That's it from us today. Listen to the Africa Today podcast and keep up-to-date with stories from across the continent on the BBC News website.

We leave you with this photo taken by the BBC's Sophie Ribstein who is with Africa Business Report in Madagascar this week.

Image source, Sophie Ribstein

The BBC's Maud Jullien tweets, external: "Opposition candidate Audifax Ndabitoreye was arrested by the police accused of "insurrection" #burundi"

BBC Africa's Rage Hassan has met a Somali man who married a Zulu woman in Durban, the South African city recently hit by xenophobic violence.

Mohamed Yusuf and Asha Mehlala told him that they married for love seven years ago and have three children, one of whom is from Mrs Mehlala's previous marriage.

Mrs Mehlala says she converted from Christianity to her husband's religion, Islam. The couple also had a Zulu ceremony where the two families exchanged gifts as a sign of welcoming each other.

She believes that more mixed marriages could help ease tensions between foreigners and locals in South Africa.

"The men here in South Africa expect women to work and earn. But Mohamed provides every thing for this house. So I see myself as a queen," Mrs Mehlala says.

Chris Ewokor
BBC Africa, Abuja

Nigeria's Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has revealed the extent of the financial crisis facing Africa's biggest oil producer. She told reporters that although $4bn ($2.6m) was earmarked as the borrowing limit for the current financial year, the government has spent more than half the amount, barely four months into the year. The money has been used on salaries and other overheads, she said.

Other officials say despite the heavy borrowing, civil servants in many of Nigeria's 36 states have not been paid for up to five months.

The financial crisis is bad news for the incoming government of Muhammadu Buhari. It will find it difficult to deliver on its promises to improve people's lives, especially in the north-east where militant Islamist group Boko Haram has exploited poverty to recruit young men into its ranks and has caused widespread destruction.

Image source, AFP

Lots of commenters on BBC Africa's Facebook page, external have been reacting to what Togo and Tottenham striker Emmanuel Adebayor has been saying about the financial disputes in his family.

Simon Didie blames three things: "Greed greed and greed."

"Most Africans and myself have been through the Adebayor story," he adds.

Erickat Bebe says: "This Dependancy Syndrome should stop. Everyone should get out and work to get their own bite."

Meanwhile, Henry Adeoye argues that although he thinks many people can attest to Adebayor's experience he would not castigate the family entirely. This is because ordinary people's only chance to get the services they need is through successful family members, he says.

Image source, Getty Images

Farayi Mungazi
BBC Sport

The financial row in football star Emmanuel Adebayor's family (see earlier post) has been going on for about four years, with his relatives making all sorts of accusations against him. Adebayor has now broken his silence, putting forward his version on his Facebook page, external. It is very sad to see the family washing its dirty linen in public.

The BBC's Milton Nkosi tweets, external that demonstrations against South Africa's power utility Eskom are continuing in Orlando West in Johannesburg Soweto's township, as residents complain of high electricity tariffs:

"I saw this burning barricade on Vilakazi Street. Orlando West is tense as protests against Eskom continue."

Some of the women and children rescued from Nigeria's militant Islamist group Boko Haram are now rehabilitating at a camp in the north-eastern city of Yola.

The BBC's Christine Otieno sent these photos from the camp:

Some of the women make a high protein infused maize and bean meal after not eating properly during their captivity:

Alex Duval Smith
Bamako, Mali

The UN says its camp in Kidal, Mali, came under rocket attack this morning.

The United Nations mission Minusma says between six and eight rockets were fired in the space of 20 minutes but there were no victims.

In the same communique Minusma reports that later a civilian vehicle hit an improvised explosive device (IED) one kilometre north of the Minusma camp, injuring three civilians, two of them seriously. Minusma has evacuated them for treatment in Gao.

The BBC's Milton Nkosi tweets, external a photo from South Africa's famous Soweto township, hit by a protest over high electricity bills:

The Tanzanian peacekeepers killed in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (see earlier post) were part of a special 3,000-strong UN intervention bridge, UN peacekeeping spokesman Nick Birnback has told the BBC's Newsday programme.

The brigade has a more robust mandate than the rest of the peacekeeping mission, which is "to engage with the illegal armed groups that have been preying on the civilians in that area for years now", he said.

As diplomatic efforts to end the crisis in Burundi continue (see earlier post), protests have again taken place in parts of the capital, Bujumbura:

Image source, AP

Some of the demonstrators in Musaga district camouflaged themselves with leaves, as they voiced their opposition to President Pierre Nkurunziza's bid for a third term:

Image source, AP

Others were more militant, displaying weapons:

Image source, AP

While police secured an area barricaded by protesters in Bujumbura's Kinindo district:

Image source, AP

Nigeria's army says it has freed 25 more women and children from militant Islamist group Boko Haram's captivity.

Troops also destroyed seven jihadist camps in "fierce encounters" with the militants in the north-eastern Sambisa forest, the army added in a statement.

More than 700 women and children have been rescued from Boko Haram in recent days.

An appeal tribunal has ordered the United Nations to immediately lift the suspension of a whistleblower who reported alleged sexual abuse of children by peacekeeping troops in Central African Republic (CAR), the UK's Guardian newspaper reports.

A judge said the decision to suspend Anders Kompass, the director of field operations for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, was "prima facie unlawful", the report says, external.

Mr Kompass leaked the UN report to French prosecutors. It alleged that children as young as nine were abused by some French troops in CAR.

Image source, AFP

As protests against Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza's bid for a third term continue, the BBC's Maud Jullien tweets, external this picture from the opposition stronghold of Musaga in the capital, Bujumbura:

While giving counselling to a child forcibly recruited into Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army rebel group, Victor Ochen realised that the person he was counselling had come into his own home and taken his brother.

"He explained exactly how they came at night through our home when it was raining.

"I thought what to do with this kid? He was just innocent. He was taken. I thought this kid is good and the best thing to do was employ him."

Image source, Heather McClintock

Victor took his client on as a counsellor in his organisation which works on healing people traumatised by the conflict in Uganda.

He's been nominated for the Nobel Peace prize.

Listen to Victor tell his full story on BBC World Service's Outlook.

BBC Monitoring

The Swazi Observer newspaper reports, external that dog owners could be taxed as the kingdom's financially embattled government tries to increase its revenue.

The BBC's Zenaida Machado tweets, external: "Mozambique expected to be the fastest growing African market for millionaires, followed by the Ivory Coast & Zambia https://shar.es/1pTrUY"

Tottenham striker Emmanuel Adebayor has written a lengthy Facebook post revealing alleged financial conflicts with his family.

BBC Sport says the Togolese footballer was granted personal leave from the club in December and the post gives an insight into what he described as his "dark moments".

Image source, PA

Adebayor's complicated family life saw him given time off by Spurs, with the striker being quoted at the time as saying his mother had been practising black magic on him.

Mary Harper
BBC News

There have been explosions in a military area in Sudan. They occurred in the city of Omdurman, just across the River Nile from the capital, Khartoum.

People in Omdurman said the explosions were so powerful that houses shook. Flames shot up into the night sky. The Sudanese military said anti-aircraft weapons were used against something resembling a jet or a missile. But it denied that an army base had been targeted.

Sudan in the past has accused Israel of bombing its military facilities, including a weapons factory in Khartoum in 2012. Israel has refused to comment on such allegations. But there have been reports that weapons bound for the Palestinian group Hamas are smuggled through Sudan.