Ballet and bioluminescence: Africa’s top shots

Story By: BBC

A selection of the week’s best photos from across the African continent and beyond:

FAREED KOTB / ANADOLU / GETTY IMAGES Two men in swimming shorts float on turquoise-colour waters. The banks have salt-encrusted edges. — Bathers float on salt lakes in the Siwa Oasis, north-western Egypt, on Monday.

TAHSIN CEYLAN / ANADOLU / GETTY IMAGES A blue and black fish swims amid a bright violet seabed. — Further east the next day, bioluminescence is captured underwater in the Red Sea…

TAHSIN CEYLAN / ANADOLU / GETTY IMAGES A hawksbill sea turtle swims amid a neon green background. — Bioluminescence is defined as the light that some living creatures emit from their bodies, often when disturbed by a predator or motion.

FREDRIK LERNERYD / AFP / GETTY IMAGES Revellers line dance during the International Cowboy Day at Ngong race course. They wave cowboy hats and bandannas in the air. — Hundreds of country music-lovers head to International Cowboy Day in Kenya’s capital city, Nairobi, on Saturday.

PHILL MAGAKOE / AFP / GETTY IMAGES Three girls wearing white leotards and tutus stretch their arms out. — On the same day, young ballerinas warm up at Mballet Dance Academy in South Africa’s Thembisa township.

GIANLUIGI GUERCIA / AFP / GETTY IMAGES Ostriches walk in a field at sunset. — In the same country days later, ostriches wander around a farm in Oudtshoorn.

PATRICK MEINHARDT / AFP / GETTY IMAGES Three men dressed in boubous, tall red hats and carrying batons, pose for a photograph next to a body of water. — As the rainy season starts in Senegal, high priests from the Lebou community gather for a divination ceremony on Sunday. Known as satigues, they deliver predictions on events that may occur in the coming year.

ABDEL MAJID BZIOUAT / AFP / GETTY IMAGES Nigeria midfielder Rinsola Babajide run across the pitch with the national flag after winning. — On Saturday, Nigeria triumph at the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations, beating host nation Morocco 3-2 in the final.

MARVELLOUS DUROWAIYE / REUTERS A referee checks the positions of the hands of two armwrestlers. — Contestants from Cameroon (L) and Nigeria get ready to take each other on at the Africa Armwrestling Championship in Abuja on Friday. Here the referee checks the position of their hands before the bout begins.

MOHAMED MESSARA / EPA People dressed in white togas and Venetian ball attire stand on a moving float that has Greco-Roman columns in the background. — The following day in Tunisia, people dressed as thespians wave from this float at the Aoussou Carnival in Sousse.

AMPE ROGERIO / EPA Police officers wearing riot gear and shield form a blockade on a road. — Also on Saturday, police take to the streets of the Angolan capital where people have been protesting against a sudden hike in the price of fuel and other basic goods. To date, more than 1,200 people have been arrested over several days of demonstrations.

AFP via GETTY IMAGES A man moves bags tied to the top of a bus as cargo. — Passengers on this bus returning to Khartoum on Monday are among the more than 12 million people who have been forced from their homes since Sudan’s civil war began over two years ago. Famine and genocide have taken hold in parts of the country, according to the UN and US respectively.

MAHMUD TURKIA / AFP / GETTY IMAGES People swim in the sea at sunset. A woman wearing an abaya and hijab can be seen in the foreground standing in the water up to her ankles. — And as the sun sets over the Libyan coast on Friday, people bathe in the sea off Tripoli.

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