In much of the continent, Eid al-Fitr celebrations are under way as the holy Muslim month of Ramadan draws to an end.

Here are some pictures of the festivities over the last couple of days:

Image source, AFP

Image source, AFP

Image source, AFP

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, AFP

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Fifa issues fines and bans but does not order any replays after several African World Cup play-off matches ended in controversy.

So far on Monday more than 100 migrants are thought to have been brought from the English Channel.

Hanna Temauri
BBC News

Image source, AFP

Security forces in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, have fired tear gas on crowds of Muslims who had gathered to observe the end of Ramadan.

Tens of thousands were attending Eid prayers in the city’s main stadium when violence broke out. There are no reports of casualties.

The incident came after days of growing tension between Muslims and Christians in different parts of the country after 20 Muslims were killed while attending a funeral last week in the north.

After the incident in Gondar city, there have been protests in several areas and retaliatory attacks including the burning of at least three churches in southern Ethiopia.

Monday’s violence in the capital is likely to escalate tensions.Images of people running away from tear gas and mothers desperately looking for their children in the chaos are being widely circulated on social media. Addis Ababa police blamed "a few individuals" for the violence and said property had been damaged. They vowed to conduct a thorough investigation.

The country is already divided by a civil war in the northern Tigray region and ethnic violence in many parts of the country.

President Ramaphosa was forced to leave a May Day event after angry workers stormed the stage.

BBC World Service

Image source, Getty Images

Tunisian President Kaïs Saïed has announced plans to rewrite his country's constitution.

In a televised Eid address, Mr Saïed, who has dissolved government and parliament, said a committee would be established to redraft the existing framework and would conclude its work within days.

He did not specify how the constitution would be changed, but said it would usher in what he called a New Republic.

Opponents have accused him of seeking to concentrate all the levers of power in his own hands since he seized power nine months ago.

More about Tunisia:

• Judges locked out of their offices after president's decree
• Democrats, despots and the fight for power
• A quick guide to Tunisia

Madagascar finish as runners-up at the Africa Women's Rugby Sevens championship to earn a place at the World Cup while winners South Africa qualify for the Commonwealth Games.

Entente Setif coach Darko Novic hopes to draw on past experiences as he plots an upset against holders Al Ahly in the semi-finals of the African Champions League.

Xangô (the god of thunder) and Paso Ñañigo’, composed by the Cuban Moises Simons, were two of the numbers performed by Elsie Houston in the clubs of Paris in the 1920s. Also able to sing soprano in Portuguese, English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Russian, Elsie's performances in Afro-Brazilian dialects chimed with the fashion for all things African. Adjoa Osei's essay traces Elsie's connections with Surrealist artists and writers, (there are photos of her taken by Man Ray), and looks at how she used her mixed race heritage to navigate her way through society and speak out for African inspired arts.

Adjoa Osei is a researcher based at Trinity College, Cambridge. She was selected as a 2021 New Generation Thinker on the scheme run by BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to turn research into radio.

Producer: Ruth Watts

Rituals marking key life events, such as births and deaths, are probably among the oldest we know. Yet, says the writer Madeleine Bunting, during her own lifetime some of these rituals have changed enormously, becoming far more individualistic than they used to be. Others – in particular, those marking the transition to adulthood such as confirmation or bar mitzvah – are now only observed by a small minority and have not been widely replaced.

Taking in a West African perspective, Madeleine welcomes the demise of certain rituals – yet, she asks, does it mean that communities have also lost something precious?

This BBC Radio 3 series explores aspects of ritual throughout this week, including public and private Christmas rituals, and asks what the Covid pandemic has taught us about their significance.

The series producer is Kristine Pommert for CTVC.

Artist and storyteller Laura Nyahuye reflects on life as a migrant in the city, and why elephants seem to have followed her from Zimbabwe to Coventry.

Recorded at the Contains Strong Language poetry and spoken word festival.

How snatches of African rhythms overheard in Fitzrovia led Amit Chaudhuri to Graceland via Paul Simon.

Indian author, musician and international public intellectual Amit Chaudhuri presents a set of personal essays on the music and the songwriters that shaped his early life.

