AFRICANUNION

This world we live in is nothing more than challenging. Every day, you set yourself goals to accomplish, those which you can reach in one day, and those which you work endlessly on to achieve and sometimes fail in the task. Failure constitutes human beings’ weakness and most despised sensation, but today, we’d like to tell you that even if you fail, you shall rise stronger and braver as never seen before. Today, we invite you to take this one way ride with us, to turn this EAFITMUN opportunity into a battlefield of knowledge, capacities, skills, opportunities, and definitely failures that we, together as a team, will transform into one of the greatest moments of our lives. We’ll be here from September 13-16 to guide you through this process, to be your Chair and to be the leaders of the revolution we’ll be setting.

For the first time, we’ll have the marvelous chance to recreate the Assembly of the African Union. This incredible committee has the difficult burden to clean Africa’s prestige, as this continent has been undermined by dangerous forces who have stolen its most precious value: people’s desire to thrive and success. That’s why we’ve chosen two alarming problematics that require not only informed delegates who will be representing influential figures, but courageous delegates willing to give all their potential for Africa’s welfare.

My name is Pablo Emilio Moreno, I’m a third semester Economics student and I’ll have the pleasure to be your Chair at The

Assembly of the African Union, alongside with Santiago. I’ve been doing MUN for five years and I just never want this to be over. I’ll be expecting your full preparation and commitment to assure that this committee becomes unforgettable, always remember that respect and teamwork are key for your performance and if you have a doubt don’t hesitate to contact us. EAFITMUN organizing team has worked tirelessly for your joy and satisfaction.

My name is Santiago Rodas, I’m a second semester Product Design Engineer student and I’ll have the pleasure to be your chair at The Assembly of the African Union, alongside with Pablo Emilio. I’ve been doing MUN for almost 6 years and it will keep being part of my life until the end. It is my pleasure to welcome you to this great experience, that both of us; with the help of the rest of the group; have built for you. This is a new committee in EAFITMUN and we expect you to enjoy it as we have enjoyed creating the best for you. We will be prepared for all your doubts and questions. Contact us and enjoy EAFITMUN 2018 with us!

Best regards,

DEARDELEGATES,

pemorenoh@eafit.edu.co

Pablo Emilio Moreno

srodasg@eafit.edu.co

Santiago Rodas

25REFERENCES

25SUGGESTED READINGS

24QUARMAS

19TOPIC B

17REFERENCES

17SUGGESTED READINGS

16QARMAS

7TOPIC A

4BRIEF INTRODUCTION: AFRICAN UNION

TABLE OF CONTENTS

3

The African Union was formally established in 2002, replacing the Organization for African Unity (OAU) that had existed since 1963. Both organizations were created to promote unity and solidarity for African states, to spur economic development and to promote international cooperation. Its headquarters are located in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The actual Chairperson of the African Union is Paul Kagame, Rwanda’s president. (Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d.).

“The main objectives of the OAU were, inter

alia, to rid the continent of the remaining vestiges of colonization and apartheid; to promote unity and solidarity among African States; to coordinate and intensify cooperation for development; to safeguard the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Member States and to promote international cooperation within the framework of the United Nations.

Indeed, as a continental organization the OAU provided an effective forum that enabled all Member States to adopt

BRIEF INTRODUCTION: AFRICAN UNION

4

5

adopt coordinated positions on matters of common concern to the continent in international fora and defend the interests of Africa effectively.

Through the OAU Coordinating Committee for the Liberation of Africa, the Continent worked and spoke as one with undivided determination in forging an international consensus in support of the liberation struggle and the fight against apartheid.

The vision of the African Union is that of: “An integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa, driven by its own citizens and representing a dynamic force in global arena.” This vision of a new, forward looking, dynamic and integrated Africa will be fully realized through relentless struggle on several fronts and as a long-term endeavour. The African Union has shifted focus from supporting liberation movements in the erstwhile African territories under colonialism and apartheid, as envisaged by the OAU since 1963 and the Constitutive Act, to an organization spear-heading Africa’s development and integration.” (African Union, n.d.).

