At least 42 people were killed in the Christmas Day church attacks

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Why can't Nigeria defeat Boko Haram?

Who are Boko Haram?

Foreign backers for Boko Haram ?

A blast has rocked an area near a mosque in the restive north-eastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri, with witnesses reporting four deaths.

In a BBC interview, Nigerian army spokesman Brig Gen Isa blamed the Islamist group Boko Haram.

The group – which wants strict sharia law – has carried out scores of attacks, mainly in the north-east.

It has said it attacked several churches on Christmas Day, killing at least 42 people.

Boko Haram has also in the past targeted international organisations and Muslim leaders from rival sects.

“There was a loud blast near the mosque just after the Friday prayers as people were trooping out of the mosque,” one Maiduguri resident was quoted by the AFP news agency as saying.

“Everybody scampered to safety, leading to a stampede.”

Another witness said he had seen four bodies.

Brig Gen Isa said there had been a “major incident” which had caused casualties but did not give any further details.

Tens of thousands of people have fled their homes in Maiduguri and other cities which have been attacked by Boko Haram, especially in nearby Yobe state.

Earlier this week, Nigeria's main Christian group warned that the community may have to defend itself if the security forces could not protect it.

Analysts said the move raised the spectre of communal clashes in Africa's most populous nation, which is divided between a largely Muslim north and a mainly Christian and animist south.

On Thursday, Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan summoned his security chiefs to discuss the Boko Haram threat.

The leaders of Chad and Cameroon, which are close to Maiduguri, are reported to have held talks about how they can help prevent the violence spreading across their borders.

The group, which originated in Maiduguri, this year staged suicide attacks on the headquarters of the UN and the national police in the capital, Abuja.

It was also responsible for a string of bomb blasts in the central city of Jos on Christmas Eve 2010, as well as a New Year's Eve attack on a military barracks in the capital.

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Once hailed as a potential model for African development, Guinea-Bissau is now one of the poorest countries in the world.

It has a massive foreign debt and an economy which relies heavily on foreign aid.

Compounding this, the country experienced a bitter civil war in the late 1990s in which thousands were killed, wounded and displaced.

Formerly Portuguese Guinea, Guinea-Bissau won independence from Portugal in 1974 after a long struggle spearheaded by the left-wing African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC). For the next six years post-independence leader Luis Cabral presided over a command economy.

In 1980 he was overthrown by his army chief, Joao Vieira, who accused him of corruption and mismanagement. Mr Vieira led the country towards a market economy and a multi-party system, but was accused of crony capitalism, corruption and autocracy. In 1994 he was chosen as president in Guinea-Bissau's first free elections.

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At a glance

Politics: President Joao Bernardo Vieira was killed by renegade soldiers in March 2009. He was replaced by an elected leader.

Economy: Political instability and mismanagement have undermined the economy. Country is dependent on primary crops – mainly cashew nuts – and subsistence agriculture. Government often struggles to pay wages.

International: Country has become transhipment point for Latin American drugs; army clashed with Senegal's Casamance separatists in 2006

Four years later he was ousted after he dismissed his army chief, thereby triggering a crippling civil war. This eventually ended after foreign mediation led to a truce, policed by West African peacekeepers, and free elections in January 2000.

The victor in the poll, Kumba Yala, was ousted in a bloodless military coup in September 2003. The military chief who led the coup said the move was, in part, a response to the worsening economic and political situation.

Mr Vieira won the 2005 elections but his rule was brought to a bloody end in March 2009, when renegade soldiers entered his palace and shot him dead, reportedly to avenge the killing hours earlier of the army chief, a rival of the president.

The country's vital cashew nut crop provides a modest living for most of Guinea-Bissau's farmers and is the main source of foreign exchange.

Guinea-Bissau is also a major hub for cocaine smuggled from Latin America to Europe. Several senior military figures are alleged to be involved in the trafficking of narcotics, prompting fears that the drugs trade could further destabilise an already volatile country.

