With an estimated 1000 dead and over 300,000 displaced you would think that such a scenario is playing out in the Sudan or Somalia. However, anybody with knowledge of African politics would be shocked at the furious state in which violence has plunged the usually safe and rather democratic country of Kenya into a bloody civil war. Ever since the re-election of President Mwai Kibaki, Kenya has plummeted into a state of civil disarray only seen in its neighbouring countries. With savage clashes between those loyal to the President and Opposition Leader Raila Odinga worsening with the passing of each day, one can increasingly be forgiven for barely raising a hopeful eyebrow of peace even despite the presence of former UN Chief Kofi Anan currently attempting to broker a peace deal between both parties.
To the west of Kenya fresh violence has again erupted in the capital of Chad, N'Jamena, as rebels launched its latest assault on government troops in an attempt to oust President Idriss Deby. After two days of intense clashes the rebels finally withdrew but not before tens of thousands fled the capital to neighbouring Cameroon, which lies south west of N'Jamena. At the present situation no official death toll has been given despite bodies littering the city's streets.
What makes the current situation even more unstable are claims by the Chad Government backed up by the United States that the rebels were aided by neighbouring country Sudan, a country already infamous for its notorious ethnic civil war in Darfur that has already seen several hundreds of thousands dead and several million displaced.
Despite the plan by the European Union to deploy a peacekeeping force to protect the displaced multitudes of Sudanese and Chadian refugees, one must question the reality of whether Africa can truly embrace peace in the foreseeable future. After all, the volatility of sporadic violence happening in any African country is something that is not too far fetched. The current events in Kenya bears clear testament to that. Extremely violent civil wars without any shred of humanity waged on ethnic or religious differences are now as common as the Reserve Bank of Australia raising interest rates.
Yet what can a continent that has known little besides famine, poverty, and war be it via ethnic cleansing or with its neighbouring countries possibly do to alleviate its current situation? Peace talks though frequent are about as viable as the world actually caring about the situation. Plus talk in this instance is not only cheap but pointless in a region whereby the rule of law is in the form of a machete or an AK-47 toting soldier with a Russian made RPG strapped to his back.
Surprisingly or perhaps unsurprisingly, the world remains relatively detached, like a stranger in the street with their ipod blasting the latest itunes without a care in the world. Now why is that? Is it because Africa as a whole just is not as economically lucrative as the Middle East? Is it because despite its constant state of violence, these countries possess no firepower deserving of satellite analysis by the CIA? Or is it simply a case of TIA (This Is Africa) whereby the global thought pattern simply is: If it has always been broke, why fix it?
Regardless the situation, the world needs to stop sitting on the sidelines and realise that no matter how detached Africa may seem on their foreign policy agenda, basic humanity dictates that such violence cannot be allowed to continue to permeate a continent that has already been soaked in the very blood of its own people, regardless of ethnicity, religion or political allegiance.
To the west of Kenya fresh violence has again erupted in the capital of Chad, N'Jamena, as rebels launched its latest assault on government troops in an attempt to oust President Idriss Deby. After two days of intense clashes the rebels finally withdrew but not before tens of thousands fled the capital to neighbouring Cameroon, which lies south west of N'Jamena. At the present situation no official death toll has been given despite bodies littering the city's streets.
What makes the current situation even more unstable are claims by the Chad Government backed up by the United States that the rebels were aided by neighbouring country Sudan, a country already infamous for its notorious ethnic civil war in Darfur that has already seen several hundreds of thousands dead and several million displaced.
Despite the plan by the European Union to deploy a peacekeeping force to protect the displaced multitudes of Sudanese and Chadian refugees, one must question the reality of whether Africa can truly embrace peace in the foreseeable future. After all, the volatility of sporadic violence happening in any African country is something that is not too far fetched. The current events in Kenya bears clear testament to that. Extremely violent civil wars without any shred of humanity waged on ethnic or religious differences are now as common as the Reserve Bank of Australia raising interest rates.
Yet what can a continent that has known little besides famine, poverty, and war be it via ethnic cleansing or with its neighbouring countries possibly do to alleviate its current situation? Peace talks though frequent are about as viable as the world actually caring about the situation. Plus talk in this instance is not only cheap but pointless in a region whereby the rule of law is in the form of a machete or an AK-47 toting soldier with a Russian made RPG strapped to his back.
Surprisingly or perhaps unsurprisingly, the world remains relatively detached, like a stranger in the street with their ipod blasting the latest itunes without a care in the world. Now why is that? Is it because Africa as a whole just is not as economically lucrative as the Middle East? Is it because despite its constant state of violence, these countries possess no firepower deserving of satellite analysis by the CIA? Or is it simply a case of TIA (This Is Africa) whereby the global thought pattern simply is: If it has always been broke, why fix it?
Regardless the situation, the world needs to stop sitting on the sidelines and realise that no matter how detached Africa may seem on their foreign policy agenda, basic humanity dictates that such violence cannot be allowed to continue to permeate a continent that has already been soaked in the very blood of its own people, regardless of ethnicity, religion or political allegiance.
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