Image source, AFP

South Africa's Constitutional Court has ordered mobile phone giant Vodacom to pay the man who came up with a callback service idea, reports the Sowetan, external.

Former Vodacom employee Nkosana Makate said the company's "please call me" service was his idea. 

It allows prepaid mobile phone users to send a message for free to other users asking to be called back.

South Africa's Tech Central website says, external this ruling in the case which "has dragged on for 10 years" has "potentially far-reaching implications".

It is not clear yet how much Vodacom will pay Mr Makate.

But he previously told Moneyweb that the invention had generated about 70bn rand ($5bn; £3bn) for Vodacom and wanted a 15% cut of that.    

Kenyans are already reacting on Twitter to President Uhuru Kenyatta's announcement that the former first lady Lucy Kibaki has died in hospital in London.

The country's foreign minister called her a defender of women's rights.

A Ugandan government department has also expressed its sympathy:

Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta has announced that the country's former first lady Lucy Kibaki has died at a hospital in London.

In an announcement he said that she "will be remembered for her immense contribution in the development of our country".

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She became infamous with journalists after she stormed the offices of a newspaper in 2005 angry over the way a story about her had been reported.

Somali Islamist militant group al-Shabab briefly overran a Somali army base near the city of Baidoa, 250km north-west of the capital, Mogadishu.

A local journalist told the BBC that 20 soldiers were killed.

But the base has been retaken and the African Union mission has tweeted that the militants also suffered heavy casualties.

In January an Amisom base was overrun and 180 Kenyan soldiers were killed according to the Somali president.

The South Sudan Tribune is predicting trouble at the airport where the South Sudanese rebel leader Riek Machar is due to leave for the capital:

It has said that far more people want to board the plane with Mr Machar than there are seats:

Image source, Getty

Vodafone's service M-Pesa has announced that it has over 25 million active customers across Africa, Asia and Europe, reports IT Web Africa, external.

The service, which allows you to transfer money via your mobile phone, started in Kenya. 

But the site reports that the growth has been spurred by launches in Ghana and Albania.

It now works in 11 countries and has over 261,000 agents.

A consortium of NGOs and charities working in Somalia says "urgent action is needed immediately" to avoid a disaster on the scale of the 2010-2012 famine that killed more than a quarter of a million Somalis.

Its statement says that four successive years of failed rains have pushed "nearly five million people... to the brink".

Somalia - like other parts of East Africa - has been hit by the fall out from the El Nino weather phenomenon. 

Our reporter in South Sudan has just tweeted:

Rebel leader Riek Machar has cancelled a number of planned trips to the capital, Juba, to take up his position as first vice president. 

But this South Sudan Tribune tweet indicates that the plane which will take Mr Machar to Juba is on its way to pick him up:

Burundi's President Pierre Nkurunziza has given security forces a week to find the people who killed an army general who was killed yesterday

General Athanase Kararuza, his wife and his bodyguard were attacked by heavily armed men as he dropped his child off at school in the capital, Bujumbura.

The president extended condolences to the bereaved families and appealed on the defence forces to remain united, said our correspondentPrimeNdikumagenge.

Tit-for-tat attacks between Mr Nkurunziza's security forces and his opponents have escalated since he announced a disputed bid for a third term as president exactly a year ago today.

Today’s African proverb:

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Welcome to the BBC Africa Live page where we'll be keeping you up-to-date with news developments on the continent.