Matt McGrath
Environment correspondent, BBC News, Marrakech

Image source, Getty Images

With data from just the first nine months, scientists are 90% certain that 2016 will break the global record for the warmest year.

Temperatures from January to September were 1.2C above pre-industrial levels.

The provisional statement on the status of the global climate in 2016 has been released early this year to to help inform negotiators meeting in Morocco, who are trying to push forward with the Paris Climate Agreement.  

US president-elect Donald Trump has promised on the campaign trail that within 100 days of taking office he would "cancel" the agreement and "stop all payments of US tax dollars to UN global warming programmes".  

• What is climate change?
• Five ways climate change could affect Africa

Borussia Dortmund's Gabonese striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is hoping to win the coveted BBC African Footballer of the Year award for the first time after a successful 2016.

Read our full profile on him and cast your vote here

Image source, AFP

The Democratic Republic of Congo's Prime Minister Augustin Matata Ponyo has resigned, paving the way for the appointment of his successor to lead a new transitional government, the AFP news agency reports. 

Mr Ponyo's resignation is part of a deal signed last month between President Joseph Kabila's government and some opposition parties to postpone presidential elections to April 2018. 

Voters in DR Congo were supposed to head to the polls this month to pick Mr Kabila's successor, at the end of his second and final elected term. 

The main opposition parties have rejected the postponement, saying it is a ploy to keep Mr Kabila in power. 

All cabinet members resigned along with Mr Ponyo

Yusuf Ibrahim Yakasai
BBC Africa, Kano, Nigeria

Police in Nigeria have clashed with members of the minority Shia Muslim sect on the outskirts of the main northern city, Kano. 

A journalist who is travelling with the Shia group told me that many of the followers were shot by the police, and they fear that many were killed. 

An eyewitness told me that he saw a police van carrying at least four victims of the attack. He is not sure if they are alive.

Police confirmed the clashes, but said they could not give details at this stage. 

The operation was continuing, they added. 

The main road into Kano from the south and the capital, Abuja, is now blocked as a result of the clash.

Image source, AFP

Image source, AFP

Nigerian mega-pastor TB Joshua has finally broken his silence after his prophecy that Hillary Clinton would win the US presidential election fell flat. 

The hugely influential evangelical pastor was mocked by many on social media after the prediction was first deleted and then reinstated on his official Facebook page following Donald Trump's shock win. 

However, many supporters have rushed to defend the controversial pastor, saying that his prophecy was indeed realised, because Mrs Clinton won the popular vote, although she still lost the election based on the US system of electoral college votes. 

A new statement on Mr Joshua's Facebook page, external echoes this argument, saying:

He then makes the following ambiguous comment: 

So how should we interpret these comments? Since Mr Joshua is described on his own church's website, external as a prophet, is he saying that other people who are not "at the same level" as him are unable to see what he sees? Or is he saying that none of us as humans can hope to truly understand the word of God? 

Let us know how you interpet his comments on the BBC Africa Facebook page, external. 

South African opposition leader Julius Malema is addressing his supporters outside court in Bloemfontein, where he appeared on a charge of inciting people to seize white-owned land - an emotive issue in a country where minority rule ended in 1994. 

Mr Malema's Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party is tweeting details of his speech:  

See earlier post for more details

Image source, MVISTATIC

The former Ivorian international player Laurent Pokou, seen as an emblematic figure of African football, has died aged 69, BBC Afrique reports. 

From 1960 to 1970, Laurent Pokou was a striker both for the Abidjan club of ASEC Mimosas where he started his career and the national squad. 

He made 70 appearances for the national team. 

As part of his international career, Pokou played for Nancy in France from 1977 to 1978 alongside Michel Platini. 

Among other things, he is remembered as the long-time record holder for the highest number of goals - 14 - scored by a single player at the African Cup of Nation tournament.

His record was broken 30 years later by Samuel Eto'o of Cameroon following the 2008 African Cup of Nations in Ghana. 

Pokou died in Abidjan after a long illness.

Image source, EPA

South Africa's firebrand opposition leader Julius Malema has briefly appeared in court on a charge of inciting people to seize white-owned land. 

The case was adjourned to next June to give Mr Malema time to challenge the constitutionality of the Riotous Assemblies Act, an apartheid-era law being used to prosecute him. 

Mr Malema appeared at a court in Bloemfontein city over a speech he made in 2014 in which he said: 

Mr Malema appeared on a similar charge in another court last week for a speech in June in which he said white people could not claim to own land because it belonged to the country's black majority.

See earlier post for more details

A leading Muslim religious body in Mauritania has called for a 2014 death sentence against a blogger convicted of apostasy to be carried out, Reuters news agency reports. 

The Forum of Imams and Ulemas has called for Mohamed Ould Cheikh Ould Mkhaitir, 29, to be executed despite the fact that he had "repented" for writing the article, Religion, religiosity, and craftsmen, and said he had not intended to insult Prophet Muhammad, the agency reports.

Mainly Muslim Mauritania has not applied the death penalty since 1987 but the Forum of Imams and Ulemas called on the authorities to execute him.

In a statement quoted by Reuters, the religious body added: 

Leading rights groups, including Freedom Now and the Committee to Protect Journalists, have campaigned for the blogger's release. 

Freedom Now, which represents him, said his trial was marred by procedural irregularities, external and that three of his lawyers had resigned after receiving death threats.    

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