Africa's week in pictures: 8 - 14 January 2021

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

Women dance, carry goods, and clap their hands.
On Tuesday in northern Algeria, Berber women celebrate Yennayer, the Amazigh New Year. Part of the festivities involves appealing to the spirits for goodwill and abundance.
People celebrate in a tented area.
On Friday, family members celebrate the release of 23 soldiers who had been accused of being behind the assassination of DR Congo's former president Laurent Kabila two decades ago.
A camel grazes in the setting sun.
A camel grazes at dusk in eastern Sudan, close to Ethiopian refugee camps, on Friday.
A Russian made MI-17 helicopter, marked with a red star, supporting private Russian forces, Rwandans and loyalist forces, flies over Boali.
A Russian-made helicopter flies close to the Central African Republic's capital city on Sunday, near where rebel attacks have been carried out. Russia's military involvement dates back several years, as does a lucrative mining exploration deal.
A boy looks at the fish that died and was swept ashore to Kigungu landing site in Entebbe, Uganda, on 12 January.
Ugandans are being warned not to eat dead fish washed ashore from Lake Victoria. Officials are still investigating, but say Nile perch are the only affected species and the deaths may be caused by a drop in oxygen levels.
A man walks past a painting on the wall of the Ugandan electoral commission compound in Kampala.
A man walks past a mural of a voter on Wednesday, one day before Uganda's general election.
A number of young people with disabilities mounted on horses.
Young people take part in equine therapy sessions in Egypt's capital, Cairo, on Saturday.
Vodun dignitaries attend a ceremony in Guezin, Benin, as part of the annual festival.
Coronavirus restrictions on large gatherings mean far fewer tourists and devotees attend Benin's annual Vodun festival than usual on Sunday.
A boy carries water bottles to Khabrou Layene mosque.
And on Tuesday, a boy takes empty water bottles to be refilled at a mosque in Senegal's capital Dakar.

All pictures subject to copyright.

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    On the same day that rioters supporting President Trump stormed and vandalized the U.S. Capitol, history was also made in Georgia, where Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock, the two Democrats on the Georgia Senate runoff ballot, defeated the Republican incumbents. One week after Democrats pulled off their improbable feat, Georgians reflected on the impact of the historic win.

  • 'Camp Auschwitz' rioter, several police officers arrested, charged in Capitol siege

    Federal authorities announced charges Wednesday for several people who allegedly participated in last weeks siege of the U.S. Capitol. Among those charged was Robert Keith Packer, 56, of Newport News, Virginia, identified as the man wearing a neo-Nazi "Camp Auschwitz" sweatshirt at the riot, and several police officers.> 2) this guy was just arrested. pic.twitter.com/CRkKSGRn4y> > — Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) January 13, 2021Packer was released on his own recognizance Wednesday afternoon and ordered to stay out of Washington, D.C., The Washington Post reports. Officers Thomas Robertson, 47, and Jacob Fracker, 29, of Virginia's Rocky Mount Police Department were arrested, charged, and put on administrative leave. In a since-deleted Facebook post, Robertson reportedly wrote that "CNN and the Left are just mad because we actually attacked the government," adding, "The right IN ONE DAY took the f---ing U.S. Capitol. Keep poking us."At least 28 active duty law enforcement officers from 12 states have been identified as having participated in the Capitol occupation, according to a tally by The Appeal. Many of those officers have been suspended, including Philadelphia Police detective Jennifer Gugger, an apparent QAnon believer who until last week served in the department's Recruit Background Investigations Unit.Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo said Wednesday that one of his officers, identified as 18-year veteran Tam Dinh Pham, was on administrative leave after having "penetrated" the Capitol last week, adding, "I can tell you that there's a high probability that this individual will be charged with federal charges, and rightfully so."The Justice Department so far charged more than 70 people, identified more than 100 others, and plans to prosecute many of the people who stormed the Capitol in "significant felony cases tied to sedition and conspiracy." The FBI is warning about high threats of violence in D.C. and state capitals ahead of President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration.Other people charged so far include Olympic gold medal swimmer Klete Keller, filmed in the Capitol wearing his Team USA jacket, and Cleveland Grover Meredith Jr., arrested last week with two firearms and about 2,500 rounds of ammunition, including 320 rounds of "armor piercing" bullets. Meredith arrived late to the Capitol siege but texted a friend he planned to shoot House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser, prosecutors say.More stories from theweek.com Do Democrats realize the danger they are in? America's rendezvous with reality What 'Blue Lives Matter' was always about

  • Prosecutor: Capitol rioter aimed 'to take hostages'

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  • AOC feared ‘White Supremacist members of Congress’ would turn her over to Trump rioters during siege

    As the fallout continues following last Wednesday’s Capitol insurrection, Democratic New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez took to her social media this week to share the terror she experienced that day – at times fearing her own congressional colleagues would turn her over to the angry mob to be killed. Have you subscribed to theGrio’s podcast “Dear Culture”?

