By WND. Alarming reports are coming out of Africa that a 50-foot-deep crack that has developed in the earth across many miles actually could end up – eventually – splitting the continent into two parts.

The crack has appeared along Kenya’s Great Rift Valley, and runs from Somalia, in the northeast part of the continent, hundreds of miles down to South Africa, they say.

CBS explained it opened “suddenly” and “many scientists believe it could end up breaking Africa’s continent apart . . .

A massive crack that is up to 50-feet suddenly opened up in the ground in Africa. The crack stretches along Kenya’s Great Rift Valley and many scientists believe it could end up breaking Africa’s continent apart https://t.co/wChPaunVo9 pic.twitter.com/7VUQTQeAeX

— CBS News (@CBSNews) April 4, 2018

CBS quoted Smithsonian geologist Ben Andrews with the comment, “We’re seeing a crack that in all likelihood formed over many thousands of years or hundreds of thousands of years.”

Denying the obvious concern that those in that region have, commenters followed the CBS report with a variety of opinions, including “This is horrible. We should restrict gun sales in the U.S.” and “Well, this is alarming. Winged de
mons coming out of there?” (Read more from “Is One of the Big Continents Going to Split in Two?” HERE)

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Breaking up Is Hard to Do: Africa Could Eventually Split Into Two Continents

By USA Today. It’ll take tens of millions of years, but Africa may eventually split into two parts.

While geologists have known about this possibility for a while, it became news recently when a large crack, stretching several miles in length, made a sudden appearance in southwestern Kenya following heavy rain.

The tear, which continues to grow, collapsed part of a highway and “was accompanied by seismic activity in the area,” said Lucia Perez Diaz, a postdoctoral researcher on tectonics at Royal Holloway, a university in London.

The crack is located in a region known as the East African Rift Valley. It measures more than 50 feet in depth and 65 feet across, according to National Geographic. A rift valley refers to a lowland region where tectonic plates rift, or move apart.

A crack that opened up in Kenya’s Rift Valley, damaging a section of the Narok-Nairobi highway, is still growing… pic.twitter.com/T5YocDauYj

— BBC (@BBC) March 26, 2018

(Read more from “Breaking up Is Hard to Do: Africa Could Eventually Split Into Two Continents” HERE)

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Barack Obama went to the United Nations Security Council to coordinate military intervention against Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi’s regime, claiming the objective was to save the lives of peaceful, pro-democracy protesters, describes a new report in Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.

Foreign Affairs warned, however, that far from being the new foundation for democracy, Obama’s campaign “was an abject failure, judged even by its own standards.

Libya, the report said, “has devolved into a failed state” with “violent deaths.”

Newsweek asked whether the “role the Obama administration played in the North African country’s instability” could be blamed for the newly developing slave trade there . . .

The CRS, quoting a statement from U.S. Africa Command, explained the instability in Libya following Obama’s intervention “may be the most significant, near-term threat to U.S. and allies’ interests” in Africa. (Read more from “Obama Policy Helped Create the Top African Threat” HERE)

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Researchers from Mansoura University in Egypt have recently discovered a new dinosaur species they say represents an advancement in our understanding of prehistoric land animals on the African and European continents.

As Fox News reports, the Mansoura University Vertebrate Paleontology program led the Egyptian expedition in the Sahara desert during which fossils belonging to the new species, subsequently named Mansourasaurus shahinae. The remains are believed to be about 80 million years old.

The species is described as a long-necked herbivore with bony plates embedded in its skin. It was about the size of a school bus, weighing more than 5 tons and stretching 33 feet long, according to Reuters.

Along with a detailed description of the remains found, a report published by Nature Ecology and Evolution noted that the discovery “provides an opportunity to test hypotheses of biotic connections between northern Africa and southern Europe during the (post-Cenomanian Cretaceous).”

Near-perfect fossils of Egyptian dinosaur discovered in the Sahara deserthttps://t.co/MAWGPZWUYc#NatureME #Egypt pic.twitter.com/1IXu4sDPsi

— Nature Middle East (@NatureMEast) January 29, 2018

That period, roughly 94 million to 66 million years ago, has provided few fossilized remains on the continent, according to the journal.

“Here we present a new titanosaurian sauropod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous (Campanian) of Egypt that is represented by the most complete terrestrial vertebrate skeleton yet discovered from the PCC of the African mainland,” the researchers wrote.

According to an author who contributed to the study, scientists might be closer to addressing a number of unanswered questions in light of research on this new species.