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Equatorial Guinea is a small country off West Africa which has recently struck oil and which is now being cited as a textbook case of the resource curse – or the paradox of plenty.

Since the mid 1990s the former Spanish colony has become one of sub-Sahara's biggest oil producers and in 2004 was said to have the world's fastest-growing economy.

However, few people have benefited from the oil riches and the country ranks near the bottom of the UN human development index. The UN says that less than half the population has access to clean drinking water and that 20 percent of children die before reaching five.

The country has exasperated a variety of rights organisations who have described the two post-independence leaders as among the worst abusers of human rights in Africa.

Francisco Macias Nguema's reign of terror – from independence in 1968 until his overthrow in 1979 – prompted a third of the population to flee. Apart from allegedly committing genocide against the Bubi ethnic minority, he ordered the death of thousands of suspected opponents, closed down churches and presided over the economy's collapse.

His successor – Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo – took over in a coup and has shown little tolerance for opposition during the three decades of his rule. While the country is nominally a multiparty democracy, elections have generally been considered a sham.

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At a glance

Politics: President Obiang seized power in 1979; rights groups have condemned his rule as one Africa's most brutal; he faces a “government in exile” and a separatist movement

Economy: Equatorial Guinea is sub-Saharan Africa's third biggest oil producer. Oil earnings are allegedly stolen by the ruling elite

International: Equatorial Guinea and Gabon are in dispute over islands in potentially oil-rich off-shore waters

Country profiles compiled by BBC Monitoring

According to Human Rights Watch, the ''dictatorship under President Obiang has used an oil boom to entrench and enrich itself further at the expense of the country's people''.

The corruption watchdog Transparency International has put Equatorial Guinea in the top 12 of its list of most corrupt states. Resisting calls for more transparency, President Obiang has for long held that oil revenues are a state secret. In 2008 the country became a candidate of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative – an international project meant to promote openness about government oil revenues – but failed to qualify by an April 2010 deadline.

A 2004 US Senate investigation into the Washington-based Riggs Bank found that President Obiang's family had received huge payments from US oil companies such as Exxon Mobil and Amerada Hess.

Observers say the US finds it hard to criticise a country which is seen as an ally in a volatile, oil-rich region. In 2006, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice hailed President Obiang as a “good friend” despite repeated criticism of his human rights and civil liberties record by her own department. More recently President Barack Obama posed for an official photograph with President Obiang at a New York reception.

The advocacy group Global Witness has been lobbying the United States to act against the President Obiang's son Teodor, a government minister. It says there is credible evidence that he spent millions buying a Malibu mansion and private jet using corruptly acquired funds – grounds for denying him a visa.

Equatorial Guinea hit the headlines in 2004 when a plane load of suspected mercenaries was intercepted in Zimbabwe while allegedly on the way to overthrow President Obiang.

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Somalia is said to be one of the world's most dangerous places for aid workers to operate

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East Africa hunger crisis

Refugee success stories

In pictures

Rains fail to ease crisis

Tragedy revisited

Two aid workers shot dead in the Somali capital have been identified as Belgian and Indonesian nationals.

The pair worked for medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres, which said it was relocating some staff as a result of the shooting but would continue its humanitarian work in the country.

Sources say Belgian Philippe Havet, 53, and Indonesian Andrias Karel Keiluhu, 44, were shot by a former MSF employee.

Somalia is said to be the world's worst humanitarian emergency.

After two decades of warfare and the worst drought in 60 years, some southern areas have been declared as suffering from famine.

MSF said it was “deeply shocked” and “saddened” by the shooting.

One of the men was killed immediately, while another died in hospital from his injuries, the aid agency said.

A Somali national has been arrested over the shooting – there are reports he had recently been sacked from his job with MSF.

Last week, three Somali aid workers distributing food to famine victims were shot and killed, the UN said.

