Western countries are using aid to Africa as a smokescreen
to hide the "sustained looting" of the continent as it loses nearly
$60bn a year through tax evasion, climate change mitigation, and the flight of
profits earned by foreign multinational companies, the Guardian quoted as a
group of NGOs has saying. The perception that such aid is helping African
countries "has facilitated a perverse reality in which the UK and other
wealthy governments celebrate their generosity whilst simultaneously assisting
their companies to drain Africa's resources", the report claims.
Although sub-Saharan Africa receives $134bn each year in
loans, foreign investment and development aid, research by a group of UK and
Africa-based NGOs suggests that $192bn leaves the region, leaving a $58bn
shortfall. According to the report, while western countries send about $30bn in
development aid to Africa every year, more than six times that amount leaves
the continent, "mainly to the same countries providing that aid".
It points out that foreign multinational companies siphon
$46bn out of sub-Saharan Africa each year, while $35bn is moved from Africa
into tax havens around the world annually. African governments also spend $21bn
a year on debt repayments. Aid sent in the form of loans serves only to
contribute to the continent's debt crisis.
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