Al-Qaeda gets the most attention, but local groups and ethnic fighters are part of a complicated mix of instability.
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An exclusive report from inside northern Mali.
Images of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and their local offshoots and rivals in northern Mali.
Amid desertification and drought, tensions rise as rival armed groups vie for control of the impoverished region.
![Secular Tuareg rebels have been fighting for greater rights for over 50 years [May Ying Welsh/Al Jazeera]](/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/201277192951110734_20.jpeg?resize=570%2C380&quality=80)
55 years ago today, the Republic of Sudan became a nation, an anniversary likely to be its last.
Al Jazeera reports exclusively from an IDP camp where thousands have fled war.
If you ever saw the al-Askari shrine before its destruction you would know how beautiful it was.
A surreal scene is unfolding at the Taji army base.
In the main square of Baghdad’s largest Shia ghetto, an elderly man in the worn uniform of the former Iraqi air force directs donkey and car traffic with a ping-pong paddle.
In the crowded and winding streets of al-Adhamiya, a 1000-year-old Sunni locality of Baghdad, explosions from mortars and grenades and long volleys of machine gun fire break out every half hour.
