposition's Mmusi Maimane that if they want to know about whether the Guptas spoke to Deputy Finance Minister Mcebisi Jonas to offer him the finance minister's job "don't ask me".

Mr Jonas made the claim yesterday and the revelation appeared to confirm a long-running accusation that the family is exercising political influence over the president.

Image source, SA Parliament

You can follow proceedings here: