A selection of the week’s best photos from across the African continent and beyond:
Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters
Children in Johannesburg take no prisoners on Monday – 1 September – the day South Africans welcome the official start of spring by engaging in water fights.
Kim Ludbrook/EPA/Shutterstock
It is not going to plan for this participant at a classic car show on Sunday near South Africa’s city of Sasolburg in Free State province.
Marie Jeanne Munyerenkana/EPA/Shutterstock
Monday heralds the start of a new academic year for these junior school pupils in Goma, a city in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo that has been under the rule of Rwandan-back M23 rebels since January.
Gerald Anderson/Anadolu/Getty Images
Animals are taken to a watering trough on Friday in the remote Kenyan town of Bisil in Kajiado county, where the community is struggling to cope with a drought.
Abdel Majid Bziouat/AFP/Getty Images
On the same day, beekeepers use smoke to calm bees as they inspect hives on the slopes of Morocco’s Atlas Mountains…
Abdel Majid Bziouat/AFP/Getty Images
Nearby in the area of Aït Attou Moussa on Saturday, a shepherd herds his flock up a rocky mountainside.
Evgenia Novozhenina/Reuters
On Sunday, the Presidential Orchestra of Burkina Faso performs at the closing ceremony of Russia’s international military music festival in Moscow’s Red Square.
Patrick Meinhardt/AFP/Getty Images
In Guinea’s capital, Conakry, a man goes for a run on Saturday along a beach where loads of washed up rubbish can be seen…
Patrick Meinhardt/AFP/Getty Images
The next day, a Catholic altar boy in the mainly Muslim country wields an incense burner as he leads a procession into Sunday Mass in Conakry.
Feisal Omar/Reuters
On Tuesday, a herder stands with his camels in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, where – in observance of a Muslim tradition – 1,200 of the animals were reportedly due to be slaughtered to mark the Prophet Muhammad’s birthday this week.
Luba Lesolle/Gallo Images/Getty Images
In a Johannesburg court in South Africa on Monday, the mother of a six-year-old girl who was kidnapped, raped and murdered last year breaks down as the killer is sentenced to two life terms…
Rodger Bosch/AFP/Getty Images
And at a funeral on Saturday, children wear shirts with photos of Esmine Francke, a 12-year-old girl killed in the crossfire of a gang fight on the outskirts of Cape Town in South Africa.
KB Mpofu/Reuters
On the same day in neighbouring Zimbabwe, the city of Bulawayo hosts the I Wear My Culture fashion show – in which 16 young designers show off their creations. These models wear outfits from the collection for Zimbabwe’s Ndebele people…
KB Mpofu/Reuters
This dress is from a collection representing the Venda people, who are from South Africa’s Limpopo province that borders Zimbabwe.
Adekunle Ajayi/NurPhoto/Getty Images
And two female content creators are seen at work on Sunday at a stadium in Lagos on the second weekend of this season’s Nigeria Premier Football League.
Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters
Kim Ludbrook/EPA/Shutterstock
Marie Jeanne Munyerenkana/EPA/Shutterstock
Gerald Anderson/Anadolu/Getty Images
Abdel Majid Bziouat/AFP/Getty Images
Abdel Majid Bziouat/AFP/Getty Images
Evgenia Novozhenina/Reuters
Patrick Meinhardt/AFP/Getty Images
Patrick Meinhardt/AFP/Getty Images
Feisal Omar/Reuters
Luba Lesolle/Gallo Images/Getty Images
Rodger Bosch/AFP/Getty Images
KB Mpofu/Reuters
KB Mpofu/Reuters
Adekunle Ajayi/NurPhoto/Getty Images
Getty Images/BBC