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

Climate change is a threat to thousands of animal species, including gorillas, pangolins and turtles.

That's it from the BBC Africa Live team for now. There'll be an automated feed here until we're back on Monday morning.

In the meantime you can listen to the BBC Focus on Africa podcast here, and keep reading BBCAfrica.com for the latest news from the continent.

Here's a reminder of Thursday's wise words:

Click here to send us your African proverbs.

And we leave you with a picture of Zimbabwean Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube on the day the delivered the budget for 2024.

He said that growth was expected to fall because of a predicted drought deriving from the El Niño weather phenomenon, the Reuters news agency reports.

Image source, Reuters

Will Ross
Africa editor, BBC World Service

The government in Benin has introduced two new military medals, as the army battles a growing threat from Islamist militant groups.

It said one of the medals - the Combatant's Cross - was for soldiers killed or wounded in combat.

Benin had not previously faced an external security threat, but over the last three years there have been several incursions from Burkina Faso, where the violence has displaced nearly two million people.

Earlier this year the military in Benin launched a recruitment drive for 5,000 additional troops to help reinforce the border.

A month on from the expiration of his contract, could Randy Waldrum still stay on as boss of Nigeria women's national team?

Girmay Gebru
BBC Tigrinya, Aksum

Thousands of people have descended on the northern Ethiopian city of Aksum to celebrate a religious holiday for the first time in three years.

Festivities had been paused because of the civil war in the Tigray region that ended a year ago.

Aksum - which was the site of an alleged massacre soon after the war began in November 2020 - is the country's holiest city for Orthodox Christians.

It is said to be the home of the Ark of the Covenant, which contains the 10 commandments handed down to Moses by God.

Aksum has become the focus for the annual festival of St Mary and the city is a major pilgrimage destination with people coming from all over the country and beyond.

Uganda qualify for the Men's T20 World Cup for the first time with a nine-wicket victory over Rwanda in African qualifying.

Matt McGrath
Environment correspondent, at COP28

Image source, AFP

In a positive move on the first day of the climate conference in Dubai, the delegates have agreed that a fund to help countries hit by climate change can start handing out money.

This fund will channel money to countries hit badly by climate-related disasters - including in Africa.

This is something long sought by developing countries and is a “positive signal of momentum”, according to COP28 president Sultan al-Jaber.

For years, richer countries fought tooth and nail against the idea of a fund for "loss and damage", as it is called, wary of paying “compensation” for historic carbon emissions.

Last year at COP27 in Egypt, the moral force of the argument won the day and countries agreed to set up a fund.

Here in Dubai, the fund is getting going and several countries are pledging to contribute to the pot of money. This augurs very well for the prospects for this COP.

While funding has already been provided to help countries adapt to rising temperatures, and to help them curb their emissions, no help has been forthcoming to help with the destruction caused by storms and droughts.

That has changed significantly today.

This has been welcomed at COP28, but there's less to celebrate about the wider picture when it comes to climate cash.

While the rich world is likely to have delivered the long promised $100bn (£79bn) a year to developing nations in 2022 (according , externalto the OECD, external), this sum has aged badly.

Contrast the mythical $100bn that failed to appear on time, with the $1.7 trillion in public money that the International Institute for Sustainable Development says governments spent supporting the fossil fuel industries in the same year.

Even the money that has been supposedly earmarked for climate change does not always materialise. Data from poverty campaigners, One, shows that $343bn, almost two-thirds of money that was described as “climate finance” between 2013 and 2021 was never delivered or disbursed.

This year there will be major challenges - including in making progress on a new long-term goal that’s supposed to replace the $100bn in 2025.

It is horrendously complex and trust between countries is low - but this is perhaps one area where the UAE could really make progress.

Optimists say they have both the resources and the goodwill to make major progress on money. And if that happens - and the progress on the new fund is a good sign - it might just grease the wheels for a mega deal on fossil fuels.

Paul Njie
BBC News, Yaoundé

Image source, Reuters

Cameroon’s Health Minister Dr Manaouda Malachie has urged people to trust the government’s health policy, amid growing scepticism over the malaria vaccines which arrived the country nine days ago.

In a statement on Wednesday, he detailed the benefits of the RTS,S vaccine in the fight against malaria, praising the outcome of the testing phase in Kenya, Ghana, and Malawi.

“Based on the efficacy of the results obtained, the introduction of this vaccine... will make it possible to cover the entire childhood, and depending on the coverage rate, avoid about 2,000 deaths among children under five years of age every year,” Dr Malachie said.

The Word Health Organization (WHO) says that RTS,S can "prevent around 75% of malaria episodes"., external

Cameroon is the first country in Africa to receive the RTS,S vaccines since the end of the pilot phase.

But in a country where vaccine hesitancy is rife, the government has been unable to completely change the minds of many Cameroonians who continue to oppose the arrival of the more than 330,000 vaccine doses.

“We grew up in a tropical area, so we’re used to malaria. I don’t know why they must administer the vaccines to children,” one local resident told the BBC.

She also revealed: “I won’t vaccinate my children; even in school, I won’t allow them to do it.”

