The Ghanaian government has said that from midnight on Sunday all visitors to the country need to be fully vaccinated against coronavirus before being allowed to enter.

Ghanaians who intend to return to the country in the next fortnight are exempted, but will be vaccinated upon arrival, a statement from the country's health service says.

"All Ghanaians travelling out of the country are to be fully vaccinated," the statement adds.

The order is part of measures to help control the spread of the Omicron variant of Covid-19.

The health service statement says that most cases of the variant in the country were from people who had arrived at the international airport in Accra - and the majority of those people had been unvaccinated.

Ghana has recorded just over 130,000 cases of coronavirus in total and 1,200 deaths.

Farah Yussuf
BBC Monitoring

Kenya has said it is in talks to send security personnel to Qatar to beef up protection at next year's football World Cup in the Gulf state.

Kenyan Interior Minister Fred Matiang’i said on Friday that the East African country had agreed in principle to “provide security personnel to support” the tournament.

The World Cup will take place across eight venues in five Qatari cities, including the capital Doha, in November and December next year.

Kenya has never reached the finals of the football World Cup.

Samba Cyuzuzo
BBC Great Lakes

Image source, Rwanda's Ministry of Emergency

The seventh batch of 176 asylum seekers evacuated from Libya have arrived in Rwanda, the ministry of emergency has said.

The new arrivals include 102 Eritrean nationals, 62 Sudanese, five Somalis, four South Sudanese and three Ethiopians.

They are being housed by the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, and the Rwandan government in a transit centre located in a town 40km (25 miles) south of the capital, Kigali.

In total, 648 asylum seekers mostly from the Horn of Africa countries have been transferred to Rwanda from Libya since September 2019.

Of these, 462 have been resettled to Sweden, Canada, Norway, France and Belgium.

The UN refugee agency says more than 5,000 refugees and asylum seekers, including hundreds of children, are stranded in different parts of Libya hoping to make it to Europe.

Almost 7,000 refugees and asylum seekers have been evacuated or resettled out of Libya since 2017, the UN says.

Image source, Getty Images

Dozens of inmates from Boma prison in the west of the Democratic Republic of Congo have escaped.

The prisoners took advantage of loud music that was playing at a funeral in the neighbourhood to distract the guards.

Some nine inmates were arrested near the prison and one injured as guards fired gunshots in the air, Radio Okapi reported.

Another 19 inmates are still at large, according to the radio station.

There have been several other jail breaks at Boma prison, which locals say is in urgent need of upgrading.

Image source, AFP

Rights group Human Rights Watch (HRW) says Tigrayan forces summarily executed dozens of civilians in “apparent war crimes” in two towns they controlled in Ethiopia’s Amhara region.

The executions occurred between 31 August and 9 September this year, it says in a new report., external

Witnesses described to HRW investigators that they saw Tigrayan fighters in Chenna and Kobo villages kill a total of 49 civilians in separate incidents.

“Tigrayan forces showed brutal disregard for human life and the laws of war by executing people in their custody,” said Lama Fakih, HRW’s crisis and conflict director.

“Tigrayan forces apparent war crimes in Chenna and Kobo spotlight the urgent need for all warring parties in Ethiopia to prioritise the protection of civilians,” she added.

The Tigrayan forces have not responded to the accusations.

HRW has called on the UN to establish an international inquiry into war crimes - and probe abuses by all parties in the Tigray conflict.

Government troops have recently reclaimed towns and cities in the Afar and Amhara regions, previously held by the Tigray fighters.

The year-long conflict in Ethiopia has created a huge humanitarian crisis with thousands killed and at least eight million people in urgent need of assistance.

Ishaq Khalid
BBC News

Image source, AFP

Gunmen in Nigeria’s Niger state have shot dead at least 16 worshippers in a mosque.

A number of others have been wounded in the attack in Ba’are village.

The attackers opened fire on the Muslim worshippers during early morning prayers on Wednesday, Niger state government official Ahmed Ibrahim Matane told the BBC.

He said the motorbike-riding gunmen also shot and killed one other person on the road as they zoomed off.

Residents have now deserted the remote community following the killings.

