A selection of the best photos from the African continent and beyond.

Relatives of passengers killed in Ethiopian Airlines crash file legal action over Boeing deal.

That's all from the BBC Africa Live team for now. We'll be back on Friday morning.

Until then there will be an automated service and you can find the latest updates on the BBC News website, or listen to our podcast Africa Today.

Our African proverb of the day:

And we leave you with a photo of young men playing football on the beach in the South African city of Durban:

Image source, Getty Images

Algeria's Youcef Belaili scores a winner 17 minutes into stoppage time against hosts Qatar in the semi-finals of the Arab Cup.

BBC World Service
The Newsroom

Lawyers and human rights activists in Tunisia have lodged an appeal to overturn a one-year prison sentence against two men for homosexuality.

Consensual sex between two people of the same sex - whether men or women - remains punishable in Tunisia by up to three years in jail under a law that dates back more than 100 years.

The two men have taken their case to the country's top court after a lower court rejected their first appeal last year.

Their lawyer says that if their case is successful, it could create a legal precedent that would help do away with Article 230 in the criminal code, which outlaws homosexual acts.

Patience Atuhaire
BBC News, Kampala

As the doctors strike in Uganda continues, I gained access to Kawempe National Referral Hospital in Kampala.

There is only one intern doctor on the ward, and no specialist in sight, in the half hour that I was there."You're too many. The health workers are few," says a nurse to a mother in labour, who hobbles over to her for assistance.

"You need to pray to the president to pay the doctors," she adds.

There are at least four uniformed security guards patrolling the floor. One, brandishing a club, asks my fixer and I what we want.

We stick close to the truth, saying we are here to visit a doctor for a private matter.

A health worker had agreed to sneak me in to witness the impact of the strike by senior and intern doctors, which has been going on for more than a month to demand better pay and working conditions.

Under the stairs on the outside of the hospital building, about 30 people are sprawled on mats among bags, buckets and kitchenware. They are the patients’ attendants, and have to wait here for lack of space inside. One of them takes us to her sister, a new mother waiting to be discharged.Under normal circumstances, Apio would have gone home on Wednesday when she had her baby girl. She vacated her hospital bed within hours of giving birth, to make space for the next mother.But it is 4pm, and she is still waiting for paperwork to be finalised at the postnatal ward.The 28-year-old is waiting with about 15 other new mothers, all looking exhausted and eager for their name to be called by the nurse.

With a national doctor to patient ratio of about 1:25,000, working here even on normal days is stressful. And now with reduced staff because of the strike, even more so.

Image source, Getty Images

Malawi will make Covid-19 vaccines mandatory for key staff, including health workers and journalists, from January, the health minister has said, as the government tries to boost its vaccination campaign amid a spike in cases.

"Uptake of vaccines has not been high enough towards reaching our goal of vaccinating at least 60% of eligible Malawians by the end of next year. The vaccine remains our best preventive tool," Khumbize Kandodo Chiponda was quoted by Reuters news agency as saying.

Official statistics show that about 641,000 people are fully vaccinated in Malawi. This amounts to just over 3% of the population, according to Reuters.

The southern African nation has seen a spike in daily Covid infections, with 318 new cases reported this week compared to less than 20 on most days in recent weeks, it adds.

The Omicron variant was discovered in the country last week.

Here are the latest Covid statistics tweeted by Malawi's health ministry:

Fans will need to be fully vaccinated and provide negative Covid tests to enter stadia at the Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon.

Ahmed Rouaba
BBC News

An appeals court in Morocco's main city Casablanca has approved the deportation of a Muslim Uyghur activist to China despite fears that he would be tortured there.

Amnesty international has warned that 33-year-old computer engineer Idris Hasan is at "grave risk of facing torture" in China.

The 33-year-old computer engineer was arrested in July at his arrival at Mohammed V international airport in Casablanca from Turkey, where he lives and works.

He was subject to an Interpol red notice issued at the request of China which was seeking his extradition on terrorism charges.

Mr Hasan was working on a Uyghur diaspora online newspaper based in Turkey. He was also involved in helping activists in collecting evidence and testimonies of abuse in Xinjiang China.

Activists believe the extradition is politically motivated and part of the Chinese crackdown on dissidents based abroad.

Human rights groups say the Chinese government has gradually stripped away the religious and other freedoms of the Uyghurs, culminating in an oppressive system of mass surveillance, detention, indoctrination, and even forced sterilisation.

China denies the allegations.

Yemane Nagish
BBC Tigrinya

The outspoken Ethiopian historian, storyteller and political activist Gebrekdan Desta has died at the age of 85.

He was affectionately known as Memhir and Aboy - Tigrinya for teacher and father respectively.

Gebrekdan was part of the firebrand generation of students who rose up against the feudal rule of Emperor Haile Selassie and later the Derg regime of Mangistu Haile Mariam.

He survived a shooting, and was imprisoned for nine years by the Derg regime.

Gebrekdan authored three books in Tigrinya and Amharic, and caused controversy with his views on the famous 1896 Battle of Adwa, when Italy's attempt to invade Ethiopia was thwarted. Gebrekdan argued that it led to the colonisation of Eritrea, and he was highly critical of this.

Some praised Gebrekdan for telling what they saw as the truth, while others sharply disagreed with him.

His last book was on Emperor Yohannes IV, who ruled Ethiopia from 1872-1889.

Gebrekdan celebrated 50 years of marriage this year, and is survived by his wife and five children.