It is necessary to mention that the OAU was replaced because its fundamental principles did not go along the continent’s flow. One of the reasons the OAU failed, was the Arab League membership that some states like Tunisia and Mauritania had, which created a conflict of loyalties with OAU solid members that believed these Arab countries let OAU affairs

come second to those of the Arab World. (Zambezia, 1984). There was also a still existent tension between Francophone and Anglophone members, differing on important issues such as the appointment of personnel within the main organs of the Organization, as well as divergent opinions regarding Pan-Africanism and neo-colonialism presence in the continent. Thus, the OAU transformed into something bigger and more cohesive, and some important objectives of the actual African Union are:

● “To achieve greater unity and solidarity between the African countries and the peoples of Africa; ● To defend the sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of its Member States; ● To accelerate the political and socio-economic integration of the continent; ● To promote and defend African common positions on issues of interest to the continent and its peoples; ● To promote democratic principles and institutions, popular participation and good governance; ● To promote and protect human and peoples’ rights in accordance with the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and other relevant human rights instruments; ● To establish the necessary conditions which enable the continent to play its rightful role in the global economy and in international negotiations.” (African Union, n.d.)

6

The Organs of the African Union are the following:- The Assembly: it is the supreme organ of the Union and the one we’ll portray for EAFITMUN. It gathers the Heads of State and Government and has the responsibility to determine the AU’s policies and the socio-economical guidance for the continent. Among its main powers are:• Adopting the annual program for the African Union.• Accelerating the political and socio-economic integration of Africa.• Giving directives to the AU Executive Council and Peace Security Council regarding management of conflicts, war, acts of terrorism, etc.• Deciding on sanctions and

interventions against Member States.• Considering requests for AU membership.• Amending the Constitutive Act.- The Executive Council.- The Pan-African Parliament.- Judicial and Human Rights Institutions.- The Commission.- Peace and Security Council.- ECOSOCC.- The Court of Justice.- The Specialized Technical Committees.

In 2016, Member States agreed to concede a 0.2% financing for the African Union, taken from eligible imports. This is one important decision that

Introduction.

African people have had a long road towards political idealism, and so many countries of the continent have historically struggled with regimes openly criticized because of human rights’ abuse, underprivileged living conditions, mistreatment of justice, unprosperous international integration and unsuccessful transparency in government policies.

African leaders, represented by the African Union (AU) and its judicial organs, have worked tirelessly to assemble a platform where people’s desires and necessities are represented through open mechanisms that allow these people to believe in their heads of state, considering that those mechanisms shall tackle common problems that have haunted African countries for years like embezzlement, nepotism, clientelistic modes of resource distribution and political instability.

The path for transparency and people’s representation displays a major challenge which the continent is yet to face. The African Union has served as a regional body striving for change and international recognition, and so has created diverse programs to achieve an ultimate goal of development in all grounds. As a part of this matter, the Constitutive Act of the African Union states in its Article 3 (g) to “Promote democratic principles and

institutions, popular participation and good governance…”, considering this a global matter that the United Nations itself promotes, and therefore the african continent must reach it.

As a result, The African Governance Architecture (AGA) was created in 2011 as a “platform for dialogue between the various stakeholders who are mandated to promote good governance and strengthen democracy in Africa, in addition to translating the objectives of the legal and policy pronouncements in the AU Shared Values.” (AGA, n.d.). The AGA has become the platform the African leaders have long sought for, working relentlessly for democratic principles, promotion of transparency and fairness in the management of public affairs, youth empowerment, among others.

Moreover, African Union leaders endorsed in 2013 a multilateral plan called “Agenda 2063” , where they envision Africa as a united, prosperous and peaceful continent, driven by people’s desires, good governance, rule of law, democracy, common heritage and cultural identity, based on the ideals of Pan Africanism and the vision of Africa’s Renaissance. (African Union Commission, 2015).

To conclude this brief introduction, it is important to mention that this topic has evolved into such an important concern, that an African Charter on Democracy,

TOPIC A. AFRICAN GOVERNANCE ARCHITECTURE AND ELECTIONS: THE PATH FOR TRANSPARENCY AND PEOPLE’S REPRESENTATION.

7

Elections and Governance has been signed to guarantee the endless work all leaders shall commit to. The Charter means one step forward has been taken to accomplish and thus enhance fair elections of representative governments, meaning all African Union member countries shall assure democracy “recognizing popular participation through universal suffrage as the inalienable right of the people.” (African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance; 2007)

Historical context.

African continent is widely identified as the birthplace of the

Hominidae, the taxonomic family to which modern humans belong, according to evidence collected by Encyclopedia Britannica (2017). This encyclopedia also indicates that for some 4.000.000 years the continent has been inhabited by humans, and modern humans as anatomically known today, have been present for 200.000 years ago. These ancient data provide information to affirm that those 200.000 years have passed and civilizations in the continent have gone through several government forms, the most well-known of them being the colonies and the indigenous organizations, and later on the dictatorships and the long-term governments ruled

8

also had a strong presence in the continent, formed as a necessity to control land and resources when Arab and European traders came to barter for goods, slaves and gold. The boundaries of African empires changed over time as leaders rose and fell, like the Mali Empire, the Kingdom of Aksum, the Songhai Empire and the Great Zimbabwe.