An Art and Adventure production Producer: Roger James Elsgood

“So, it’s the end of the 60s, and while the rest of the world is flailing around in an orgy of free love, self-expression and hallucinogenic drugs, I’m trapped in a small prison learning to repress my emotions. Turns out I’m bloody good at it! If the 11-plus had been about repression I would have passed no problem.” Unhappy at boarding school in England, his family far away in Africa, Adrian remembers his first dance at the school disco and the moment that signalled the end of his childhood. Across this set of essays Adrian Edmondson considers moments of personal and social change. His career has taken him from 20th Century Coyote (punk meets comedy) to The Young Ones to Malvolio at the RSC via Eddie Hitler in Bottom.

Adrian Edmondson studied drama at Manchester University where he met his comedy partner Rik Mayall. The influence of the absurdist dramatists he studied and his early love for The Goons, The Muppets and Monty Python are all reflected in his comedy practice. He and Rik were part of the first wave of Alternative Comedy where their glorious pursuit of laughter and anarchic performances changed the comedic landscape forever. He starred as Vyvyan in The Young Ones, the series that blasted its way onto our screens tearing into our preconceptions of what television comedy could be. Adrian has since had a very significant career indeed. A career that has taken him in later years into 'straight' acting as well, at the RSC, BBC TV’s War and Peace and EastEnders, and as a writer of books for adults and children. He has also had an award-winning music career with his band The Bad Shepherds which fused punk and folk. In September 2023 he published his autobiography, Beserker!, the wellspring of which was this series of essays for BBC Radio 3. Written and read by Adrian Edmondson Produced by Caroline Raphael A Dora Production for BBC Radio 3

Edmund reflects on a phone call with fellow ceramicist Magdalene Odundo and what it means to be a person who make pots.

Produced by Ned Carter Miles A Just Radio Production.

The First Congress of Black Writers and Artists in Paris 1956 staged debates about colonial history which are still playing out in the protests of the Gilets Noirs. New Generation Thinker Alexandra Reza leafs through the pages of the journal Présence Africaine, and picks out a short story by Ousmane Sembène tracing the dreams of a young woman from Senegal. Her experiences are echoed in a new experimental patchwork of writing by Nathalie Quintane called Les enfants vont bien. And what links all of these examples is the idea of papers, cahiers and identity documents.

Producer: Emma Wallace

Alexandra Reza researches post-colonial literature at the University of Oxford. You can hear her in a Free Thinking discussion about Aimé Césaire https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000nmxf She also appears alongside Tariq Ali and Kehindre Andrews in a discussion Frantz Fanon's Writing https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000tdtn And in last week's Free Thinking episode looking at the fiction of Maryse Condé https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000v86y She is a New Generation Thinker on the scheme run by BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Council to select academics to turn their research into radio.

Sudan has recorded only 32,000 cases of coronavirus infections and just 2,300 Covid-19 related deaths so far. It is also rolling out vaccines. But the numbers are thought to be much higher and host Nuala McGovern hears from three women living in the capital, Khartoum, about how their experiences of family and friends dying differs greatly from the official Covid-19 figures. We also return to intensive care units in the UK, US and South Africa to hear from the specialist doctors who are responsible for patients on ventilators and pain management.

More than a century after its brutal colonisation of Namibia, including what it now accepts was the genocide of the Herero and Nama peoples, Germany is negotiating with the country’s government to heal the wounds of the past. The eventual deal may set a precedent for what other nations expect from former colonisers. But how do you make up for the destruction of entire societies? Germany has agreed to apologise - but Namibia also wants some form of material compensation. What should that be, and who should benefit? Namibians are now divided about how the talks are being conducted - and some in the country’s German-speaking minority, descendants of the original colonists, question the very idea of compensation. Tim Whewell travels to Namibia to ask how far full reconciliation - with Germany, and within the country - is possible.

Producer and presenter: Tim Whewell Editor: Bridget Harney

(Image: Laidlaw Peringanda at the Swakopmund Genocide Memorial. Credit: Tim Whewell/BBC)

In our world of dissolving distinctions, five contemporary writers imagine life as an animal of their choice and investigate the boundaries between animal and human - each with the help from different animal experts. In this edition, writer and sound artist Belinda Zhawi imagines life as a southern African plains Zebra.

In other editions of the series Toby Litt is the brown hare at the outskirts of a wood, Sarah Kosar at the edge of a London park is a soprano pipistrelle bat, Ned Beauman makes dams with the Devon beaver and poet Isabel Galleymore clings to the side of a rock pool as a limpet.

Producers Kate Bland and Toby Withers. Becoming Animal is a Cast Iron Radio production for BBC Radio 3. Photo Theo Ndlovu