Mary Harper
Africa editor, BBC World Service

Image source, Getty Images

The United Nations has named an emergency Ebola co-ordinator, David Gressly, to help deal with issues hindering efforts to contain the 10-month epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Ebola response teams face severe challenges in eastern DR Congo, where the disease is concentrated.

They regularly have to suspend their work because of attacks by the multiple militias in the region.

There is also the problem of community mistrust of Ebola workers which means people do not bring those infected to treatment centres.

One third of those infected are children, a higher proportion than in previous outbreaks. The UN says the risk of Ebola spreading to other parts of DR Congo and neighbouring countries is very high.

More than 1,200 people have died from Ebola in eastern DR Congo.

Watch: Ebola in the DR Congo war zone

Issa Ahmed
BBC Somali, Nairobi

Condolences are pouring in for an army major who had recently given birth before she was killed in Wednesday's suicide bomb attack in Mogadishu, which killed 10 people.

Major Fatuma Ali Rage, widely known as Fay Ali, was regarded as one of the key people in Somalia's Special Forces.

She was among soldiers who led the army in the front lines in the fight against Islamist militant group al-Shabab.

Maj Rage was killed alongside her husband, who also served in the military. The children they leave behind include a baby who is just a few weeks old.

Image source, Getty Images

Car thieves are using South Sudanese number plates to steal Ugandan vehicles and smuggle them into neighbouring Kenya, police in Uganda have told privately owned newspaper Daily Monitor., external

A regional police boss said that dishonest dealers were using fake South Sudan number plates to conceal stolen Ugandan cars.

“We have decided to start impounding all vehicles bearing South Sudan number plates for verification, because we have realised that most of those vehicles are stolen from Ugandan citizens,” regional police spokesperson for East Kyoga Michael Odongo was quoted as saying.

Mr Odongo said one person was arrested on Tuesday morning on his way to Kenya with a vehicle stolen from Soroti district in eastern Uganda, says the daily.

An officer from the Flying Squad in East Kyoga told Daily Monitor that a Toyota Premio car was sold for as little as $395 (£311) and a Subaru for $1,050 (£828) in the Kenyan black market.

Image source, Getty Images

Hundreds of families have abandoned their homes in Kenya's Rift Valley following fresh attacks by bandits who shot dead three people on Tuesday, privately owned newspaper The Star reports., external

The paper says so far seven people have been killed in two weeks while 30 others have lost their lives in three months as attackers raided homes to steal cattle on the border between the regions of Marakwet and West Pokot.

More than 700 people fled with their livestock to the Marakwet highlands as rustlers fought with herders on Tuesday evening, says The Star.

Elgeyo Marakwet Governor Alex Tolgos termed the situation as grave and asked Interior minister Fred Matiang'i to boost security in the region.

Image source, Getty Images

Cameroonian author Djiaili Amadou has won the inaugural Prix Orange du Livre en Afrique – an award for French-speaking authors in Africa, French media report.

Amadou's winning novel "Munyal; les larmes de la patience" (Munyal, the tears of patience) is a tale centering around forced marriage, polygamy and women's rights.

The pan-African jury praised Amadou's "strong, rebellious" voice, according to French-language pan-African weekly newspaper, Jeune Afrique, external.

Prix Orange du Livre en Afrique, which was awarded on Wednesday, serves to "boost African literature and offer authors more visibility inside and outside the continent", Jeune Afrique quotes the jury president as saying.

The winner will receive 10,000 euros ($11,100; £8,800) cash price and will benefit from a marketing campaign to promote their work.

South Africa's Department of International Relations and Co-operation (Dirco) has confirmed that four South Africans who stayed behind in Egypt to receive medical care following a roadside explosion on Sunday have returned home, news site News24 reports, external.

Three South Africans and a fourth person who was a spouse were among 28 South African tourists travelling in a bus when a bomb exploded near the bus near Egypt's pyramids in Giza, the site says.

