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Private
Military Companies (PMCs) and Africa’s Wars
The
protracted Civil Wars still raging in many countries in Africa is
not too cheery. It is pitiable that at a time when the world is
confronted by the challenge of the technological age, huge human
and material resources are being frittered away to fight senseless
wars in a continent still yearning to lift itself from the stage
of pristine development.
Many
countries in Africa have been reduced to shreds as the battle for
primacy amongst disparate political groups for power, rages on.
In the case of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the country
has virtually known no peace since it got independence four decades
ago. Almost everywhere you turn from Somalia, Sudan, Angola, Sierra
Leone, Congo, Guinea and other areas, the people are torn against
each other in a theatre of war in a battle of near attrition. In
Somalia and Sudan, there’s hardly the semblance of a government.
The
reign of anarchy and terror continues to reinforce hopelessness,
poverty, disease and homelessness. What is condemnable is the infamous
role of Private Military Companies PMCs in these wars. Since the
advent of Overcomes, a first generation PMC which was involved in
the war in the Congo, both the government and rebel authorities
have increasingly resorted to the assistance of the PMCs to conduct
its wars leading to the mushrooming of such mercenary armies in
most trouble spots.
For
the PMCs which includes Military Professionals Retired Initiative
(MPRI), the American based agency now working on a programme aimed
supposedly at re-professionalising the Nigerian Army, promoting
Africa’s wars is big business. From the factories located in America
and Europe, these PMCs made up largely of retired military officers
are making brisk business supplying the full compliment of military
hardware-motorised vehicles, guns, tanks, uniforms and even men
to fight in Africa’s wars.
To
put it quite crudely, PMCs are selling war packages to Africa. And
they are smiling to the banks with dollars made from the blood of
our slain brothers and sisters. For every one who’s killed or rendered
homeless in Africa’s wars, several dollars is being made by Euro-American
PMCs. Their economic interest is inextricably linked to the promotion
of internecine wars in Africa. The supply of huge military hardware
is usually paid for in terms of providing them leverage to unrestricted
control of the mineral resources of these war torn countries. And
that’s why the warlords are encouraged to slaughter themselves over
the control of diamonds, copper and other choice minerals.
It
can be understood why many peace moves with Africa’s myriads of
war lords usually collapses soon after the dramatis personae leave
the conference table. It is therefore necessary for African leaders
to be more circumspect of the unguarded intrusion of PMCs in wars
on the continent. The task of rescuing Africa from a state of miasma
is for the people themselves to take up the gauntlet and rid the
continent of war mongering miscreants.
There’s
the need to do away with PMCs who see Africa’s wars as pawns to
fester their business enterprise.
First published
in the National Interest, Volume 2, No 482 on May 5, 2002.
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