  • Taliban chief tells officials to take only one wife because big weddings and dowries are depleting funds

    The head of the Afghan Taliban has ordered officials in the movement to take only one wife because extravagant weddings and bridal payments are depleting funds and leading to accusations of embezzlement. The edict from Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada was also an attempt to quash bad publicity that Taliban leaders were having profligate weddings. “We instruct officials of the Islamic Emirate, in accordance with Islamic Sharia [Islamic jurisprudence], to avoid second, third, and fourth marriage if there is no need,” he said in a written message earlier this month, Voice of America reported. Taliban officials have been instructed to share the order with their subordinates after complaints about the scale of spending on weddings. Afghans face huge social pressure to spend lavishly on their nuptials, while the groom must also often pay a hefty sum to the bride's family. Wives are sometimes kept in separate houses, meaning a groom must fund several households. “Up-to two million Afghanis (nearly £19,000) are paid for dowry in some parts of Afghanistan and the Taliban officials would seek this money for their second marriage,” one source told the broadcaster. The movement has also sometimes faced internal tensions as frontline fighters resent the movement's leadership appearing to lead the high life in Pakistan or Doha. “Families of several officials of the Islamic Emirate do not have a lot of money. Therefore, more marriages could affect their prestige, trustworthiness, and personality,” the message said. The message urged the movement to “protect yourself against accusation and disgrace,” adding that “transparency” and “gaining trust” were essential for their struggle. Abstaining from multiple marriages would protect the Taliban from “accusations of bribery, misappropriation, or embezzlement” and save them from seeking illicit sources of wealth. Akhundzada told followers that the orders were based on Islamic injunctions and have the support of religious scholars. Islam allows men to have up to four wives as long as they are treated equally, though the practice is frowned upon and uncommon in many Muslim societies. The message said there were exemptions to the new rule for officials who had a “legitimate need” or who used their own funds for weddings.

  • Marjorie Taylor Greene says she’ll file impeachment articles against Joe Biden on his first day in office

    'On January 21, 2021, I'll be filing Articles of Impeachment against Joe Biden for abuse of power,' Ms Greene had tweeted

  • Asian American Police Officer From Texas Will Likely Face Charges for Rioting in the Capitol

    What happened: The officer attended the riots in Washington D.C. and is accused of "penetrating" the Capitol, Click2Houston reports. During a press conference on Wednesday, Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo discussed the officer in question. According to the New York Post, the officer — who was not named publicly by Acevedo — was placed on administrative leave.

  • Secret Service reportedly had to use Obama's bathroom after being barred from Ivanka Trump's

    Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner have spent the past few years living in a six bedroom, 6.5 bathroom rented home in Washington, D.C.'s exclusive Kalorama neighborhood. The family could count high-profile officials and even one former president among their neighbors — as well as their own Secret Service detail, who had to rent a nearby apartment to use the bathroom because they weren't allowed inside the Kushner-Trump home, neighbors and law enforcement sources tell The Washington Post.It's not unusual for Secret Service agents to stay out of the typically expansive homes they're guarding, instead using a garage or auxiliary building as their home base, the Post notes. But Kushner and Trump took that to an extreme, forcing the Secret Service to install a porta-potty outside their home just so they had somewhere to relieve themselves, sources said. The unsightly outdoor bathroom was taken down after neighbors complained.That's when the Kushner-Trump detail started using a bathroom in the Obama family's nearby garage. But they were kicked out when "a Secret Service supervisor from the Trump-Kushner detail left an unpleasant mess in the Obama bathroom," the Post notes. Agents then headed to to Vice President Mike Pence's home a mile away to use the toilet or, when time was short, counted on nearby restaurants and even knocked on neighbors' doors. One of those neighbors eventually ended up renting a $3,000/month basement studio to the agents, making $144,000 in taxpayer money by the time the lease expires this September.A White House spokesperson denied Trump and Kushner barred Secret Service from their home, saying it was the force's choice not to come inside — something one law enforcement officer disputed. Read more at The Washington Post.More stories from theweek.com Do Democrats realize the danger they are in? America's rendezvous with reality What 'Blue Lives Matter' was always about

  • The Confederate battle flag, which rioters flew inside the US Capitol, has long been a symbol of white insurrection