European presence in Africa began in the early 1800’s. As previously said, European traders saw the potential of the continent and launched missions to explore it, moreover establishing their rules throughout every single African land, mainly interested in the slave trade. By 1880, France, Germany, Britain and

Italy (to a smaller degree) took their claims, and after years of organizing their mandates, it is in 1914 when European powers controlled 90% of Africa, with only Abyssinia (now Ethiopia) and Liberia remaining independent. (Dvorsky, 2015).

9

SOURCE: DVORSKY, 2015.

As explained by Saho, 2011:

Colonies were important sources of raw materials (such as raw cotton) and markets for manufactured goods (such as textiles). The colonizing country could prevent competitors from trading with its colonies. This is known as a trade monopoly. The exploitation of mineral and other resources provided great wealth for the colonizing country. Gold, in particular, was a highly sought-after commodity. Individual investors saw opportunities to make personal fortunes by helping to finance the establishment of colonies. Both slavery and colonization provided cheap labor which increased profits and added to the wealth of the colonizers.

Years passed and colonies continued, but as in 1939 the World War II occurred, Europe was torn apart by the effects of this horrible event, therefore pressuring settler countries to take control of their own devastating situations, and finally letting Africa to arise as an independent force. In 1950, Liberia, South Africa, Egypt and Ethiopia

gained independence, triggering a ripple effect that led to tough times of endless violence, but finally nationalism emerged and self-governments were created, ending with Namibia’s autonomy in 1990 and Eritrea in 1993.

These historical events are important to be considered because they constitute the core of Africa’s government forms, as the settler countries didn’t leave any example on how to lead throughout popular representation and universal suffrage. Instead, they opened a gap that has been occupied by the most powerful influences which have taken advantage of the rich lands they inherited and consequently created troubling circumstances for african people. The evidence is clear: Teodoro Obiang has been president of Equatorial Guinea since 1979, José Eduardo dos Santos of Angola was president from 1979 to september 2017, and Robert Mugabe, from Zimbabwe, was president from 1980 to november 2017, resigning when he was 93 years old. (Forbes, 2012). These three countries and so many others of the continent have economic and social disparities,

proving that development comes hand to hand with political fairness and public acceptance.To conclude the history that has shaped Africa’s political complexity, it is also important to note that election monitoring has been present since 1980, when Zimbabwe Independency elections were reviewed within a post-conflict situation with the presence of international observer teams from the Commonwealth, the UN, NGOs, European Union and others, and they also witnessed the Namibian and the South African elections. At this time, election observation, monitoring and supervising wasn’t as structured as it is nowadays, that’s why these processes presented delays, misunderstood information and variety of results as some observers used different tools and biased reports were favoring candidates, worsening the election panorama. (Abutudu, n.d.).

Current situation.The African Governance Platform was created to operationalize the activities of AGA, as a basis for facilitating harmonization of instruments and coordination of initiatives in governance and

democracy. This platform constitutes, alongside with different instruments, the legal and institutional framework which defines the compromise Africa has taken approaching 21st century government forms. The Platform includes AU Organs, Regional Economic Communities and different Institutions that serve as a “first concentric circle that draws inspiration and inputs from...stakeholders in the private sector, development partners, civil society and the diaspora; and it provides a framework for interaction, active engagement, synthesis and convergence.” (AGA, n.d.)The elections field is regulated by the “Guidelines for African Union Electoral Observation and Monitoring Process” and the “Declaration on the Principles Governing Democratic Elections in Africa” both established when the Organization for African Unity was still in charge. They set that any representative government that seeks authority shall use democracy as its optimum mechanism, considering the conduction of free, fair and regular elections, which include respecting the Electoral Authorities of the countries and the media impartiality.

11

As a general aspect, the United Nations and the European Union both assist Electoral Observation Missions (EOM) which have the objective of ensuring transparency and calm during electoral time, and sometimes, depending on the type of mission, they organize themselves the elections and guarantee trustworthy results.

