Time magazine honoured Mr Ruto and three other Africans for their work in fighting climate change.

"Tinkering with a failed plan" will not achieve the government's aims, the former home secretary says.

At least 50 people are said to have died so far with over 7,000 suspected cases.

The African Football League has attracted both praise and concern after its initial edition featuring eight teams.

The African music star mulls her 40-year career, which is to be celebrated at the Royal Albert Hall.

A selection of the best photos from across the African continent this week.

Joseph Boakai has a tiny lead over President Weah, with results from 85% of polling stations counted.

President Rajoelina is seeking a third term in a poll that has been marred by an opposition boycott.

Mohamed Salah hits four goals for Egypt in 2026 World Cup qualifying but Nigeria are held to a draw at home by minnows Lesotho.

That's it for now from the BBC Africa Live team, but we'll be back next week.

Until then, you can get the latest African news on the BBC News website , externalor listen to our Focus on Africa podcast for stories behind the news.

A reminder of our wise words of the day:

Click here to send us your African proverbs.

And we leave you with this picture of a chef in Sudan grilling meat in Port Sudan:

Image source, AFP

Ameyu Etana
BBC Afaan Oromoo

The Ethiopian Football Federation (EFF) has said that its World Cup qualifying match against Sierra Leone should have been abandoned because of dense fog.

It has complained to football's world governing body, Fifa, as the game, which was being played in Morocco, was delayed several times because of the difficult weather conditions.

The half-time break was extended and the referee stopped the game twice in the second half before the match ended after 15 minutes of added time.

''It should have been postponed,'' an EFF statement said.

The match ended goalless.

Ethiopia is playing its home games outside of the country as it does not have stadiums that meet international standards.

Fifa has not commented.

Moses Kollie Garzeawu
Journalist, Monrovia

Image source, Moses Kollie Garzeawu

Liberian opposition candidate Joseph Boakai remains narrowly ahead of incumbent George Weah in the presidential election run-off.

In the latest round of results, coming after the votes from just over 5,000 of the 5,890 polling stations have been collated reveal that Mr Boakai has a 50.58% share and President Weah has 49.42%.

In the first round, both men were also neck and neck - with the third placed candidate securing just 2% of the vote.

Neither President Weah nor Mr Boakai achieved more than 50% of the vote in the first round of the election, triggering the run-off.

The same two candidates also faced each other in the 2017 election, which ended in a run-off comfortably won by President Weah.

The final run-off results are expected to be released within 15 days of the 14 November polling date.

Julie Mehretu's painting becomes the most expensive by an African-born artist to be sold at auction.

BBC World Service

Image source, Kenya DCI

Kenyan police have arrested eight people they accuse of being involved in a colossal scam which they say involves $439tn (£350tn).

The figure has raised eyebrows as it's nearly 200 times the total value of US dollars in global circulation.

In a post on social media, external, the authorities said the suspects had claimed to be transporting cash from Togo to Dubai and needed facilitation from two Dutch citizens.

Many have questioned the figure the police have given, but the authorities said it had been provided by officials in the Netherlands who are yet to comment on the matter.

Image source, Reuters

South Africa's governing African National Congress (ANC) said it would support an opposition motion in parliament "to close the Israel embassy in South Africa and suspend all diplomatic relations with the country until it agrees to a ceasefire".

The ANC has also said it expects Israel to "commit to binding United Nations facilitated negotiations".

The opposition Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) is also calling for the suspension of all diplomatic relations with Israel in solidarity with Palestinian people.

South African sympathy for the Palestinian fight for an independent state goes back to the days of late anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela.

He famously said in 1997, three years after he became the country's first democratically elected president after decades of struggle against white-minority rule: "We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians."

The unprecedented Hamas attack on Israel, which killed some 1,400 people, has not changed the position of the ANC, even though two South African nationals were among the dead and another is among the more than 230 people taken hostage.

Read more on South Africa and the conflict:

• South African divisions exposed by Israel-Hamas conflict

Kalkidan Yibeltal
BBC News, Addis Ababa

The African Development Bank (AfDB) has accused security forces in Ethiopia of “unlawfully arresting” and “physically assaulting” two of its staff members.