    A historic first: the Confederate battle flag inside the U.S. Capitol. Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty ImagesConfederate soldiers never reached the Capitol during the Civil War. But the Confederate battle flag was flown by rioters in the U.S. Capitol building for the first time ever on Jan. 6. The flag’s prominence in the Capitol riot comes as no surprise to those who, like me, know its history: Since its debut during the Civil War, the Confederate battle flag has been flown regularly by white insurrectionists and reactionaries fighting against rising tides of newly won Black political power. An 1897 lithograph shows changes in Confederate flag design. The ‘Southern Cross’ design, chosen to visually distinguish Confederates from Union soldiers in battle, became a symbol of white insurrection. Library of Congress via National Geographic The infamous diagonal blue cross with white stars on a red background was never the Confederacy’s official symbol. The Confederacy’s original “stars and bars” design was too similar to the U.S. flag, which led to confusion on the battlefields, where troop positions were marked by flags. The official flag went through a series of changes in attempts to distinguish Confederate from Union troops. The Confederacy would ultimately adopt the “Southern Cross” as its battle flag – cementing it as a symbol of white insurrection. While it is technically the battle flag, it has been used the most, and therefore has become known more generally as the Confederate flag. The Confederate battle flag figures prominently in this depiction of the 1864 battle of Franklin, Tennessee. Kurz and Allison, restoration by Adam Cuerden, via Wikimedia Commons The original emblem Six decades before the Nazi swastika became an instantly recognizable symbol of white supremacists, the Confederate battle flag flew over the forces of the insurgent Confederate States of America – military troops organized in revolt against the idea that the federal government could outlaw slavery. The founding documents of the Confederacy make its goals of white supremacy and preservation of slavery explicitly clear. In March 1861, Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens declared of the Confederacy, “its foundations are laid, its corner-stone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition.” The documents drafted by seceding states make this same point. Mississippi’s declaration, for instance, was very specific: “Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery – the greatest material interest of the world.” Rioting white students at University of Mississippi hoist a Confederate battle flag in a backlash against James Meredith’s attendance as the first Black student in 1962. Bettman via Getty Images Backlash against racial integration After the Civil War, Confederate veterans groups used the flag at their meetings to commemorate fallen soldiers, but otherwise the flag mostly disappeared from public life. After World War II, though, the flag surfaced as part of a backlash against racial integration. Black soldiers who fought discrimination abroad experienced discrimination when they came home. Racist violence against Black veterans who had returned from battle prompted President Harry Truman to issue an executive order desegregating the military and banning discrimination in federal hiring. Truman also asked Congress to pass a federal ban on lynching, one of nearly 200 unsuccessful attempts to do so. In 1948, the retaliation for Truman’s integration efforts came, and the Confederate battle flag resurfaced as a symbol of white supremacist public intimidation. That year, U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond, a South Carolina Democrat, ran for president as the leader of a new political party of segregationist Southern Democrats, nicknamed the “Dixiecrats.” At their rallies and riots, they opposed Truman’s integration under the banner of the Confederate battle flag. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, white Southerners flew the Confederate battle flag at riots – including violent ones – to oppose racial integration, especially in schools. For example, in 1962, white students at the University of Mississippi hoisted it at a riot defying James Meredith’s enrollment as the university’s first Black student. It took the deployment of 30,000 U.S. troops, federal marshals and National Guardsmen to get Meredith to class after the violent race riot left two dead. Historian William Doyle called the riot – which featured the Confederate battle flag at its center – an “American insurrection.” Charleston, Charlottesville and the Capitol More recently, the Black Lives Matter era has seen an increase in violent incidents involving the Confederate battle flag. It has now featured prominently in at least three recent major violent events carried out by people on the far right. In 2015, a white supremacist who had posed with the Confederate battle flag online killed nine Black parishioners during a prayer meeting at their church. In 2017, neo-Nazis and other white supremacists carried the battle flag when they marched in Charlottesville, Virginia, seeking to prevent the removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. One white supremacist drove his car through a crowd of anti-racist counterprotestors, killing Heather Heyer. [Deep knowledge, daily. Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter.] At the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, an image of an insurrectionist toting the Confederate battle flag inside the Capitol building arguably distills the siege’s dark historical context. In the background of the photo are the portraits of two Civil War-era U.S. senators – one an ardent proponent of slavery and the other an abolitionist once beaten unconscious for his views on the Senate floor. A man carries the Confederate battle flag in the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, between portraits of senators who both opposed and supported slavery. Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images The flag has always represented white resistance to increasing Black power. It may be a coincidence of exact timing, but certainly not of context, that the riot happened the day after Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff won U.S. Senate seats representing Georgia. Respectively, they are the first Black and first Jewish senators from the former Confederate state. Warnock will be only the second Black senator from below the Mason-Dixon Line since Reconstruction. Their historic victories – and President-elect Joe Biden’s – in Georgia happened through large-scale organizing and turnout of people of color, especially Black people. Since 2014, nearly 2 million voters have been added to the rolls in Georgia, signaling a new bloc of Black voting power. It should come as no surprise, then, that today’s white insurrectionists opposed to the shifting tides of power identify with the Confederate battle flag.This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Jordan Brasher, Columbus State University. Read more:Capitol siege raises questions over extent of white supremacist infiltration of US policeA second impeachment is just the start of Trump’s legal woes Jordan Brasher does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

