Clare Spencer
BBC Africa Live

That's all from BBC Africa Live for now. Keep up-to-date with what's happening across the continent by listening to the Africa Today podcast or check the BBC News website.

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And we leave you with this birds eye view taken in Praia in Cape Verde:

BBC World Service

US forces in Somalia say they have killed 24 members of the militant group, al-Shabab, in an airstrike in Hiran region.

The US Africa Command said it had no reports of civilians hurt in the attack on a militant camp near Shebeley on Wednesday.

Spokesman Maj Gen Gregg Olson said the operation had been carried out in support of the Somali government.

Ameyu Etana
BBC Afaan Oromo

Image source, SIBU SIRE COMMUNICATION

An Ethiopian man who woke up in his coffin during his burial two months ago has died.

Hirpha Negero was pronounced dead in November and was placed inside a coffin, where he lay for five hours, but during the funeral villagers heard knocking from inside the coffin.

Mr Hirpha told the BBC at the time what he experienced:

Then he said he managed to start calling, "Is there anybody around?"

The village undertaker Etana Kena said that people were shocked and ran away and he had had to open the coffin alone.

After the initial shock, the burial ceremony then turned into a celebration.

The undertaker, who is also Mr Hirpha’s uncle, said: “I have buried more than 50 or 60 bodies. I have never anything seen like this before. He seemed to be dead.”

Mr Hirpha said he had had visions when he was unconscious of “a beautiful green place” where a man dressed in white told him to "go back".

Dr Birra Leggese told the BBC that Mr Hirpha had probably been in a “deep coma”.

The same undertaker buried Mr Negero for the second time on Thursday, one day after he died.

He said that this time he was certain his nephew was dead because he had witnessed his long sickness.

Killian Ngala Chimtom
BBC Africa, Yaounde

Image source, Getty Images

Lawyers for Cameroon's main opposition leader, Maurice Kamto - who was arrested on Monday, say he has been charged with insurrection.

If found guilty, he could face a prison term of five years to life.

The lawyers say Mr Kamto and 200 other detainees also face seven other charges, including holding illegal gatherings and disturbing the peace.

The Cameroon Renaissance Movement (MRC) party leader was arrested after protests at the weekend that took place in some major cities in Cameroon and at embassies in Paris and Berlin.

Protesters were demonstrating against the result of last October's election, which they say was rigged.

Mr Kamto came second in the presidential election, which was won by Paul Biya - who has ruled Cameroon for the past 36 years.

Christopher Ndong, Mr Kamto’s lawyer, said his client denied the charges and that his right to the freedom of speech had been infringed.

Mr Kamto had been simply exercising his right to protest, he said.

"The government clampdown will not frighten anybody," Mr Ndong said, adding that further protests were planned for Saturday.

Pumza Fihlani
BBC News, Johannesburg

Scores of people gathered outside mobile company Vodacom’s office in Midrand, a business hub in the South African city of Johannesburg, in a show of support for an ex-employee who is in a protracted legal battle with the company over non-payment.

The protest follows a 2016 Constitutional Court ruling which found that ex-employee Nkosana Makate was the inventor of the "Please Call Me" service and Vodacam had failed to honour its business deal with him when it didn’t pay him for the idea.

Please Call Me, which was introduced in 2001, allows you to send a free text message asking to be phoned back.

Mr Makate's lawyers estimate that the company has made 70bn rand ($5,2m; £4m) from the innovation. He has previously indicated that he wants a 15% of that. Negotiations became deadlocked recently.

In a statement, the company said it had made a “substantial offer” to Mr Makate and now “considers the matter closed”.

It is unclear how much Mr Makate was offered, but he intends to return to the court in a bid to fight for more.

The protesters, who called themselves the #pleasecallmemovement, have also threatened to change their mobile providers and disrupt Vodacom’s business operations across the country if the company does not pay Mr Makate.

Image source, Getty Images

A key member of Algeria's ruling coalition says it is backing President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to seek a fifth term in office, reports Reuters news agency.

The National Rally for Democracy (RND), which is allied to the Mr Bouteflika's National Liberation Front (FLN) party, was looking forward to the announcement of the 81-year-old's candidacy, party chief and Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia told Reuters.

The president - who uses a wheelchair and has rarely been seen in public since a stroke in 2013 - has not yet confirmed whether he will seek a new mandate.

