Conflicts in Africa
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Africa has become an attractive and profitable dumping ground for nations and arm manufacturers eager to get rid of weapon stocks made superfluous by the end of the Cold War or by technological developments.
— Center for Defense Information weekly update, November 4, 1999.
Conflicts in Africa—Introduction
There have been over 9.5 million refugees and hundreds and thousands of people have been slaughtered in Africa from a number of conflicts and civil wars. 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. This article explores why Africa has been largely ignored and what some of the root causes of the problems are. Last updated Sunday, February 27, 2005.
Read article: Conflicts in Africa—Introduction
A Comparison With Kosovo
The international media, NATO leaders and others were very vocal about the plight of the ethnic Albanians in Kosovo and insisted on a new humanitarian based model of military intervention. Because the western mainstream media had so much rhetoric about this new humanitarian nature of NATO, it is worth making some comparisons here to see if and how that has been applied to Africa. Last updated Monday, August 20, 2001.
Read article: A Comparison With Kosovo
The Democratic Republic of Congo
The conflict in the DRC (formerly known as Zaire) has involved seven nations. There have been a number of complex reasons, including conflicts over basic resources such as water, access and control over rich minerals and other resources and various political agendas. This has been fueled and supported by various national and international corporations and other regimes which have an interest in the outcome of the conflict. Last updated Thursday, March 27, 2008.
Read article: The Democratic Republic of Congo
Nigeria and Oil
The Niger Delta in Nigeria has been the attention of environmentalists, human rights activists and fair trade advocates around the world. The trial and hanging of environmentalist Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other members of the Ogoni ethnic minority made world-wide attention. So too did the non-violent protests of the Ogoni people. The activities of large oil corporations such as Mobil, Chevron, Shell, Elf, Agip etc have raised many concerns and criticisms. Oil, which could potentially have allowed Nigeria to be one of the wealthiest countries in Africa has instead led it to become one of the poorest. Last updated Saturday, July 03, 2004.
Read article: Nigeria and Oil
Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone has seen serious and grotesque human rights violations since 1991 when the civil war erupted. According to Human Rights Watch, over 50,000 people have been killed to date, with over one million people having been displaced. There have been numerous factors contributing to problems such as the the diamond connection, the gross abuses committed by both rebel and government forces, and the problems of the current peace treaty. Last updated Monday, July 23, 2001.
Read article: Sierra Leone
Conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea
30 years of war and conflict as Eritrea attempted to gain independence, finally resulted in an April 1993 internationally monitored referendum, where 98.5% of the registered voters voted. 99.8% of the votes were for independence, although the borders were not defined clearly. While the two nations seemed to get on fairly well, relations deteriorated into war a couple of years after Eritrea introduced its own currency in 1997. War again resulted over what seemed to be a minor border dispute in May 1998. Last updated Wednesday, December 20, 2000.
Read article: Conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea
Rwanda
It seems that the cause of the Rwanda genocide has typically been explained in simplified terms, such as ancient tribal hatreds, omitting many of the deeper and also modern causes, such as international economic policies, power politics and corruption of the elite, etc. which are also common contributing causes of problems elsewhere in the world today. Find out more about some of the deeper causes of genocide in Rwanda. Last updated Wednesday, October 25, 2006.
Read article: Rwanda
AIDS in Africa
One conflict in Africa that has taken a long time to get appropriate media attention, with regards to its severity, is that of the conflict of ordinary African people with HIV and AIDS. It is said to be killing more people than the current conflicts. Last updated Sunday, February 17, 2008.
Read article: AIDS in Africa
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Anup Shah, Conflicts in Africa, GlobalIssues.org, Last updated: Thursday, March 27, 2008
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