Africa is a great continent filled with a wide range of countries, peoples and cultures. However sadly, it is also filled with countless tragedies-wars,conflicts,poverty,disease,famine.Though sometimes these events make it onto the news and public awareness,Many times they do not. As a result most people in general regard all the sufferings in Africa as just one big faceless problem.
But really the sufferings in Africa count among the worst in modern history and it is crucial that in these times of technological achievements and social prosperity the general public should be aware of this fact,of the details and the extent.

Western Africa:Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Liberia
Brutal civil wars have been fought in both Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast, with Liberian involvement each time.Many people have died and others have been mutilated,tortured and raped and all sides have commited these terrible crimes. In Sierra Leone, government forces battled the rebels until a peace settlement was forged in 2002 partially due to armed intervention by British soldiers.2003 was certainly not better in Ivory coast which saw a civil war raging on until French armed intervention saw a ceasefire being brokered. This started from a failed coup attempt September 2002 by disgruntled troops which then escalated to a full-scale rebellion due in large part to alleged discrimination felt by northern Muslim people from the government. Liberian troops had gone into the Ivory coast to fight on the side of the rebels though Ivorian troops have joined with French troops to push out these Liberians.In Liberia whose leader,US-educated Charles Taylor has funded and sent forces into Sierra Leone to support the rebels and worsen the conflict to rake in profits from diamond resources in that country, there is another civil war going on which involves several rebel factions.

Central Africa:Democratic Republic of Congo(formerly known as Zaire)
A terrible war has been going on in this impoverished nation which started as a civil war and erupted into full-scale warfare involving several nations including Angola,Rwanda,Uganda and Zimbabwe.The death toll from this catastrophic is at least 3 million.That's right-I'm not mistaken. At least three times the amount of people killed in Rwandan civil war in 1994 and certainly much more than the casualties in Iraq,Kosovo or the Middle East. This war was started in part from the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide 1994 when Hutus in Rwanda after their horrific mass murder of over 500,000 Tutsis fled into Congo where many of their kinsmen live and found sanctuary under the Congo's then leader/dictator Mobutu Sese Seko. Looking for revenge and to bring the murderers 'to justice', the Tutsi-controlled army of Rwanda crossed into Congo in 1998 and attacked the Hutu militia refugees-the genocidaires. In addition, Rwanda helped engineer a rebellion to topple Mobutu Sese and installed another as leader Laurent Kabila who was friendly to the Rwandans. However, Kabila instead rearmed the Hutu genocidaires so the Rwandans tried to start another coup to topple Kabila. Other African nations got involved, Uganda and Burundi aided the Rwandans in this attempted uprising against Kabila, but friendly nations,most prominent Angola and Zimbabwe intervened to help save Kabila from the fate of Mobutu Sese. In 2003, most of the nations involved have pulled out or have stopped fighting each other. They have all exacted a terrible toll on Congo with their fighting and plundering.the difference now is that instead of full-scale warfare there are now numerous bands of militias and thugs most armed by different countries such as Uganda and Rwanda, and they roam across large parts of Congo such as the eastern countryside creating an atmosphere of unlawlessness,pillage and exploitation. Essentially most of those nations that invaded became less interested in fighting each other and more active in pillaging the local peoples and plundering their resources. Recently in May there were reports of massacres in Northeastern Congo by rival tribal militias-Hema and Lendu whilst UN troops were helpless to stop the carnage. Thousands of people were killed in fighting and massacres and the international community was finally forced to look at this terrible conflict and intervene with French soldiers forming the brunt of an international force. However certainly for the last few years the international community including the Western media,developed nations and government leaders has hardly done anything to stop or expose this violence. It is laudable that the UN and France have sent peacekeepers and troops into Congo but as judged by the death and destruction it is far too late for the millions killed and violated.