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Mali country profile

53625271 mali Mali country profile

The landlocked West African country of Mali – one of the poorest in the world – experienced rapid economic growth from the 1990s, coupled with a flourishing democracy and relative social stability.

This all hung in the balance in early 2012, when the steady collapse of state control over the north of the country was followed by an inconclusive military coup.

For several decades after independence from France in 1960, Mali suffered droughts, rebellions, a coup and 23 years of military dictatorship until democratic elections in 1992.

The core of ancient empires going back to the fourth century, Mali was conquered by the French in the middle of the 19th century.

After a brief experiment in federation with Senegal, Mali became independent in 1960.

wpid 59233597 mali timbuku g3 Mali country profile Mali is home to several ancient buildings, including this one in Timbuktu dating back to 1325

Although swathes of Mali are barren, the country is self-sufficient in food thanks to the fertile Niger river basin in the south and east. It is one of Africa's major cotton producers, and has lobbied against subsidies to cotton farmers in richer countries, particularly the US.

A chronic foreign trade deficit makes it nonetheless heavily dependent on foreign aid and remittances from Malians working abroad.

In the early 1990s the nomadic Tuareg of the north began an insurgency over land and cultural rights that persists to this day, despite central government attempts at military and negotiated solutions.

The insurgency gathered pace in 2007, and was exacerabated by an influx of arms from the 2011 Libyan civil war. The Saharan branch of al-Qaeda was quick to move into this increasingly lawless area, and contributed to the challenges facing the underequipped Malian army.

Music stars

Despite its political travails, Mali is renowned worldwide for having produced some of the stars of African music, most notably Salif Keita. The annual Festival in the Desert celebrates this talent.

wpid 59233592 mali djenne bbc3 Mali country profile The Great Mosque of Djenne is the largest mud brick building in the world and is a UNESCO-designated World Heritage Site

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Ivory Coast profile

52533267 ivory coast Ivory Coast profile

An armed rebellion in 2002 split the nation in two. Since then, peace deals have alternated with renewed violence as the country has slowly edged its way towards a political resolution of the conflict.

For more than three decades after independence under the leadership of its first president, Felix Houphouet-Boigny, Ivory Coast was conspicuous for its religious and ethnic harmony and its well-developed economy.

All this ended when the late Robert Guei led a coup which toppled Felix Houphouet-Boigny's successor, Henri Bedie, in 1999.

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Mr Bedie fled, but not before planting the seeds of ethnic discord by trying to stir up xenophobia against Muslim northerners, including his main rival, Alassane Ouattara.

This theme was also adopted by Mr Guei, who had Alassane Ouattara banned from the presidential election in 2000 because of his foreign parentage, and by the only serious contender allowed to run against Mr Guei, Laurent Gbagbo.

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At a glance

wpid 52533269 ivorycoast refugees afp 1136231212 Ivory Coast profile

Politics: Civil war in 2002 split country between rebel-held north and government-controlled south; 2007 power-sharing deal held out prospect of peace; 2010 presidential poll led to further violence

Economy: Ivory Coast is world's leading cocoa producer; UN sanctions imposed in 2004 include an arms embargo and a ban on diamond exports

Country profiles compiled by BBC Monitoring

When Mr Gbagbo replaced Robert Guei after he was deposed in a popular uprising in 2000, violence replaced xenophobia. Scores of Mr Ouattara's supporters were killed after their leader called for new elections.

In September 2002 a troop mutiny escalated into a full-scale rebellion, voicing the ongoing discontent of northern Muslims who felt they were being discriminated against in Ivorian politics. Thousands were killed in the conflict.

Although most of the fighting ended in 2004, Ivory Coast remained tense and divided. French and UN peacekeepers patrolled the buffer zone which separated the north, held by rebels known as the New Forces, and the government-controlled south.

After repeated delays, elections aimed at ending the conflict were finally held in October 2010. But the vote ushered in more unrest when the incumbent, Laurent Gbagbo, refused to concede victory to the internationally recognised winner, Alassane Ouattara.

The ensuing four-month stand-off was only ended when Mr Ouattara's forces overran the south of the country, finally capturing Mr Gbagbo and declaring him deposed. In November 2011, Mr Gbagbo was transferred to The Hague to stand trial at the International Criminal Court on charges of crimes against humanity.

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African troops in Guinea-Bissau

59149855 guineabissau 0810 African troops in Guinea Bissau

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Ruling party wins Algeria polls

wpid 60187061 belkhadem afp Ruling party wins Algeria polls The FLN, led by former PM Abdelaziz Belkhadem, will remain the largest party in parliament

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Congo warlord’s ‘days numbered’

wpid 59945198 014452266 15 Congo warlords days numbered The ICC issued its arrest warrant for Gen Ntaganda six years ago

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DR Congo Seeks Democracy

Fleeing the 'Terminator'

No end to the tears

Kabila victory questioned

Profile: Joseph Kabila

The International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor has said he is hopeful that a Congolese warlord will be arrested within weeks.

