An Ansar Dine militant was turned over to the International Criminal Court, accused of destruction of religious monuments and other war crimes committed in Timbuktu.
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and related networks are said to control Saharan smuggling routes for Moroccan hashish to fund their regional operations.
Boko Haram, now calling itself Islamic State West Africa, carried out a wave of deadly suicide bombings as a multilateral military alliance prepares to take the field against the jihadists.
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.
Eight are dead in anti-Charlie Hebdo protests in Niger, with street clashes also reported from Algeria and Pakistan. In Afghanistan, a cleric praised the attackers as "true mujahedeen."
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.
France expands military operations across the Sahel to chase down jihadist insurgents, as Mali opens peace talks with Tuareg separatists that have seized much of the country.
Saadi Qaddafi, son of former Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi, was extradited from Niger back to Libya to stand trial for crimes allegedly committed during his father's rule.
Authorities in Cameroon have beefed up border controls in the Far North region to guard against infiltration by Boko Haram as civilians flee the growing war in Nigeria.
French and allied African forces launched a new offensive against Islamist rebels in northern Mali after a suicide attack on a checkpoint killed two Chadian soldiers.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said in Niger that the attackers who carried out double suicide bombings on a military camp and uranium mine likely came from Libya.
One year after Tuareg rebels briefly seized power in Mali’s desert north, they face hunger, ethnic attacks and rights abuses at the hands of French-backed government forces.
