Horn of Africa

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Context

• The ongoing heavy rainfall and flash floods in Kenya and parts of the Horn of Africa have led to significant damage to properties and loss of lives, according to officials.

Horn of Africa: Fast Facts

About

• The Horn of Africa (HoA), also known as the Somali Peninsula,is a large peninsula and geopolitical region in East Africa.

Location

• Located on the easternmost part of the African mainland, it is the fourth largest peninsula in the world.

Composition

• It is composed of Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia and Djibouti; broader definitions also include parts or all of Kenya, Sudan, South Sudan, and Uganda.

GHR

• The term Greater Horn Region (GHR) can additionally include Burundi, Rwanda, and Tanzania.

Maritime Border

• It lies along the southern boundary of the Red Sea and extends hundreds of kilometres into the Guardafui Channel, Gulf of Aden, and Indian Ocean and shares a maritime border with the Arabian Peninsula of Western Asia.

Latitudinal Position

• The Horn of Africa is almost equidistant from the equator and the Tropic of Cancer.

Tectonic Plates

• It consists chiefly of mountains uplifted through the formation of the Great Rift Valley, a fissure in the Earth's crust extending from Turkey to Mozambique and marking the separation of the African and Arabian tectonic plates.

Ecology

• About 220 mammals are found in the Horn of Africa. Among threatened species of the region, there are several antelopes such as the beira, the dibatag, the silver dikdik and the Speke's gazelle. Other remarkable species include the Somali wild ass, the desert warthog, the hamadryas baboon, the Somali pygmy gerbil, the ammodile, and the Speke's pectinator.
• Some important bird species of the Horn are the black boubou, the golden-winged grosbeak, the Warsangli linnet, and the Djibouti spurfowl.

https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/world/drought-to-deluge-horn-of-africa-experiencing-floods-after-six-seasons-of-failed-rains-89038