Wars Incur Heavy Costs for Africa, Charity Report Says
October 11, 2007 | Read Time: 1 minute
A new report issued by an international charity and two small arms-control groups says that multiple wars have cost Africa approximately $18-billion dollars a year — money that could have been spent on improving the fortunes of a number of countries, reports the Associated Press.
The report, written by the British charity Oxfam, along with Saferworld and the International Action Network on Small Arms, is one of the first to determine the actual financial and social costs of war. It estimates that African countries in the midst of war have “50 percent more infant deaths, 15 percent more undernourished people, life expectancy reduced by five years, 20 percent more adult illiteracy, 2.5 times fewer doctors per patient, and 12.4 percent less food per person.”
The charities estimate that wars between 1990 and 2005 in 23 African countries cost about $300-billion.
“This is a massive waste of resource — roughly equivalent to total international aid to Africa from major donors during the same period,” the report concluded.
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