Every year, Cameroon records six million malaria cases with 4,000 deaths in health facilities, according to the WHO. Most of those affected are children below five years old.

Bai Lowe drove for a unit that killed opponents of the ex-regime, including journalist Deyda Hydara.

DJ Edu
Presenter of This Is Africa on BBC World Service

Image source, Berhana

Born in Atlanta in the US to parents from Ethiopia, rising star Amain Berhane’s second album has been a long time coming - but it’s well worth the wait.

Amen: The Nomad’s Dream, which dropped in October, is 12 tracks of genre-busting poetry.

It blends the sounds of the Ethiopian roots of the artist - who goes by the stage-name of Berhana - with the music he loved to listen to when growing up in the US.

“This album was all about how do I make the blend that sounds the most like me,” says the singer-songwriter.

The LA-based artist, who is also a screenwriter and filmmaker, burst on to the scene in 2016 with his self-titled EP.

Three years later, Berhana released his debut album Han.

The track, Janet - a tribute to actress Janet Hubert, who played Will Smith's aunt in Fresh Prince of Bel Air - went viral. And Grey Luh was featured on the hit TV comedy series, Atlanta - about the hip hop scene of his hometown.

The second album is a different direction for Berhana and was sparked by his first-ever trip to Ethiopia in late 2019.

He travelled with his mother, who had not been back to her homeland since she left 47 years ago.

“That experience was really powerful - this is the place I heard about every day and now I'm here, now I see everyone that looks like me.”

The album is “a deep dive in terms of my own self, my culture and my family”.

The singer sees the album as "a proclamation of acceptance, acceptance of everything life has to give”.

Berhana now travels back to Ethiopia as often as he can.

He premiered the short feature film he made as a companion to the album in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. It features six of the 12 tracks and, like the album, explores the duality of his experience as a first-generation immigrant living in the States.

To hear the full interview with Berhana, listen to This is Africa online.

Anne Soy
BBC News, Nairobi

Image source, Ahmed Salihi

The Somali authorities say more than a million people have now been forced to abandon their homes in the country because of floods caused by the El Niño weather phenomenon.

The heaviest rains in more than two decades have caused widespread destruction, displacement and death across the Horn of Africa.

It comes as world leaders gather in Dubai to discuss the climate crisis at the COP28 summit.

• Follow our live coverage of COP28

At least 270 people are reported to have died in Somalia, Kenya and southern Ethiopia as the continental region, which is just coming out of prolonged drought, braces for further torrential rains.

In Somalia alone more than 100 people have died in flash floods.

Whole towns have been submerged forcing nearly their entire population to seek shelter elsewhere. President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has said the country is in a critical state.

Neighbouring Ethiopia and Kenya are also dealing with widespread floods.

The situation is expected to get more dire as heavy rains are predicted to continue to early next year.

The World Food Programme says the situation compounds the food security crisis in the region. There are also fears of disease outbreaks.

Humanitarian organisations are calling on world leaders meeting at COP28, to remember countries - like those in the Horn of Africa - which are vulnerable to the effects of climate change while contributing the least to it.

Read more about El Niño and its impact:

• Somalia floods: Bodies unearthed and bridges swept away
• What are El Niño and La Niña, and how do they change the weather?

Image source, Reuters

Ugandan opposition leader and former pop star Bobi Wine has told the BBC "we grow and we transform" after being asked about homophobic lyrics to one of his songs that reportedly got him banned from the UK a decade ago.

The ban has apparently been lifted and he is now back in the UK for a visit captioning a photo of himself outside BBC's London office on Wednesday: "London, it's been 10 long years!"

Addressing the controversial song, which appeared to encourage people to be violent towards gay people, he told the BBC's World Tonight programme:

Bobi Wine, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, ran unsuccessfully against Uganda's long-serving President, Yoweri Museveni, in the 2021 election.

The opposition leader, who came second, disputed the results which saw Mr Museveni win his sixth elected term in office.

Looking to the 2026 election, Bobi Wine called on the UK, EU and US to put conditions on their collaboration with Uganda that included the respect for democracy and free-and-fair elections.

He said if those were in place then he would definitely win in three years time.

Read more about Bobi Wine:

• Bobi Wine: Uganda's 'ghetto president'

Kalkidan Yibeltal
BBC News, Addis Ababa

At least 23 people have died in a new cholera outbreak that hit communities displaced by recent flooding in eastern Ethiopia, the charity Save the Children says.

In a statement on Thursday the UK-based relief agency has said more than 770 cases of cholera have been confirmed in just two weeks in the Somali region, the area worst hit by the recent flooding and unusually heavy rains.

The downpours have affected 1.5 million people across the country with the numbers forced to leave their homes reaching 600,000, the UN said.

But only 10% of those affected were currently receiving aid as Ethiopia continued to struggle with gaps in funding, it added.

More than 90 districts across Ethiopia have reported cases of cholera with Save the Children warning the situation could worsen as more rains are expected in at least three regions.

The heavy rains that hit Ethiopia, along with Somalia and Kenya, are induced by the El Niño weather phenomenon as well as another known as the Indian Ocean Dipole.

