A series of militant attacks on schools in Nigeria over the past week has left more than 80 children missing, according to local officials and human rights groups. The attacks targeted schools in both northeastern and southwestern parts of the country, raising renewed concerns over insecurity and mass abductions.

A 346-meter-long tanker, vital to Russian Arctic oil exports, has essentially "disappeared" from ship tracking systems.

France has urged its citizens to leave Mali "as soon as possible", after a weekend of co-ordinated attacks by separatist fighters and Islamist militants.

Survivors and observers have questioned the Nigerian military’s rationale for a devastating airstrike on a busy market that killed as many as 200 people, many of them civilians.

Armed men killed 50 people in a village in Niger state in northwestern Nigeria earlier this week, humanitarian sources said Thursday, in a much higher toll than previously reported.

At least 39 people have died after a boat carrying migrants bound for Europe capsized off the coast of Gambia on New Year’s Eve, according to government officials. The vessel, described by survivors as "overcrowded and dilapidated," was attempting the perilous journey from West Africa to Spain via the Canary Islands, a route known as one of the deadliest in the world.

bp has started the first flow of gas from its GTA Phase 1 liquefied natural gas (LNG) project, located offshore Mauritania and Senegal, marking a significant milestone in the development of the region's energy resources.

Editor's note: Russian military-political analyst, expert in the field of strategic security, specialist in the Middle East and Africa Vladimir Bekish. The article expresses the personal opinion of the author and may not coincide with the view of News.Az.