According to a statement by the bank released on Thursday, external, the incident happened two weeks ago in the capital, Addis Ababa.

The unnamed staff members were detained for many hours - without any official explanation - until, on learning of their arrest, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed intervened and ordered their immediate release, the bank’s statement said.

The AfDB called the occurrence “a very serious diplomatic incident,” adding it had lodged a formal complaint with the authorities.

The bank is one of Ethiopia’s key financial partners and its chief, Akinwumi Adesina, enjoys warm relations with Prime Minister Abiy.

In September, the AfDB approved more than $100m (£80m) in funding to finance power supply improvements in Ethiopia.

Security forces have not commented on the allegations and the BBC’s attempts to get a response have not been successful.

Nichola Mandil
BBC News, Juba

Image source, Nichola Mandil

South Sudan’s unity government has begun the deployment of the unified military force - using soldiers from both sides of the conflict that ended in 2018 - to the different regions of the country.

The deployment is seen as a key benchmark of the September 2018 revitalised peace agreement, signed by President Salva Kiir and his former archrival, Riek Machar, who is now the first vice-president.

The initial batch of troops that left the capital, Juba, on Wednesday morning. It was made up of a battalion of 750 soldiers heading to Upper Nile State’s capital, Malakal, in the north of the country.

Another group will be heading to Northern Bahr El-Ghazal in the north-west of the country.

In August last year 53,000 soldiers – the first for the unified armed forces - graduated – making them the first police and army officers trained for national service since South Sudan’s independence in 2011.

These soldiers were expected to be deployed immediately but this was held up.

In July, President Salva Kiir announced that the country’s long-delayed elections will be held next year. The polls scheduled for December 2024, will be the first in the world’s newest country.

Dorcas Wangira
Africa health correspondent

Two landmark clinical trials have shown that an antibiotic can prevent multidrug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) in both children and adults.

Researchers from the Desmond Tutu TB Centre at South Africa's Stellenbosch University announced in Paris that the drug, levofloxacin, given once daily to children over six months, was extremely safe.

More than half a million people develop MDR-TB each year. It is hard to treat with current medications and the cost is high.

Researchers of one of the two studies say they have found a way to safely protect children when an adult in the household has MDR-TB.

In the TB-CHAMP trial carried out in South Africa, 453 children who had been exposed to an adult with MDR-TB in their household were given levofloxacin. Only five developed the disease.

The second study, the V-QUIN trial, found that levofloxacin reduced the risk of adults and adolescents catching MDR-TB by 45%.

Burundi still hope to convince Nestory Irankunda to play for the country of his parents after the teenager agreed to join Bayern Munich.

Image source, Sotheby's

The $10.7m (£8.6m) sale of a painting by Ethiopian-American artist Julie Mehretu has broken the record for a work by an African-born artist to be sold at auction.

Walkers With the Dawn and Morning, the title taken from a Langston Hughes poem, is an abstract creation using ink and acrylic on canvas.

Mehretu painted it as part of an exhibition created in response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and its impact on the US city of New Orleans.

Walkers With the Dawn and Morning was sold at a Sotheby's auction in New York on Wednesday evening, external, which saw two bidders competing for the piece with the price gradually edging higher and higher.

It went for $9.5m, but the final cost, once fees are added, took it to the record-breaking sum of $10.7m.

Mehretu, in fact, held the previous record of $9.3m, which was set last month.

Walkers With the Dawn and Morning combines "all aspects of her inimitable style of mark making, including architectural drawing, brightly coloured vectors, and calligraphic sweeps", Sotheby's said.

The sale of the work is indicative of the strong interest in contemporary African art, which is now seeing a growing market for abstract work.

"We are moving beyond that initial phase to something more discerning", Hannah O'Leary, head of Sotheby's modern and contemporary African art department told the Art Newspaper last month, external.

Mehretu was born in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, in 1970, but moved with her family to the US in 1977 at a time of political strife.

She has become one of the most prominent names in the fast-growing contemporary African art world.

Earlier this year she was chosen to create BMW’s next Art Car. Her work will be painted onto a BMW car that will be part of the 24 Hours of Le Mans race next year.