Africa:It took more than four years and the loss of 200,000 lives but the international community finally took steps in 2007 to end what the US has called genocide in Darfur.
On July 31st, the United Nations Security Council approved a resolution for a joint UN-African Union peacekeeping mission in the lawless Sudanese province, providing some belated hope to millions of defenceless villagers.
The delay was mainly due to the stonewalling tactics of the Sudanese government, which has been accused of supporting fanatical Janjaweed killing squads. But western governments have not helped matters by dragging their feet on providing logistical support, including supply aircraft and attack helicopters, to the mainly African force.
In a further setback to peace in Darfur, long-awaited talks between the government and opposition forces fizzled out in October when the major rebel groups decided to boycott negotiations.
While Sudan remains on a knife-edge, a new and potentially more dangerous conflict is developing in neighbouring Chad - a country to which many of the 2.5 million people displaced in the Darfur conflict have fled. It is here that Irish peacekeepers will play a prominent role in securing refugee camps and protecting civilians under an EU-sponsored mission next year.
Elsewhere, in eastern and central Africa, conflicts continue to bubble.
There was intense fighting this year in Somalia where Ethiopian and Somali transitional government forces locked horns with an Islamist insurgency. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, fresh gun battles flared up in the east of the country - a territory still scarred by the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
On the plus side, the 20-year conflict in northern Uganda edged closer to conclusion as the psychotic Lord's Resistance Army began to disintegrate.
In other lands once scarred by bitter conflict, peace has paved the way to prosperity. A World Bank report in November said at least nine African states had growth rates of 7 per cent - a level said to be required for sustained poverty reduction.
China's role in such development is set to come under increased scrutiny in 2008 as the new global superpower deepens its ties with governments from Angola to Zimbabwe.
Corruption will also remain high on the agenda, especially in Nigeria where President Umaru Yar'Adua attempts to clean up his country's image after tarnished elections in April.
In South Africa, the recent election of Jacob Zuma as president of the ruling African National Congress sets up the prospect of two centres of power with President Thabo Mbeki remaining in office until 2009, potentially as a lame luck leader.
Before that, all eyes will be on neighbouring Zimbabwe which is due to hold parliamentary and presidential elections in March - just a year after police brutally attacked opposition leaders on the streets of Harare.
African governments are becoming increasingly cognisant of the damage Mr Mugabe is inflicting, not only on his people but on the whole continent. How they respond to what is set to be a rigged poll in Zimbabwe may set the tone for African leadership in the years to come.