NewsTracker Answers for week of Nov. 08, 2021

Q: An oil tanker exploded last week in Sierra Leone killing at least 98 people and severely injuring more than 100 others after large crowds gathered to collect fuel leaking after a traffic accident. Where is the small nation of Sierra Leone on the southwest coast of West Africa?

Circle the area on this map

Q: “Bike riders, taxi drivers and people around the neighborhood rushed to the scene to collect the leaking fuel, and in the process, the tanker exploded,” said the nation’s vice-president. The explosion occurred in a suburb of Sierra Leone’s capital ...

A. Bissau

B. Conakry

C. Freetown

D. Monrovia

C. Freetown, the capital and largest city of Sierra Leone, was established by a British abolitionist in 1792 as a settlement for freed African American, West Indian, liberated African slaves. Monrovia is the capital of Liberia, Sierra Leone’s southeastern neighbor. It was named after U.S. President James Monroe, part of a group which created Liberia as a colony for freed African American slaves.

Q: Sierra Leone is one of the poorest countries in the world, with more than half of its nearly 7 million people living in poverty. Most of the country’s workers are employed in what occupation?

A. Cocoa farming

B. Diamond mining

C. Lumber harvesting

D. Subsistence farming

D. Half of Sierra Leone’s labor force grow food crops to meet the needs of themselves and their families on small farms. Overall, agriculture employs 61.1% of the nation’s workers, compared with 5.5% employed by industry and 33.4% by services. Cocoa beans, diamonds and lumber are major exports of Sierra Leone.

Q: Deadly explosions involving poor Africans trying to collect fuel from tankers or fuel pipelines have claimed thousands of lives. Some of the worst explosions occurred in the continent’s most populous country. Which is the most populous nation in Africa?

A. Egypt

B. Nigeria

C. South Africa

D. Tanzania

B. Nigeria has a population of 211 million people, and it is a major oil producer. While Nigeria is the world’s eighth-largest oil exporter, 40% of its people still live in poverty. More than a thousand Nigerians have died in explosions tied to siphoning fuel from pipelines. Hundreds more have died while collecting fuel from leaking tankers in Tanzania, Kenya, Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Q: Burundi in Africa is the world’s poorest nation, while Europe’s Liechtenstein is the richest, according to the CIA World Factbook. How much higher is the gross domestic product (GDP) per person in Liechtenstein than Burundi?

A. Nearly 200 times higher

B. About 100 times higher

C. Less than 50 times higher

A. Liechtenstein’s GDP per person is $139,100 a year compared with just $700 in Burundi. The majority of people in sub-Saharan Africa live on less than $5.50 a day, and millions of them survive on less than $1.90 a day.