  • S.Korea court upholds jail for ex-president Park

    South Korea's Supreme Court upheld a 20-year jail sentence on Thursday for former President Park Geun-hye. This brings an end to a legal process that began in 2017 when Park was removed from office and arrested on corruption charges. She was found guilty of colluding with a confidante to receive tens of billions of won from major conglomerates for her family and to fund non-profits she owned. Her case has been tried in several courts over several years, but the Supreme Court's decision exhausted her legal avenues. Park has denied wrongdoing and with her legal process over, her supporters are calling for a presidential pardon. Park is the daughter of a military dictator and was elected in 2013 as the first woman to be President of South Korea. South Korean support for a possible pardon for Park is split down the middle. A Realmeter poll found nearly 48% are in favor of a pardon and 48% are against. The right-wing Our Republican Party issued a statement claiming Park's innocence and calling on her to be freed. A top aide to liberal President Moon Jae-in said the president's decision on whether to pardon Park or not will reflect the will of the people.

  • Melania snubs meeting Jill Biden as First Lady-to-be unveils advisors

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  • Waitress credited with helping boy after noticing bruises

    A Florida waitress who noticed bruises on an 11-year-old boy flashed him a handwritten note asking him if he needed help, and when he nodded yes, she called the police, authorities said. Orlando police credited Flaviane Carvalho, a waitress at Mrs. Potato Restaurant, with coming to the boy's aid on New Year's Eve when the child’s parents weren’t looking. Police took the boy to a hospital where doctors found bruises on his face, earlobes and arms.

  • Capitol Police Officer Who Led Mob Away from Senate Chambers Is an Army Iraq War Vet

    Before Eugene Goodman faced protesters who broke into the U.S. Capitol last week, he served as an infantryman in Iraq.

  • Philippines' Duterte says presidency no job for a woman

    Philippine leader Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday declared that the presidency was no job for a woman because of their emotional differences to men, and dismissed speculation that his daughter would succeed him next year. The Philippines has had two women presidents, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo from 2001 to 2010 and Corazon Aquino from 1986 to 1992.

  • Lindsey Graham urges Biden to get Democrats to end impeachment

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  • Jacob Blake Himself Blows Up ‘Unarmed’ Media Narrative

