Aswan Dam droughts in 1972–73 and 1983–87 that devastated East and West Africa. The High Dam allowed Egypt to reclaim about 2.0 million feddan (840,000 hectares) in the Nile Delta and along the Nile Valley, increasing the country's irrigated area by a third. The increase was brought about both by irrigating what used to be desert and by bringing under cultivation of 385,000 ha that were previously used as flood retention basins. About half a million families were settled on these new lands. In particular the area under rice and sugar cane cultivation increased. In addition, about 1 million feddan (420,000 hectares),
Aswan Harmud Aswan Harmud Aswan Jibril Harmud is a Somaliland lawyer, and the first female Prosecutor in Somaliland. In 2010, Harmud became the first female prosecutor in Somaliland. This was made possible with the financial assistance of help of the United Nations Development Programme's legal scholarship and internship programme, where at least half the awards are given to women, and with which she was able to finish law school and an internship in the Somaliland Prosecutor's Office. Funding was provided by the European Union. In 2014, Harmud was featured in the "Somali Voices" multimedia project created by the United Nations in Somalia.