Bosco Ntaganda is wanted on charges of committing crimes against humanity.

Luis Moreno-Ocampo told the BBC that DR Congo and Rwanda both now believed that Gen Ntaganda should be arrested and his position was therefore “fragile”.

Earlier, the UN said fighting in DR Congo had forced tens of thousands to flee into neighbouring states.

The head of the UN's humanitarian agency, Antonio Guterres, said an upsurge in fighting between the army and mutineers loyal to Gen Ntaganda had caused “disastrous” displacement within DR Congo and “now people in need are appearing in neighbouring countries too”.

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The Terminator at a glance

60071524 drcongo northkivu ugandarwanda Congo warlords days numbered

Born in 1973

Fled to DR Congo as a teenager after attacks on ethnic Tutsis

At 17, he began his fighting days – alternating between being a rebel and a soldier, in both Rwanda and DR Congo

Indicted in 2006 by the ICC for allegedly recruiting child soldiers

In charge of troops that carried out the 2008 Kiwanji massacre

Integrated in 2009 into the Congolese army and made a general

In 2012, he appears to have deserted the army

Full profile

Some 30,000 Congolese refugees have passed into Uganda to escape fresh fighting that erupted on 10 May, the UNHCR quoted Ugandan officials as saying, while more than 8,000 Congolese have been registered in Rwanda since 27 April.

‘Common understanding’

Mr Moreno-Ocampo said there was now a greater consensus about Gen Ntaganda's alleged crimes than when the ICC first issued a warrant for his arrest in 2006 on charges of recruiting child soldiers.

“My role as the prosecutor is to keep making the legal point and now there is more consensus that he should be arrested and therefore probably will be arrested,” he said.

He said the primary responsibility for detaining the warlord lay with the Congolese army and that it could request UN and Rwandan support.

“I hope it is weeks,” Mr Moreno-Ocampo said of Gen Ntaganda's arrest.

“I think he is in a fragile situation now and I think there is a common understanding that he should be arrested and then I think he will be.”

Two days ago Mr Moreno-Ocampo said he was seeking to issue a warrant for the arrest of rebel leader Sylvestre Mudacumura and wanted to add fresh charges to that out for Gen Ntaganda.

Gen Ntaganda denies masterminding a mutiny by former members of the CNDP rebel group, whose fighters were integrated into the Congolese army as part of a peace deal three years ago.

The Congolese government has until now refused to hand over Gen Ntaganda, saying that it now wants to put him on trial in the country for his role in fighting that broke out in late April in the North Kivu region between soldiers loyal to him and former CNDP rebels.

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Eritrea profile

52639145 eritrea Eritrea profile

Eritrea emerged from its long war of independence in 1993 only to plunge once again into military conflict, first with Yemen and then, more devastatingly, with its old adversary, Ethiopia.

Today, a fragile peace prevails and Eritrea faces the gigantic tasks of rebuilding its infrastructure and of developing its economy after more than 30 years of fighting.

A former Italian colony, Eritrea was occupied by the British in 1941. In 1952 the United Nations resolved to establish it as an autonomous entity federated with Ethiopia as a compromise between Ethiopian claims for sovereignty and Eritrean aspirations for independence. However, 10 years later the Ethiopian emperor, Haile Selassie, decided to annex it, triggering a 32-year armed struggle.

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At a glance

wpid 52639147 eritrea afp asmara Eritrea profile

Politics: The government has been accused of repression and of hindering the development of democracy

Economy: Eritrea is said to be on the brink of a mining boom; it is heavily dependent on earnings of the diaspora

International: Eritrea and Ethiopia remain in dispute after their 1998-2000 border war; in 2009 the UN imposed sanctions on Eritrea after accusing it of backing anti-Ethiopian Islamist insurgents in Somalia

Country profiles compiled by BBC Monitoring

This culminated in independence after an alliance of the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF) and a coalition of Ethiopian resistance movements defeated Haile Selassie's communist successor, Mengistu Haile Mariam.

In 1993, in a referendum supported by Ethiopia, Eritreans voted almost unanimously for independence, leaving Ethiopia landlocked.

The two countries hardly became good neighbours, with the issues of Ethiopian access to the Eritrean ports of Massawa and Assab and unequal trade terms souring relations.

In 1998 border disputes around the town of Badme erupted into open hostilities. This conflict ended with a peace deal in June 2000, but not before leaving both sides with tens of thousands of soldiers dead. A security zone separates the two countries. The UN patrolled the zone at one time but pulled out, unable to fulfil its mandate.

