In Kidal, northern Mali, danger is never far away. Neither the Malian government nor its army is anywhere to be seen – neither is welcome here. Tuareg rebels are determined to keep control of the region, which they call Azawad. For now, Franco-Chadian forces maintain an uneasy peace. But the planned withdrawal of French troops could leave the Chadians sitting on a powder keg.
French ground forces in the Adrar des Ifoghas mountains in northern Mali engaged in a firefight with jihadists on Sunday, FRANCE 24’s Matthieu Mabin reports from one of the world’s most forbidding zones.
Louis Gallois, the esteemed French industrialist and former head of global aerospace company EADS, has delivered a government-commissioned report on French competitiveness. One of President François Hollande's main election promises was to get the economy out of the doldrums and create jobs. The report's aim is to inform policy makers just how to go about doing that. Yet it's not known how many of Gallois' proposals will be adopted by the government - indeed, how many they can afford.
Between 28,000 and 80,000 thousand Syrians have gone missing since the uprising against President Bashar al Assad began last year. Many of those may have died in combat, while others could be being held in prison by the regime, where toruture is rife and relatively few people come out alive. The NGO Azaaz is trying to keep on top of those figures over the border in Lebanon, but it's hard to reassure families who have no idea if their loved ones are alive or dead.
Burkina Faso is the largest producer of cotton in Sub-Saharan Africa. Here, there are two main types of the plant: the conventional one, and the genetically modified version, which the country began using in 2008.
Giving birth in South Africa is becoming a matter of life and death. In the past 20 years, the number of women dying in childbirth has increased fourfold. But people have had enough. In their own small way, lawyers, civil servants and simple workers are raising awareness and driving change.
They have been abused, exploited or abandoned: in Burundi, children are paying the price for the violence perpetrated by adults. In the town of Ruyigi, one woman is fighting to give them the chance of a better future. Marguerite Barankitse has been taking in orphans, treating the sick and educating the young for the past 20 years.
After the revolution that toppled former President Ben Ali, some 23,000 Tunisians crossed over illegally to the Italian island of Lampedusa. Many have stayed in Italy, others made their way to France. France 24 caught up in Paris with the same group of migrants we filmed in Tunisia in March.
Julien SAUVAGET 
