France faces internal and external dynamics that make the country particularly vulnerable to Islamist terrorism compared to other Western states, writes Lara Sierra-Rubia.
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
Mozambique's current debt crisis sheds new light on the state of indebtedness across the African continent, writes Diana Nyabongo and Gabrielle Reid
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
Despite fears cited by international media and several prominent athletes, most concerns surrounding Zika virus transmission at the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro are largely unfounded, writes Sunette Klopper.
With little evidence to suggest that Islamic State has the capacity to stage a coordinated attack against the Olympic and Paralympic Games, Brazilian authorities have focused counter-terrorism preparations on the lone-actor threat, writes Lloyd Belton.
Over the last three years, Brazilians have weathered sporadic protests that have shifted in focus and composition, leaving the future of Brazil's social fabric uncertain. Will Rio 2016 see a re-emergence of unrest or a general dormancy of social tensions as experienced during the 2014 World Cup, Stephanie Bergeman investigates.
2016 has seen a significant rise in violent crime ahead of the Olympics. However, street crime and express kidnappings remain the predominant threats to foreign nationals amid a heightened security force presence in Rio, writes Lloyd Belton