Conflicts in Africa – Introduction

Conflicts in Africa IntroductionRecent years have seen many regions of Africa involved in war and internal or external conflict, from the seven or so countries directly involved in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to the Sierra Leone crisis and the war in Ethiopia/Eritrea and the various other civil wars.There have been over 9.5 million refugees and hundreds and thousands of people have been slaughtered. If this scale of destruction and fighting was in Europe, then people would be calling it World War III with the entire world rushing to report, provide aid, mediate and otherwise try to diffuse the situation.Yet here, the western mainstream media does practically nothing to raise this awareness (or, the owners of the mass media companies perhaps do not think it is important enough to report extensively about). Occasional coverage is provided, but not anywhere near the volume like we had seen during the build up and the ensuing crisis in Kosovo.More coverage about issues concerning Africa can be found on the internet than the traditional mainstream media outlets, but even then it is not as easy to find the information. (Since originally making this point in 1999, additional web sites from African organizations have emerged providing a lot of information, about news, cultures, and so on about all aspects of Africa. Even Western mainstream outlets are providing more information on African news, although these are often very brief and without the much needed perspectives and backgrounds from political, historical, socioeconomic angles etc. These perspectives are needed to help people in the western nations and elsewhere to really begin to understand the situations and issues in appropriate context.)There have recently been numerous civil wars and conflicts going in Africa, some of which are still going on, including Angola, which has seen an estimated 500,000 people killed since 1989 and an estimated 3 million refugees. It is also being torn apart due to resources such as diamonds and offshore oil, with various factions fighting for these prizes, supported by multinational corporations and other governments. Algeria Burundi The Democratic Republic of Congo Cte dIvoire (Ivory Coast) Eritrea/Ethiopia Liberia Nigeria Rwanda, where declassified documents show that the U.S., contrary to their claims, knew of the coming genocide, but chose not to do anything about it. Many critics have long said the U.S. knew about this, but now, their own declassified documents show it. In fact, as Radio Netherlands also commented on this: Declassified US documents show that evidence of an impending genocide was in general circulation well before the slaughter began. The hundreds of pages of material, released this week by a research group at George Washington University called the National Security Archive, indicate that US officials not only knew what was going on but also chose not to use the world genocide because that would have obliged them to intervene.The documents confirm what was already known, says Rwanda researcher Alison de Forge of Human Rights Watch, but the fact that it is from a US source and that it is in writing will seem more impressive to some Americans.- Rwanda Genocide: What The US Knew, Radio Netherlands, August 23, 2001 Sierra Leone Sudan Uganda Zimbabwe Some of these nations are also involved in the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the DRC is also involved in some of these civil wars.No less than 28 Sub-Saharan African states have been at war since 1980.When the European Colonialists came they had the Bible, we had the land. They said Lets close our eyes and pray. When we opened our eyes again, we had the Bible and they had the land. - Randall RobinsonAlthough, not the only reasons, some often overlooked root causes include: The artificial boundaries created by colonial rulers as they ruled and finally left Africa. The effect of this was to put many different ethnic people within a nation that did not reflect, or have the ability to accommodate or provide for, the cultural and ethnic diversity. The freedom from imperial powers is not a smooth transition. It also comes with the natural struggle to rebuild. (In the 1870s European nations were bickering over themselves about the spoils of Africa. In order to prevent further conflict between them, they convened at the Berlin Conference of 1885 to lay down the rules on how they would partition up Africa between themselves.) The poverty of Sub-Saharan Africa and the immense burden of debt. This, when combined with international trade and economic arrangements that do little to benefit the African people, further exacerbates the problem. IMF/World Bank policies like Structural Adjustment have aggressively opened up African nations with disastrous effects, including the requirements to cut back on health, education (and AIDS is a huge problem), public services and so on, while growing food and extracting resources for export primarily, etc. Limited rights to land The support of various regimes and dictatorships by countries such as the USA and former Soviet Union in their Cold War, with disregard to how it has affected the people of these countries. (The US, for example has delivered over $1.5 billion worth of weapons to Africa, according to a report from the World Policy Institute. Europe for example, was able to exploit Africas resources to help rebuild after World War II.) The proliferation of small arms in the region when the cold war ended, which has helped fuel many conflicts. Corporate interests and activities in Africa Easy access to natural resources to maintain and fuel rebellions (combined with corporate interests, this makes for a nasty combination) A lack of support for basic rights in the region, plus a lack of supporting institutions,