UN is not doing enough to help Africa out of conflicts

A confidential United Nations' report recently accused Israel and Eastern Europe of fueling conflicts in South Sudan by selling arms to the government.

According to the report, a UN panel has found evidence of ‘well-established networks’ of arms suppliers in Israel and Bulgaria, especially after the December 2013 outbreak of civil war in South Sudan. The panel said the arms deals, which date back to 2014 or earlier, involve Israeli and Bulgarian firms.

The report came as South Sudan is engulfed in a major conflict as government forces battle rebels after peace talks between President Salva Kiir and former Vice President and rebel leader Riek Machar collapsed. This has led to violence that seen thousands of people killed and property destroyed. The war has also affected the economy of South Sudan as it has paralyzed business. Foreign investors have also left.

But this is not the first time the West is causing conflicts in an African country. As a matter of fact, western countries have had a hand in most of the conflicts that have rocked Africa. They are known to either supply guns to rebels so they can fight the government of the day especially when there is a resource they want, or arm both the government and rebels so that people can slaughter one another.

At the moment, Europe remains the most peaceful geographical region in the world and is also one of the seven most peaceful places on the globe, according to a recent ranking. And while other parts of the world, including South America, are experiencing low levels of internal conflicts and militarization, Africa is engulfed in civil wars, cold wars, religious wars and terrorism.

Yet the UN has not been seen to take significant steps to make Africa peaceful. One would expect the global body, created after the Second World War in 1945 to save the world from such conflicts by promoting peace and development, to take action against countries disturbing peace in Africa. However, it appears the UN is only keen to serve interests of its five permanent members; United States of America, China, Britain, Russia and France, even as they continue to dictate terms with so much impunity.

Since the colonial time, the white man has employed the divide-and-rule mechanism, which often involves conflicts, to continue colonizing poor countries, mainly in Africa. And Africa has continued to experience conflicts since the inception of the UN, where these super powers are directly or indirectly involved, by waging wars or supplying arms, yet UN does nothing about it.

Currently, oil-rich countries such as Syria, Iraq, Yemen and even Libya are in turmoil and in all these cases, it is external forces, mainly from the west, that are causing wars in order to siphon the resource. Before Muammar Qadaffi was killed, the Libyan leader ensured a portion of proceeds from the sale of oil went to the citizens’ bank accounts. However, it is most unlikely that Libyans will ever enjoy that again and this is all due to external interference.

The situation is compounded further by the presence of a few individualistic people who only care about what goes into their stomachs. They collude with western powers to impoverish their own countries.

The truth is that Africa will need to save itself. African is in chaos because of poverty, which is the cause of most socio-economic as well as political problems. There is need for African countries to come together and work out ways of addressing these challenges, including encouraging increased trade, among themselves and avoid over-reliance of the west which only comes in to exploit resources and go away.