Africa highlights: Ivory Coast names beach attack ringleader, Buhari condemns Brussels killings

The death toll from the current flare up in the Ebola outbreak in Guinea has risen to five, the AFP news agency reports quoting health officials.

More than 800 people who may have come into contact with people carrying the virus have been put into quarantine.

Earlier, Liberia closed part of its border with Guinea to try and prevent the virus spreading across the border again.

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The name and photo of Egypt's former Vice-President Mohamed ElBaradei has been removed from a list of Egyptian Nobel laureates in fifth-grade textbooks, Al-Tahrir newspaper has reported.

Mr ElBaradei, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005 as director of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Private daily Youm7 quoted an unnamed ministry official as saying that the removal of Mr ElBaradei's name was requested by parents and teachers due to his "hostile, anti-government comments" and also to "avoid any distraction or disputes among the students".  

Speaking to private ONTV on 21 March, Bashir Hassan, a spokesperson for the education ministry, refused to directly confirm the omission, only stressing that "nobody can tamper with history" and promising that the ministry would investigate the development.

Read more about the Nobel peace laureate and former head of the UN's nuclear watchdog in the BBC News profile of Mohamed ElBaradei.

Earlier we reported that there was speculation that Arsenal striker Alex Iwobi may not play for Nigeria on Friday, meaning he would still be eligible to play for England.

Our Nigeria sports journalist has tweeted that he was back in training today after a bout of food poisoning:

Ivory Coast's government has tweeted a picture of what it describes as the main suspect behind the attack on the 13 March Grand Bassam resort attack in which 19 people died.

It says the "security forces are searching for him".

The government says that it has already made 15 arrests.

Partial election results in Congo-Brazzaville show that the incumbent President Denis Sassou Nguesso has taken an early lead with 67% of the vote.

The electoral commission has said that votes from 72 out of 111 voting districts have been counted, the Reuters news agency is reporting.

Mr Sassou Nguesso is facing eight challengers and must win more than 50% of the vote to secure another term in office.

He has been president of the country for 32 years. 

The authorities cut off phone and internet connections ahead of Sunday's vote. The government said that it did not want the opposition announcing its own results.

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Getty ImagesCopyright: Getty Images

Teenage Arsenal striker Alex Iwobi has been taken ill and admitted to hospital in Abuja while he was part of the Nigeria squad ahead of Friday’s Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Egypt.

Iwobi is also wanted by England and could still choose to play for them if he does not play in the match against Egypt. 

He is not committed to a country until he plays a senior competitive international.

Super Eagles coach Samson Siasia said: "He suffered from food poisoning and so was not part of the training. But his condition is stable."  

Someone in Benin has tweeted a picture of a new wax cloth that's come out to celebrate the election of Patrice Talon in Sunday's run-off vote.

Talon is French for heel.

Senegal's President Macky Sall has joined the presidents of Nigeria and Ivory Coast (see 15:25 post) in expressing solidarity with the people of Belgium following the attacks in the capital, Brussels.

At least 31 people have been killed.

President Sall tweeted: "I express my condolences and solidarity to the Belgian people in these difficult times."

The results from Niger's presidential run-off are due to be announced at 16:00 GMT.

It's highly unlikely that the opposition will be present at the announcement given the fact that they called for a boycott of the polls.

They have withdrawn their representatives from the electoral commission and vowed not to recognise the results. 

Considering the opposition boycott and that the current president secured nearly 50% of the votes in the first round, there is little doubt who will will emerge the winner. 

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Some people taking part in today's recording of the BBC Africa Debate on corruption have been tweeting their ideas about what could stop it:

To add your ideas, tweet with the hashtag #BBCAfricaDebate.

Listen to the full debate on the BBC World Service on Friday at 19:00 GMT.

Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari has joined the condemnation of the attacks in Belgium's capital, Brussels in which at least 31 people have died.

In a post on the Facebook page of the office of the president Mr Buhari says that the events "reinforce the need for greater international cooperation to effectively confront and destroy global terrorism".