“Mansourasaurus shahinae is a key new dinosaur species, and a critical discovery for Egyptian and African paleontology,” Dr. Eric Gorscak said.

He went on to say that Africa is still in many ways a “giant question mark in terms of land-dwelling animals” during the period preceding the extinction of the dinosaurs.

“Mansourasaurus helps us address longstanding questions about Africa’s fossil record and paleobiology — what animals were living there, and to what other species were these animals most closely related?” said Gorscak, a postdoctoral research scientist at the Field Museum.

He noted that at least one question was answered with the discovery itself.

“Africa’s last dinosaurs weren’t completely isolated, contrary to what some have proposed in the past,” Gorscak said. “There were still connections to Europe.”

There has long been disagreement among scientists regarding how continental drift impacted the connection between Africa and Europe during this period.

Dr. Matthew Lemanna, a paleontologist at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History and another author of the study, was even more effusive in his celebration of the discovery.

“When I first saw pics of the fossils, my jaw hit the floor,” he said.

Lemanna called the fossil the “Holy Grail,” echoing the study’s emphasis on its potential to answer longstanding questions.

He said that “a well-preserved dinosaur from the end of the Age of Dinosaurs in Africa” is something “we paleontologists had been searching for for a long, long time.” (For more from the author of “‘Holy Grail’: Newly Discovered School Bus-Sized Dinosaur Species Found in Sahara Desert” please click HERE)

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Years of internal conflicts and poor governance are not the only problems facing the African countries of South Sudan, Nigeria, and Somalia.

The United Nations recently declared famine in parts of South Sudan and Nigeria. Judging by current conditions, it won’t be long before Somalia follows suit.

The number of people affected is staggering. In South Sudan, 100,000 people are on the verge of starvation with another 5 million at risk. That number of at-risk people totals 6.2 million in Somalia—half of its population—and 4.4 million in Nigeria.

Across all three countries, roughly 1.4 million children are at imminent risk of death. Those numbers are unlikely to decrease anytime soon and could even increase in the coming weeks.

This is not the first time these three nations have faced famine and starvation. The semi-arid climates in parts of their countries make them prone to drought.

But this current famine was brought on by more than below-average rainfall. Humanitarian aid organizations and the U.S. State Department have called the famine in South Sudan “man-made.”

It is not difficult to understand why. Weather conditions may cause drought, but poor governance and instability quickly turn a drought into a humanitarian crisis.

Take South Sudan as an example.

After 25 years of war, the country gained independence from Sudan in 2011. Only 18 months later, tensions within the government plunged the South Sudanese nation into a crippling civil war that cut off South Sudan’s trade routes with neighboring countries, prevented farmers from growing and harvesting food, and caused remaining food prices to skyrocket.

A famine was narrowly averted in 2014 thanks only to a massive international humanitarian effort. However, famine looms again. Various countries have pledged help for this latest hunger crisis, but this relief may never reach the people who need it most.

Despite the South Sudanese government promising “unimpeded access” for aid workers in the country, the South Sudanese security services and aligned forces frequently block the delivery of humanitarian relief.

The government has delayed agencies’ paperwork that would allow them to distribute aid. Soldiers have instituted military checkpoints around famine stricken areas and are preventing relief workers from crossing them.

The government is blocking aid for a number of likely reasons. It has for years stirred up anti-Western and anti-U.N. sentiment over the international community’s pressure on the government to halt its campaign of war crimes and ethnic killings. It may be blocking humanitarian aid in an attempt to retaliate.

The government is also likely blocking aid to rebel-controlled or influenced areas to punish those communities for what the government believes is their support for the rebels.

Poor governance and internal conflict have similarly contributed to the hunger crises in Somalia and Nigeria. Internal conflict has wreaked havoc in Somalia for nearly three decades, and the internationally-backed government has been mired in corruption and bickering.

Furthermore, the government has been unable to extend its authority to much of the country.

Nigeria’s government is relatively stable, but for years it has mismanaged the fight against the ISIS-aligned Boko Haram terrorist group that at one point controlled much of northwest Nigeria. Now, that same northwest region—torn by violence and terrorism—faces the worst of this famine crisis.

As the current humanitarian crisis grows, the international community will continue to offer emergency relief, and it should. But without better governance and stability in these countries, there is only so much these efforts will achieve. (For more from the author of “‘Man-Made’ Famine Leaves Millions Facing Starvation in Africa” please click HERE)

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