Hand to hand with elections, political parties’ composition is one of the main points regarding Africa’s political structure. As pointed out by the report Political Parties in Africa: Challenges for Sustained Multiparty Democracy (2007), six main issues remain:

1. African governing political parties heavily rely on the direct or indirect use or abuse of government resources.2. The African private sector is too small, so civil society organizations and a non-political middle-class lack support and are subsumed by the state.3. Civil society is incapable of creating coalitions of interests with the political parties, as they are mostly controlled by the business

sectors, lacking transparency.4. “Political parties often perceive state capture for the control of the resources and personnel of the state as a source of elite enrichment; therefore, politics itself becomes a means to an end, devoid of any idea of protecting public interests vis-à-vis private gains.” 5. African political parties are mostly ruled at the elite level, which has access to state resources.6. There’s an increasing weakness of African opposition parties, forcing them in some occasions to seek favors from the governing political parties in return for silence.

To sum up the theoretical aspect and many important documents that already frame this topic, we’ll leave the most important to pass on into how the situation actually is:

- African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance.- Agenda 2063.- African Governance Architecture and African Governance Platform.- Guidelines for African Union Electoral Observation and Monitoring Process.

12

- Declaration on the Principles Governing Democratic Elections in Africa.- African Peer Review Mechanism (used as a self-monitoring mechanism to promote good governance in Africa).- African Union Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption.

Even though African Union steadfast work has been significant, the goal seems far. Eight countries haven’t signed the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance: Morocco, Egypt, Libya, Cote d’Ivoire, Tanzania, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Eritrea. This decision undermines the Charter scope and means that such countries still have compromises to adopt, even though their national laws may protect people’s rights, it cannot be assured from this point. Remaining countries have signed the Charter, but Somalia, Kenya, Uganda, Mozambique, Angola, DR Congo, Burundi, Gabon, Congo, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Senegal, Gambia, Cape Verde, Tunisia and Swaziland haven’t ratified it. The other countries have pledged full responsibility by signing and

ratifying this relevant pact.

The Economist, one of the most prestigious newspapers, has been garnering information about democracy for years, and its index has become one source to follow. The 2017 democracy index showed that no country improved its score, and it was the lowest year on record since the global economic crisis of 2008. It is based in electoral process and pluralism; civil liberties; the functioning of government; political participation; and political culture. Three African countries, out of 167 evaluated by the index, occupied the last five spots, DR Congo (163) with 1.61, Central African Republic (164) with 1.52 and Chad (165) with 1.50, just surpassing Syria and North Korea. This score, according to The Economist, determines that the three countries have authoritarian regimes, as it scales from 0-4. At this rating, countries like Egypt, Libya and Equatorial Guinea appear with higher scores, but still qualify in the category. Hybrid regimes score from 4-6 and here African countries like Tanzania, Kenya, Zambia, Mali can be found; flawed democracies score from 6-8 where Namibia, South Africa

13

14

and Botswana appear, and from 8-10, qualified as full democracy, no African country classifies.

This index shows particular results to be analyzed. DR Congo and Central African Republic, two of the worst results, have signed (not ratified) the previous Charter and they still do not comply by its measures. To take an example, Joseph Kabila, current president of DR Congo, has been in charge since 2001 when his father, president at that time, was murdered. Even though he has fought against international meddling and conflict forces in his country, he has already passed 2 legal mandates and the constitution determines he shall stay no more, causing widespread national

protests that ended in more than 40 deaths. Since January 2017 he promised he would go to the polls, but due to what he calls “the lack of a complete and reliable electoral roll”, elections haven’t passed and political oppressions have been going on. DR Congo currently faces economic crisis and perpetual conflicts over natural resources manipulation. (The Guardian, 2017).

Moving on to Chad, the country that registers the lowest score on the index, it has both signed and ratified the Charter. Chad’s president, Idriss Deby, has been leader for more than 26 years. He overthrew a brutal dictator who is now exiled in Senegal, but since he became head of state, he reformed the

constitution so any governor could have as many mandates as possible. He won the 2016 elections and African Union observers declared those as free and fair. Although different NGOs like Amnesty International have accused Chad’s president of oppression and arbitrary arrests, he has managed to become an influential leader, chairing the African Union Summit 2016 in Addis Ababa and leading a strike against Islamist rebel groups in Mali, increasing Chad’s position as a regional force.

To end up the analysis of long-lasting presidents, Equatorial Guinea has had president Teodoro Obiang since 1975, meaning he’s almost approaching his fourth decade at office. In the country’s last elections, 2016, he won by 93.7% of the votes. According to Africa News (2016) in past elections he had never won by less than 97% of the votes, and they suspect the oil wealth is distributed to his inner circle. As this happens,

“According to the UN 2014 Human Development Report, the country has a per capita gross domestic product of $37,478.85, which is the highest wealth ranking of any African country and one of the highest in the world, yet it ranks 144 out of 187 countries in the Human Development Index that measures social and economic development. As a result, Equatorial Guinea has by far the world’s largest gap of all countries between its per capita wealth and its human development score.” (Human Rights Watch, n.d.).

