I'm currently involved in a project to expand the European Meteosat met products to cover West Africa. We hope to make them available next summer, so just this is a bookmark to remind me to come back when they're online.
A few (big picture) examples of what is generated for Europe:
http://www.nwcsaf.org/NRT_images/SAF...-MAG1-LAST.GIF
http://www.nwcsaf.org/NRT_images/SAF...-MAG1-LAST.GIF
http://www.nwcsaf.org/NRT_images/SAF...-MAG1-LAST.GIF
http://www.nwcsaf.org/NRT_images/SAF...-MAG1-LAST.GIF
In the meantime I'd also recommend these images in addition to those already suggested.
Convective indications:
EUMETSAT IPPS animation - Meteosat 0 degree Convection Full disc high resolution
Strong convection normally shows up as yellow. High(ish) clouds as pink, everything else as purple.
This image of cloud height can also be useful:
EUMETSAT IPPS animation - Meteosat 0 degree Cloud Top Height
Although it does have a habit of overestimating the heights for Africa. As of now it's saying there's clouds up to about 19km in Central Africa in reality they're more like 17km.