According to Reporters San Frontières (RSF), at the start of 2017, 178 journalists were imprisoned across the world, with 23 of them in Sub-Saharan Africa. With a worsening conflict in South Sudan and a state of emergency facilitating a greater government clampdown in Ethiopia, the number of cases is likely to remain high.
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
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
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
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
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.
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
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
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