It is necessary to mention that Equatorial

Guinea has a parliament of 100 seats, and 99 of them are occupied by the ruling party.

Concluding with Botswana, this country hasn’t either signed or ratified the Charter, but it still ranks as a flawed democracy, with higher scores than its neighboring countries. The panorama for this country is way different, and current president Ian Khama, son of Botswana’s independence leader, has been a remarkable head of state according to international signals, as this country ranks the highest of Africa in Transparency International Corruption Index, occupying rank 35, topping countries like Costa Rica, Spain and Namibia. Since this country gained independence from Great Britain, it has held free and fair elections in a multiparty democracy ground. The government has even condemned its own allies with president Khama, back in 2013, calling for a rerun of the controversial elections in Zimbabwe, criticizing Burundi’s president imposed reelection and calling out South Africa for letting Al Bashir president return Sudan, when a warrant had been issued for his arrest. (DW, n.d.). Nevertheless, criticism has been present and media has called for more openness and free flow of information, and also, the electoral commission has been accused for being closed only to ruling party members.

15

16

As corruption also constitutes an obstacle for transparency, this graph shows the worsening situations of many countries:

This is what the path for transparency and people’s representation looks like, one full of obstacles but also great achievements from some countries that have emerged from the ashes of colonization and turned themselves into fast growing societies. It is a challenge for African leaders, gathering once again at the Assembly of the African Union, to turn down the problems, the barriers and the obstacles, and take advantage of all the privileges the continent has to offer to finally regain Africa’s power, Africa’s identity and Africa’s lost values.

QARMAS.

- Considering the existent legal

background for the topic, would your country propose another pact or is it necessary to abide by the existent rules and impose stronger obligations?- Has the African Union acted using its full mandate in order to guarantee democracy, the rule of law and free and fair elections? Why or why not?- Is it necessary to have the monitoring and supervision of elections by regional and international third-party actors? Why or why not?- How would countries guarantee democratic standards for transparency and people’s representation? Which ones could be proposed for a future solution?

Suggested readings.

African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance: http://archive.ipu.org/idd-E/afr_charter.pdf

African Governance Architecture: http://aga-p la t form.org/about#p la t form-members

African Peer Review Mechanism: https://au.int/en/organs/aprm

Agenda 2063: http://www.un.org/en/africa/osaa/pdf/au/agenda2063-framework.pdf

Declaration on the Principles Governing Democratic Elections in Africa: https://www.eisa.org.za/pdf/au2002declaration.pdf

Guidelines for African Union Electoral Observation and Monitoring Missions: http://www.achpr.org/files/instruments/guide-elctions/au_instr_guide_elections_eng.pdf

Influential African Empires: http://webcache.googleusercontent .com/search?q=cache:yQw2yfIMT94J:www.h i s t o r y . c o m / n e w s / h i s t o r y -l i s t s / 7 - i n f l u e n t i a l - a f r i c a n -e m p i r e s + & c d = 1 0 & h l = e s -419&ct=clnk&gl=co

Political Parties in Africa: Challenges for Sustained Multiparty Democracy http://www.msu.ac.zw/elearning/materia l/temp/1257171344Africa_report_inlay_final.pdf

References.

Abutudu, M. (n.d.). Monitoring and Observation of Elections in Africa. Retrieved February 15 from: http://www.elections.org.za/content/workarea/downloadasset.aspx?id=1944.

ACE. (2006). Election observation, monitoring and supervision. Retrieved February 17th from: http://aceproject.org/electoral-advice/archive/questions/replies/234934798

Africa News. (2016). Equatorial Guinea’s Nguema wins sixth term with 93.7% of votes. Retrieved February 18th from: http://www.africanews.com/2016/04/28/equatorial-guinea-s-nguema-wins-sixth-term-by-over-99-percent-of-votes/

African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance. (2007). Charter on Democracy. Retrieved January 23rd from: http://archive.ipu.org/idd-E/afr_charter.pdf

African Governance Architecture. (n.d.). Why AGA. Retrieved January 23rd from: http://aga-platform.org/about

African Union Commission. (2015). Agenda 2063. Retrieved February 16th from: http://www.un.org/en/africa/osaa/pdf/au/agenda2063-framework.pdf

African Union. (2000). Constitutive Act of the African Union. Retrieved January 23rd from: http://www.achpr.org/instruments/au-constitutive-act/#3

17

18

Daily Mail. (2016). Chad President Deby wins fifth term, opposition cry foul. Retrieved February 18th from: https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2016-04-22-chadian-president-deby-wins-fifth-term-opposition-cry-foul

