Africa in pictures: 12-18 December

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-30541910

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A selection of the week's photographs from around the African continent.

With less than a week to go to Christmas day, delivery riders for an online retailer in Ivory Coast's main city of Abidjan dress up as Santa Claus on Thursday.

In the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, sailors prepare their attire on Friday, shortly before taking part in a military parade during celebrations to mark Kenya's 51 years of independence from the UK.

On Saturday, a man in Kenya has his face smeared with red ochre paint during preparations for the Maasai Olympics 2014…

The biennial tournament is organised to stop young Maasai men, known as "morans" or warriors, from taking part in the traditional practice of lion hunting to prove their manhood...

Competitions included the high jump, which measured the traditional standing jump straight into the air, not the height jumped over a crossbar...

It was held at the Sidai Oleng wildlife sanctuary at the base of Mt Kilimanjaro near the Kenya-Tanzania border.

On Wednesday, rescue workers clear rubble from a multi-storey residential building which collapsed in Nairobi's Makongeni estate…

According to the Kenya Red Cross, seven people have now died from their injuries. The block of flats had at least four floors and it remains unclear how many people could still be trapped.

A member of the Libyan military police assesses the position of Islamist gunmen during clashes in the eastern city of Benghazi on Tuesday…

He is part of a coalition of forces fighting alongside Khalifa Haftar, an ex-general who has been taking on the militants.

Tunisian Abdul Bin Muhammad Abbas Ouerghi, one of six prisoners recently released by the US from the Guantanamo Bay detention centre, prepares a barbecue in the Uruguayan capital, Montevideo, on Sunday. Uruguay agreed to receive the former inmates as a humanitarian gesture.

Thousands of people march on Saturday through the Burkinabe capital, Ouagadougou, to remember journalist Norbert Zongo, who was murdered 16 years ago during the rule of Blaise Compaore, who was ousted as president in October in a popular uprising.

A soldier from the European Union military operation in the Central African Republic patrols the streets of capital, Bangui, on Friday. The EU troops make up one of three international forces in the country. Violence, however, still continues - at least 28 people were killed this week.

On Tuesday, a man at Uganda's Entebbe airport holds weapons confiscated from former rebels returning home to the Democratic Republic of Congo. About 100 former M23 fighters, who will receive an amnesty as part of a peace deal, were repatriated… but more than 1,000 others went on the run ahead of the handover…

They feared returning to DR Congo and sought refuge at settlements for refugees in south-western Uganda, where they were pictured on Wednesday. For more than a year the men had been staying at a military training school after fleeing to Uganda following their defeat by the Congolese army and UN forces.

On Monday, a night watchman in Abidjan sits near the Henri Konan Bedie toll bridge, named after a former Ivorian president, ahead of its inauguration the next day. It is the country's first toll bridge, and the third bridge to link the north and south of the city. According to the African Development Bank, which partially funded the project, it is an "architectural jewel" and will help transform the area's economy.

Ivory Coast were the champions at the Copa Lagos Beach Soccer tournament in Lagos. The Elephants beat Ghana 9-4 in the final, pictured here on Sunday.

On Sunday, popular Kenyan DJ Brownskin poses in front of a matatu in Nairobi. He started his career selling CDs on a minibus like this one and will feature in a documentary on the best nightclubs in Africa that the BBC is recording across the continent...

It will be presented by DJ Edu (in green), from BBC Radio 1Xtra, who tries to learn Sauti Sol's trademark Lipala dance during filming with the Kenyan superstars on Friday.