Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe chats with former South African President Nelson Mandela at a Steve Biko memorial ceremony in Cape Town. Achebe died on March 22, 2013 at the age of 82 after a brief illness while Mandela died on December 6, 2013 aged 95. PHOTO/FILE.
January 12: Two French commandos are killed in Somalia during a failed operation to free a hostage, Dennis Allex. Mr Allex, a French spy, was kidnapped in Somalia in July 2009.
January 17: The Somali Islamist group Al-Shabab says it has killed French intelligence agent Denis Allex in retaliation for a failed French operation to free him.
The French government has said it believes Mr Allex was killed during the raid.
February 23: At least 53 people are killed and 83 others injured in fresh tribal clashes at Al- Siraif locality in Sudan’s North Darfur state.
Forces belonging to a group called Abbala attacked Al-Siraif locality from three directions with heavy weapons.
February 24: Regional African leaders sign a deal in Addis Ababa aimed at bringing peace and stability to the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo with plans to reinforce a UN-led mission to combat rebels after years of unrest.
February 26: A hot air balloon explodes and plunges to earth at Egypt’s ancient temple city of Luxor during a sunrise flight, killing up to 19 tourists, including Asians and Europeans.
Luxor Governor Ezzat Saad imposed an immediate ban on all hot air balloon flights in the province.
February 27: Somali government troops and African Union forces seize the formerly Islamist-held town of Burhakaba, the latest loss for the Al-Qaeda linked Shebab fighters.
March 18: Democratic Republic of Congo war crimes suspect Bosco Ntaganda, popularly known as “The Terminator”, handed himself over to the US embassy in the Rwandan capital Kigali, and asks to be transferred to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
March 22: Renowned Nigerian author Chinua Achebe dies at the age of 82 after a brief illness. He had been living in the US since 1990 following injuries from a car crash.
March 24: Rebels under the Seleka coalition overthrow Central African Republic’s president Francois Bozizé just two months after they had signed a peace agreement that would have let President Francois Bozize serve until 2016. Mr Bozizé, who himself came to power in a military coup in 2003 after overthrowing Ange-Félix Patassé, fled to Cameroon.
April 17: Tanzanian singer Fatma binti Baraka, popularly known as Bi Kidude, dies at her home on the island of Zanzibar.
Believed to be more than 100 years old, she was a legendary performer of Taarab, a style of Swahili Arab-influenced music.
May 2: The son of deposed Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi, Saif al-Islam, briefly appears in court in Zintan, the town where he was captured, to face criminal charges in a case relating to a visit in 2012 from a lawyer from the International Criminal Court (ICC) who was accused of passing information to Mr Gaddafi. Mr Gaddafi has also been indicted for war crimes during the 2011 uprising.
The trial was been postponed until 19 September.
May 23: Renowned Nigerian author Chinua Achebe is buried in his home town in Anambra state.
A host of dignitaries attended the funeral including Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan and Ghana’s President John Dramani Mahama.
June 8: Former President Nelson Mandela is admitted to hospital in South Africa with a lung infection. He had been ill for some days but deteriorated overnight and was transferred to a hospital in Pretoria.
June 27: US President Barack Obama calls on African governments to give gay people equal rights by decriminalising homosexual acts.
He made the comments in Senegal after meeting President Macky Sall on the first leg of his African tour.
July 4: Egypt’s army removes President Mohammed Morsy from power, suspends the constitution and pledges new elections following mass protests.
The army chief General Abdul Fattah al-Sisi announced the move in a TV address and was later sworn in as interim leader.
July 16: Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir leaves Nigeria before the end of a summit he was attending amid calls for his arrest on charges of genocide in Darfur. Mr Bashir was in Nigeria for a health summit organised by the African Union.
August 22: Robert Mugabe is sworn in for a seventh term in office as Zimbabwe’s leader.
Mr Mugabe, 89, won with 61 per cent of the presidential vote against 34 per cent for his key rival Mr Morgan Tsvangirai on 31 July.
August 23: Suspected Islamist militants from the Boko Haram group kill at least 35 people in north-eastern Nigeria.
The gunmen allegedly raided the village of Demba in Borno state after locals refused to co-operate with them.
September 1: Senegalese President Macky Sall sacks the prime minister he appointed soon after coming to power in 2012.
Abdou Mbaye, a former banker who did not belong to any political party, was replaced by Justice Minister Aminata Toure.
September 4: Ibrahim Boubacar Keita is sworn in as Mali’s new president at the Supreme Court in the capital, Bamako taking over power from transitional leader Dioncounda Traore.
September 19: The militia holding the son of late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, Saif al-Islam, refuses to transfer him to the capital for a pre-trial hearing. The hearing was adjourned until 3rd October.
September 19: At least 87 people are killed in an attack by Boko Haram militants in Nigeria’s north-eastern Borno state.
September 20: Cote d’Ivoire says it plans to try ex-first lady Simone Gbagbo in its own courts, instead of handing the case to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
October 3: The Gambia’s President Yahya Jammeh announces that country will withdraw from the Commonwealth, 48 years after joining the 54-member grouping, which includes the UK and most of its former colonies. He described it as a “neo-colonial institution”.
October 6: US Special Forces carry out two separate raids in Africa targeting senior Islamist militants, American officials say.
In Libya, they captured Anas al-Liby an al-Qaeda leader accused of the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
A leader of al-Shabab was targeted in another raid in southern Somalia, but the raid failed.
October 10: Malawi’s President Joyce Banda sacks her Cabinet amid allegations of widespread corruption in government.
Western donors had been urging Ms Banda to tackle corruption.
October 19: At least 16 people are killed and more than 30 injured after a suicide bomber blows himself up in a crowded restaurant in the central Somali town of Beledweyne. Al-Shabab said its target was Ethiopian and Djiboutian soldiers in the town.
October 31: Zimbabwe’s highest court declares unconstitutional a law which makes it a crime to insult the president.
The Constitutional Court says that the law undermined freedom of expression.
November 2: Two French journalists working RFI radio are killed after they were kidnapped in the northern town of Kidal in Mali.
Claude Verlon and Ghislaine Dupont were abducted after interviewing a local political leader, their bodies found outside the town soon after.
November 13: The US names Nigeria’s Boko Haram and Ansaru militant groups as foreign terrorist organisations.
December 6: Former South African leader, Nelson Mandela, dies aged 95. Mr Mandela spent 27 years in jail before becoming South Africa’s first black president in 1994.
December 15: Nelson Mandela’s body is laid to rest in a family plot in Qunu, after political and religious leaders paid tribute to South Africa’s first black president at a state funeral service.
December 16: South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir says his forces have quashed an attempted coup by disgruntled soldiers after heavy exchange of fire overnight in the capital Juba.
He accused former vice president Dr Riek Machar of being behind the coup attempt.
December 30: International efforts to bring peace to South Sudan stepped up as thousands of fighters mass to attack the town of Bor
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