ADF

REUTERS Deep in the bowels of the giant Inga hydroelectric dam that straddles the mighty Congo River stands a fading map named “The motorways of electric power from Inga.” From a dot in the western Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), lines extend across the African continent. They run south through Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa, and north to Sudan and Libya, reaching as far as Morocco. For decades, governments dreamed of harnessing the Congo River’s enormous energy at the Inga rapids with an expansion of the dam that is large enough to power half of Africa. Years of conflict…

A recently translated letter written 1,800 years ago shows that a Soldier’s life then was much like a Soldier’s life now. The Egyptian Soldier, Aurelius Polion, wrote the letter while serving as a volunteer in the Roman Legion, in the Pannonia Inferior province in eastern Europe. He was probably posted in what is now western Hungary. Polion wrote the letter to his mother, his sister and his brother. In it, he frets that they are not keeping in touch with him. “I am worried about you because although you received letters from me often, you never wrote back to me…

CLUES The walls that surround this city were built between the 13th and 16th centuries. It is said to be the fourth-holiest city of Islam. It has 82 mosques and 102 shrines. Today, 368 narrow alleys provide access to townhouses packed inside the city walls. In a nighttime ritual, men feed hyenas outside the city’s walls. ANSWER: Harar Jugol, a fortified historic town in Ethiopia

U.S. Africa Command Staff Not all security threats involve weapons. From droughts to earthquakes to floods, disasters across the globe often are deadlier and less predictable than warfare. Africa is no exception. From 1980 to 2008, there were 77 events categorized as disasters affecting nearly 600,000 people each year and causing more than $100 million in annual economic damage to the continent. When disaster strikes, security forces are usually the first to respond. They have planes to deliver aid, helicopters to rescue those who are stranded, medical personnel to provide emergency aid, and engineers to repair roads and bridges. They…

Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma is the fourth president of Sierra Leone. This is an edited and condensed version of an address he gave on May 8, 2013, at an event celebrating the launch of the National Disaster Response Trust Fund at the Miatta Conference Centre in Freetown, Sierra Leone. We live in a global village, and we are part and parcel of the benefits and challenges inherent in our membership of the global community. A major global challenge today is managing disasters, which are becoming increasingly common. Actions in one part of the globe may cause disasters in another region,…

VOICE OF AMERICA With Kenya’s proximity to the Great Rift, once a hotbed of volcanic activity, the country is the biggest producer of geothermal energy on the continent. Thirteen percent of the national grid is powered by this renewable energy, but untapped geothermal fields have the potential to meet all of Kenya’s power needs, and then some. Near the town of Naivasha, Isaac Kirimi, a drilling superintendent with KenGen, Kenya’s leading power company, walks up a steaming hillside. “This is like a live volcano,” he said. “You can easily convince someone you’re in hell.” More than 30 years after KenGen…

VOICE OF AMERICA Cameroon has been organizing collective marriages to formally unite couples, including some who have been together for 50 years without legal documentation. The change will protect the rights and property of women when their husbands die. Ninety percent of Cameroonians do not have legal marriage contracts. When a man dies, family members sometimes seize the couple’s joint property because the woman has no legal document to back her. Among those who got marriage certificates from Yaoundé City Council was Theordore Mehamere, 85. He still vividly remembers how he met his now 77-year-old wife, Mino Colette. “I was…

Nelson Mandela: July 18, 1918 — December 5, 2013 “Although it has come at the advanced age of 95, Madiba’s death will create a huge vacuum that will be difficult to fill in our continent. He will be sorely missed by all who cherish love, peace and freedom the world over.” — Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan “Like a most precious diamond honed deep beneath the surface of the earth, the Madiba who emerged from prison in January 1990 was virtually flawless. … Instead of calling for his pound of flesh, he proclaimed the message of forgiveness and reconciliation, inspiring others…

Understanding the Cycles of Emergency Management Can Lessen the Impact of Disasters ADF STAFF Malawi’s hunger season lasts from August through March, and it has lengthened in recent years. Deforestation and climate change have disrupted rain cycles. This stresses the nation’s Southern Region, where poverty is concentrated. But about 200,000 people in eight districts have adapted their livelihoods and changed agricultural practices to heighten resilience against extended dry spells. With help from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Malawians are learning conservation techniques to get the most from their land. They plant trees to hold water in the soil.…

Mobile phones and websites offer affordable options to keep information flowing before and after disaster ADF STAFF Catastrophe struck Kenya in late 2007 and early 2008. But the disaster wasn’t a flood, famine or earthquake. Protests in the wake of a closely contested presidential election quickly degenerated into widespread violence that resulted in 1,200 deaths, more than 300,000 displaced people, and 42,000 houses and businesses looted or destroyed. In response to the crisis, a new technological tool was born. It shows that high-tech methods of preparing for and responding to disasters do not need to be complex or expensive. The…