A selection of photographs from around the African continent this week:
A man rides a bicycle in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, on Thursday with messages welcoming US President Barack Obama ahead of his visit his father’s homeland… On the same day, women pose for a photograph in front of a painted artwork depicting Mr Obama… And these residents walk past a commercial poster in Nairobi with the portrait photos of Mr Obama, who will visit Kenya for the first time as US president. He will also be the first US leader to visit Ethiopia, where this photo of him and other historical figures was taken at a cafe in the capital, Addis Ababa, on Saturday. A sculpture of South Africa’s first black president appeared on a beach in Durban on Friday, a day before Nelson Mandela International Day was held to recognise his contribution to peace and freedom. In this photo, released on the same day, people look at a life-size ivory elephant sculpture at main airport in Botswana capital, Gaborone. The tusks come from elephants that died naturally. On Wednesday, women are seen shopping for vegetables at a market in the Congolese city of Brazzaville. A man listens to the news on the radio in an opposition stronghold in Burundi’s capital, Bujumbura, on the same day – following presidential elections held on Tuesday. On Sunday, this Zimbabwean cricket fan’s optimism paid off when his team beat India by 10 runs in the capital, Harare. Two days earlier, a boy attends a prayer in Addis Ababa as Muslims celebrate the annual festival of Eid-al-Fitr to mark the end of the holy month of Ramadan… In Nigeria’s main city Lagos, a man sells prayer beads and caps to Muslim worshippers on the same day… Nigeria’s northern city of Kano marked the end of Ramadan with the annual Hawan Nassarawa festival on Sunday, where these hunters discharged their guns.. Horsemen also take part in the parade, which the BBC’s Yusuf Yakasai says is one of the most popular celebrations in Kano. A boy holds his toy gun in the Somali, capital, on Friday near the parliamentary building, destroyed in conflict that has hit the country for more than two decades. On Saturday, Uganda’s self-declared healer and exorcist John Baptist Bashobora addresses his followers at a stadium in Poland’s main city, Warsaw… Tens of thousands of packed the stadium, signalling that the controversial Ugandan preacher has a large following in the east European state.