Gebrekdan died of an undisclosed illness in Mekelle - the capital of the northern Tigray region which has been hit by conflict over the past year.

The conflict between the federal government and the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) has caused a massive humanitarian crisis, leaving millions of people homeless, at least 400,000 in famine-like condition, the destruction of health facilities and a severe shortage of medicine.

Zimbabwe's already fragile economy is suffering as the country experiences a fourth wave of coronavirus infections. The Omicron variant is now present in the country, and the fear is that it is spreading fast. The government has announced a reduction in services and businesses have been urged to close down early for the Christmas break.

Hotelier, Mandla Mataure, who is the manager for the Chimanimani hotel in Manicaland in the eastern region of Zimbabwe bordering Mozambique, told Newsday how he has prepared for the return of restrictions.

"We had a virtual meeting revisiting some of the protocols we'd put in place early last year - trying to remind people what we need to do to keep our staff safe, whether it is sanitising when people arrive or checking on temperatures when people arrive. What's happened in the last few months is people have sort of relaxed...not just guest but also staff. So now we've said let's go back to... closely monitoring everyone who is coming in and out of our places."

"We're a smaller hotel but we've tried our best to keep people on... putting them on shift work, where they work every other week or every other day. They get paid a bit less but you're still sort of on the payroll. It hasn't been easy but we're trying to see how we can manage it."

(Pic: Mandla Mataure ; Credit: Crystal Media Inc Photography)

Ghana's Jordan Ayew thanks Crystal Palace boss Patrick Vieira for his support after ending his 42-game Premier League goal drought.

Fleetwood Town set up teams in Dubai and South Africa as part of the League One club's international expansion effort.

Kalkidan Yibeltal
BBC News

Image source, Getty Images

Security forces from Ethiopia’s Amhara state have carried out “a new wave of atrocities” against ethnic Tigrayans, a joint report by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch says.

The report, external, which comes a day before the UN’s special session on abuses committed during the year-long bloody war in the country’s north, is the latest in a series of accounts detailing atrocities against civilians by all warring parties.

Mass detentions, forced expulsions and killings are some of the atrocities listed in the new report.

Since November, Amhara security forces, including the region’s police and members of local militia, have rounded up Tigrayans living in several towns and forcefully expelled some of them, the report alleges.

According to witnesses cited in the report, several trucks full of people have left the areas controlled by Amhara forces and headed towards central Tigray.

The Amhara government has not yet reacted to the accusations.

Ethiopia’s civil war has seen the federal government - aided by forces from the Amhara and Afar regions - fighting against Tigrayan rebels.

The war has triggered a massive humanitarian crisis and reports of the mass killing of civilians and systemic rape.

BBC World Service
The Newsroom

Image source, Getty Images

The parliamentary speaker in Tunisia, Rached Ghannouchi, has said that he categorically rejects President Kais Saied's decision to suspend parliament for another year.

Mr Ghannouchi - who heads the Islamist Ennahda party - said that the exceptional measures announced by the president must be cancelled immediately.

He said it was the only way out of the crisis.

In a televised national address on Monday, Mr Saied said that parliament would remain suspended until fresh elections in a year's time.

He also said that before the election, a referendum on the constitution would be held in July.

Shingai Nyoka
BBC News, Harare

Image source, Getty Images

Zimbabwe has been hit by a huge exodus of health professionals amid the Covid-19 pandemic, with more than 2,200 leaving to take jobs in the US, UK, Australia and neighbouring states, according to the government's Health Service Board.

This is more than double the number of doctors, nurses and pharmacists who left last year, and three times the number that left in 2019.

Despite repeated government promises to improve wages they remain low. An average worker in the public sector takes homes less than $200 a month, while in the UK - which relaxed visa restrictions for health workers in 2020 - they can earn 10 times as much.

Officials say the exodus has affected an already fragile health system, which suffers from a lack of medical equipment and medicines.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends a minimum of 23 doctors per 10,000 people, which Zimbabwe is far from meeting. When the last survey was done in 2015, there was an average of just 1.6 doctors per 10,000 people.

How did tiny Cape Verde turn themselves into a regular attendee at the Africa Cup of Nations?

BBC World Service
The Newsroom

Tensions have risen in the Libyan capital Tripoli after armed groups mobilised in several districts ahead of next week's presidential election.

Armed men surrounded the prime minister's office for several hours following the dismissal of a military commander.

There is still uncertainty over whether the presidential vote, due on 24 December, will actually take place.

The election is a key element of a UN-backed plan to try to bring political stability to Libya after a decade of unrest.

Image source, Reuters

BBC World Service
The Newsroom

The authorities in the Central African Republic (CAR) appear to be whipping up anti-French sentiment following the decision by the European Union (EU) to suspend its military training programme.

A march has been organised in the capital Bangui, where local media say the flags of France and the EU will be set on fire.

The EU says it acted because it believes the Russian mercenaries, Wagner, exert undue influence over the CAR's armed forces and it fears it could get tied up in violations of international law.

The country has been ravaged by years of civil war.

Image source, Getty Images

The authorities in Kenya have confirmed an outbreak of the influenza virus in the country.

The Kenya Medical Research Institute (Kemri) said four out of 36 samples had tested positive for influenza A.

Doctors had noted an influx of patients with flu-like symptoms.

The outbreak comes amid rising Covid-19 cases and the emergence of the Omicron variant.

Health professionals are urging the public to follow strict hygiene guidelines to prevent the spread of the viruses.