Africa’s week in pictures: 31 May-6 June 2024

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

As the 2024 Paris Summer Olympic Games draw near, athletes warm up at training session in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, on Saturday, in the hopes of winning the gold.

On Thursday, a man carries a sheep in an Egyptian market in the city of Giza in preparation for Eid al-Adha, the Feast of Sacrifice – a major Islamic holiday.

Ocean baptisms are performed at a beach in the South African city of Durban early on Sunday morning.

The next day tornado-like storms hit the country’s provinces of KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape, causing flooding and a huge amount of damage, as pictured here on Tuesday…

More than 20 people died in the severe weather conditions. Here a community bands together to clear up some of the flood water in Eastern Cape on Wednesday.

On Saturday, representatives of the Ghana’s Ashanti king bring pomp and fanfare to the funeral of late Ivorian President Henri Konan Bédié , who was buried 10 months after his death, in his home village of Pépressou in eastern Ivory Coast…

Delegations from the region travelled to honour Bédié, who served as Ivory Coast’s president from 1993 until 1999, when he was deposed in coup.

A performer in Senegal’s famous Fake Lion beach entertainment show poses for the camera on Wednesday at a cultural event in the capital, Dakar…

At the same event, competition is fierce to win the pirogue race.

On the same day, a four-year-old girl gets ready to plant a tree along the Mathare River near her old home in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, which was destroyed by the floods a few weeks ago.

Students in Nigeria look utterly fed up on Monday to find themselves locked out of school because of a nationwide general strike to demand a minimum wage increase.

And a mobile library, known as the “Taxi Book”, is pictured in Egypt’s city of Alexandria on Monday. Mohamed Azzam has decided to use his cab to spread the love of reading, offering text books and novels to passers-by.

All photos subject to copyright.