Gunmen from North Africa’s al-Qaeda branch killed 16 people at a beach resort Sunday in the terror group’s first attack in Ivory Coast. Analysts warn the attack indicates the rising global rivalry between al-Qaeda and the Islamic State.

Local authorities said six shooters targeted the beach and surrounding hotels in Grand-Bassam, a popular resort destination for tourists and Ivorians. The gunmen killed 14 civilians and two Ivorian special forces. Interior Minister Hamed Bakayoko said the victims came from Burkina Faso, Cameroon, France, and Germany.

South Sudan’s government forces are responsible for a majority of the brutal killings and attacks on civilians, according to separate reports by the United Nations and Amnesty International.

The UN report, released today, called on government officials to take responsibility for their crimes. South Sudan’s civil war began in 2013 after a failed coup by soldiers loyal to the dismissed vice president, Riek Machar. In an effort to end the conflict, Machar has been reinstated to his position, but the extrajudicial killings continue.

A U.S. federal court has sentenced a former missionary from Oklahoma to 40 years in prison for sexually abusing children at a Kenyan orphanage. His arrest and conviction—one case among several recent instances of overseas abuse—highlights the need for more vetting procedures in international volunteering, experts say.

Ugandan lawmakers have passed a bill that could limit the number of foreign adoptions in an attempt to close loopholes in a fractured system rife with abuse.

The Children’s Amendment 2015, approved on March 2, will offer legal guardianship only to Ugandan citizens and extend the adoption process duration to a year. The bill mandates background checks for foreigners and only allows inter-country adoption if a child lacks a legal guardian.

Tunisian forces battled gunmen in a deadly attack near the Libyan border today that left at least 45 people dead. The clash comes as experts raise concerns about the impact of extremism in Libya on Tunisia’s fragile democracy.

The gunmen attacked local security posts in the border town of Ben Gerdane. Tunisia’s ministries of interior and defense released a joint statement saying their security forces killed 28 terrorists and arrested six others. Ten Tunisian soldiers and seven civilians, including a 12-year-old girl, also died in the attack.

Gunmen killed 16 people, including four Indian nuns, in an attack on a retirement home in Yemen’s southern city of Aden earlier today.

Yemeni security officials said the gunmen handcuffed all the victims before shooting them in the head. Local authorities took the dead to a hospital run by Doctors Without Borders.

The retirement home housed about 80 residents and is run by Missionaries of Charity, the religious order established by Mother Theresa in 1950.

French forces in Mali killed a Spanish al-Qaeda commander earlier this week, striking a blow to the extremists terrorizing North Africa. But experts warn military victories alone will not be enough to defeat the ideologically driven group.

“The death of Abu al-Nur al-Andalusi happened during an attack by French forces on a meeting of al-Qaeda members in northern Mali,” Spanish intelligence firm AICS told Reuters.