afrol News, 2 November - It beats ones imagination to know that the African continent sits on most natural resources in the world, yet people in this continent have been fighting endless wars. Africa is second to only the Middle East when it comes to trouble and warfare.

And while people in other parts of the world are busy discussing development agenda, Africa unfortunately is bent on convening daily peace talks between either warring factions or enemies of the same land. In some instances, peace talks are organised between neighbouring countries governments who have been at war or are about to fight.

Just few days ago, there were sign on the walls that Eritrea and Ethiopia have been set to lick their old wounds and resort to fighting as a means to solve their long running dispute over Badme. A proxy conflict is sailing up on Somali soil.

It is therefore no coincidence that many African countries featured in the October report of the International Crisis Group (ICG) among "thirteen actual or potential conflict situations in the world."

Released yesterday, the report said conflict threatened to engulf much of the Horn of Africa, as instability in Darfur continued to spill across Sudan's borders and Somalia's civil war risked escalating into a region-wide war involving rivals - Ethiopia and Eritrea.

"Voting passed off mostly peacefully in the second round of the Democratic Republic of Congo's presidential elections, but serious concerns remain about the potential for violence when results are released in mid-November," the report stated.

Crises in the Central African Republic and Chad are also featured high in the October report. In both countries, rebel movement are on the advance, threatening to topple the governments of N'djamena and Bangui.

The report was also concerned about events in the Middle East, where Israeli incursions into Palestinian population centres intensified, while increasingly strained relations between Fatah and Hamas led to factional clashes in the Occupied Territories.

The ICG would not do justice if it has failed to mention event in Iraq. "Sectarian violence and insurgent attacks worsened again in Iraq, with U.S. forces sustaining their highest monthly death toll in two years," the report notes, raising new fears of new arms race in east Asia, with North Korea testing its first nuclear artillery despite protests from the UN and United States.

The group also delved into Bangladesh's looming political problems, where an interim government appointed in the lead-up to January elections was greeted with violent protests. According to the group, fears of an imminent coup in Fiji is already in the headlines.

And to nail the coffin, the report outlined accusations of massive irregularities by the opposition and observer missions in Serbia where citizens voted for a constitutional referendum. Other potential troubled zones include Philippines and Sri Lanka.

The report noted that potentially dangerous situations in the following African countries remained at an unchanged alert level: Algeria, Angola, Burundi, Côte d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somaliland, Sudan, Uganda, Western Sahara and Zimbabwe.

By Musa Saidykhan

© afrol News

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