Dvorsky, George. (2015). A Map of Colonial Africa Just Before the Outbreak of World War I. Retrieved January 24th from: https://io9.gizmodo.com/a-map-of-colonial-afr ica- just-before-the-outbreak-of-wo-1704165344

DW. (n.d.). Botswana: Africa’s Model Democracy at 50. Retrieved February 18th from: http://www.dw.com/en/botswana-africas-model-democracy-at-50/a-35927021

Encyclopedia Britannica. (2017). Africa. Retrieved January 23rd from: https://www.britannica.com/place/Africa/People

Encyclopedia Britannica. (n.d.). African Union. Retrieved February 18th from: https://www.britannica.com/topic/African-Union

Human Rights Watch. (n.d.). World Report 2015: Equatorial Guinea. Retrieved February 18th from: https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2015/country-chapters/equatorial-guinea

Our Africa. (n.d.). History of Africa. Retrieved January 24th from: http://www.

our-africa.org/history-war-and-politics

Saho. (2011). The impact of colonialism. Retrieved May 6th from: https://www.sahistory.org.za/topic/impact-colonialism

The Economist Intelligence Unit. (2017). Democracy Index. Retrieved February 18th from: https://www.eiu.com/topic/democracy-index

The Guardian. (2017). ‘Go Kabila go’: new effort to oust DR Congo president despite fear of violence. Retrieved February 12th from: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/02/go-kabila-go-new-effort-to-oust-drc-president-despite-fear-of-violence

Introduction.

Africa is the richest continent in natural resources with the poorest population in the world. This is the bitter reality that day to day each African person is suffering due to an unfinished war over natural resources manipulation, the gift Africa possesses. Africa has been a powerful continent in terms of natural resources. “Africa is the world’s fastest-growing region for foreign direct investment, and it has approximately 30 percent of the earth’s remaining mineral resources.” (Al Jazeera, 2016). Since many years ago, when gold, cooper, diamonds and oil were the major trade sources in Africa’s economy, many small groups started an impressive war against the companies. They were creating a chaos against those who were mining their lands without any remunerations to the people around. After that, those groups started mining too and selling the products illegally, with lower prices or to the black market trying to show the others how powerful and strong they were.

As a result of these actions, many small communities in Africa have been affected and the death rate has been increasing with the pass of the time. Every moment conflict increases means a thousand of deaths in Africa due to the war of natural resources. Those natural resources can bring the

whole continent a lot of earnings in the case they accept the help of international companies, but as they felt many years ago the oppression and pushing of the others, they are now fighting against the world and their own people. This is a graph that shows the main resource per country in Africa. “The first two months of 2015 saw about 8,300 people die as a result of conflict in sub-Saharan Africa, with just five countries – Nigeria, Cameroon, Sudan, Somalia and Niger – accounting for roughly 90% of these deaths.” (Africa Check, 2015).

Africa contains a large area of diamonds, gold, tantalum, oil, cobalt and other special materials used in the production of many daily objects. For example, cellphones, watches, appliances, consoles and others requires minimum something that comes from African soil. This is one alarming issue that has created several problematics in countries like Congo DR and Uganda. But conflict comes hand by hand with many issues like diseases. As Africa is where precarious conditions persist, and deals with problems in development and many governmental issues, health is always one of the biggest issues. Countries like Angola, Chad, Guinea-Bissau and Central African Republic present an under-age 5 mortality rate of 50 deaths per 1,000 live births, or approximately 1 in 7 children do not reach age 5. (PassBlue, 2016).

19

TOPIC B. AFRICA’S INCREASED DEATH RATE DUE TO THE PERPETUAL CONFLICT OVER NATURAL RESOURCES MANIPULATION.

20

Historical context.

African history has been influenced with corruption, slavery and extreme poverty. Those facts affect African territory and African society, that is also feeling it. From the discovery of the continent, until the last problems of corruption and bad management of the governments that had caused child mortality and the increased rate of human death. As the world history has shown, Africa has been always in the middle of the conflicts but due to political and economic problematics they have been isolated. There’s only one exception and that’s South Africa, because as they were by the side of the British, almost all the 275 million pounds invested in Africa before 1900 was directed to South Africa, a country that ensured 72,4% of the total

value of exportations from the continent. (Coquery-Vidrovitch-Moniot, 1976). But the rest of the countries have received less international help, or have endured matters like embezzlement.In terms of natural resources, they have always been there, but they started to have importance when the colonists entered and stole rocks, diamonds and some valuable metals such as copper, cobalt and gold. The powerful countries of those times got interested in this area first because the natives were strong and efficient, and second because of their natural resources. That’s maybe when these countries started to lose their sovereignty.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA, 2016

