Resource
exploitation, military occupation and so-called “anti-terror”
efforts led by Western countries are destabilizing several countries
in Africa, leading to widespread starvation and sickness for millions
of people. Famine has become a daily fact of life for many in
Somalia, South Sudan and elsewhere in Africa.
by
Mnar Muhawesh
Most of us
living in the West have never known hunger. In America, food shelves
are easily accessed by the most vulnerable of society.
Despite
living in a time where there is a global surplus of food, millions of
people around the world are still suffering from famine. If you
follow mainstream media coverage about these humanitarian disasters,
they’re most likely presented through the lens of climate change,
high food prices and taxes.
But in
places like Yemen, South Sudan, the Lake Chad basin of West Africa
and Somalia, where images of skeletal children have become
commonplace several countries in Africa and the Middle East, it is
perhaps no coincidence that the epidemic of famine is directly linked
to modern-day colonialism and imperialism led by the U.S.
It is in
this part of the world where resource exploitation, the war on
terror, military occupation and destabilization combine to create one
of the most dire humanitarian crises of the modern era.
While
environmental factors do play a role, policies set by powerful oil
companies and state actors have created and reinforced the present
situation.
In Somalia,
where the U.S. has been waging a covert drone war, people have become
accustomed to famine. In a span of just one year, between 2011 and
2012, over 260,000 people died, half of them under the age of 5,
marking the worst famine in the last 25 years. According to data from
Somalia’s Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit (FSNAU), 4.6
percent of the total population and 10 percent of children under 5
died in southern and central Somalia alone.
The
organization Somalia’s Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit
(FSNAU) found that “the result was widespread livestock deaths, the
smallest cereal harvest since the 1991-94 civil war, and a major drop
in labor demand, which reduced household income.” Compounding
environmental burdens were the wider impacts of British colonialism
in Somalia, as well as U.S. militarism.
While the
United States plundered Somalia for resources by way of mineral
excavation and so-called oil exploration, past and present
administrations have also applied their full military might. In 1993,
during the Clinton presidency, images of famine and war were used to
convince Americans that U.S. military efforts were necessary.
“We went
[to Somalia] because only the United States could help stop one of
the great human tragedies of this time,” Clinton said. “In a
sense, we came to Somalia to rescue innocent people in a burning
house.” What Bill Clinton didn’t disclose was that the United
States was one of the reasons why the house was on fire to begin
with, and military efforts would not help to put out the flames.
In South
Sudan – a small statelet less than a decade old and home to some of
Africa’s largest oil reserves – nearly 2 million people are on
the brink of starvation. South Sudan has found itself in a situation
that the UN describes as “catastrophic,” predicting that half the
population will be facing food shortages by the end of 2017.
Further
exacerbating the situation is the mark left behind by the U.S.
military , which has poured billions into the country by way of
weaponry, plunging the nation into chaos in order to turn it into
another colonial outpost. And according to a UN report published in
2016, the civil war in South Sudan is being fueled by European and
Israeli arms makers, who are taking advantage of the war.
This arms
trafficking network was selling thousands of weapons in the country
by 2014, with experts arguing that it may have started even earlier.
Oil
companies like Oranto to Petroleum and ExxonMobil are also exploiting
south Sudan, setting up oil and gas deals worth billions of dollars
while nearly half the population is starving. According to reports,
the shadowy European corporation Suiss Finance Luxembourg AG has
announced a $10.5 billion deal that could rise to $105 billion.
A nation
carved out of a unified Sudan with help from the US and
“international community,” South Sudan plays an essential role in
hosting economic arrangements to the benefit of strategic U.S.
interests in the region with its large reserves of gold, construction
materials and crude petroleum.
While
creating a state of affairs that reinforces hunger, the U.S. and its
allies, are finding new ways to exploit the most vulnerable and keep
them divided through means of war and weapons imports.
Yemen is
also being forced to endure the chilling effects of famine thanks to
a U.S.-backed bombing campaign by Saudi Arabia and a well-armed
coalition supported by the Trump administration. After years of
indiscriminate bombing campaigns and port blockades, starving Yemenis
are are also dealing with cholera, with the number of cases set to
hit 150,000 in the next 6 months due to a lack of medicine. Those who
can’t afford food or other basic necessities are marrying off their
daughters in the hopes that they’ll be cared for and that dowries
will help provide for them.
Already one
of the poorest countries in the Arab world, Yemen is now facing
near-total collapse. Saudi Arabia, by blocking imports of food,
medicine, and fuel, has given the people of Yemen a death sentence so
the U.S. can rattle its saber at Iran and ensure Saudi Arabia’s
hegemony over Yemen’s vast oil reserves.
Humanitarian
aid will mean little without the end of war, especially if that aid
is tied to militarization and resource exploitation.
The U.S.
doesn’t deliver aid for the sake of altruism, but with direct or
indirect guarantees that they will be able to build or deepen a
relationship with recipients for its own benefit. The U.S. has long
used disaster relief efforts as a way to advance its military
presence and undermine entire countries, like in the use of USAID.
The face of
modern colonialism takes many shapes. Empires grow by tightening
their grip on the land and the people in order to fill their own
pockets.
The downward
spiral of famine will not end until countries like Somalia, Yemen and
South Sudan are no longer targets of imperialism.
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