Africa's top shots: 15-21 December 2017

22 December 2017

A selection of the best photos from across and about Africa this week:

A South African diver dressed as Santa Claus feeds an eagle ray as he swims in an aquarium during a show before Christmas at Africa's largest marine theme park, uShaka Sea World, in Durban on December 19, 2017.

AFP

A diver dressed as Santa Claus feeds an eagle ray during a show on Tuesday at an aquarium in South Africa's coastal city of Durban.

Egyptian Handicapped Mohamed Azeema (C) in action during the first disabled soccer match in Cairo, Egypt, 16 December 2017

EPA

Egypt's amputee football team, The Medicals, play their first match in the capital Cairo on Saturday, hoping to one day reach the Amputee World Cup.

A young man from Kenya's Maasai ethnic group poses after coming out of the bush on Wednesday after a month-long circumcision ceremony, which serves as a rite of passage to adulthood.

AFP

A teenager from Kenya's Maasai ethnic group comes out of the bush on Wednesday after a circumcision ceremony to mark his passage to adulthood...

Circumcised Maasai young men wearing a ritual costume covered with hunted birds, come out from the bush to receive blessing from ceremony masters near Kilgoris, Kenya

AFP

While these teenagers, wearing traditional costumes, walk towards the ceremony's masters to receive blessings.

Chadian model Brigitte Tanegue is pictured during the 8th African Model Exhibition Awards on December 15, 2017, in Abidjan.

AFP

Chadian model Brigitte Tanegue is dressed as a flower at the Model Exhibition Awards held on Friday in Ivory Coast's main city Abidjan.

Georgian actors perform during "The Three Sisters" by Konstantin Purtseladze at the 19th session of Carthage Theater Days in Municipal Theater in Tunis, Tunisia, 15 December 2017.

EPA

On the same day, Georgian actors perform during The Three Sisters at a theatre in Tunisia's capital Tunis.

Young girls play volleyball outside a youth nutrition centre run by Save the Children at Mekladida refugee camp in the Somali region of Ethiopia on December 19, 2017. The camp currently houses more than 34,000 Somali refugees, where 67% of that population is below the age of 18. Most of the refugees have fled due to conflict and famine in their home country, Somalia, the border with Ethiopia being just 100km from the camp.

AFP

On Tuesday, young girls play volleyball at a refugee camp in Ethiopia's Somali region.

Libyan armed forces cadets perform manoeuvres during their graduation ceremony at the military academy in eastern Benghazi on December 18, 2017.

AFP

Cadets in Libya's armed forces perform manoeuvres during their graduation ceremony on Monday at a military academy in the eastern city of Benghazi.

A farm worker at a tobacco field at Herne Farm, 66 km south of Harare, Zimbabwe, 18 December 2017. The tobacco selling season is to start in March 2018. Zimbabwe is the biggest grower of tobacco in in Africa and sixth in the world.

EPA

In Zimbabwe on the same day, a worker hangs tobacco to dry just after it had been picked.

South African President and former President of the ANC Jacob Zuma departs following the closing ceremony on the final day of the 54th ANC conference at the NASREC Expo Centre in Johannesburg.

AFP

On Wednesday, South Africa's President Jacob Zuma sings one last time at a conference of the governing African National Congress after stepping down as its leader.

Christmas decorations light up the streets of Lagos on December 18, 2017.

AFP

And Christmas decorations light up the streets in Nigeria's commercial capital Lagos on Monday.

Images courtesy of AFP, EPA and Reuters