Where in the world?

Question

(This is not a part of the puzzle. I am posting this here for two reasons: first, I've already spent ~8 hours trying to solve this. Second, I find it quite interesting and want to share.)

The puzzle from https://www.janestreet.com/puzzles/current-puzzle/ says:

The answer to this puzzle is a country you’ll find in the news.

Following with a table:

I am not looking for the final answer yet, though any particular help how to proceed after the following hint is super highly appreciated.

Each line is a country name + 1 extra letter, S + Malawi, E + Bangladesh, A + Samoa, R + Ireland, C + El Salvador, and so on (not that hard). So the message is: Search 4 direction

Hope you like it!

(All credits to Jane Street).

Answer 1

After the hint that you found it mentions the need of a direction. Logically this will be North, South, East or West (N,S,E or W). Notice how all the highlighted letters are Es.

Only view this part if you want the final answer:

The Es refer to East so from all of them start by drawing a line East (To the right). From there you keep going until you reach another compass point and draw in the direction of the compass point and you spell letters. For example on the first ‘E’ you draw a line to the right and immediately meet a N this means you now draw a line North (Upwards). Repeat this until a letter is formed.

This gives the following image.

Meaning the answer is Togo