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the Sahel of West Africa has threatened 23 million lives by means of drought, conflict, and destruction of crops by pests (Evans pr.2 [8]). These kinds of issues are not only common but very deadly especially when they are intertwined with one another.

This quote by the UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan explains the devastation of AIDS 'Between 1999 and 2000 more people died of AIDS in Africa than in all the wars on the continent' ('Impact of Aids on Society' pr.1 [9]). Africa has one of the highest military expenditure growth and the violence has grown killing millions but has not beat the AIDS death count. Malaria caused an estimated 660,000 deaths (plus the uncertainty of 490,000-863,000 more) which was mostly among children ('Malaria' pr.1 [7]). A large amount of these deaths could have been prevented by using mosquito nets and getting proper vaccinations, unfortunately these kinds of things are hard to get especially in poorer regions. The famine in the Sahel of West Africa had a third of its 70 million population at risk of starvation and already 60% were going without sufficient food (Evans pr.7 [8]). The Sahel is a poor region and people struggle on a day to day basis to live, combined with the factors of a famine the poorest people are dramatically affected because they don't have much if anything to begin with. These 3 health factors contribute to almost all the death causes in Africa.

NGOs are helpful and save lives but their care is usually only a short term fix. The NGOs need to focus on developing society in the places they go to instead of just caring for basic needs. It's that extra mile that will go a long way if properly done and sustained. Health has been a widely recognized African issue for a long time with the most aid directed towards it. It's never fixed permanently because the people don't have proper education, no sustainable food and water, and virtually no healthcare. If NGOs worked on these things intensively it's very possible that situations would improve in impoverished parts of Africa.

War is an African issue which is mainly caused by conflict with militant groups and different cultural views. The M23 (March 23 Movement) and FDLR (Federation for the Democratic Liberation of Rwanda) are two groups situated in the DRC who are feeding most of the conflict in this area. The M23 was formed in April of 2009 by fighters in CNDP (Congress for Defence of the People), an ethnic Tutsi rebel group that was turned into an army under a 2009 peace deal gone wrong ('M23 allied with FDLR' pr.4 [10]). The FDLR's members are ethnic Tutsi's who were soldiers in the Rwandan army before being forced out by the 1994 Rwandan genocide ('M23 allied with FDLR' pr.5 [10]).

One of the main causes of the ongoing civil war in the DRC was the Rwandan genocide in 1994 when the Hutu regime that killed over 800,000 in 100 days was overthrown and the Tutsis fled to the DRC (Hochschild pr.5 [12]). The Hutu's had organized a massive genocide and were successful in executing it while the world watched and did nothing to help the Tutsi's. Although Rwandans are accountable for the execution and planning of the genocide governments and peace organizations share the guilt as they did nothing to prevent or stop the conflict ('Genocide in Rwanda' pr.6 [13]). The Tutsi's then pushed in a corner rebuilt themselves as the FDLR and started to take advantage of the DRC's rich natural resources.