Africa

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. 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. 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. Under terms of 2007 power-sharing deal, rebel leader became prime minister. Now power-sharing has broken down. Map: BBC

John Prendergast on the banks of the White Nile in southern Sudan. Marco Di Lauro/Reportage, for The New York Times

Young boys bathing in a river in Nigeria known to be infected with the parasite that causes river blindness. Some 27 million people in Nigeria need treatment for river blindness, also known as onchocerciasis.  The disease is spread through the bite of a black fly that breeds in fast-flowing water. However, if at-risk people take the drug ivermectin, also known as Mectizan, annually for 15-17 years, the infection cycle is broken for life.  Photo: IRIN

In Agbogbloshie, a slum in Accra, the capital of Ghana, adults and children tear away at computers from abroad to get at the precious metals inside. Left, David Akore, 18, and other foragers. At the dump, the machines are dismantled and often burned to extract metals for resale. The equipment in this digital cemetery come mainly from Europe and the United States, sometimes as secondhand donations meant to reduce the “digital divide” — the disparity in computer access between poor nations and rich. Photo: Pieter Hugo/New York Times