A selection of the most striking news images from the African continent this year:
Image copyright GETTY IMAGES Image caption Oscar Pistorius removed his prosthetic limbs and hobbled around the courtroom at his sentencing hearing in South Africa in June. Image copyright ITALIAN NAVY VIA AP Image caption The capsizing of a boat in the Mediterranean between Libya and Italy is caught on camera in May by the Italian navy as officers rescued more than 560 migrants. Image copyright AP Image caption A few months later in August, 20 small boats were rescued off the Libyan coast full of people from Somalia and Eritrea, included one man with his five-day-old baby. Image copyright AFP Image caption Protesters in Zimbabwean burnt old banknotes during a demonstration in August in the capital, Harare, against the introduction of "bond notes", which are supposed to help with the shortage of US dollars. Image copyright AP Image caption In October, 21 women and girls were reunited with their families. The #BringBackOurGirls campaign made them world-famous after they were kidnapped by Boko Haram militants from their school in the north-eastern town of Chibok in April 2014. Image copyright PATIENCE ATUHAIRE Image caption One side of this road is in Uganda, the other is in DR Congo. Onions cost the same on both sides. Image copyright GETTY IMAGES Image caption Lucas Sithole of South Africa hugged Ymanitu Silva of Brazil after competing in Wheelchair tennis at the Paralympics in September. Image copyright GETTY IMAGES Image caption On the same day, Rwanda's sitting volleyball team sang the national anthem ahead of a match against China. Image copyright AFP Image caption And a team of refugees in the Olympics for the first time. Half of the team were from South Sudanese, including runner Yiech Pur Biel, left. Image copyright AFP Image caption South Sudan is famous for its wrestling and in April held its first tournament since civil war broke out in 2013. Image copyright REUTERS Image caption Libya has been beset by chaos since Nato-backed forces overthrew Col Muammar Gaddafi in October 2011, enabling IS fighters to take shelter in the country. After months of fighting they were ousted from their stronghold in Sirte by the end of the year. Image copyright AFP Image caption Protesters demanding electoral reforms clashed with the police in the Kibera slum in Kenya's capital Nairobi in May and school children were caught in the middle. Image copyright AFP Image caption Unprecedented protests were held in Zimbabwe throughout 2016. After two activists were detained in July, protestors clashed with police in the country's second city, Bulawayo. Image copyright REUTERS Image caption Street vendors also protested in Zimbabwe but police retaliated with tear gas, which people tried to wash out of this child's eyes. Image copyright ALAMY Image caption Flash floods in Beledweyne, north of Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, in May saw hundreds of families forced out of their homes. Image copyright AFP Image caption And a few months later, in October, this truck was pictured heading to the country's capital Mogadishu. Image copyright AFP Image caption In April, a young woman is seen through the horns of a bull at a cattle camp in South Sudan. Image copyright EPA Image caption In October, a South Sudan soldier blows through a cow horn during a military operation. Image copyright AP Image caption The tusks from about 6,700 elephants were burnt in Nairobi National Park in Kenya in April to show the country's commitment to saving elephants... Image copyright AP Image caption More than 100 tonnes of ivory was set alight and it took several days to burn. Image copyright GETTY IMAGES Image caption In an effort to learn more about elephants' migration routes, collars were attached to elephants in Amboseli National Park, Kenya in November but to do this the elephants had to be sedated. Image copyright GETTY IMAGES Image caption Another Kenyan research centre, Mpala, hosts this elephant which created a mud display for the camera. Image copyright REUTERS Image caption The French-Tunisian artist El Seed created this mural painted on the walls of houses in a poor area of Egypt's capital, Cairo. Image copyright AFP Image caption On the other side of the continent, the annual Chale Wote street art festival in Accra, Ghana, continued to grow. Image copyright AFP Image caption In November the continent was gripped by the US election, including this group of Maasai men near the Kenyan town of Saikeri listening out for the result on the radio. Image copyright REUTERS Image caption In October the Ethiopia-Djibouti electric railway line opened, cutting journey times from three days to about 12 hours... Image copyright REUTERS Image caption A lot of the workers on the trains are Chinese. Image copyright EPA Image caption Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe celebrated his 92nd birthday in February with a massive cake. Image copyright AP Image caption In the South African town of Knysna, a Rastafarian man let the photographer see his religious ceremony in May which includes taking a hit from a marijuana pipe. Image copyright REUTERS Image caption In a protest at the lack of jobs in Tunisia, an unemployed man sewed his lips together as part of a hunger strike in January. Image copyright AFP Image caption Ghana's main opposition New Patriotic Party won the presidential election in December. Image copyright AFP Image caption Fans paid tribute to Nigerian football legend Stephen Keshi in Togo's capital Lome at a memorial match in June. Image copyright EPA Image caption South Africa saw a year of student protests against tuition fees. Image copyright EPA Image caption One supporter of Kenya's opposition Orange Democratic Movement cut a striking image in the middle of the crowd in a rally in the capital, Nairobi in June. Image copyright REUTERS Image caption A railway bridge crossing over the River Nzi from Ivory Coast to Burkina Faso collapsed, as this September photo shows. Image copyright AFP Image caption In an effort to tackle the stigma faced by people with albinism, a Mr and Miss Albinism contest was organised in Nairobi in October. Image copyright REUTERS Image caption And finally, this motorbike in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, has the message stuck "biloba loba to boyi", which translates from the Lingala as "please mind your own business". BBC
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