Africa can be compared to a battlefield, there are national-level conflicts as well as many disputes, and multiple solutions have been given both by international organisms as well as regional bodies like the African Union, but ensuring countries to comply with them is still a challenge to be confronted. Those who stole resources nowadays help with some work, maybe 30 percent of the population, but the 100 percent of the benefit taken from the soils are for them, Africans just receive a low amount of money for a lot of work. A study carried out by the World Bank Research Observer, called Minimum Wages in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Primer (2017) found out that Sub-Saharan Africa countries have, on average, lower minimum wages than most other comparable regions of the world. As low wages undermine life conditions for workers, they still need to complete theirs tasks or will face condemnation from enterprises that hire them or governments themselves. Africa is the resource bank of big countries in Asia, Europe and North America, with countries like the United States and China deeply involved. After the WWI and WWII, with the invention of the nuclear power and nuclear weapons, the big countries in this area, Russia and United States, started getting more interest in Africa. First because it was a path for them to attack in case of a war and second because there are countries with a lot of plutonium and uranium used in the weapons and in the energy. They used a lot of these African materials and developed their reserves, which are the biggest nowadays known all around the world.

But this is not the end, as those countries started developing new energy solutions, European and Asian countries felt the same necessity and went to the origin of the material to start testing them and creating new devices, for example, the cellphone. As the powerful countries were investing in energy, others felt the necessity to improve technology and went to Africa to search for new rocks, minerals and substances to start developing their dream.

21

22

The worrying part in here was that African communities were forced to leave the areas, many kids were dying since there was no clean water, and problematics like pollution and deforestation were daily issues. People were not able to be free and were forced to work and that’s what inspired some groups like the Protestants, or the M23 in Congo DR to fight against them. Those groups were called guerrillas and are now one of the main reasons of deaths in Africa. Some lethal guerrilla groups include Lord’s Resistance Army (Uganda, DR Congo and South Sudan), M23 (DR Congo) and Al-Shabab (Somalia).

Current situation.African natural resources are daily

claimed by the technological companies to make their products, the jewelry companies to sell diamonds and gold, automobile companies to construct their cars and the list continues to increase. But as there are a lot of resources, there are also a lot of problems such as violence, malnutrition, fights, murders and many more caused by the guerrillas of the area. Africa is suffering a big deficit caused by natural resources because guerrillas are selling them illegally. An example of a very valuable resource is coltan, which is being manipulated by guerrillas in Congo DR and Central Africa. They (the guerrillas) are torturing communities, fighting international aids and companies, and last but not least, they are provoking governmental

SOURCE: ACLED, 2014

Africa can be compared to a battlefield, least, they are provoking governmental institutions or even their own governors to fight for that. The international community is concerned about this issue, because the population is always suffering the effects of not having a good education system, a good health system with the technology required to help the sanitary issues that are always diminishing the well-being of children, the bad conditions in which babies are born and the ways that they are taken from their mothers bun, the less technological progress, the dictatorship that many African countries nowadays have and all the problems that we always see in media, and that are definitely worse in real life situations. There are some examples to be mentioned from countries that suffer the resource-related conflict: Nigeria, South Sudan and Libya. Nigeria has shown in the last years that between the 5th and the 10th percent of the population has died because of natural resources related conflict, which means that 18,600,000 to 37,200,000 from 186,000,000 dies in Nigeria fighting to have natural resources. (Life Expectancy Africa, 2017). Their main resource is oil and it is the 8th main country that produces and sells oil worldwide. But since 1997 violence, guerrillas have been the main issue in this big country.

Libya faces a similar conflict. They have been

in a constant war for many years, because of the main resource (which is oil), but its problem aren’t guerrillas, it is the civilians who are always causing disturbs in the main cities because of the bad conditions at work. Libya has struggled with society groups and factions competing over the natural resources manipulation, with a seemingly endless fight for the control of the “oil crescent region”, ports based in the middle of the Libyan coast, containing a large concentration of the country’s oil production, and therefore Libya’s wealth.

“Ideally, the oil crescent region and other oil facilities in the country should be spared completely from the conflict. Oil wealth is the main source of income for Libya and its people, with any damage or hindrance to its production and export having direct consequences for the entire population.

