In the meantime, keep up-to-date with what is happening across the continent by listening to the Africa Today podcast and checking the BBC News website.

A reminder of Today's proverb:

Click here to send us your African proverbs.

And we leave you with this tweet from a BBC producer in South Africa showing an unusual trailer for a car on the streets of Soweto, Johannesburg:

Maud Jullien
BBC Africa

Image source, AFP

The fact that former Congolese Vice-President Jean-Pierre Bemba was convicted for sexual violence is significant.

His conviction was for crimes committed in the Central African Republic, but it will send the message to high-ranking soldiers and militiamen in the DR Congo, where sexual violence is rife, that they are responsible for preventing it.

But in Congo, despite his murky record, Jean-Pierre Bemba still enjoys significant popularity.

There was also hope, from part of the opposition, that he would be released in time to run in the next presidential election, which is scheduled for the end of this year. 

Opposition politicians from his party, the MLC, and others have questioned whether the ICC, by trying such a prominent opponent, may have - willfully or not - taken sides.

We've been taking another look (see 11:57 entry) at some of the most significant trends on Twitter as the social media tool marks its 10th anniversary.

#OccupyNigeria had an impact when at the beginning of 2012 a group of young, well-educated Nigerians organised themselves using the hashtag and forced the government to restore some of the fuel subsidy it had withdrawn.

Image source, AFP

The hasthag #feesmustfall was used to rally support for South African street protests in opposition to a proposed hike in fees for university students in 2015.

Top universities were closed down as the protests spread to 10 institutions across the country.

The government eventually froze the level of tuition fees.

Read more about the Twitter trends that affected Africa from BBC News

BBC Sport

Image source, Getty Images

Two Algerian players banned for four years for testing positive for cocaine have had their bans applied worldwide.

Football's world governing body said a third player, Kheireddine Merzougui, who tested positive for an illegal stimulant, also had his four-year ban extended globally.

Algeria international Youcef Belaili is banned until 19 September 2019 and Rafik Boussaid until a day later.

Merzougui of MC Alger is banned until 24 January 2020.

A court in southern Nigeria has granted $15,000 (£10,000) bail to a young man accused of kidnapping and sexually exploiting a 13-year-old girl he allegedly married in the northern city of Kano.

Yunusa Dahiru pleaded not guilty to the charges earlier this month in front of a judge in southern Bayelsa state's capital, Yenagoa.

The family of the girl, named only as Ese, alleged that Mr Dahiru abducted her last August and forced her to convert to Islam before marrying her.

Mr Dahiru has maintained that she entered into a relationship with him and converted from Christianity voluntarily.

Justice Nganjiwa has adjourned the case to 17 April.

Image source, ICC

The International Criminal Court's prosecutor Fatou Bensouda has described the conviction of the former Congolese Vice-President as historic, the AFP news agency is reporting.

Bemba was found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity for the actions of his militia, the MLC, in the Central African Republic from 2002 to 2003.

The ruling was unprecedented for two reasons:

• First case to highlight sexual violence as a weapon of war
• First case that gave a military commander overall responsibility for the atrocities his troops committed

That there's a construction boom in Ethiopia is not in doubt, but the question is at what cost does it come?

Bloomberg reports from the capital, external, Addis Ababa, that poor farmers who live on the edge of the city are seeing their land swallowed for comparatively little compensation.

It spoke to one farmer who received 17 birr ($0.80) per square metre, but developers have been getting bids of $16,000 per square metre in some areas.

Tensions over land and the expansion of Addis Ababa sparked a recent wave of protests in which rights groups say more than 200 people have died, a figure the government disputes.

Image source, AFP

Niger's opposition coalition has described Sunday's presidential run-off vote as a "sham", saying voters had heeded its call for a boycott, the AFP news agency reports.

The opposition coalition Copa 2016 added that President Mahamadou Issoufou needed to learn lessons from the low turnout.

"The people of Niger have massively rejected this sham of an election," it said in a statement.

Turnout was a crucial issue in the election following the boycott call.

The National Independent Electoral Commission (CENI) has five days to announce the winner.

Image source, AFP

The British Independent newspaper, external has been reflecting on the changes at Kenya's Daily Nation publication.

It highlights the recent sacking of the cartoonist Godfrey Mwampembwa, better known as Gado.

His biting satire has angered many in top positions.

Gado told the Independent about when the Daily Nation editor informed him that he's lost his job.

