Major Highways Project in Uganda!

If you are not familiar with the area, then allow to fill you in a little. Do you remember all those floods we read about and saw on TV a few years back? Well, many of those people were trapped, because bridges that were built there did not take into consideration the levels of the flood waters. Even with the bridges, they could not pass to higher grounds.

Please remember, I am not sure if this is where the floods occurred. I am just using this as a frame of referrence and a theory. Why? I'm so glad you asked!

Currently, the surface of the road is two meters above the river bed, but during floods the water level rises to nearly four meters high. The new box culvert bridge will accommodate for the flood water levels.

To fix this issue, the Seabees of Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 40 will construct a box culvert bridge approximately 20 meters long and five meters wide. The project will consist of backfilling, compacting, reinforcing and re-grading the portion of the road near the culvert that is damaged. On the entrance and exit sides to the new box culvert bridge, the road will be reinforced for approximately five meters to ensure stability of the entire structure. The Seabees will also re-build the Walela Bridge so local villagers have another avenue to travel as well. [Continue reading.]

The Civil Affairs (CA), which is an arm of the CJTF-HOA (Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa), has taken this under their wing. Please read this artice to find out how far they have come and how far they have yet to go. Thank you.

Chad, North Korea and Refugees from W. Africa

There is rising violence in Chad, according to an aid agency-Oxfam. They are urging immediately international intervention to help the situation in Chad. Read more. If this is no longer available, try this one.

There is much uneasiness in the so-called deal made with North Korea. There are no set timetables, and many of the six-party talks have their own agendas. The deal started to unravel before the ink hit the paper. Read more. If this link is no longer available, try this one. For the details of the deal, read here.

"The 400 migrants stranded off the West African coast for 10 days as the governments of two countries argued over their fate continued their wait on land and in the air Tuesday." This was on the 13th of February, and I still don't know if they settled on a place for these refugees. Read more. If this link is no longer available, please try this one.