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South Korea
Fire Forces Mass Evacuation
A fire broke out in the Guryong Village slum in the South Korean capital, Seoul, in the early hours on Friday morning. Around 500 residents were evacuated from the area as more than 900 people, including almost 200 firefighters, were mobilized to the site. 60 houses were destroyed by the fire, with many residents displaced and temporarily being housed in nearby hotels. Guryong Village is an unofficial neighborhood that formed in the 1980s on the edge of the affluent Gangnam district. The exact cause of the fire is unknown, however, since 2009, the village has suffered 16 large fires.
This map depicts Guryong Village, on the edge of Seoul’s affluent Gangnam district, where a massive fire broke out early Friday morning. Click on the map to learn more.
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Graphic Source: Newsis
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Burkina Faso
Dozens of Women Abducted
As many as 60 women, girls, and infants were abducted by suspected militants near the town of Arbinda, in northern Burkina Faso, last week. The women were foraging for wild fruits and leaves when the attack began. Some managed to escape the immediate attack to raise the alarm for others, and a few women who were able to escape at a later time reported being forced to walk at gunpoint for a day, and pretended to be shepherds to cover their abductors’ activity. Burkina Faso sits in Africa’s broader Sahel region, along the southern edge of the Sahara, where militants linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State have been mounting an insurgency affecting a number of countries in the region, including Burkina Faso’s immediate neighbors, Mali and Niger. The militants have been using abductions as a way to terrorize civilians into compliance.
This map depicts the town of Arbinda, in Burkina Faso, where suspected jihadists kidnapped at least 60 women, girls, and infants last week. Click on the map to learn more.
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Columbia
Sailor Rescued at Sea
The Colombian navy rescued Elvis Francois, a 47-year-old worker from the island of Dominica, who survived 24 days adrift in the Caribbean Sea on a sailboat. Francois’ ordeal began in late December when currents swept the sailboat he was repairing out to sea while off the coast of St. Martin in the Netherlands Antilles, where he lives. Having lost his mobile network signal, Francois could not contact anyone, and was forced to wait. He survived the long journey by eating ketchup, garlic powder, and seasoning cubes. Around 120 nautical miles northwest of La Guajira peninsula, Francois was spotted by a plane passing overhead after he signaled it using the reflection of a mirror, and was taken to the port city of Cartagena, Colombia, by a passing cargo ship. The key to his rescue was the word “help” scrawled in English on the boat’s hull. Despite losing some weight, Francois was found safe and in good health on Monday, January 16, 2023.
This map depicts where Elvis Francois was swept out to sea in the Caribbean and his rescue point, 120 miles away. Click on the map to learn more.
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Q: What three island groups make up the corners of the Polynesian Triangle?
A: Hawaii, New Zealand, Easter Island
Polynesia is a sub-region in Oceania made up of thousands of islands in the southern and central Pacific Ocean, The islands that make up Polynesia are spread across an area of around 800,000 square miles (~2,000,000 sq km), forming a triangular shaped region in the Pacific. While Polynesia is mostly described as the islands within the triangle. there are some islands located outside the triangle that are inhabited by Polynesian people, such as in neighboring Micronesia and Melanesia. The three island groups that make up the Polynesian Triangle are: Hawaii at its northernmost point, New Zealand in the southwest corner, and Easter Island at its southeasternmost corner. Within the triangle includes the major island groups of Samoa, the Cook Islands, Tonga, Tokelau, Tuvalu, Wallis and Futuna, Niue, and French Polynesia.
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Q: Spanning 205 sq miles (609 sq km), where can you find the only reserve in Bhutan with no human inhabitants?
Photo Source: WWF
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