Two of them worked for the UN World Food Programme, while the third worked for one of its partner organisations.

The attack took place in the central town of Mataban, which is controlled by Ahlu Sunnah – a militia which generally supports the government.

The Islamist al-Shabab group has banned most foreign aid agencies from the areas it controls – most southern and central regions.

The UN-backed government controls the capital, Mogadishu, but al-Shabab, which is linked to al-Qaeda, stages suicide attacks in the city.

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Sudan: Coping with divorce

Pointing to war?

Forced to choose between Sudans

How to end deadly cattle rustling

Garang's ex-chef savours freedom

South Sudan gained independence from Sudan on 9 July 2011 as the outcome of a 2005 peace deal that ended Africa's longest-running civil war.

An overwhelming majority of South Sudanese voted in a January 2011 referendum to secede and become Africa's first new country since Eritrea split from Ethiopia in 1993.

The new nation stands to benefit from inheriting the bulk of Sudan's oil wealth, but continuing disputes with Khartoum and a lack of economic development cloud its immediate future.

Geography

Formed from the 10 southern-most states of Sudan, South Sudan is a land of expansive grassland, swamps and tropical rain forest straddling both banks of the White Nile.

It is highly diverse ethnically and linguistically. Among the largest ethnic groups are the Dinka, Nuer and Shilluk.

Unlike the predominantly Muslim population of Sudan, the South Sudanese follow traditional religions, while a minority are Christians.

History

As Sudan prepared to gain independence from joint British and Egyptian rule in 1956, southern leaders accused the new authorities in Khartoum of backing out of promises to create a federal system, and of trying to impose an Islamic and Arabic identity.

In 1955, southern army officers mutinied, sparking off a civil war between the south, led by the Anya Nya guerrilla movement, and the Sudanese government.

The yes vote in the 2011 referendum on independence sparked scenes of jubilation

The conflict only ended when the Addis Ababa peace agreement of 1972 accorded the south a measure of autonomy.

But, in 1983, the south, led by the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) and its armed wing, the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), again rose in rebellion when the Sudanese government cancelled the autonomy arrangements.

At least 1.5 million people are thought to have lost their lives and more than four million were displaced in the ensuing 22 years of guerrilla warfare. Large numbers of South Sudanese fled the fighting, either to the north or to neighbouring countries, where many remain.

The conflict finally ended with the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, under which the south was granted regional autonomy along with guaranteed representation in a national power-sharing government.

The agreement also provided for a referendum in the south on independence in 2011, in which 99% of southern Sudanese voted to split from Sudan.

Economy

Most South Sudanese sustain themselves through agriculture

Long based on subsistence agriculture, South Sudan's economy is now highly oil-dependent. While an estimated 75% of all the former Sudan's oil reserves are in South Sudan, the refineries and the pipeline to the Red Sea are in Sudan.

Under the 2005 accord, South Sudan received 50% of the former united Sudan's oil proceeds, which provide the vast bulk of the country's budget. But that arrangement was set to expire with independence.

Despite the oil wealth, South Sudan is one of Africa's least developed countries. However, the years since the 2005 peace accord ushered in an economic revival and investment in utilities and other infrastructure.

Conflicts

Alongside the oil issue, several border disputes with Sudan continue to strain ties. The main row is over border region of Abyei, where a referendum for the residents to decide whether to join south or north has been delayed over voter eligibility.

The conflict is rooted in a dispute over land between farmers of the pro-South Sudan Dinka Ngok people and cattle-herding Misseriya Arab tribesmen.

Another source of conflict is the Nuba Mountains region of Sudan's South Kordofan state, where violence continues between the largely Christian and pro-SPLA Nuba people and northern government forces.

Inside South Sudan, several rebel forces opposed to the SPLM-dominated government have appeared, including the South Sudan Liberation Army (SSLA) of Peter Gadet and a force led former SPLA general George Athor. Juba says these forces are funded by Sudan, which denies the accusation.

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