[Peace-discuss] Info re. Darfur/Sudan/Somalia

[C. G. Estabrook]

This seems worthwhile, but how can anyone write about the region and not 
mention the US?  --CGE

Morton K. Brussel wrote:
> 
> 	*Race for riches is Africa's torment*
> 	*Daniel Whitaker*
> 	*Sunday November 12, 2006*
> 	*The Observer* <http://www.observer.co.uk/> 
> 
> Somalia and Darfur are the latest unhappy corners of Africa to erupt in 
> violence. The dead will join more than five million others who have 
> perished in wars in the past bloody decade. Surely, if it was any other 
> continent, the world's efforts would be focused on ending the carnage. 
> 'But that's how things are in Africa,' many will shrug, 'still the dark 
> and savage continent.'
> 
> This epidemic of war is as destructive as those of Aids and malaria. But 
> the chief fuel to this flame is not an innate aggression by Africans, as 
> many commentators suggest. Tragically, in most cases, it is the 
> blessings bestowed by nature on the continent and the strong desire of 
> economically powerful outsiders to get them. Ethnic and religious 
> rivalries are real, but too often serve as a smokescreen.
> 
> Take the demographic mosaic of Sudan, where there were tensions between 
> groups seen as more Arab and more African. But what has most made Sudan 
> a violent place has been the discovery of oil. The Khartoum government 
> has already lost control of the south, where most of its reserves lie. 
> The plains of Darfur have been only partly surveyed, but look promising.
> 
> The China National Petroleum Corporation bought the rights to Block 6, 
> the largest oil and gas concession field still controlled by Khartoum, 
> which lies mostly in Darfur. Production costs are believed to be a 
> bargain 22 cents (less than 12p) a barrel, and with Rolls-Royce Marine 
> reportedly supplying tens of millions of dollars worth of pumping 
> equipment this summer Block 6 production is alleged to have risen from 
> 10,000 to 40,000 barrels a day. Earlier this month China's President Hu 
> Jintao spoke forcefully in support of Sudan's right to sort out Darfur 
> as it saw fit, while his oil-thirsty country is now Sudan's main 
> military supplier. The signals from China's recent summit with African 
> leaders are that the Chinese will only push harder in future to gain 
> their share of the spoils.
> 
> This echoes the first Sudanese civil war. 'Oil has brought death,' said 
> Malony Kolang, a chief of the southern Nuer people in 2000. 'When the 
> pumping began, the war began. Antonov aircraft and helicopter gunships 
> began attacking the villages... Everything around the oilfields has been 
> destroyed.'
> 
> To the east lies Somalia, where the descent into war is portrayed as 
> historical enmity between Somalis and their Ethiopian neighbours. Yet 
> Ethiopia's Christian regime runs a big risk in its border incursions, 
> given that a large portion of its own people are Muslim and of Somali 
> descent. The real reason is likely to be that the Ogaden region, which 
> borders Somalia, sits on a not yet exploited gas field. The Malaysian 
> oil giant Petronas has bought three concession blocks there. Addis Ababa 
> fears a resurgent Somalia will seek to annex Ogaden. The likely coming 
> war there is in part gas-powered.
> 
> The same story is repeated all over Africa. Congo's diamonds and cobalt 
> brought a civil conflict bringing in six neighbouring countries, though 
> again linguistic and ethnic differences were painted as the war's 
> underlying cause. Angola's oil and diamonds fuelled its own civil 
> conflict, this time portrayed as an ideological dispute between left and 
> right. In Sierra Leone and Liberia it was diamonds alone that played 
> such a role. In Nigeria, again, oil. By contrast, Africa's countries of 
> quiet stability - such as Senegal, Tanzania, Mozambique or Ghana - are 
> those with little to interest the prospectors.
> Those preferring the explanation of African savagery point to the 
> slaughter of Rwanda. But there, too, one of the most under-reported 
> tensions behind the conflict was the shortage of valuable grasslands.
> 
> Africa faces a wide range of challenges. It is tragic that the scramble 
> for its wealth is only adding to them.
> 
> *·* Daniel Whitaker is an economist who has worked in Africa for five years
> 
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Peace-discuss mailing list
> Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
> http://lists.chambana.net/cgi-bin/listinfo/peace-discuss