"He said, ‘They have decided not to renew your contract’. I said, ‘Who are they?’ He couldn't answer."

Gado suspects it was someone in the government - which has been denied.

His sacking came on the heels of a number of other staff members who had lost their jobs, with some believing it was because they had annoyed those in power.

Gado satirised his own situation in a cartoon last week:

A Sudanese-based journalist has been tweeting some lovely pictures from eastern Sudan:

China's state news agency says that Chinese police have seized a large amount of smuggled ivory, worth $2.7m (£1.9m). 

Xinhua says that Chinese police intercepted an unlicensed speed boat travelling from Hong Kong to Zhuhai, in the mainland. 

The police were acting on a tip-off, and were able to seize 221 pieces of illicit ivory on board. 

Xinhua reports that all of the boat's crew had escaped before the police arrived. 

China is the world's biggest market for poached ivory, much of it taken from Africa, but the Chinese authorities are trying to bring about change through a recent ban on all ivory imports. 

Image source, AFP

Image source, Kenyan presidency

Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta has held fruitful talks with visiting Ugandan leader Yoweri Museveni over an East African oil pipeline, reports the BBC's Anne Soy in the capital, Nairobi. 

Landlocked Uganda needs to build a pipeline to transport oil, which it hopes to start pumping soon, to the coast. 

The two leaders heard from energy experts from the two countries on the possible routes of the pipeline, a joint statement signed by two countries said. 

The two presidents will meet again in two weeks time in the Ugandan capital, Kampala.

Image source, Kenyan presidency

Namibia is marking its 26th independence anniversary today with the celebrations in the capital, Windhoek.

The country - formerly the South African colony of South West Africa - became independent in March 1990. 

BBC World Service's Witness programme has been recalling Namibia's independence struggle with Andimba Toivo ya Toivo, was one of the founders of liberation group the South West African People's Organisation.

Western diplomats - including from the US, EU, the UK, France and Germany - have said that they regretted that Zanzibar's electoral commission's decision to re-run's last year's poll on Sunday.

The October election - which the opposition on the island say it won - was annulled by the commission because of what it said were irregularities.

The opposition boycotted yesterday's poll which was won by the incumbent President Mohamed Ali Shein with more than 90% of the votes.

The diplomats said the vote should not go ahead without a "mutually acceptable and negotiated solution to the current political impasse".

"In order to be credible, electoral processes must be inclusive and truly representative of the will of the people," the diplomats added.

Image source, AFP

Some of you have been reacting to our Twitter post about the social media site's 10-year anniversary:

The leader of a small opposition party in Zambia has been detained by police over comments he made about the president.

Eric Chanda, who's the leader of the Fourth Revolution Party, is said to have defamed President Edgar Lungu in comments he made last year about a holiday Mr Lungu took shortly after his inauguration.

Zambia's main opposition UPND has accused the government of becoming increasingly heavy handed in dealing with opponents.

A presidential election is due in August.

Image source, EPA

The former vice-president of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Jean-Pierre Bemba, has been found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court. 

He was not convicted for events in his own country but in neighbouring Central African Republic.

The ICC found that the MLC militia, under his control, was responsible for a host of crimes from 2002 to 2003, when they were supporting the CAR's President Ange-Felix Patasse.

Here are some key facts from his political career:

• Former assistant to Zaire President Mobutu Sese Seko

• 1998: Helped by Uganda to form MLC rebel group

• 2003: Becomes vice-president under peace deal

• 2006: Loses run-off election to President Joseph Kabila but gets most votes in western DR Congo, including Kinshasa

• 2007: Flees to Belgium after clashes in Kinshasa

• 2008: Arrested in Brussels and handed over to ICC

For more on the life of Jean-Pierre Bemba click here.

A human rights monitor has been tweeting the significance of the guilty verdict against the DR Congo's former Vice-President Jean-Pierre Bemba:

Bemba becomes the most senior African political figure to have been convicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

He was tried for crimes committed in the Central African Republic (CAR).

Bemba will be able to appeal against the verdict.

The ICC has found the ex-Vice-President of the DR Congo guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Cape Verde's main opposition Movement for Democracy (MpD) party has won parliamentary elections, taking back power after 15 years, provisional results showed, Reuters news agency reports.

With almost all votes counted from Sunday's poll, MpD had 53.7%, versus 37% for the former ruling African Party for the Independence of Cape Verde (PAICV), it added.

A presidential election is due to be held later this year though the date has not been fixed.