The president also says that "Nigeria will continue to work with other countries of the world to ensure that terrorism never triumphs over free, peaceful and law-abiding nations".

Nigeria was ranked third in 2015 on the Global Terrorism Index for countries most affected by terror attacks.

Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara has also expressed his condolences. 

Ivory Coast was hit by a gun attack on 13 March in which at least 18 people were killed.

The North African branch of al-Qaeda said it carried out the attack.

Disagreements over the route of an oil pipeline could be threatening harmonious relations in East Africa, the Financial Times newspaper reports.

Landlocked Uganda had already agreed last August to a route that took the pipeline to the coast through Kenya, the FT says.

But it then made a similar deal with Tanzania.

So where is the pipeline going to go?

A meeting on Monday in Kenya's capital, Nairobi, between President Uhuru Kenyatta and Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni failed to resolve the issue.

The two are due to meet again in Uganda in a fortnight's time.

State House KenyaCopyright: State House Kenya

What makes a young woman want to become a suicide bomber?

The BBC's Anne Soy has been talking to one Nigerian who is still alive only because she backed out of blowing herself up at a camp for displaced people in the country's north-east.

Two other women on the mission did detonate their explosive vests on 9 February, killing 58 people.  

Hauwa - not her real name - explained to our reporter how she got involved with the Islamist militants.

"I had spiritual problems and so the Boko Haram told me they could help get rid of them," she said.

But she refused to carry out the attack because her family was staying in the camp.

Read more of her story here.

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A senior Burundian army officer is reported to have been shot dead inside the army headquarters in the capital, Bujumbura.

Colonel Darius Ikarurakure was heading a combat battalion based in Muzinda, 30km (19 miles) north of Bujumbura.

Military sources told the AFP news agency that he was killed by another soldier.

Col Ikarurakure was involved in operations to put down protests against President Pierre Nkurunziza standing for a third term as president.

Getty ImagesCopyright: Getty Images

The authorities in Somalia's semi-autonomous region of Puntland say their security forces have killed more than 70 Islamist militants following a week of heavy fighting in different parts of the region.

The authorities have paraded more than 30 prisoners including dozens of children.

Pictures published by local websites showed children between the ages of 12 and 16 wearing what looked like camouflaged military uniform. 

Some of the children who spoke to the local media said they had been forced to join the militants. 

This is the clearest sign yet of militants recruiting children in Somalia into their ranks. 

The recent fighting has caused alarm in Puntland, as it has remained largely peaceful during the decades of turmoil in much of the rest of Somalia.

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A Chadian teenager who was gang-rape by young men with connections to top officials told AFP she wants justice for herself and for "all women".

In February the 16-year-old was assaulted on her way to school.

She told AFP that she was threatened by the police when she reported the crime.

When the alleged attackers discovered that she had reported them, they posted images of the assault on social networks.

But their action backfired: Hundreds of schoolchildren demonstrated in the capital, Ndjamena, and weeks of protest followed.

She returned to France, where she had been living for six years, and decided to speak publicly against sex criminals' impunity.

"There has never been justice before over the rape of a Chadian woman," she said.

Tunisia has extended a state of emergency by three months, reports the AFP news agency.

It was imposed after a suicide bombing killed 12 presidential guards in November.

The so-called Islamic State said it was behind the attack. 

President Beji Caid Essebsi's office said in a statement that the decision came two weeks after another attack near the border with Libya.

The Zambian Human Rights Commission are investigating claims that managers in a clothes shop painted shoplifters with yellow paint. 

The commission interviewed the store manager in the capital, Lusaka, who admitted that they were painted, saying they consented to it in place of being fined or taken to the police.  

The commission only became aware of the incident from 2015 after these photos were shared on social media at the beginning of the week:

UnknownCopyright: Unknown

UnknownCopyright: Unknown

We have been unable to verify if the photos are genuine.  

The Human Rights Commission's Mweelwa Muleya said: "There is no crime that justifies torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment."