Refugees arrive at the Tine transit camp in Chad's Wadi Fara province, May 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Caitlin Kelly, File)
In 2025, ordinary lives intertwined with extraordinary shifts across Africa’s bustling cities and vast rural heartlands. The world’s youngest population found moments of joy, triumph and positive change even as it was dogged by challenges from election disputes to U.S. aid cuts.
AP photographers captured the youthful continent’s strength, passion and determination as economies grew, culture and traditions thrived, and citizens united on the streets during protests and in elections from Ivory Coast to Malawi.
While refugees from war-torn Sudan arrived in Chad as fighting escalated, thousands of couples gathered for a mass wedding and children enjoyed fair rides in South Africa. As residents fled the advance of Rwanda-backed rebels in eastern Congo, some found strength at a trauma center.
Elsewhere, white-veiled women celebrated Prophet Muhammad’s birthday in Senegal’s Dakar, vultures found love in the hands of conservationists in South Africa, and Ghana’s fantasy coffins highlighted a colorful celebration of life and legacy.
These are just some of the moments captured by AP photographers across the African continent in 2025.
Photo editing by Courtney Dittmar and Anne-Marie Belgrave.
Groomsmen shield their brides from the sun as they queue for an Easter mass wedding at The International Pentecost Holiness Church in Heidelberg, South Africa, April 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe, File)Girls ride the Tempest at the Rand Easter Show in Johannesburg, South Africa, April 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe, File)A model is reflected in a mirror applying makeup during the Mr. and Mrs. Kibera leadership contest held on International Youth Day in Nairobi, Kenya, Aug. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga, File)Lisebo Lechela, 53, an HIV-positive sex worker, poses for a portrait in her house in Maputsoe, Lesotho, July 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Bram Janssen, File)Around 180 Nigerian migrants wait before being deported from Tripoli, Libya, March 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Yousef Murad, File)A child pushes a suitcase towards Rwanda security officials checking people crossing from Congo in Gisenyi, Rwanda, Jan. 29, 2025, following M23 rebels’ advances into eastern Congo’s capital Goma. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)People protest in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, against the Rwanda-backed M23 rebels’ advances into eastern Congo’s capital, Goma, Jan. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Samy Ntumba Shambuyi, File)A woman recites prayers as people mark Prophet Muhammad’s birthday, known as Mawlid, in Dakar, Senegal, Sept. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu, File)A balloon bearing the image of President Alassane Ouattara floats above supporters during a campaign rally in Koumassi, Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Oct. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu, File)A woman processes gold at a mining site in the Kedougou region of Senegal, Jan. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Annika Hammerschlag, File)People fleeing M-23 rebel advances arrive by boat in Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Jan. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa, File)Fishermen carry a tuna fish to the market in Mogadishu, Somalia, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Farah Abdi Warsameh, File)A suspected pro-government supporter is attacked by protesters during a demonstration over the death of blogger Albert Ojwang in police custody, in downtown Nairobi, Kenya, June 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga, File)Riziki Olinde, 26, looks out from the window of a school where she found shelter after her soldier husband was sent to Rumangabo for mixing and integration into the rebel M23 forces, Feb. 18, 2025, in Goma, eastern Congo. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa, File)Physiotherapist Gisèle Kantu, bottom right, works with amputees wounded by fighting in the region, at an orthopedic center run by the Catholic church and supported by the Red Cross in Goma, eastern Congo, Aug. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa, File)Audrey Delsink, left, and Matthew Schurch watch a vulture take off following a release in Hartbeespoort, South Africa, July 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe, File)A mother and daughter pose for a photo at a beach after Eid al-Adha prayers in Keta, Ghana, June 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu, File)Women selling chickens wait for customers at the Virunga market in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, Feb. 27, 2025, one month after Rwanda-backed M23 rebels captured the city. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa, File)Ousmane Sambou, a sergeant with Senegal’s Direction of National Parks, holds up a confiscated leopard skin at the DPN headquarters in Tambacounda, Senegal, Jan. 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Annika Hammerschlag, File)A person displaced by the fighting with M23 rebels evacuates with their belongings to downtown Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Jan. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa, File)Mariam Nasibu stands by her 10-year-old daughter Deborah, who was wounded in the fighting between M23 rebels and Congolese armed forces, in Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Jan. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa, File)Voters line up to cast their votes in the Burundian legislative elections at Musama Primary School, in Gitega, Burundi, June 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Berthier Mugiraneza, File)A Sudanese farmer carries his livestock after his farm was destroyed by floods, in Wad Ramli village, about 60 kilometers (37 miles) north of Khartoum, Sudan, Oct. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Marwan Ali, File)Patients sit outside the malnutrition ward of Bunj Hospital in Maban, South Sudan, Aug. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Caitlin Kelly, File)People react during the viewing of the body of former Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga at Jomo Kenyatta Stadium in Kisumu, Kenya, Oct. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Samson Otieno, File)A Kenyan police whips a protester during a demonstration in downtown Nairobi, Kenya, June 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga, File)Fanuse Adete, 38, holds up a candle she uses to light her home at night in the Menabichu district on the outskirts of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Sept. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga, File)Election volunteers count ballots in Blantyre, Malawi, Sept. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Thoko Chikondi, File)A fish fantasy coffin crafted by Eric Kpakpo Adotey is displayed by the roadside in La, Accra, Ghana, July 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu, File)
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