Any reduction or halt in oil exports, which recently rose to more than 700,000 barrels per day, will shatter attempts to replenish depleting Libyan financial reserves and deepen the economic suffering of the Libyan people.” (El-Gatamy, 2017). South Sudan is the second in the list, they also have oil as a main source in the country but as they gained independence just 7 years ago, in 2011, the government has been solving social problems with rebels and anti-governmental groups, excluding the resource-related conflict. They also have the territorial problem of the unification of Sudan and South Sudan, which increases tensions between civilians; in 2013, only the 5%, 2,236,000 was

23

24

involved with resource-related conflict. (ACLED, 2014).

Now, there are many ways to measure death rate, and its result may come from different causes: homicides, diseases, accidents, among others. Even though Africa’s death rate (per 1000 people/year) is the highest compared to other continents, some countries manage to have lower scores, with countries like Morocco and Senegal registering 5.15 and 6.07, respectively. The Central African Republic presents the highest score with 14.01. Analyzing these results, Central African Republic is a troubled country, with the depth of its conflict aggravating every day. In this country, exploitation of natural resources represents more than half of its gross domestic product, proving the existent resource-related conflict that has been widely explained. (IPIS, 2017).

One index to be followed and that is really useful to frame this relationship between resources manipulation and mortality, is the Life Expectancy at birth, defined as the “Average number of years that a newborn is expected to live if current mortality rates continue to apply.” (WHO, n.d.)

Mauritius presents the highest Life Expectancy score with 74.62 years, followed by Cape Verde with 73.29 years and Seychelles on third place with 73.19 years. These three island countries do

not have major conflicts and its limited resources do not generate ambition and desire for obsessive power. The last 5 spots of this index for Africa are occupied by Cote d’Ivoire, Chad, Central African Republic, Angola and Sierra Leone, all of them highly dependent on natural resources as economic prosperity.

QARMAS.

- What is your country doing against the guerrillas? Are the actions being effective?- Is there any governmental organization from your country involved in the resources-related conflict? Is it creating any impact worldwide?- Taking into account the current situation with natural resource, which are the possible aids that external country can help to solve the issue?- Does your country have any precise proposal to destroy the link between death rates and resource-related conflicts? What makes it special?

25

Suggested readings.

Africa’s wealth gap: http://www.un.org/africarenewal/magazine/december-2017-march-2018/closing-africa%E2%80%99s-wealth-gap

Malnutrition of Africa: https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/features/africa-malnutrition-impacts-millions/

Natural Resources and Conflict: https://wedocs.unep.org/bitstream/h a n d l e / 2 0 . 5 0 0 . 1 1 8 2 2 / 9 2 9 4 / -N a t u r a l _ r e s o u r c e s _ a n d _ c o n f l i c .pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y

Natural Resources in Africa: https://www.miningafrica.net/natural-resources-in-africa/

References.

Africa Check. (2015). Conflict related deaths is sub-Saharan Africa. Retrieved February 18th from: https://africacheck.org/factsheets/conflict-related-deaths-in-sub-saharan-africa/

ALJAZEERA. (2016). Mapping Africa’s Natural Resources. Retrieved February 4th: http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/interactive/2016/10/mapping-africa-natural-resources-161020075811145.html

ANNA, K. (2013). Natural resources are an opportunity, Kofi Annan tells the UN Security Council. Retrieved February 16th from: http://www.africaprogresspanel.org/

un-security-council-debate-on-conflict-and-natural-resources/

El-Gamaty, Uma. (2017). Libya’s conflict revolves around power and oil. Retrieved February 18th from: https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/comment/2017/3/16/libyas-conflict-revolves-around-power-and-oil

Harsch, E. (2007). Africa Renewal. Retrieved January 30th from: http://www.un.org/africarenewal/magazine/j a n u a r y - 2 0 0 7 / c o n f l i c t - r e s o u r c e s -%E2%80%98curse%E2%80%99-blessing

IPIS. (2017). Natural Resources in Central African Republic. Retrieved February 18th from: http://ipisresearch.be/publication/natural-resources-central-african-republic/

Kishi, R. (2014). Resource-Related Conflict in Africa. Retrieved January 28th from: http://www.crisis.acleddata.com/resource-related-conflict-in-africa/

NBCC. (n.d.). Africa: richest natural resources, poorest people. Retrieved February 4th from: http://www.nationalbcc.org/news/beyond-the-rhetoric/1326-africa-richest-natural-resources-poorest-people

Roser, M. (n.d.). Child Mortality. Retrieved February 15th from: https://ourworldindata.org/child-mortality

Veit, P. (2009). Stopping the Resource Wars in Africa. Retrieved February 18th from: http://www.wri.org/blog/2009/08/stopping-resource-wars-africa