"It breaks my heart," the Afrobeats star tells fans on Instagram, but says he needs time to recuperate.

Image source, WHI&FC

A 70-year-old Ugandan woman has just had twins after becoming pregnant through IVF treatment, becoming the oldest woman in Africa to give birth, according to the hospital where she had the babies.

The Women's Hospital International and Fertility Centre (WHI&FC) in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, said Safina Namukwaya delivered a boy and a girl.

"This story isn't just about medical success; it's about the strength and resilience of the human spirit," the hospital said on Facebook, external, following Ms Namukwaya's successful caesarean delivery on Wednesday.

Ms Namukwaya told privately owned NTV channel that it was her second delivery in three years, after she gave birth to a girl in 2020.

She added that she had experienced multiple difficulties during the pregnancy, including desertion by the children's father.

"Men don't like to be told that you are carrying more than one child. Ever since I was admitted here, my man has never showed up," she said.

Ms Namukwaya said she did not know how she would manage to raise the children, but was happy to have them after years of enduring stigma and ridicule for being childless.

"One time, a very young boy heckled at me saying I had been cursed by my mother to die without a child," she said.

Image source, AFP

A court in Germany has sentenced a Gambian man to life in prison for crimes against humanity and murder over his role in a notorious paramilitary unit.

The man, identified as Bai L, worked as a driver for the squad known as "the Junglers" on behalf of The Gambia's former President Yahya Jammeh.

In 2019, during hearings of Gambia's Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC), three other members of the "Junglers" accused Mr Jammeh of ordering numerous murders, including the notorious 2013 killings of two US-Gambian businessmen and veteran local journalist Deyda Hydara.

Among the crimes that Bai L was accused of was helping to stop Hydara's car before he was killed and driving one of the assassins away, the AFP news agency reports.

After 22 years as president, Mr Jammeh initially refused to give up power after losing an election in 2016. He finally went into exile after regional states sent troops to force him to step down.

The TRRC, which was set up after he left, heard from hundreds of witnesses about execution squads and other alleged rights violations committed under his rule.

Bai L's trial was able to take place in Germany as it recognises universal jurisdiction for serious crimes wherever they were committed, rights group Human Rights Watch says.

Image source, SA government communications (GCIS)

South Africa has received a consignment of 450 petrol generators donated by China to alleviate the country's severe power cuts.

The generators have arrived in South Africa and are to be officially received on Thursday by Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa.

“The generators will be used as backup to alleviate the impacts of load shedding in the delivery of services in clinics, schools and courts,” the presidency said on Tuesday.

The donation is part of the Technical Assistance Programme that China and South Africa signed during August's Brics summit in Johannesburg.

In the deal, China deal promised to donate emergency equipment worth 167m rand ($8.9m; £7m) and a development grant of 500m rand.

South Africa has struggled with power cuts, referred to as load-shedding, in recent years, causing much frustration.

Millions of people are without lights every day - sometimes for up to 10 hours - in cities and towns across South Africa.

BBC Monitoring
The world through its media

Image source, AFP

The government in the Democratic Republic of Congo has expressed regret at the European Union’s decision to withdraw its electoral observation mission from the country.

DR Congo is set to hold presidential and parliamentary elections on 20 December, with 23 candidates running for president, amid a tense political climate.

The cancellation of the observer mission came as discussions on the EU mission's deployment were ongoing, according to the state-run ACP news agency.

In a statement, the government said it was committed to successfully holding the elections with transparency, inclusiveness and freedom, and would welcome all observer missions wishing to work "in accordance with the laws and regulations of DR Congo".

The EU said it had withdrawn its election observation team after it failed to obtain the necessary authorisation to deploy essential communication equipment such as satellite telephones and internet kits.

Between 80 and 100 EU observers were due to be deployed to monitor the 20 December general elections.

Image source, Getty Images

Nigerian music star Rema has cancelled all his shows in December to focus on his health.

In an Instagram story post, the Afrobeats star said he had neglected his health due to constant tours.

Image source, Instagram/heisrema

The star, who had shows lined up across Nigeria and in South Africa later this year, said it was now time to recuperate.

“Breaks my heart to say that I won’t be performing anywhere this December. Been years of touring I’ve ignored my health and I need time to recuperate. 2024 we go again love,” he said.

The star has had a string of of musical successes this year, with his near-ubiquitous song Calm Down, which he sings with Selena Gomez, smashing multiple streaming and chart records.

The song has emerged the most Shazamed of 2023 globally and was last week awarded the best Afrobeats song at the Billboard Music Awards.

Earlier in the month, he wowed football legends at the Ballon D'Or awards, days after Calm Down made history by becoming the longest-charting and most successful African song of all time on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US.

Reacting to Rema’s decision to cancel his shows, fellow Nigerian star Davido has praised his accomplishments.

“The job isn't easy physically and mentally! You’ve done Africa and the world proud beyond expectations. Get some rest king [and] come back stronger,” he said.

• Red-hot Afrobeats star Rema doesn’t intend to calm down