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President John Dramani Mahama has identified the control and exploitation of natural resources as major factors fuelling conflicts in Africa, calling on leaders to address the economic interests that sustain violence across the continent.
Speaking at the 12th Tana High-Level Forum in Bahir Dar, Ethiopia, during the presentation of the State of Peace and Security in Africa Report, President Mahama said the continent’s conflicts could not be understood solely through the activities of armed groups, weapons and military operations.
He stressed the need to examine who controls Africa’s valuable natural resources, who benefits from their extraction and whose interests are served by continued instability.
“Those are merely the fever, not the malaria plasmodium. The real disease is mostly in the arena of political economy,” he said.
President Mahama cited the conflicts in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, as well as insecurity in Somalia and Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado region, as examples of how economic interests, governance failures and local grievances contribute to instability.
He called for stronger resource governance systems to ensure that Africa’s natural wealth benefits its people rather than widening inequality and financing conflicts.
The President emphasised that achieving lasting peace would require African governments to tackle the underlying political and economic conditions that allow conflicts to persist, rather than focusing only on their immediate security implications.
Source:Omanghana
