Oceane Deloge and Shamick Otieno of the Dance Centre Kenya (DCK) perform in the classic Christmas fairy tale, Tchaikovsky's ballet “The Nutcracker” to a live audience under coronavirus disease (COVID-19) safe guidelines at the Kenya National Theatre in Nairobi, Kenya on December 3, 2021. (Photo by Thomas Mukoya/Reuters)





A French soldier patrols the streets of Gao on December 4, 2021. France's anti-jihadist military force in the Sahel region, which today involves over 5,000 troops, will end in the first quarter of 2022. (Photo by Thomas Coex/AFP Photo)





A baby reacts as people queue at a polling station to vote during the presidential election, in Banjul, Gambia, December 4, 2021. (Photo by Zohra Bensemra/Reuters)





A woman looks on as she waits in line to cast her vote in a market in the Manjai Kunda neighbourhood in Banjul on December 4, 2021 Gambians were due to head to the polls on Saturday, in the first presidential election in the tiny West African nation since former dictator Yahya Jammeh fled into exile. The voting will be closely watched as a test of the democratic transition in the country, where Jammeh ruled for 22 years after seizing power in a bloodless coup in 1994. (Photo by John Wessels/AFP Photo)





Members of the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF) are seen on a truck in Shewa Robit, Ethiopia, on December 05, 2021. (Photo by Amanuel Sileshi/AFP Photo)





Tebogo Masiu, and Smagele Twala are greeted by a giraffe during a game drive in the Dinokeng game reserve near Hammanskraal, South Africa Sunday December 5, 2021. Recent travel bans imposed on South Africa and neighboring countries as a result of the discovery of the omicron variant in southern Africa have hammered the country’s safari business, already hard hit by the pandemic. (Photo by Jerome Delay/AP Photo)





People protests against the October military coup and subsequent deal that reinstated Prime Minister Hamdok in Khartoum, Sudan, Monday, December 6, 2021. (Photo by Marwan Ali/AP Photo)





Ugandan climate activist Vanessa Nakate, left, walks with a guide at the Kaazi reforestation project on the outskirts of Kampala, Uganda Monday, December 6, 2021. In an interview with The Associated Press, Nakate reflected on the whirlwind of the past year, including her disappointment in the outcome of the U.N. climate talks in Scotland, and what she and other young activists plan for the year to come. (Photo by Hajarah Nalwadda/AP Photo)





Yunusa Bawa, a community health worker, rides on a motorbike with a box of AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccines, in Sabon Kuje on the outskirts of Abuja, Nigeria, Monday, December 6, 2021. As Nigeria tries to meet an ambitious goal of fully vaccinating 55 million of its 206 million people in the next two months, health care workers in some parts of the country risk their lives to reach the rural population. (Photo by Gbemiga Olamikan/AP Photo)





A man rides past a destroyed tank in Mesobit, Ethiopia, on December 06, 2021. (Photo by Amanuel Sileshi/AFP Photo)





A woman walks home amidst heavy snowfall in the Amazigh Timahdite village, surrounded by snowfall in the Middle Atlas, near Azrou, Morocco, Saturday, December 4, 2021. For the people of the remote Moroccan village of Timahdite, nestled in North Africa's highest mountain range, heavy snowfall brings weeks, or months, of isolation. (Photo by Mosa'ab Elshamy/AP Photo)





Artisanal sand miners shovel sand into trucks in an area destroyed by sand mining on the outskirts of Gunjur, on December 7, 2021. Large tracks of land along the Gambian coast line have been almost completely mined of sand, destroying vegetation and farming land. Sand is used and sold for construction of new buildings. (Photo by John Wessels/AFP Photo)





Selected schoold children perform during the 60th anniversary of independence day ceremony at the Uhuru Stadium in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, on December 9, 2021. Tanzania marked its 60th independence anniversary on Thursday, with President Samia Suluhu Hassan hailing the country's progress even as fears grow over the precarious state of political freedoms in the East African nation. The former British colony known as Tanganyika won independence in 1961, officially becoming Tanzania after merging with Zanzibar three years later, and adopting a system of multi-party democracy in 1992. (Photo by Ericky Boniphace/AFP Photo)





Traditional dancers perform at the Azimio la Umoja (Declaration of Unity) rally at which opposition leader Raila Odinga announced he would make his fifth bid for the presidency in Kenya's 2022 general election, in Nairobi, December 10, 2021. Veteran Kenyan politician Raila Odinga's announcement to run for a fifth bid for the presidency in a general election scheduled for August 9, 2022, ends months of suspense following a surprise truce with his former foe, the incumbent president. (Photo by Simon Maina/AFP Photo)





A healthcare worker administers the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine to a pregnant woman, amidst the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 variant Omicron, in Johannesburg, South Africa, December 9, 2021. (Photo by Sumaya Hisham/Reuters)





In this aerial view, the bodies of six giraffes lie on the outskirts of Eyrib village in Sabuli Wildlife Conservancy on December 10, 2021 in Wajir County, Kenya. The giraffes, weak from lack of food and water, died after they got stuck in mud as they tried to drink from a nearly dried-up reservoir nearby. They were moved to this location to prevent contamination of the reservoir water. A prolonged drought in the country's north east has created food and water shortages, pushing pastoralist communities and their livestock to the brink. The area has received less than a third of normal rainfall since September. (Photo by Ed Ram/Getty Images)





Tamale Safaulu, 28, poses on stage during the Mr.001 bodybuilding competition in Mombasa, Kenya, on December 11, 2021. Tamale is a Ugandan bodybuilder who has been competing since 2015. In February 2020 he lost his leg in a motorcycle accident but a year later he was able to win Mr. Kampala in the “persons with disabilities” category. Mr.001 is his first bodybuilding event outside of Uganda. (Photo by Patrick Meinhardt/AFP Photo)





A woman living in the Vlakfontein informal settlement outside Johannesburg, South Africa, shuts her window during a rainstorm, Monday December 13, 2021. South Africa's 7-day rolling average of daily new COVID-19 cases has risen over the past two weeks from 7.60 new cases per 100,000 people on Nov. 28 to 32.71 new cases per 100,000 people on Dec. 12, 2021 according to Johns Hopkins University. In general, the new omicron cases have resulted in milder cases, with fewer hospitalizations and less severe cases requiring oxygen or intensive care. (Photo by Jerome Delay/AP Photo)





Wives of King Oba of Benin, Omo n’Oba N’Edo Uku Akpolokpolo, Ewuare II, attend the signing of documents for the repartriation to the ancient kingdom of looted artefacts by the British military force in Benin City, midwestern Nigeria, on December 13, 2021. Oba of Benin has signed relevant documents for the repatriation to the ancient kingdom of precious artefacts looted by the British soldiers during the punitive military campaign in Benin City in 1897. (Photo by Pius Utomi Ekpei/AFP Photo)





Attendees wearing t-shirt recognizing the late Virgil Abloh for his contribution to the skating community attend the opening of the Freedom Skate Park in Accra, Ghana, on December 15, 2021. The Freedom Skate Park is the first skate park and a recreational center created by the youth in Ghana. (Photo by Nipah Dennis/AFP Photo)