A Week in Pictures Middle East and Africa, June 19, 2020

It looks as if machine and man are in deep conversation: Mohamed Abd El Ghany has captured what looks like an intimate moment. Nicely cropped to give a sense of a mirror image between maker and made, and the yellow eye and white plastic look a little menacing against the soft features of Mahmoud.    

Egyptian mechanical engineer Mahmoud El Komy is seen beside the remote-controlled robot that he built to test people for the coronavirus by running PCR tests, limiting exposure to suspected cases, during the global outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Cairo, Egypt June 12, 2020. Picture taken June 12, 2020.REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany 

I struggled to choose one image from Anne Mimault’s series of images of a granite quarry, so chose two. Both give you completely different information from the same story. On one hand you want to see the environment these people are working in, and on the other you really want to see the people impacted. The dark granite and the contrast in the light consume all the small details of the people working in this misty environment. Read on here   

A general view of the Pissy informal granite quarry pit, amid the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso June 10, 2020. Picture taken June 10, 2020.       REUTERS /Anne Mimault 

 In the second image we see the girl at play, with brightly coloured clothing and beaded hair, but we really don’t get a sense of the huge size of the quarry she is playing in. Read on here. 

Melissa Kabore, 4, jumps over a puddle in Pissy informal granite quarry, since schools closed amid the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso June 12, 2020.  REUTERS /Anne Mimault 

 Five sets of twins and a total of 19 children the parent say are all theirs are posed lined up by height in a classic visual trick put to good use by Khalil Ashawi to compose an image that could otherwise be very messy and visually exceptionally busy. This size order gives us an immediate sense that these people are all associated with one another and they are all brothers and sisters. Read on here.  

The children of Ahmad Yassin al-Ali and his wife Fawza Umri pose for a picture inside their tent, at Atmeh camp, near the Turkish border, Syria June 13, 2020. Picture taken June 13, 2020. REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi

Who can resist Evrard Ngendakumana’s picture as we are led into the sea of green by the two masked figures in red and then onto the flat red background. I love the spacing of the figures that gives us the room to wander visually into the frame. Read on here.

Supporters of Burundi's President- elect Evariste Ndayishimiye attend his inauguration ceremony following the sudden death of his predecessor Pierre Nkurunziza, amid the growing threat of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), at the Ingoma stadium in Gitega, Burundi June 18, 2020. REUTERS/Evrard Ngendakumana

The seating in this slum bar in Kenya is less empty than the terraces are in the Manchester City v Arsenal match as UK Premiership football kicks off again in empty stadiums. To me, Thomas Mukoya has captured the sense of a tentative return to normality, with one person jumping up in excitement while the others in the frame are not quite so sure. What is very obvious is that they are all masked to protect themselves against coronavirus (COVID-19), and maybe this look will now be around for a while.   

A soccer fan reacts as they watch a television broadcast at a soccer theatre called the San Siro Stadium as the English Premier League season resumes after a three-month stoppage due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) spread, in Kibera district of Nairobi, Kenya June 17, 2020. REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya

If you only look briefly, this Palestinian woman refugee in Mohammed Salem’s picture seems almost invisible, vanishing and blending into the background. Her headdress becomes part of the washing on the line, her dress is a very similar cool blue to that of the wall. Saturday marks International Refugee Day and this image feels a bit like a metaphor as the world’s attention is focused elsewhere. You can see more images from this crisis here. 

A Palestinian woman hangs laundry to dry outside her house at the Beach refugee camp in Gaza City June 18, 2020. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem