Africa’s week in pictures: 20-26 May 2023
A selection of the best photos from across Africa and beyond this week:
A woman in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, carries an impressive number of water bottles on her head on Tuesday.
Over in Hammanskraal in South Africa, a man is pictured walking on top of a tank to fill it with water on Tuesday, as residents have been warned not to drink tap water after a cholera outbreak.
There are high spirits in Eritrea on Wednesday as a woman celebrates the country’s independence day, which marks the end of the country’s 30-year war with Ethiopia…
President Isaias Afewerki is all smiles on Eritrea’s big day. The country was annexed by Ethiopia in 1962, but its forces regained the capital in 1991 and eventually voted for independence in 1993.
This Senegalese woman is photographed at the opening of a limestone plant in Dakar.
The Sultan of Kano (left) and the Ooni of Ife attend a ceremony in Lagos along with Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari at the launch of an oil refinery on Monday, described as Africa’s largest.
Back in Senegal, there are protests as demonstrators block the road leading to the home of opposition leader Ousmane Sonko, in order to prevent his arrest on Monday. He is accused of rape, which he denies.
Excited Senegalese football fans in Argentina cheer their team during Sunday’s Fifa U-20 World Cup 2023 group match against Japan – which Japan won 1-0.
South Africans Tina Sekete and Jane Dlamini are all smiles as they pose for a picture during Africa Day Dublin on Thursday. Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs organises events each year on 25 May to celebrate the people and cultures of the continent.
A group of women attend a parade on Saturday in Algeria’s capital Algiers to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Polisario Front. The movement is fighting for the independence of Western Sahara. Morocco currently controls around 80% of the territory and the rest is held by Polisario.
Jail guards in Zimbabwe on duty in Harare Central Prison on Friday, when authorities released about a fifth of all prisoners under a presidential amnesty order meant to decongest the country’s overcrowded jails.
Rabat’s skies are lit up in Morocco as the year-long event Rabat, African Capital of Culture comes to an end.
Men from Sub-Saharan Africa wait to disembark from a ship in the Canary Islands – after a group of 138 migrants in inflatable boats were picked up by the Spanish coastguard on Tuesday.
