Armed conflicts in the Niger Delta and other violent crises aided by the use of AK-47 and other similar weapons have cost Africa about $300bn between 1990 and now, Oxfam International has said.
The report was titled “Africa’s Missing Billions.”
It noted that violent conflicts had robbed Africa’s development of $284bn between 1990 and 2005, an amount equal to all international aid received by the continent during the period.
The International Action Network on Small Arms and Saferworld collaborated in the study.
The report showed that the mass illegal importation of Kalashnikov rifles, otherwise known as AK-47 was responsible for about 95 per cent of the armed violence.
Oxfam’s release of the report coincided with preparations for global discussions by the 2008 Group of UN Governmental Experts on the Arms Trade Treaty.
In the foreword, written by the President of Liberia, Mrs. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, she pointed out that weapons proliferation is devastating several African countries’ economies and increasing human misery.
She urged African countries to strongly support the United Nations’ proposals for an Arms Trade Treaty, aimed at enforcing tough international controls on the arms trade.
“The sums are appalling: the price that Africa is paying could cover the cost of solving the HIV and AIDS crisis in Africa, or provide education, water and prevention treatment for TB and malaria. Literally thousands of hospitals, schools, and roads could have been built, positively affecting millions of people.
“Not only do the people of Africa suffer the physical horrors of violence, armed conflict undermines their efforts to escape poverty,” Mrs. Johnson-Sirleaf stated.
Countries listed as being most affected were: Algeria, Angola, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo, C�te d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sudan and Uganda.
Underlining the negative significance of armed conflicts as a major threat to African countries’ development and the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals, the report said, “Africa’s Missing Billions” ensured more infant deaths, more undernourished people, more adult illiteracy, along with a drop in the Human Development Index and per capita GDP.
Also, armed robbery, firearms homicide, a rise in gangster violence, including a proliferation of armed ‘cults’ in institutions of higher learning were identified as by-products of the problem.
Among the direct, indirect and intangible costs which the study identified as being traceable to widespread illegal possession of small arms were: increased government expenditure on the military, displaced persons and affected infrastructure, while reduced tourism and other economic activity along with reduced quality of life for people in affected areas.
Diversion of weapons from government’s stockpiles and illegal importation on a large scale accounts for the illegal availability of weapons.
“In Nigeria, armed criminals and secret cultists in Lagos, and armed gangs in the Delta, have stocks of sophisticated small arms, including Kalashnikovs,” the report stated.
It also noted that a vast number of both state-procured and illegal arms and ammunition were still being imported into Africa from other parts of the world.
Oct142007