Mali's government is boasting a deal with Tuareg leaders granting autonomy to the northern homeland of Azawad—but the biggest rebel factions are holding out for more power.
Sudanese army forces raped more than 200 women and girls in an organized attack on the north Darfur town of Tabit in October, Human Rights Watch charges.
Traffickers have established a dope-for-guns pipeline across the Sahel and Sahara, integrating Boko Haram into drug-smuggling networks that stretch to Asia.
UN "peacekeepers" have been drawn into fighting between Tuareg separatist rebels and pro-government paramilitaries as northern Mali remains divided.
Advance units of a thousands-strong Chadian intervention force arrived in Cameroon to fight Boko Haram rebels. A critical oil pipeline passes through the war-torn border.
Amnesty International called for the release of three anti-slavery activists imprisoned in Mauritania, including UN Human Rights Prize recipient Biram Ould Dah Ould Abeid.
Blogger Cheikh Ould Mohamed of Mauritania was sentenced to death for apostasy after a court convicted him of "speaking lightly of the Prophet Mohammed" on websites.
The International Criminal Court suspended its Darfur investigation, citing UN inaction in the case, as President Omar al-Bashir accused rebel leaders of being foreign "agents."
More than 400,000 in northeastern Nigeria have been forced to flee their homes due to Boko Haram violence in recent weeks, and are in "urgent need" of assistance.
In a bid to win popular support, the interim regime in Burkina Faso has pledged a new investigation to verify the burial place of slain revolutionary leader Thomas Sankara.
Boko Haram is quickly seizing more territory in Nigeria's northeast and now threatens the Borno state capital, Maiduguri, sending thousands fleeing into Cameroon and Niger.
The Libyan government—now exiled to the eastern city of Tobruk—formally accused Sudan of smuggling weapons to the Islamist-led rebel alliance that controls Tripoli.
