Military Assistance in Sub-Saharan Africa
Abstract
On street comers in Abidjan one can see people of all ages begging for food or money. Some are missing limbs, the result of violence of ethnic or civil war, or of disease. Some are deformed from polio. Along the Niger River people from Mali to Nigeria drink from the same dirty river water in which they bathe, wash their clothes, water their livestock, and defecate. The roads between Mombassa, Kenya and Goma, Zaire are often little more than trails of rubble, remnants of what once was a more sophisticated road network, but which, like so many other things in sub- Saharan Africa, has fallen into a state of decay. Africa, particularly sub-Saharan Africa, is falling apart. It is plagued by overpopulation, poverty, illiteracy, starvation, drought, civil and ethnic war, AIDS, government corruption, crime, deforestation, disease, and everywhere you look, refugees. Sub-Saharan Africa is the "Third world of the third world." What once showed tremendous promise for growth and industrialization since colonialism and independence, has evolved into a continent of economic chaos and political instability. Consider that of the 53 independent countries on the continent, 30 are among the world's 40 poorest. Its population growth rate of 3.2 percent per year is the highest in the world, and despite war, famine, disease and other catastrophes, Africa's present population of 600 million people could reach 1.6 billion in the next 25 years. While the rest of the world advances, Africa's people continue to get poorer, and health and education are falling behind. Nearly one-third of the 19 million children born this year are malnourished, and will receive no primary education. Over four million of them will die before the age of five. The infant mortality rate, as high as 16 percent in some African countries, has reversed its downward trend of the 1980s, and is now slowly increasing. Life expectancy averages only 51 years. African countries, as they become poorer, cut back on health care c
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 1994
- Accession Number
- ADA501445
Entities
People
- Joanne Bernstein
Organizations
- Defense Security Cooperation Agency