News24 says the other 24 tourists arrived in South Africa on Monday morning.

BBC Africa business editor Larry Madowo has eaten mice for the first time in Malawi and he says they taste "just like chicken".

He says mice, or "underground sausages", as they are popularly referred to there, are a local delicacy in some parts of the southern African country.

In a video posted on Twitter, Larry picks a stick with many mice mounted on it from a young seller.

He then plucks the head of a cooked mouse, smells it, eats it and says it's amazing.

Watch him eat it here:

Chris Buckler
North America correspondent

A team of historians and archaeologists say they've discovered the last ship known to have smuggled slaves from Africa to the US.

It's believed the Clotilda was sunk just a few years before former US President Abraham Lincoln signed the emancipation proclamation and declared an end to slavery.

The Clotilda was used to smuggle men, women and children into America from Africa, decades after the US Congress banned the importation of slaves.

The ship was intentionally sunk in 1860 to try to hide any evidence of its use in the slave trade.

But for the last year researchers have been working to try to locate it and they say they've found the wooden vessel under water in a section of the Mobile river in Alabama.

Some descendants of those carried on the ship still live nearby in an area that came to be known as Africatown.

They've welcomed the discovery, although one relative said it gave her chills when she was told that archaeologists had finally located the wreckage.

Image source, Getty Images

Teklemariam Bekit
BBC Tigrinya

US comedian and actress Tiffany Hadish has been granted Eritrean citizenship - the birthplace of her father.

She is currently in Eritrea to join in celebrations to mark the country’s 28 years of independence celebrations.

The government's Information Minister has tweeted a photo of her at a street carnival in the capital, Asmara, on Wednesday:

Haddish visited Eritrea last year to bury her father, Sihaye Reda Haddish, and to link up with his relatives.

During her visit she also met Eritrea's autocratic President Isaias Afewerki.

An Eritrean diplomat in Washington confirmed on Twitter that Haddish obtained citizenship "in this very touching moment of our independence week".

Hadish - who was born in Los Angeles in 1979 - became famous through her role in the If Loving You is Wrong television series, and comedy films like Girls Trip.

She currently features in the television comedy series The Last O.G.

Eritrea is a one-party state ruled by Mr Isaias since independence in 1993.

Many Eritreans who left the country because of his repressive policies say they cannot return without the risk of being arrested.

Read: Eritrea's 'charismatic and brutal' leader

Alastair Leithead
BBC Africa correspondent

Image source, Getty Images

The Botswana government said it carried out extensive consultations before making the decision to lift its ban on hunting.

The country is a sanctuary for around 130,000 elephants - a third of those left in Africa after poaching has reduced numbers across the continent.

But having so many leads to conflict with a growing population of humans. Farmer’s crops have been destroyed and people killed.

There’s debate over whether hunting will increase or decrease the elephant population, but well-regulated hunting can be used as a conservation tool if the money raised by killing some animals is put back into conserving others.

Botswana had large areas reserved for hunting before the suspension came into place five years ago and rural communities serving them suffered a loss of income.

The decision will be criticised by conservationists opposed to any form of elephant trade, those who believe it will affect the country’s lucrative luxury safari industry, and others who believe the move is more about populist politics in an election year.

Read: 'Elephant refugee problem' in Africa

Image source, Getty Images

When Azeteng (not his real name), a young man from rural Ghana, heard stories on the radio of West African migrants dying on their way to Europe, he felt compelled to act.

He took what little savings he had and bought glasses with a hidden camera – his ‘secret spectacles’. He then set off on the migrants trail.

Read his full story here

Wanyama wa Chebusiri
BBC Africa, Nairobi

The anti-corruption raids on the properties of the governor of Kiambu county in Kenya, Ferdinand Waititu, are significant.

Mr Waititu has a reputation of being bullish - and even thuggish - but he is a powerful ally of President Uhuru Kenyatta, who hails from Kiambu county and is therefore reliant to some extent on the governor for his political support.

