SOUTH AFRICA/LIBERIA: Ffifteen years of conflicts have cost Africa 284 billion US dollars says Oxfam

Record ID: 454641

  • Title: SOUTH AFRICA/LIBERIA: Ffifteen years of conflicts have cost Africa 284 billion US dollars says Oxfam
  • Date: 11th October 2007
  • Summary: (BN01) UNIDENTIFIED LOCATION, SOUTH AFRICA (FILE) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF SOUTH AFRICAN NATIONAL DEFENCE FORCE MILITARY
  • Embargoed: 26th October 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: War / Fighting
  • Reuters ID: LVAENL690JKC4Z9LL2AQLCG1TJCL
  • Story Text: New study released by Oxfam International, IANSA and Saferworld says fifteen years of conflicts have cost Africa 284 billion US dollars.
    Wars stripped $284 billion from Africa's economies between 1990 and 2005, roughly equal to the amount of aid money provided to the impoverished continent, according to a report released Thursday (October 11) by Oxfam International.
    In the study "Africa's Missing Billions," the British aid group said that the 23 conflicts that engulfed Africa in the period had shrunk its economies by an average of 15 percent at an overall cost of $18 billion per year.
    Oxfam added that the estimated financial toll was probably on the low side, when considering the impact of civil wars on the economies of neighbouring countries as well as the long-term effects of higher military spending on individual economies.
    "So definitely the proliferation of weapons, especially illegal weapons in the wrong hands, is a major driver of these conflicts and that's why we are already calling on the governments of the world to have a strong arms trade treaty that will better regulate this flow of weapons and reduce that flow, especially in Africa where some of the worst effect are being felt," Irungu Houghton, Oxfam's African policy advisor, told Reuters in an interview.
    Rwanda saw its economy grow an average 2.8 percent annually between 1990 and 2001, almost a third less than what was projected had it not experienced war, genocide and other strife during the period, according to Oxfam. Burundi's economy suffered even more as a result of its ethnic-fueled conflict, shrinking an average 1.1 percent annually between 1993 and 2005, compared to a projected annual growth rate of 5.5 percent.
    The report, which was backed by the International Action Network on Small Arms and Saferworld, two non-governmental organisations, cited the global arms trade as a major contributor to the violence that had killed millions of Africans and impeded economic growth on the continent.
    It estimated 95 percent of Kalashnikov rifles -- the most popular weapon used in the African conflicts -- came from outside the continent, highlighting what was described as a need to better regulate the arms trade.
    The United Nations is considering the passage of an Arms Trade Treaty designed to restrict the flow of illegal weapons and arms, especially to vulnerable parts of the world, such as Africa. Oxfam and other NGOs are campaigning for an agreement that would prohibit arms transfers if they were likely to be used to commit serious violations of international humanitarian or human rights law, or undermine sustainable development.
    Some 153 countries voted last year in the U.N. General Assembly to start work on a treaty, which would make provisions for legal arms sales for defense, peacekeeping and other legitimate purposes.

    "We hope it will support those who are pushing for a stronger arms trade treaty, we hope that by quantifying the cost of this, the 300 billion dollars I mentioned, which is more than aid flows into Africa during the same period, we really make people sit up and realise that it's a massive cost, not only in human lives but also in development and progress in Africa," Irungu said. The United States cast the only vote against.
    China and Russia, which also have significant arms industries, have expressed reservations about a treaty.
    Liberia's President Johnson-Sirleaf spoke out in support of Oxfams report on arms,
    "I'm acutely aware of the cost of conflict in our country Liberia," she said, "that is why I applaude this report from the Control Arms campaign, which for the first time has attempted to put a figure of the economic cost of conflict in Africa and the human misery suffured by millions of our people in Africa, the sums of money lost to conflict are staggering, we could contribute to covering the cost of solving the HIV and Aids crisis in Africa, or provide education and water, and with the battle against TB and Malaria, we could do much more," the President said.
    Liberia endured a brutal civil war and was involved in cross-border conflicts with its neighbours in western Africa in the 1990s. The violence cost more than a quarter of a million lives and decimated the resource-rich economies in the region.
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