The recent earthquake in Myanmar has drawn fresh attention to global preparedness for natural disasters, including on the African continent.

African experts are concerned about seismic threats and limited local capacity to respond. For Gladys Karegi Kianji, a seismologist at the University of Nairobi, Kenya, who has studied African earthquakes for 15 years, this is far from a new worry.

"I don't hire an apartment in a tall building beyond the first floor in Nairobi,” Kianji said.

Earthquakes have struck the continent before. Thousands were killed in Morocco's 2023 disaster, while Ethiopia's 2005 quake resulted in the displacement of about 6,500 people.

Folarin Kolawole, a structural geologist at Columbia University, US, says assessing a region's earthquake risk involves looking at historic earthquakes in the region and identifying fault lines, which are fractures between rocks.

Africa, he says, lies........

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