Optimism for the Senegalese oil and gas industry's prospects has been growing since 2014 when a UK-headquartered independent energy company made the largest global oil discovery of that year, and the most significant in Senegal since non-commercial reserves were first identified in the 1960s, writes India Barker
Mozambique's current debt crisis sheds new light on the state of indebtedness across the African continent, writes Diana Nyabongo and Gabrielle Reid
Ennahda, one of Tunisia's largest political parties, used its annual congress on 20 May 2016 to announce that it was abandoning political Islam by formally separating its religious and political activities, writes Hamish Kinnear
2016 has seen Nigeria's oil-rich Niger Delta engulfed in a fresh wave of violence, led by the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA), a newly-formed opaque militant group, writes Jack Raeder
The August 2016 announcement that Islamic State had replaced the leader of its West African affiliate, Boko Haram, has paved the way for a split in the Nigerian militant group. Now it appears Nigeria and its allies will be fighting militants on two fronts in the region, writes Gabrielle Reid
As the current insurgency in the Niger Delta region mirrors dynamics seen in the early 2000s, kidnappings by militant groups are likely to emerge as a renewed threat in the region, writes Gabrielle Reid.
A recent series of express kidnappings in Johannesburg,conducted under the guise of the convenient Uber taxi service, points to a new kidnapping threat in the country, writes Grant Caswell
The encroachment of neighbouring insurgencies on Niger seems inevitable, with militants in the north and south east seemingly determined to carry out renewed attacks against Nigerien interests, write Gabrielle Reid and Grant Caswell
The conflict in South Sudan no longer involves two distinct sides, but has become eclipsed in the shadow of numerous armed groups as the wider political elite take up arms to secure their own political positions, writes Gabrielle Reid
Despite several calls for local militants to join the ranks of Islamic State,traction in East Africa has been limited to date. However, the group nowlooks to be on the road to greater success in the region,writes Gabrielle Reid