Image source, Getty Images

The African National Congress has announced its decision to recall South African President Jacob Zuma.

Speaking during a press conference, the Secretary-General of the ANC Ace Magashule said that a delegation had visited Mr Zuma and asked him to step down.

"The president... agreed in principle to resign under a proposed timeframe extending from three to six months," Mr Magashule said.

The ANC, however, wants to act more quickly.

"South Africa is going through a period of uncertainty and anxiety," Mr Magashule added. "The [National Executive Committee] firmly believes the situation requires us to act firmly."

After the press conference, the ANC tweeted its decision to recall Mr Zuma.

Should the president continue to ignore its demands to step down, the ANC can hold a no-confidence vote against him. A motion by opposition parties is already in place.

Comedian Samba Sine entertains Senegalese viewers every night with the Kouthia show, a humorous take on the day's news stories.

But it's his impersonation of US President Donald Trump that has made him famous beyond his country's borders.

The diaspora living in the United States has been following his skits in Wolof, Senegal's main local language, since the presidential campaign.

South Africa's Film and Publications Board is holding a hearing into complaints made against Inxeba (The Wound), which features a gay love story, the news site Times Live reports, external.

The Congress of Traditional Leaders of South Africa has asked for the film to be banned, and suggested it be given a higher age restriction if that's not possible.

The film has been criticised both for depicting a gay relationship and for showing the ritual of ukwaluka - a Xhosa circumcision ceremony for men around the age of 18.

The Film and Publications Board said its unlikely to have a ruling by the end of the day.

On Twitter, the people behind Inxeba have been opposing any kind of censorship.

Image source, Getty Images

Fourteen human rights groups have called on Egypt's Western allies to denounce the country's "farcical" elections, the news agency AFP reports, external.

The collective, which includes Human Rights Watch and the International Commission of Jurists, said that next month's presidential election can not be considered free and fair since the only candidates are the incumbent president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, and one of his biggest supporters.

Moussa Mustafa Moussa is running against Mr Sisi, but critics say he entered the race at the last minute, just to give Mr Sisi someone to run against.

Opposition leaders refused to run for election, instead calling for a boycott of the vote.

They're now being investigated by Egyptian officials for allegedly trying to destabilise the country.

BBC Monitoring
The world through its media

Image source, SPL

A Nigerian man has written an open letter to the National Geographic, asking the US-based magazine to investigate money-eating snakes in Nigeria after a sales clerk told auditors a snake had eaten 36m naira ($100,000; £72,250).

The sales clerk's bosses dismissed the claim and suspended her.

But the snake alibi has caught the imagination of the country and this letter is the latest example of a Nigerian making fun of the excuse.

In the letter published, external by the privately-owned Nigerian newspaper ThisDay, Reuben Abati tells National Geographic that “here in Nigeria, we now seem to have a variety of snakes that are attracted by the smell of raw cash”.

He asks the magazine to send its “experts and investigators [who] can deploy the tools of science and investigative journalism to seek out these snakes and catch them in action”.

He goes on to write:

Image source, Getty Images

The UN children's agency, Unicef, has admitted it failed to support children who alleged they were raped by French peacekeepers in the Central African Republic, the Guardian reports, external.

The UK newspaper points out that the statement, which was issued by Unicef Netherlands, is the first public acknowledgement of Unicef's shortcomings.

Unicef was put in charge of looking after the children who alleged they'd been sexually abused.

But, the Guardian says, in March 2017, a Swedish investigative revealed that some of the children were homeless, and not being cared for by Unicef.

The newspaper goes on to say that at the time, the agency said it didn't realise the children were on the streets, but later said it was trying to find them and offer support.

Image source, AFP

A skier competing for Togo in the Winter Olympics has failed to qualify in the cross-country skiing race this morning.

Mathilde-Amivi Petitjean came 59th out of 68 skiers with a time of 3:45.93.

Petitjean used to compete for France but she was born in Togo to a Togolese mother and was asked in 2013 to start competing for the country.

Other athletes competing for African countries in the Winter Olympics include skiers for Eritrea, Kenya, Madagascar and Morocco.

A Ghanaian and a Nigerian are also competing in the skeleton race - where you lie on a piece of metal and head down the track head first.

A team of Nigerian women are competing in the bobsled - a situation that has frequently been compared to the film Cool Runnings, which is about the Jamaican bobsled team.

The official statistics service for the South African government has released the country's latest unemployment figures.

Statistics South Africa tweeted that black women suffer from the highest unemployment rate, with 32.4% unemployed in the final quarter of 2017.

White people had the lowest unemployment rate with 5.1% for men and 8.8% for women in the final quarter of 2017.

Only two groups saw an increase in unemployment from the third to the fourth quarter of 2017.

White women saw their unemployment increase from 7.5% to 8.8% while Indian/Asian men saw theirs increase from 8.8% to 9.0%.

