Inside the Vigilante Fight Against Boko Haram

By ALEXIS OKEOWO

Benedicte Kurzen/Noor Images

Abba Aji Kalli at his Civilian Joint Task Force office in Maiduguri, Nigeria.

As their military struggles to combat the Islamist terrorist group, everyday Nigerians have formed citizen battalions to defend their towns. But have they gone too far?

Three African presidents — John Dramani Mahama of Ghana, right rear; Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria, left; and Macky Sall of Senegal, second left, working with political and military leaders in Burkina Faso, have failed to name a civilian to lead a transition to democracy.

African Mediators Fail to Name Civilian to Lead Burkina Faso After Unrest

By HERVÉ TAOKO and ALAN COWELL

There was, however, agreement on the outlines of a plan to restore the Constitution and begin a path to elections by November next year.

American health care workers and members of the United States Public Health Service who will work at a new hospital were briefed upon arrival in Liberia.

Treating Those Treating Ebola in Liberia

By SHERI FINK

A dedicated Ebola field hospital for health workers is scheduled to open Friday in Monrovia, Liberia, as part of an effort to ease the worries of would-be volunteers.

After leaving the Shabab, some of its former fighters are holed up in a government-operated halfway house in Baidoa, a town in central Somalia.

As Power of Terror Group Declines, Once-Feared Fighters Defect

By ISMA’IL KUSHKUSH and JEFFREY GETTLEMAN

Dozens of Shabab defectors live in a halfway house in Baidoa, Somalia, where they are learning new skills but live in fear of their old comrades.

Prosecutors Seek Appeal of Rulings on Pistorius

By ALAN COWELL

Filings by South African prosecutors question Oscar Pistorius’s acquittal on murder charges and what they call the “shockingly light” sentence on a lesser charge.

Open Source

Under Pressure, Burkina Faso’s Military Promises to Cede Power

By ROBERT MACKEY

The military officer who took charge of Burkina Faso on Saturday denied on Monday that he had any intention of holding on to power.

W.H.O. Assails Delay in Ebola Vaccine

By RICK GLADSTONE

Dr. Margaret Chan, the director general of the health organization, said the drug industry’s drive for profit was one reason no vaccine had yet been found for Ebola.

Shakie Kamara, 15, was fatally shot after he was caught up in a crowd in Monrovia, Liberia, that was protesting an Ebola quarantine. He was buried Aug. 25.

Inquiry Faults Liberia Force That Fired on Protesters

By NORIMITSU ONISHI

An independent human rights panel found that Liberian security forces fired directly into a crowd of civilians who were protesting a quarantine this summer.

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Multimedia

Braving Ebola

Photographs by DANIEL BEREHULAK

The men and women of one Ebola clinic in rural Liberia reflect on life inside the gates.

From Opinion

Op-Ed Contributor

Pistorius’s Nightmare, Meyiwa’s Reality

By ANTONY ALTBEKER

The imagined crime that Oscar Pistorius so dreaded is an everyday occurrence for black South Africans.

Op-Ed Contributor

Don’t Let Ebola Dehumanize Africa

By ANGELIQUE KIDJO

Fear-mongering about the disease is threatening to reverse decades of progress for the continent's image.

Lens Blog

Illuminating a Central African Crisis, Photo by Photo

By JAMES ESTRIN

While the world was watching the funeral of Nelson Mandela, Jerome Delay made it his mission to remain in the violence-wracked Central African Republic, hoping to shed light on the crisis there.

Photographs

Inside Nairobi’s Devastated Westgate Mall

More than a week after militants killed scores of people in the Westgate mall in Nairobi, Kenya, investigators sought clues to the attack. These are among the first pictures to emerge from inside the mall since the investigation began.

Nelson Mandela, who led the emancipation of South Africa from white minority rule and was his country’s first black president, becoming an international emblem of dignity and forbearance, died on Thursday. He was 95.

Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s Liberator as Prisoner and President, Dies at 95

By BILL KELLER

Mr. Mandela’s quest for freedom in South Africa’s system of white rule took him from the court of tribal royalty to the liberation underground to a prison cell to the presidency.

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The Price of Ivory

Articles and multimedia in this series explore how the surge of poaching in Africa both feeds off and fuels instability on the continent.

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TIMELINE: Timeline on Mali

Mali has been in turmoil since 2012, as events there and in Algeria raised the possibility of drawing an increasing number of foreign countries into direct involvement. Below, a timeline of the two crises.