Local media has been awash with reports in recent weeks about Mr Waititu's wealth - including properties he owns in Kiambu and in the capital, Nairobi.

Mr Waititu fended off the criticism, saying he had never acquired his wealth illegally and could account for it.

Recently, pressure has been mounting on President Kenyatta to walk the talk in his campaign against endemic corruption among state officials.

Now, the EACC has swooped on one of his allies, but whether it leads to a prosecution is to be seen.

Image source, Getty Images

Anti-corruption officers in Kenya have raided the homes of the governor of central Kiambu county, Ferdinand Waititu.

Mr Waititu has been at the centre of a political storm in recent weeks, following allegations of irregular spending - including the theft of public money - in his administration. He has denied any wrongdoing.

Two of his homes in the capital, Nairobi, were raided by detectives from the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC), local media reports say.

The EACC and Mr Waititu have not yet commented.

An investigation by BBC’s Gist Nigeria programme has found that fake agents are targeting young footballers - luring them with false promises of fame and fortune.

Some have paid their way to Europe dreaming of an international career - only to be left stranded without money or hope.

Video producer: Ajoke Ulohotse

Image source, Science Photo Library

The UN has passed a resolution demanding the UK return control of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius.

In the non-binding vote in the General Assembly in New York, 116 states were in favour and only six against, a major diplomatic blow to the UK.

Fifty-six states, including France and Germany, abstained.

Mauritius says it was forced to give up the Indian Ocean group - now a British overseas territory - in 1965 in exchange for independence.

In a statement to the BBC, the UK's Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) said Britain did not recognise Mauritius' claim to sovereignty, but would stand by an earlier commitment to hand over control of the islands to Mauritius when they were no longer needed for defence purposes.

The US, Hungary, Israel, Australia and the Maldives were the states voting with the UK against the resolution.

It comes months after the UN's high court advised that the UK should leave the islands "as rapidly as possible".

Read the full BBC story here

Botswana has lifted a ban on elephant hunting, citing growing conflict between humans and the animals, which at times destroy crops.

Critics of the ban, imposed in 2014, say the restriction was causing problems to small farmers and to those who previously benefited from hunting.

Botswana has some 130,000 elephants, the world's largest population.

The decision is likely to trigger an angry reaction from conservationists, who believe the move is political.

It could also damage the country's international reputation for conservation and affect its revenues from tourism, the second largest source of foreign income after diamond mining.

Read the full BBC story here

Image source, Getty Images

The US has expressed its "great disappointment" with South Africa over its refusal to extradite Mozambique's former Finance Minister Manuel Chang to the country to stand trial on corruption charges.

Mr Chang was arrested in South Africa in December at the request of the US, which accused him of "carrying out a $2bn (£1.6bn) fraud and money-laundering scheme that took advantage of the US financial system and defrauded US investors".

South Africa has decided to extradite Mr Chang to Mozambique, where he is wanted on similar charges.

Mozambique's government welcomed the decision, but the main opposition Renamo party said it doubted that Mr Chang - who has denied the charges - would face justice in his home country.

In a statement, the US embassy in South Africa said: "We urge the government of South Africa to send Mr Chang to the United States to stand trial for these alleged crimes, which victimised US citizen and robbed the government of Mozambique of over $700m."

Our African proverb of the day:

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Welcome back to BBC Africa Live for the latest news and views from across the continent.

BBC Africa Live
Damian Zane, Ashley Lime & Neil Arun

That's all from BBC Africa Live until Thursday morning. Keep up-to-date with what's happening across the continent by listening to the Africa Today podcast or checking the BBC News website.

A reminder of our proverb of the day:

Click here to send us your African proverbs.

And we leave you with this photo of the Kenyan author and gay rights activist, Binyavanga Wainaina, whose death at the age of 48 was announced on Wednesday.