NewsTracker Answers for week of Mar. 20, 2017

Q: At least 42 people, including women and children, were killed when a boat carrying Somali refugees off the coast of Yemen was fired at from a helicopter. Where is Somalia?

Circle the area on this map


Q: Yemen is north of Somalia on the . . .

A. Arabian Peninsula

B. Arabian Sea

C. Red Sea

D. All of the above


D. The refugee vessel was hit near the Bab al-Mandeb strait which separates Yemen and the Arabian Peninsula from Africa and links the Red Sea to the Arabian Sea. Somalia is on the tip of the Horn of Africa, a peninsula that extends into the Arabian Sea. Bab al-Mandeb means “Gate of Tears” in Arabic.


Q: Survivors said their boat was fired at by an Apache helicopter gunship and a military vessel. What nation on the Arabian Peninsula has been supplied with Apache helicopters by the United States?

A. Iran

B. Iraq

C. Saudi Arabia

D. Syria


C. Saudi Arabia, which is leading a U.S.-backed coalition in the war in Yemen, has U.S.-built Apache helicopter gunships. The coalition, which in general controls Yemen's airspace, has not commented on the incident.


Q: UN officials said the refugees were trying to cross the Red Sea from Yemen to reach what country on Egypt’s southern border?

A. Libya

B. Sudan

C. Zaire

D. Zambia


B. The Somalis and some Yemenis on the boat were headed to the Sudan, as part of a mass migration north that has seen a flood of refugees from Africa and the Mideast heading toward Europe. Despite ongoing warfare, desperate migrants from Africa continue to travel to or through Yemen.


Q: The UN says 20 million people are facing starvation in Somalia, Yemen, South Sudan and Nigeria. What do these nations have in common?

A. Armed conflict

B. Blighted crops

C. Communist rulers

D. All of the above


A. Somalia has been torn by years of civil war and an earlier famine in 2011. Yemen is embroiled in an intense battle between Sunni and Shia Muslims as well as extremist groups. South Sudan is caught in a violent power struggle between the young country's two leaders. Three states in northeastern Nigeria face famine because of violence and instability stoked by Boko Haram terrorists.