Presidential candidates have until 3 March to submit their application for the election in April.

Favour Nunoo
BBC Pidgin, Accra

Masked security officers opened fire near crowds of Ghanaian opposition party activists by a polling station during a by-election in the capital, Accra.

Seven people are being treated for injuries, according to officials at the University of Ghana hospital.

A local journalist shared a photo of the masked security agents at the La Bawalashie Presby polling station:

The security officials were following up on an allegation of suspicious activity during the by-election in Ayawaso West Wuogon constituency.

The candidate for the opposition party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC), lives a few metres away from the polling station and when the security forces attempted to enter his house his supporters tried to prevent them.

In retaliation, the security forces fired warning shots.

The NDC has pulled out from the race and is set to notify Ghana’s Electoral Commission officially, Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, national chairman of the party, has said.

The party has asked all its agents to withdraw from the various polling stations as their security and safety cannot be assured.

Image source, Reuters

Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir has ridiculed his opponents' use of social media to organise protests against his rule.

Mr Bashir, who has won elections several times since coming to power in a coup in 1989, made the comments as he addressed rally of his supporters in the eastern city of Kassala:

As he spoke, fresh demonstrations broke out in the capital, Khartoum, calling for the 75-year-old president to step down.

The demonstrations started last month over cuts to bread and fuel subsidies, but later developed into anger at his nearly 30-year rule.

The government says 30 people have been killed in clashes since the protests began, but human rights groups say the number is more than 40.

• Read more: Why people keep cash under the mattress in Sudan

Louise Dewast
Dakar, Senegal

The number of internally displaced people has tripled in Mali over the course of a year, according to the UN.

One of the main reasons is the growing insecurity at the border with Burkina Faso.

Half of those internally displaced in Mali - that's 120,000 people - are in the region of Mopti. Most have fled the south-eastern border with Burkina Faso and sought refuge in other parts of the region.

The UN says people are escaping worsening inter-communal violence and armed conflict.

A third of those who left their homes did so between September and December last year.

Armed conflict is also spreading from the north to central Mali and along the borders with Burkina Faso and Niger.

Displaced people are confronted with difficult living conditions as temperatures in the Sahel rising faster than the global average.

The UN estimates roughly 80% of farmland in the region is degraded even though a majority depend on livestock and agriculture.

• Read more: The battle on the frontline of climate change in Mali

BBC Monitoring
The world through its media

Image source, Getty Images

Security forces have released the daughter of Sudanese opposition leader Sadiq al-Mahdi, the privately-owned Baj News website reports.

Mariam Sadiq al-Mahdi had been detained on Wednesday morning.

Ms al-Mahdi is deputy head of the opposition Umma Party. This is headed by her father, Sudan’s last democratically elected prime minister who was overthrown by President Omar al-Bashir in a coup in 1989.

Her party supports the ongoing anti-government protests.

Speaking shortly after her release, Mariam said she was questioned by the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS), but vowed that "intimidation attempts" would not work against herself or her party.

Aliyu Tanko
BBC Africa, Lagos

Image source, Getty Images

The main opposition candidate in the next month's presidential election in Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar, has said he would consider granting an amnesty for people willing to surrender their stolen cash.

He made the comments on a televised town hall meeting on Wednesday evening when he and his running mate Peter Obi faced questions.

Mr Abubakar argued that money stolen through corruption and stashed abroad was unlikely to be retrieved through traditional means:

Mr Abubakar's stand has caused controversy on social media.

Some say the policy will exacerbate impunity for corruption in Nigeria while others argue it may yield a positive result especially considering that the process to prosecute corrupt officials is often complicated.

The stealing of public funds by officials is blamed for the neglect of infrastructure, power shortages and unemployment in the country.

Zimbabwe's President Mnangagwa has established an advisory council to help him formulate economic policies, reports the state-run Herald newspaper, external.

A few notable people in the 26-member group are the newspaper mogul Trevor Ncube, fuel importer Kudakwashe Tagwirei and hotelier Shingi Munyeza.

Chief secretary to the president, Misheck Sibanda, told the Herald that the council would act as Mr Mnangagwa's sounding board on economic reforms.

The article talked about Zimbabwe positioning itself as an international trading partner.

But it made no mention of the current economic crisis currently gripping the nation.

Bread has been rationed, and this month saw violent protests against the rising cost of living, triggered by a more than doubling in the price of fuel.

