It's the ultimate failed state - a land of war, banditry and piracy. And after Bin Laden's death, its civil war with Islamist extremists has gained even greater importance to the West. But what is it like to live in the anarchy of Somalia?

Professor Iain Stewart reveals how our iconic continents were created, and how their tumultuous past has shaped our life today.

An epic venture into capitalism at the beginning of the 21st century. Made over five years, this documentary is a comprehensive insider account of a modern-day gold rush as Dallas-based Kosmos Energy race ahead to develop the first commercial oil field in Ghana's history, in the deep waters of the Gulf of Guinea.

Series investigating the geological forces which shaped East Africa's Great Rift Valley and which make it one of the world's most wildlife-rich landscapes

Visible from space, Africa's Great Rift Valley runs three thousand miles from the Red Sea to the mouth of the Zambezi.

The Great Rift Valley channels a huge diversity of waterways - rivers, lakes, waterfalls, caustic springs and coral seas - spanning from Egypt to Mozambique. Some lake and ocean deeps harbour previously unseen life-forms, while caustic waters challenge life to the extreme.

The Great Rift Valley provides the stage for an epic battle between trees and grass - its course influenced by volcanic eruptions, landscape and rainfall. On its outcome rests the fate of Africa's great game herds.

The history, wildlife and exploration of the River Nile.

Since the dawn of history the miraculous annual floodwaters have risen to transform the desert into a fertile paradise where the great civilisation of Ancient Egypt grew, but their existence was on a knife-edge held hostage by the river and the Pharaoh maintained the balance by appeasing the gods to ensure the gifts of the river.

The annual flooding of the Nile brought the water and fertile volcanic soil that made the Ancient Egyptian civilisation possible, but impassable rapids made it impossible for them to discover the source of this bounty they attributed to the gods.

From the heart of Africa to the Mediterranean Sea runs the world’s longest river. Since the Egyptians first settled along its banks men have dreamt of discovering where the Nile was born, but for centuries the river kept its secrets close. The obsession grew and by the mid-19th century some were prepared to risk their lives to be the first to discover the source of the Nile.

Scott Mills travels to Uganda where the death penalty could soon be introduced for being gay. The gay Radio 1 DJ finds out what it's like to live in a society which persecutes people like him and meets those who are leading the hate campaign.

The astonishing story of Mike Campbell, a courageous Zimbabwean farmer who stood up against the illegal land grabs of the Mugabe regime.

The story of General Butt Naked, the despised Liberian warlord responsible for the death of 20,000 people, who reinvented himself as an evangelical preacher

More than anywhere, the Serengeti is synonymous with wilderness and has even come to represent Africa. But the story of the Serengeti is just as much about humans as it is about wildlife.

Unreported World secures unprecedented access to one of the main Arab militias accused of belonging to the infamous Janjaweed, who are blamed for the atrocities in Darfur.

In the jungles of North East Congo, the Unreported World team uncovers evidence that the Lord's Resistance Army - one of the world's most brutal rebel groups - has begun a new campaign of terror, and talks to survivors with stories of unimaginable horror.

Unreported World reveals how Liberia is facing a child rape crisis.Six years after the end of a brutal civil war in which rape was routinely used as a weapon, children still face the daily fear of being attacked, and the West African country's hospitals are overwhelmed with child victims, a quarter of them under four years old.

This Unreported World comes from Sierra Leone where, ten years after one of the most brutal conflicts in recent history, thousands have been left severely traumatised. Reporter Seyi Rhodes and director George Waldrum find that the population, which has witnessed rape, torture and public executions, is served by just one psychiatrist.

Escalating violence in South Sudan has claimed more lives in 2009 than the conflict in Darfur, but has been largely ignored by the western media. Reporter Ramita Navai and director Julie Noon uncover a disturbing new trend of women and children being directly targeted.

Unreported World travels to Malawi to reveal that children as young as three are being illegally employed to produce tobacco, much of it destined to be consumed by British smokers. Malawi's children suffer health problems from handling tobacco and some are trapped in bonded labour arrangements, leaving them unable to escape. Little seems to be being done to protect their health and wellbeing.

As the world's attention focuses on recent sectarian violence in Nigeria, Unreported World provides an exclusive report on the events leading up to the latest round of bloodletting.

Zimbabwe is supposedly enjoying political stability under the coalition government formed in 2008. However, Unreported World finds a country still gripped by terror and violence.

Unreported World goes undercover to investigate how the increased Chinese presence in East Africa has lead to a huge increase in elephant poaching, with potentially devastating effects on tourism and the local economy. The team also hears astonishing claims that when Chinese president Hu Jintao travelled to Tanzania for a state visit, his officials left with large quantities of illegal ivory.

Unreported World investigates Senegal's Islamic schools.Reporter Seyi Rhodes and director Simon Philips reveal how many young boys living in the religious schools are subjected to abuse, and forced by their guardians to beg on the streets for their survival. And they meet those trying to save the children from exploitation and abuse.

The Central African Republic is a country obsessed with black magic, where nearly half the prison population are convicted witches.

In the Sinai desert, thousands of African immigrants fleeing conscription, torture and conflict in East Africa risk being shot by border guards and held ransom by people smugglers as they try to get to Israel. The director Paul Kittel and his reporter arrive in the Sinai desert in north-east Egypt just over a month after the revolution that toppled the regime of Hosni Mubarak. Smuggling from Egypt to Israel has gone on for years, but now the smugglers are focused on people rather than goods.

Miracles, expensive cars, exorcisms and bodyguards: religion is big business in Nigeria. Reporter Seyi Rhodes and director Matt Haan travel to Lagos to reveal the extraordinary world of the millionaire preachers.

Unreported World exposes the plight of hundreds of children in Burundi locked up for years without trial in adult prisons, among some of the most dangerous criminals in the country. And they meet one man who has dedicated his life to freeing them; Pierre-Claver Mbonimpa is the only hope many of these children have.

Unreported World travels to eastern Congo to witness the remarkable work of one man who liberates the child soldiers who have been forced to fight in one of the world's longest-running conflicts.