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After the fall of the Soviet regime, there was one chance to mitigate the harms from these wars. A lack of military support from the superpowers would have reduced the intensity of the civil wars. However, the end of the Cold War meant that the superpowers no longer needed the massive weapons stockpiled throughout the world. And the most lucrative market for arms at this time was Africa given the numerous civil wars started during the Cold War era. Between 1989-1998, the U.S. supplied $46,444,000 of armaments to Chad, $ 32,073,000 to Sudan, and $ 15,369,000 to the DRC. The U.S. supported eight out of nine governments directly involved in the war in DRC. Similarly, the former Soviet republics continued to supply leftover small arms to insurgents in Sierra Leona, Angola, Sudan and Algeria. This net surplus of weapons into Africa reduced the cost of arming rebel groups. While this has reduced the incidence of civilian extortion by rebel groups for funding, it increased the intensity of the violence and harm to civilian life and resulted, consequently, in the mass displacement of African populations.
The superpowers involved in the Cold War used Africa to extend their ideological influence through proxy wars. Economic and military support extended the duration of internal conflicts in African states as seen from the example of Angola. After the Cold War, superpowers flooded African markets with inexpensive small armaments allowing rebel groups to arm themselves easily. These interventions increased the severity of armed conflict in Africa leading to displacement of civilians.
Changing attitudes
Years of armed conflict have ravaged Africa and resulted in large-scale loss of life. This has caused a fundamental change in the attitudes of governments towards the populace. There has been a continent-wide devaluation of the worth of human life in Africa. This is reflected in bad governance and subsequently, more displacement. The Sudanese government, for example, has used indiscriminate bombing and military campaigns against civilians to eliminate rebel groups. It has used “scorched earth” policies, carpet-bombing large tracts of land to depopulate the oil-rich areas. Similarly, the Nigerian government has forcibly displaced thousands of civilians from oil-rich areas to allow for extraction. The diamond rich province of Cabinda in Angola is under a brutal military rule to prevent any disturbance of diamond mining and oil extraction in the region. The governments of Burundi, DRC, and Uganda have all been implicated in the forced displacement of ethnic groups to reduce the incidence of ethnic conflicts in the country. States caught in protracted conflicts have lost regard for the human lives. In these cases foreign intervention is not directly responsible for displacement but is responsible for the attitudes that lead to displacement. It also suggests that those who consider foreign interventions such as economic aid or military assistance as simple solutions to remedy the mistakes made by colonial powers in the past are naïve in believing that the intricate cause and effect relationships of complex political processes can be reversed in one fell swoop.
Future outlook
The issue is being addressed today primarily by providing humanitarian aid and asylum for displaced individuals. But even this involves unique obstacles such as the difficulty in reaching internally displaced individuals in conflict areas as well as the economic consequences that host nations must face when they grant asylum to refugees. Nonetheless, the complexity of resolving the displacement issue and its enormous scale make it such an important one for the global community and a vital one for millions of displaced individuals in Africa.
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Saurabh Sunil Chitnis
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Comments
Migration: Comment Henry Ekwuruke | Mar 5th, 2007
The issue of migration in Africa cannot be understood without taking an economic view of the matter and also with a human face; human face in the sense that we are "one".
I appreciate your conclusion where you told us the importance of partnership for one important global community to raise to the challenges of curtaining this trend for good for all and working hard to make poverty history through partnership for migration development, because the coin is two sided.
Just a Thought, Jesture and Comment Eugenia Bivines | Mar 14th, 2007
If Africans were to unite as a nation many of the problems faced today would not exist.
Africa has all resources of its own and needs no one to run our country.
In todays day and age there are many well educated Africanians and some live here with the US.
In stead of being a nation divided by its own people. Africa needs to stop the division of its people and join together.
This posting comment is from a quote in this article.
"Africa still suffers heavily from the colonial legacy, despite attaining independence for many of its states, showing the complex and long-term effects of colonialism. The mistakes made by colonial powers decades ago still resonate strongly in the lives of the millions of displaced individuals who have been forced to flee from civil conflict in Africa."
If the Africanians that live her in the states take what they have learned and go back to Africa then educate others and put there education to use. The Mother Land Would Be Restore ie.... on its way to restoration.
This is something that I work on with in the US. Getting African involved in building up Africa.
Stand Up Africa and take back what is rightfully yours.
Africa is a BearySpecial Nation Divided
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