The unresolved border issue compounds other pressing problems. These include Eritrea's inability to provide enough food; two thirds of the population receive food aid. Moreover, economic progress is hampered by the proportion of Eritreans who are in the army rather than the workforce.

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Death penalty for Somaliland raid

54272256 somaliland Death penalty for Somaliland raid

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Equatorial Guinea profile

54199223 e guinea Equatorial Guinea profile

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.

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At a glance

wpid 58065143 equatorial vendor ap1 Equatorial Guinea profile

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

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.

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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Seven die in south Libya clash

60283678 libya ghadames1 may12 Seven die in south Libya clash

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Libya Crisis

Divisive bid

Dangers lurk

Should Sirte be rebuilt?

War victims' care scandal

Seven people have been killed and more than 20 injured in clashes in Libya's western desert town of Ghadames, the government says.

Government spokesman Nasser el-Maneaa blamed an “armed group from outside the town” for the violence.

He added that the army had been sent to Ghadames and the situation was now under control.

Unconfirmed reports say the clashes were between town residents and Tuareg tribesmen – nomads who roam the desert.

The fighting erupted over control of a checkpoint on the edge of the town – on a route often used for smuggling, local officials were quoted as saying by Reuters.

Libya's interim government is struggling to control the vast country with numerous tribal groups after former leader Col Muammar Gaddafi was ousted in the uprising last year.

Many Tuaregs supported the late leader during the fighting.

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Algeria profile

54199065 algeria Algeria profile

Algeria, a gateway between Africa and Europe, has been battered by violence over the past half-century.

More than a million Algerians were killed in the fight for independence from France in 1962, and the country has recently emerged from a brutal internal conflict that followed scrapped elections in 1992.

The Sahara desert covers more than four-fifths of the land. Oil and gas reserves were discovered here in the 1950s, but most Algerians live along the northern coast. The country supplies large amounts of natural gas to Europe and energy exports are the backbone of the economy.

Algeria was originally inhabited by Berbers until the Arabs conquered North Africa in the 7th century. Staying mainly in the mountainous regions, the Berbers resisted the spreading Arab influence, managing to preserve much of their language and culture. They make up some 30% of the population.

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At a glance

wpid 54138057 algtibhirine afp3 Algeria profile

Politics: President Bouteflika led his country out of the civil war that broke out when Islamists were denied an election victory; since the 1990s, the Islamist insurgency has been replaced by Al-Qaeda-inspired militants carrying out a deadly bombing campaign

Economy: Algeria is a key oil and gas supplier

International: Tension persists between Algeria and Morocco over the Western Sahara, where nomadic Saharans are seeking self-determination

Country profiles compiled by BBC Monitoring

Part of the Turkish Ottoman empire from the 16th century, Algeria was conquered by the French in 1830 and was given the status of a “departement”. The struggle for independence began in 1954 headed by the National Liberation Front, which came to power on independence in 1962.

In the 1990s Algerian politics was dominated by the struggle involving the military and Islamist militants. In 1992 a general election won by an Islamist party was annulled, heralding a bloody civil war in which more than 150,000 people were slaughtered.

An amnesty in 1999 led many rebels to lay down their arms.

Although political violence in Algeria has declined since the 1990s, the country has been shaken by by a campaign of bombings carried out by a group calling itself Al-Qaeda in the Land of Islamic Maghreb (AQLIM).

The group was formerly known as the Salafist Group for Call and Combat, and has its roots in an Islamist militia involved in the civil war in the 1990s.

Although experts doubt whether AQLIM has direct operational links with Osama Bin-Laden, its methods – which include suicide bombings – and its choice of targets, such as foreign workers and the UN headquarters in Algiers, are thought to be inspired by Al-Qaeda. North African governments fear that local Islamist groups in Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia may be linking up under the umbrella of the new movement.

After years of political upheaval and violence, Algeria's economy has been given a lift by frequent oil and gas finds. It has estimated oil reserves of nearly 12 billion barrels, attracting strong interest from foreign oil firms.

However, poverty remains widespread and unemployment high, particularly among Algeria's youth. Endemic government corruption and poor standards in public services are also chronic sources of popular dissatisfaction.

Major protests broke out in January 2011 over food prices and unemployment, with two people being killed in clashes with security forces. The government responded by ordering cuts to the price of basic foodstuffs, and repealed the 1992 state of emergency law.

In 2001 the government agreed to a series of demands by the minority Berbers, including official recognition of their language, after months of unrest involving Berber youths demanding greater cultural and political recognition.

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Mali country profile

Ivory Coast profile

African troops in Guinea-Bissau

Ruling party wins Algeria polls

Congo warlord’s ‘days numbered’

Eritrea profile

Death penalty for Somaliland raid

Equatorial Guinea profile

Seven die in south Libya clash

Algeria profile

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