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Wars devastate African nations, wipe out aid gains

— PHOTO: AP

RULE OF THE GUN: Liberian soldiers patrol some 35 km from the capital Monrovia, in this September 9, 2004 file photo.

Conflicts in Africa since the end of the cold war have cost the continent £150-billion, equivalent to all the foreign aid it has received over the same period, according to a report released by Oxfam on Thursday.

The study, Africa’s Missing Billions, says that almost half of the countries on the continent have been involved in some form of conflict since 1990 at a substantial cost to lives and development.

The report compares African countries afflicted by conflict with those at peace and says nations at war have, on average, 50 per cent more infant deaths, 15 per cent more undernourished people and life expectancy reduced by five years. Indirect deaths are 14 times higher than deaths in combat.

The report has been released ahead of a U.N. conference on a proposed arms trade treaty as part of a campaign by Oxfam and other NGOs for a ban on weapons sales and transfers where they are likely to be used to commit serious human rights violations. About 95 per cent of Kalashnikov rifles in Africa — the most common weapon there — come from outside the continent.

The research by Oxfam, Saferworld and the International Action Network on Small Arms, a London-based international network of NGOs working to curb weapons proliferation, estimates that conflict shrinks economies by 15 per cent on average.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo, for instance, has suffered more than a decade of foreign invasion and civil war that, besides causing the deaths of about four million people, has cost it £9bn, or 29 per cent of its gross domestic product. Eritrea, Burundi and Rwanda are among the other worst hit countries.

The report says that besides destruction of infrastructure, war creates inflation, debt and high unemployment. — © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2007

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