In neighbouring Katsina state, another group of gunmen have shot dead a senior government official at his residence.

Police say they’re investigating the killing of Rabe Nasir, the state commissioner of science and technology.

The region is grappling with a wave a kidnappings for ransom and killings by armed criminal gangs.

Earlier in the week, at least 23 travellers were ambushed by gunmen and burnt to death inside a bus in Sokoto state.

BBC World Service

Image source, AFP

Burkina Faso and Niger have issued a joint statement saying their combined armies have killed 100 Islamist militants in two weeks of operations.

There's no independent confirmation of the claim, which was issued a day after Burkina Faso's president Roch Kaboré sacked his prime minister in the wake of angry protests about increasing casualties caused by jihadist attacks.

On Thursday, at least 13 members of a civilian militia fighting the jihadists were killed in the north of the country.

The volunteer force was created three years ago in an effort to stop Islamist violence from spreading. More than 250 of its members have been killed.

Dozens of soldiers and police have also been killed over the past year.

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Loharano has avoided the fate of many in southern Madagascar through the use of new farming methods.

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

The Jammeh era human rights abuses have been well documented. The Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission has heard testimonies from victims and perpetrators alike. Former president, Yahya Jammeh continues to maintain support around the country, and nowhere more so than his ancestral village of Kanilai in the Fonyi region of The Gambia. Focus on Africa's Esau Williams travelled to Kanilai to find out why residents of the village continue to support the former president even though he remains in exile and is not on the ballot box.

(Image: A Kanilai village elder, Mohammed Lamin Jammeh, cousin of former President of The Gambia Yahya Jammeh. Credit: BBC)

Fish is the main source of protein for many Gambians, but overfishing and expensive fuel are driving up prices. Esau Williams goes to Gambia's largest fish market at Tanji to talk to the fishermen and fish mongers and those whose livelihoods depend on fish.

(Photo: Catch at Tanji fish market, The Gambia. Credit: BBC)

Minister of Information, Ebrima Sillah, says the government is on course for a major victory ahead of the 2021 elections in The Gambia. In an interview with Focus on Africa's Esau Williams, he defends the administration's record on stability, the economy and governance.

(Image: The Gambia's Minister of Information, Communication and Infrastructure, Ebrima Sillah. Credit: BBC)

Team Qhubeka NextHash, Africa's top cycling team, has had its application for a WorldTour spot in 2022 rejected by the UCI.

A video of Kenyan police recruits acting in an intimidating fashion is widely condemned.

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

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 this photo of a man queuing with his cow for the ferry across the Gambia River:

Image source, AFP

Image source, KBSTGOV

Nigerian media report that a disabled boy who was hospitalised after being tied to livestock and reduced to eating his own faeces has now been returned to the family home where the abuse took place.

Jubril Aliyu is now 12 years old. By the time he was discovered last year, he was malnourished after spending two years tied to goats.

He had even begun to mimic their behaviour, Barrister Hamza Attahiru of Human Rights Network told BBC News Pidgin.

Jubril's father was arrested along with his two step-mothers, who said the boy had epilepsy and mental health difficulties.

The boy's own mother had died in 2018.

"He is now fully rehabilitated... Whatever he needs [in healthcare] 'till he reaches the age of maturity shall be provided by the state government," Dr Aminu Haliru Bunza of the Sir Yahaya Memorial Hospital in Birnin-Kebbi is quoted as saying.

Ishaq Khalid
BBC News, Abuja

The governor of Borno state in north-eastern Nigeria has banned food distributions to tens of thousands of people displaced by Islamist extremists.

A letter from Babagana Umara Zulum informed aid agencies that they would not be allowed to distribute food or other items to people who - under a government scheme - had moved from camps back to their towns and villages.

The governor said the policy was aimed at weaning people off aid and helping them to become self-sufficient.

Food insecurity in the region is already high and aid agencies warn that levels of malnutrition will increase.

Former Morocco captain Medhi Benatia retires from football after a 14-year career and a host of league titles in Germany and Italy.

Kaizer Chiefs look set to forfeit at least six points in South Africa's Premier Soccer League as a Covid-19 outbreak forces them to miss several matches.