Chris Ewokor
BBC Africa, Abuja

A baby girl conjoined with an unresponsive twin has survived after surgeons carried out a successful separation in the northern Nigerian city of Bauchi.

Seven surgeons, doctors and other medical staff worked to part the conjoined twins during a two-hour operation.

Officials in the state said the female baby who survived is responding well to treatment.

The conjoined twins were born in December last year to a 20-year-old mother in Bauchi state.

Reports say one of the twins was born not breathing, necessitating urgent medical help to separate them.

The Speaker of the Nigerian House of Representatives Yakubu Dogara sponsored the separation of the twins.

Image source, AP

The commander of the Somali National Army General Abdullahi Ali Anod has said that special forces have destroyed the main radio station of the al-Shabab militant group, Radio Andalus.

As part of the operation in Mubarak town, southern Somalia, troops also destroyed three vehicles full of explosives.

General Anod added that forces also seized an al-Shabab weapons depot that was full of explosives.

Yesterday, the Somali National Army - supported by US forces - overran three villages including Mubarak in Lower Shabelle Region, which were held by al-Shabab.

The group later reported on their website, Somali Memo, that they took over the villages after the allied forces withdrew.

BBC World Service

Anti-government protesters in Ethiopia's biggest region, Oromia, are on the second day of a three-day strike to demand the release of all politicians and journalists held during more than two years of unrest.

Many roads were blocked and businesses closed during the opening day of the strike yesterday.

Ethiopia's attorney general has announced that charges of inciting violence against a leading opposition politician, Bekele Gerba, are being dropped.

Mr Gerba, who was arrested in December 2015, was initially accused of having links to terrorist groups, but the charge was later downgraded.

He will now be released alongside six others who were arrested with him.

Image source, Getty Images

Ishaq Khalid
BBC Africa, Abuja

Image source, Boko Haram video

At least 20 people have been jailed in Nigeria for being members of the Islamist militant group Boko Haram.

The accused were sentenced to jail terms of between three and 15 years as part of the ongoing mass trials of more than 1,000 suspects at a military facility in the north-central town of Kainji.

Among the convicted was a disabled man found guilty of participating in the abduction of more than 200 schoolgirls in the north-eastern town of Chibok in 2014.

He has been sentenced to 15 years in prison, the first time someone has been jailed in connection with the Chibok abductions.

Sources at the courts told the BBC that a further 700 suspects are due to stand trial this week.

The Nigerian authorities say there are more than 6,000 Boko Haram suspects being detained across the country.

In October 45 people were sentenced to between three and 31 years in prison for being members of the militant group.

Andrew Harding
BBC News, Johannesburg

Image source, Getty Images

South African President Jacob Zuma has been told to step down by his own party, according to multiple reports.

The ANC’s top leadership met late into the night to debate the matter before sending a delegation to Mr Zuma.

But even if the president has been ordered to quit, there's no guarantee that he will.

There has been no word yet from Mr Zuma, who could choose to ignore the ANC and take the matter to parliament.

The ANC has not announced its decision officially. But it’s understood the party is now preparing for a vote of no-confidence in the president. A motion by opposition parties is already in place.

These are dramatic, anxious times for South Africa, as a leader engulfed by corruption scandals seeks to cling onto power.

It’s being reported that Mr Zuma was demanding another three months in office, but that his successor - the new leader of the ANC Cyril Ramaphosa - said no.

Image source, Getty Images

The US has added more Zimbabweans to its sanctions list, Zimbabwe's privately owned NewsDay reports, external.

Government sources reportedly told NewsDay that the foreign minister Sibusiso Moyo was told two weeks ago that sanctions would be extended to more ministers at least until the general election.

The newspaper says the sanctions are believed to include new ministers who have joined Mr Mnangagwa's cabinet.

NewsDay's sources told the newspaper that the US believes politicians deserve sanctions because it perceived President Emmerson Mnangagwa to have come to power in a military coup.

However, the US has not commented and its Treasury's sanctions page has not been updated since March 2017 - where is already lists Mr Mnangagwa as a sanctioned individual.

Image source, Getty Images

Rwanda's media watchdog has ordered a three-month shut down of a US-owned Christian radio station after it broadcast a sermon against women, it told the AFP news agency.

"The sermon was denigrating women in the most vile manner," commission chief Edmund Kagire told AFP.

The radio station, Amazing Grace FM, broadcast a sermon by local pastor Nicolas Niyibikora on 29 January in which he called women dangerous, evil and against the plans of God.

The National Women's Association and the Women's Journalist Association to the Rwanda Media Commission, which oversees journalist ethics, both complained about the broadcast.

The radio station is owned by American evangelist Gregg Schoof, who said he condemned any denigration of women.

Our African proverb of the day:

Click here to send us your African proverbs

Welcome to BBC Africa Live where we will bring you the latest news from around the continent.