When I returned to Kenya earlier this year, after a multiparty coalition was supposed to piece Kenya back together, this is what the crisis looked like: communities dangerously split along ethnic lines and the government refusing to work with the I.C.C. to determine who was responsible for inciting the violence. The I.C.C., whose lead prosecutor was cheered by a crowd when he visited a Nairobi slum, said that it plans to soon release a list of suspects (likely including many government officials), much to the ire of people like William Ruto, an opposition-party minister who was recently suspended for corruption.

South Sudan’s imminent independence has been dissected by several media outlets, along with the country’s potential for conflict, as the Khartoum government attempts to maintain control over oil fields and other natural resources under the south’s domain. But the stakes are indeed high. If next month’s independence referendum does produce the world’s newest nation, many Sudanese won’t be happy, and, with little infrastructure, South Sudan will have to build a country from scratch. Ivory Coast’s disastrous presidential runoff has thrown the country into turmoil. After the opposition candidate Alassane Ouattara was named the winner this month, incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo wouldn’t accept the decision. A day later, the constitutional council overturned the poll results, naming Gbagbo the winner. Both men refuse to yield, as violent protests erupt, hundreds leave their homes, and the United Nations, United States, and other foreign governments exert pressure on Gbagbo to step down. Rwanda’s presidential election went off without a hitch, as expected, though in the lead-up to the race, Rwandans witnessed the suppression of independent press and opposition parties (including the murder of an opposition leader), most of which can be traced back to the government. Nevertheless, with American support, President Paul Kagame maintains tight control over the nation.

I am still wondering, though, about Iwawa, a remote Rwandan island featured in the Times earlier this year. Kagame has been shipping street children, beggars, petty criminals, and the mentally ill to Iwawa, supposedly for rehabilitation, but none of the imprisoned have been heard from for months, and reports of abuse float back to the capital.

The summer’s bombings in Uganda, in the capital city of Kampala, have been traced to the Somali militant group the Shabab, which is linked to Al Qaeda. The pair of bombings killed seventy-four people who were watching World Cup games, and they came as a shock to the relatively peaceful country. The Shabab said that the attacks were in retribution for Uganda’s troop presence in Somalia, where Uganda leads the weak African Union peacekeeping force and provides training grounds for the Somali transitional government’s soldiers (with active U.S. support). In defiant response, Uganda said it will increase its troops in Somalia.

Read more from The New Yorker’s 2010: The Year in Review.