News from Africa is almost always grim. Sub-Saharan Africa currently serves as the epicenter of global extreme poverty.
A recent ‘Save the Children’ report sums up Africa’s woes in alarming numbers: 150 million children in East and Southern Africa are facing the double threat of grinding poverty and the disastrous impact of climate change. The greatest harm affects the children population in South Sudan, with 87 percent, followed by Mozambique (80 percent), then Madagascar (73 percent).
Another report by the World Bank indicates that the international community’s hope to end extreme poverty by 2030 will not be met. By 2030, around 574 million people, estimated at 7 percent of the world’s total population, will continue to live in extreme poverty, relying on about two dollars a day.
The rate of extreme poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa is about 35 percent, representing 60 percent of all extreme poverty anywhere in the world. COVID-19 pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine war and growing global inflation and the slow growth of large economies in Asia are described as the culprits. But less is said on how much of Africa’s poverty is linked to the ongoing exploitation of the continent by its former – (and current) – colonial masters.
France continues to effectively control the currencies, thus economies of 14 different African countries – mostly in West Africa.
Niger’s former president Mahamadou Issoufou said, “It’s shocking for Africans to see the billions that have rained down on Ukraine while attention has been diverted from the situation in the Sahel.”
Africa’s existing wealth alone can fuel its global growth for many years to come if it was not for the deep pockets of the West’s wealthy classes, intent upon extracting Africa's riches by plundering and pillaging its resources.
Taken from here
Liberating Africa from Poverty Requires Changing Power Relations with the West | Dissident Voice
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