ADF

South Africa, a Leader in Disaster Response, Works to Improve In January 2013, weeks of heavy rain caused the Limpopo River in Mozambique to swell and spill over its banks, flooding surrounding farmland and villages. About 185,000 people were forced to flee their homes as the floodwaters rose. Damaged transmission lines cut half of the nation’s power supply. And although a disaster like this could easily overwhelm the resources of a country like Mozambique, its people got a helping hand from their neighbor to the south. A team of about 100 from all branches of the South African National Defence…

Africa from 1980 to 2008  ADF STAFF Africa is home to a wide range of natural disasters. Floods come along with the rainy seasons in Mozambique, Madagascar and Ghana. Famines and droughts are common in East Africa, especially Somalia and Ethiopia. Earthquakes occasionally shake North African countries, and locust swarms hit many of the Sahel nations. Migration and displacement can set the stage for catastrophic disease outbreaks. HIV/AIDS is prevalent in Sub-Saharan Africa, and the “meningitis belt” stretches from the Red Sea to the Atlantic Ocean. African nations have dealt with outbreaks of measles, cholera, typhoid fever, polio, and the…

Kofi Portuphy Talks to ADF About His Nation’s Accomplishments and Challenges in Emergency Management Story by ADF STAFF, photo by SENIOR MASTER SGT. DAVID H. LIPP/NORTH DAKOTA AIR NATIONAL GUARD Kofi Portuphy is national coordinator of Ghana’s National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO). He spoke with ADF in September 2013 about disasters that affect his country, how NADMO is building capacity to respond to them, and the country’s new Emergency Operations Center. The following is an edited compilation of his remarks. On the Kinds of Disasters Most Common to Ghana The types of disasters include floods and fires. Then we have…

Kenya’s Military Embraces the Role of Disaster Responders BERENIKA STEFANSKA The Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) received global attention during the devastating terror attack at the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi that left more than 60 dead in September 2013. The crisis tested the military’s capacity to manage and control an extended security incident on its home soil like few other events have in the nation’s history. Yet, every year, the KDF battles calamities that are equally deadly — natural disasters. These disasters do not attract as much international attention but are a testament to the role the KDF plays in…

BBC NEWS AT BBC.CO.UK/NEWS Ethiopian running star Haile Gebrselassie said he is entering politics with the aim of winning a parliamentary seat in the 2015 election. The 40-year-old’s announcement in July 2013 came after long-standing rumors that his running career was drawing to a close. Haile, who once set a world record time in the marathon, is regarded as a national icon by most Ethiopians. He did not say under which party’s banner he will contest the election. Ethiopia’s Parliament is dominated by the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front. It has only one opposition member. “Nelson Mandela is my…

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE When Eritrean cyclist Natnael Berhane crossed the finish line of the Tour of Turkey in May 2013, he made history not only for his country but for his continent. Natnael, 22, who took first place after the winner was disqualified for doping, was the first person from Sub-Saharan Africa to win a race of that class. Several Eritreans in this cycling-mad Horn of Africa state are making their mark on the sport, showing another side of a nation that makes headlines more for brutal repression than world-class athletes. Eritrea offers an ideal training ground for serious cyclists, with…

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Nigeria’s Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, author of the best-seller Half of a Yellow Sun, said writing a novel about the civil war that devastated her home region helped people connect with a past that most no longer discuss. In October 2013, a month after the film based on the book premiered, Adichie, 36, reflected on the impact of the book about Nigeria’s 1967-1970 Biafran War, which left more than 1 million people dead after the writer’s home southeastern region tried to secede. “I have heard from many people who have read Half of a Yellow Sun and said that…

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE It is an extremely popular book form that originated in Japan, where it became a cultural phenomenon. Now manga comics are flourishing in Algeria as well. “The Algerian manga is our trademark,” said Salim Brahimi proudly. “It’s what we call the DZ manga.” Brahimi is the founder of Z-Link, Algeria’s first publisher of manga comics. Z-Link’s manga are 100 percent Algerian, from the drawings to the text. Published in French, colloquial Arabic and soon in north Africa’s Berber language, DZ manga has put a distinctly local stamp on a major Japanese product. The comics are flying off the…

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE The European Union announced plans to increase security efforts in the Gulf of Guinea, the West African maritime region that has become a global piracy hot spot. The new measures will not include sending warships to the region, a move that helped reduce pirate attacks off East Africa, said German Rear Adm. Jurgen Ehle, who heads a European Union (EU) military working group for West Africa. “The EU is developing a Gulf of Guinea strategy,” Ehle said, adding that European leaders would likely finish the document by the end of October. Speaking to a maritime security conference in…

BBC NEWS AT BBC.CO.UK/NEWS A prize-winning scientist at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) has used his winnings to promote particle physics in Africa. Professor Tejinder Virdee, who was born and raised in Kenya, was part of the team that played a key role in the discovery of the Higgs boson, a tiny element nicknamed the “God particle.” Virdee, a winner of the 2013 Fundamental Physics prize, used his money to bring science teachers from Africa to the CERN lab in Geneva, Switzerland. “I wanted to do something to promote science education in an international context, in ways that…