From house breaking in Johannesburg to hippos on the loose in Tbilisi to rioters attacking a policewoman in Burundi, Reuters photographers tell the story behind some of the most iconic pictures of the year. Here: Protesters drag a female police officer accused of shooting a protester in the Buterere neighbourhood of Bujumbura, Burundi, May 12, 2015. Goran Tomasevic: Protesters started throwing stones at a group of police, who then started to run away. The policewoman in the photo, Medikintos Inabeza, 33, got left behind and then some protesters started to push her, saying that she had shot a female protestor in the stomach with an AK47 rifle. I didn't see anything of that. There were 5 or 10 protesters pushing the policewoman at first, then others came and joined in. Up to 20 or 30 protesters were surrounding her at one point. The protesters kicked and beat her very badly; I also saw a couple of knives. I thought they were going to kill her... (Photo by Goran Tomasevic/Reuters)

Fighters of the Free Syrian Army fire an anti-aircraft weapon in the rebel-held Mashhad area in southeastern Aleppo, on December 12, 2016, as they battle Syrian government forces during an operation to retake the embattled city. The crucial battle for Aleppo entered its “final phase” after Syrian rebels retreated into a small pocket of their former bastion in the face of new army advances. The retreat leaves opposition fighters confined to just a handful of neighbourhoods in southeast Aleppo, the largest of them Sukkari and Mashhad. (Photo by AFP Photo/Stringer)

PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) activists wear crocodile masks during a demonstration against the use of crocodile skins ahead of Milan's Fashion Week, in Milan's Duomo Square, Italy, Tuesday, February 21, 2017. Milan Fashion Week opens Wednesday. (Photo by Antonio Calanni/AP Photo)

A flood-affected couple sits along a flooded roadside under a picture of Jayalalithaa Jayaram, chief minister of the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, in Chennai, India, December 6, 2015. (Photo by Anindito Mukherjee/Reuters)

Reenactors playing the roll of Kentucky volunteers, fighting for the United States, fire muskets during a reenactment of the Battle of New Orleans in the War of 1812, marking its bicentennial in Chalmette, Louisiana, January 10, 2015. The participants, some of whom have travelled thousands of miles to join in the event, recreated the five clashes that comprise the battle, which some historians say was key in making the British honor the terms of a peace treaty signed in late 1814. (Photo by Lee Celano/Reuters)

Penny Verdin displays a sleeping squirrel she helped rescue after it was injured during Hurricane Ida, Saturday, September 4, 2021, in Dulac, La. (Photo by John Locher/AP Photo)

Marie Joseph bathes her friend Jean Robert outside a shelter for the internally displaced where they live due to police violence in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Thursday, September 16, 2021. Most of the population of Port-au-Prince has no access to basic public services, no drinking water, electricity or garbage collection. (Photo by Rodrigo Abd/AP Photo)

A boat lies on a beach of the Isola Capo Rizzuto marine reserve in Calabria, Italy on November 14, 2021, where many wrecks of vessels used by migrants are abandoned. (Photo by Alessandro Serrano/AGF/Rex Features/Shutterstock)