Critics see it as a PR stunt following a crackdown on protesters.

Image source, Getty Images

• Read: The country where food costs three times your salary

Image source, Getty Images

Sudan is re-opening its border with Eritrea which it closed a year ago because of suspicions of weapons trafficking, reports Reuters News agency.

The announcement was reportedly made on television by Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir.

He was speaking in Kassala, a town near the border in eastern Sudan:

BBC Monitoring
The world through its media

The authorities in Mocimboa da Praia, a port town in northern Mozambique, have issued a public a dusk-to-dawn curfew in response to frequent militant attacks.

Human Rights Watch's Zenaida Machado tweeted the official notice:

The militants have been carrying out beheadings and attacks on villages and defence targets in some districts of the northern province of Cabo Delgado since October 2017.

Known locally as al-Shabab, the group was formed in 2015 as a religious organisation and has no known links to the Somali jihadist group of the same name.

The group is believed to be making millions of dollars from selling timber and rubies.

The northern coast of Mozambique has become a major centre for ivory, timber, heroin and ruby smuggling in recent years.

The jihadists have so far killed more than 150 people and burned more than 600 homes.

Read more: How Mozambique’s smuggling barons nurtured jihadists

BBC Monitoring
The world through its media

The bodies of 52 people have been recovered from the red sea after two boats capsized off the coast of Djibouti, the UN migration agency says.

The incident happened about 30 minutes after the overloaded boats - with hundreds of migrants on board - set off in heavy seas from Godoria, in the northeast of the country, on Tuesday.

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) added that 16 survivors had been rescued.

"This tragic event demonstrates the risks that vulnerable migrants face as they innocently search for better lives,” said IOM's Lalini Veerassamy in a statement.

Djibouti has in recent years become a transit point for migrants heading to find work on the Arabian Peninsula.

Our proverb of the day:

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

Dickens Olewe
BBC Africa Live

That's all from BBC Africa Live for now. Keep up-to-date with what's happening across the continent by listening to the Africa Today podcast or check the BBC News website.

A reminder of our wise words:

Click here and scroll to the bottom to send us your African proverbs.

And we leave you with this picture of a man from the Hamer tribe in Ethiopia, taken by Guilherme Nobre de Mello:

Image source, Getty Images

Tanzania's government has defended new laws passed by MPs on Tuesday which will allow it to manage some affairs of political parties in the country.

Critics, such as opposition MP Esther Bulaya, say the amendments to the Political Parties Act pave the way for a government-run registrar to exercise "excessive powers" over political parties, giving it unchecked powers to de-register them.

Other critics have said the legislation would cement "one-party rule".

But Jenista Mhagama, the minister of state in the prime minister’s office, told the Reuters news agency it was aimed at enhancing transparency and accountability.

"This legislation has already been amended seven times since its enactment... with the objective of strengthening multiparty democracy in the country," she is quoted as saying.

If signed into law by President John Magufuli, anyone found engaging in unauthorised civic education, such as a voter-registration drive, risks a prison sentence of up to a year.

Opposition MP Zitto Kabwe likened the amendments to the Enabling Act of 1933 that allowed Adolf Hitler to bypass legislators and rule Germany by decree.

An academic in the US tweeted saying that the comparison was "extreme" but not far fetched.

This is latest of controversial laws and amendments passed recently by the CCM party, which has a parliamentary majority.

A stringent media law led to several newspapers being suspended or banned, and there have been other regulations restricting opposition rallies.

President Magufuli has been criticised of stifling civil rights since he came to power in 2015.

Ghanaian MP Kennedy Agyapong has defended circulating photos of undercover journalist Ahmed Hussein-Suale, who was later shot dead by unidentified men on motorbikes.

Police believe Mr Hussein-Suale was murdered earlier in January because of his work. He had been a member of Tiger Eye Private Investigations, run by journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas, and had investigated corruption in Ghana's football leagues last year.

After the scandal broke, Mr Agyapong had gone on television to reveal Mr Hussein-Suale’s identity and had called for people to beat him up.

He has told the BBC’s Thomas Naadi that he regrets the journalist’s death, but has a clear conscious about unmasking him as he felt he was about to be set up by the Tiger Eye journalist.

He said he wanted to warn people to chase Mr Hussein-Suale away should he arrive at his premises: