President Evariste Ndayishimiye also railed against Western governments that he said had conditioned providing aid on accepting gay rights. His remarks do not carry the force of law.

The Central African nation’s election, which cost over $1.25 billion to run, drew accusations of fraud, prompting several key opposition figures to call for its annulment.

Our correspondents ventured to some of the world’s most remote, and dangerous, locales to report stories that reveal a country’s culture and the human condition. Here are our favorites from the year.

Before the fall of apartheid, his plays, which also included “Woza Albert!” and “Asinamali,” challenged the South African government’s racial policies.

From a Nobel Peace Prize winner, to a mayor hunted by the Russians, to a poet whose muses are cats, our profiles featured people shaping the world around them, often under the radar.

After the tanker overturned in an accident, people gathered around the vehicle trying to scoop up fuel before it caught fire and exploded.

The military junta in Burkina Faso, a West African nation struggling to defeat extremist groups, has been forcibly conscripting critics, say human rights organizations.

The election in Africa’s second-largest nation, which cost over a billion dollars, is being closely followed across the world.

People by the thousands risk crocodile attacks, robbery, drowning and arrest to cross the Limpopo River from Zimbabwe to South Africa, part of a booming migrant economy.

Against the odds, facing the encroaching Sahara, he built a forest in Burkina Faso, becoming “a national hero” and winning acclaim abroad for his innovations.

Maalim Ayman, a senior leader of the extremist group al-Shabab, was believed responsible for attacks in Kenya on a university town that killed 148 people, and on a U.S. military base that killed three Americans.

The capture by paramilitary forces of Wad Madani, a strategic city in the country’s agricultural region, marks a watershed in the civil war that has upended life in the northeast African nation.

The presidential race in the Democratic Republic of Congo will be closely watched internationally. Congo is rich in the rare minerals needed to make electric cars and solar panels.

Only a fraction of the presumed cases in five countries have led to positive tests for anthrax. Some scientists say other causes cannot yet be ruled out.

Passed in May, the Anti-Homosexuality Act is harming businesses that rely on foreign travelers and trade.

Six million have died, and more than six million are displaced after decades of fighting and the ensuing humanitarian crisis in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo, drawing in neighbors, mercenaries and militias. An upcoming election is inflaming tempers.

The vessel set off with 86 people on board, the International Organization for Migration in Libya said, and women and children were among those who died in the shipwreck.

Clashes on the outskirts of Wad Madani threaten a city that is the center of aid operations and home to tens of thousands of people displaced in an eight-month war.

Mozambique’s most influential contemporary choreographer uses bodies in motion to artfully — and clearly — trace the complex recent history of his country.

Plans are afoot for Ajabu, which will draw bartenders from around the world to focus on Africa’s contributions.