African Lightning Incident Database (ALID): Lightning Casualty Reports

Overview: The African Lightning Incident Database (ALID) is a comprehensive collection of lightning casualty incident reports from across the African continent, compiled and maintained by the African Centres for Lightning and Electromagnetics Network (ACLENet). This database represents the most extensive publicly available record of lightning-related fatalities and injuries in Africa as far as we are aware of. Please find more info of the database and ACLENet at https://aclenet.org/. Contents:This dataset contains ~1,290 detailed incident reports from 44 African countries spanning 2018-2023, documenting 3,047 fatalities and 3,703 injuries. Some reports include: Date and location of incident Number of fatalities and injuries Incident circumstances and location type (indoor/outdoor, school, etc.) Age and gender information where available Original news source and URL Brief incident description Data Collection Methodology: Reports were collected through: Systematic hourly Google searches in English (since 2018) Periodic Google searches in French (since November 2018) and Portuguese, translated by volunteer linguists Citizen reporter networks across Africa who monitor and translate local news sources in local languages (e.g., Kinyarwanda, Swahili, etc.) from radio broadcasts, regional newspapers, and community reports File Organization:Reports are stored as individual Word documents, organized by country. Many reports contain original news text in English, French, Portuguese, and local African languages. Limitations:This database represents media-reported casualties and is subject to significant underreporting, particularly for: Single-fatality events in rural areas Non-fatal injuries Regions with limited media coverage Cases involving cultural stigma The database should be considered a minimum estimate of actual lightning casualties across Africa. Related Publications: This database is described and analyzed in:TBD (paper in review) Preliminary results can be found at: Zhang, D., Cooper, MA., Holle, R. The African Lightning Injury Reports Database. In ICLP 2024; 37th International Conference on Lightning Protection (pp. 1111-1116). VDE. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/10832574. For broader context on lightning safety in Africa, see:Zhang, D., et al., Empowering Africa: Advancing Lightning Safety and Research Initiatives. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. 2026. https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-24-0310.1. How to Cite:TBD (paper in review) Contact:For questions, data interpretation assistance, or collaboration inquiries, contact ACLENet at https://aclenet.org/contact-us/contact.html. Acknowledgments:This database was compiled through the volunteer efforts of ACLENet members, citizen reporters, and translators across Africa and the rest of the world. We gratefully acknowledge their contributions to documenting lightning hazards and supporting lightning safety research and interventions across the continent.