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.
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.
Escalating attacks by Boko Haram militants from across the Nigerian border have led to curfews, fear and privation in Cameroon's remote and impoverished Far North Region.
The Pentagon deploys 80 Air Force troops to Chad to maintain a drone force to assist in efforts to find the abducted Nigerian schoolgirls—as Nigerians organize self-defense militias.
The Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO) was blamed for a massacre of some 30 Tuaregs in a road ambush near the desert city of Gao in northern Mali.
The local Islamic police in Nigeria's Bauchi state are carrying out a hunt for members of a putative "homosexual organization," who may face death by stoning.