    In his first television interview since being shot in the back by police, Jacob Blake admitted that he not only had a knife in his possession at the time of the shooting, but also “dropped” it before picking it up again. “I realized I had dropped my knife, had a little pocket knife. So I picked it up after I got off of him because they tased me and I fell on top of him,” Blake told Michael Strahan in an interview that aired Thursday on ABC’s Good Morning America (GMA). “I shouldn’t have picked it up, only considering what was going on,” he continued. “At that time, I wasn’t thinking clearly.” Earlier this month, Kenosha County district attorney Michael Graveley said that he would not file charges against Officer Rusten Sheskey, who shot Blake seven times, given that the officer was acting in self-defense against an armed assailant. Blake also had a past arrest for resisting police with a knife. Blake’s admission contradicts past statements from his family and attorneys, who denied that he had a knife in his possession when police shot him on August 23, in an incident that stemmed from a 911 call made by the mother of Blake’s children, who told police that Blake was trying to drive away in her rental car with two of his sons. “My son didn’t have a weapon,” Blake’s father told the Chicago Sun-Times for an August 25 story. Patrick Salvi Jr., an attorney for the Blake family, told CNN on August 26 that Blake did not have a knife in the car. “Witnesses confirm that he was not in possession of a knife and didn’t threaten officers in any way,” Blake’s attorney, Ben Crump, said in a statement released on August 27. At the time, Blake had a warrant out for his arrest on charges of trespassing, disorderly conduct, and third-degree sexual assault, which the operator relayed to the responding officers. With the outstanding felony charges, police were required by law to take Blake into custody. In the interview with GMA, Blake also claimed that “I hadn’t done anything so I didn’t feel like they were there for me,” though investigators later found that, prior to the arrest, Blake had looked up his own warrant on a police website and had sent a text mentioning the warrant. ABC made no mention of either fact in the interview. The shooting went viral on social media after being recorded on video, showing officers screaming at Blake to “drop the knife.” In the subsequent days — which included deadly violence, rioting, and looting — the Wisconsin Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation revealed that Blake admitted to having “a knife in his possession.” But much of the mainstream press ran with the initial claim that he was “unarmed.” “Wisconsin’s governor on Monday called in the National Guard to help quell unrest after police shot an unarmed Black man in the latest incident this summer to stir cries of injustice and divide a nation over the urgency of bringing fundamental change to law enforcement,” read the lede of five-person Washington Post byline on August 24. Earlier this month, the Post drew pushback after it maintained the “unarmed” description of Blake in reporting the decision by authorities to not pursue police charges. Though the paper did correct the narrative, one story published January 5 still refers to Blake as “unarmed.” The Post did not return a request for comment on the discrepancy. In the days after the shooting, CNN ran multiple articles describing Blake as “unarmed” which have yet to be corrected. “Video shows police shoot unarmed Black man” is a current link to an August 24 segment hosted by CNN anchor Jake Tapper. An August 28 USA Today “fact check” titled “Jacob Blake did not ‘brandish’ knife, get gun before Kenosha police shooting” argued that “Blake was not ‘brandishing’ anything in the video taken by bystanders,” even as it noted that the clip “shows something in Blake’s hand, but the resolution is low, so it could be a knife.” But rather than issue a correction or a retraction on January 5, PolitiFact merely updated the post with an editor’s note stating that prosecutors had revealed “Blake was armed with a ‘razor blade-type knife’ when he was shot by police.” The explanation? “That does not affect the rating for this item because ratings are based on what is known at the time.” In other words, it used to be true.

  • Texas megachurch pastor sent to prison for fraud scheme

    Kirbyjon H. Caldwell, 67, was sentenced Wednesday in Shreveport, Louisiana, where he and his co-defendant, Gregory A. Smith, were indicted in 2018. Caldwell, who in March pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, was the senior pastor of Houston's Windsor Village United Methodist Church, which has about 14,000 members. According to federal prosecutors, Caldwell and Smith, a Shreveport-based investment adviser, used their clout and influence to persuade people to invest about $3.5 million in historical Chinese bonds.

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  • Lawmakers want to honor Capitol Police officer Eugene Goodman with Congressional Gold Medal

    U.S. Capitol Police officer Eugene Goodman’s bravery during the insurrection may be honored with the Congressional Gold Medal. A bipartisan group of congressional members introduced a resolution on Thursday, nearly a week after the U.S. Capitol was breached, to recognize Goodman. As previously reported by theGrio, Goodman led an angry mob away from the Senate chambers.

  • Panic buttons in Ayanna Pressley's office were 'torn out' ahead of Capitol riot, chief of staff says

    For Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), last week's Capitol attack became even scarier when she got to her office.As The Boston Globe reports, Pressley had "two reasons to be afraid" when President Trump's supporters stormed into the Capitol building last week: "She has alopecia, an autoimmune disorder" that puts her at high risk for COVID-19, and she's a member of the progressive "Squad" that has long been a target of Trump backers. Death threats have led Pressley and her team to routinely run safety drills over the years, so they had a plan when the attackers started making their way into the Capitol, Pressley's chief of staff Sarah Groh told the Globe.Pressley, Pressley's husband, and staffers barricaded the doors of her office, while Groh found gas masks and started looking for the special panic buttons around the office. But, terrifyingly, "every panic button in my office had been torn out — the whole unit," Groh told the Globe. The staff couldn't figure out what happened to the buttons, as they'd used them in the same office before.Eventually, Pressley was taken to other secure rooms with other members of Congress, where she and other Democrats started planning articles of impeachment against Trump. But she did leave one of them when she found herself surrounded by "treasonous, white supremacist, anti masker members of Congress who incited the mob in the first place," Pressley tweeted Tuesday.> The second I realized our "safe room" from the violent white supremacist mob included treasonous, white supremacist, anti masker Members of Congress who incited the mob in the first place, I exited. Furious that more of my colleagues by the day are testing positive.> > — Ayanna Pressley (@AyannaPressley) January 12, 2021Read more scary encounters from Massachusetts representatives at The Boston Globe.More stories from theweek.com Do Democrats realize the danger they are in? America's rendezvous with reality What 'Blue Lives Matter' was always about