Human Wrongs Watch By Baher Kamal via thefreeonline
MADRID, Oct 10 2022 (IPS)* – Africa. The birthplace of “Homo Sapiens.” The land of plenty. The origin of farming. The richest region in terms of natural resources. And human capital. Home to over 1.3 billion humans, continues to be looted.
Mineral supply chains and other human rights violations. Credit: Tommy Trenchard/IPS
With 500 million plus people living in extreme poverty, Africa has also been transformed in a sort of grave for half of the world’s victims of terror. The continent is also the land with the highest suicide rate on Earth. Why?
Gold, diamonds, lithium…
“The evidence is there that the illegal exploitation of precious metals and minerals such as gold, silver and diamonds, are fuelling the extremists with significant sources of income, and benefiting the groups that control extraction, and trafficking routes.”
This is what the Head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) on 6 October 2002 stated, informing that the vast Sahel region in particular has become “home to some of the most active and deadly terrorist groups.”
See some of the major facts Ghada Waly submitted to the UN Security Council:
- Illegally mined gold and other precious metals are being fed into the legitimate market, providing huge profits for traffickers;
- Wildlife trafficking has also been reported as a possible source of funding for militias, with the illegal trade in ivory alone generating 400 million US dollars in illicit income each year;
- Around 3,500 victims of terrorist acts in sub-Saharan Africa last year, nearly half of those recorded worldwide;
- Such criminal exploitation strips the people of Africa of a significant source of revenue. It robs the millions of people who depend on these natural resources for their livelihoods. And it fuels conflicts and exacerbates instability;
- Mineral supply chains are often linked to child abuse, human trafficking, forced labour and other human rights violations… With 60% of Africa’s population under 25 years of age, young people are both the future of the continent but also its most vulnerable citizens.
The Ambassadors sitting in the UN Security Council heard these words. Five of them represent the world’s biggest arms producers –those used by terrorist groups– and their markets are the top beneficiaries of the business of exploiting precious minerals.
Continue reading “Africa, The Looted Continent”