African Conflicts and the Disability Toll

According to Rehabilitation International (RI) the African continent has over 80 million persons with disabilities today.

With malnutrition, accidents, crime, diseases and all manner of violent conflicts prevalent on this continent, Africa risks yet another dubious distinction of being the place with the fastest growing number of persons with disabilities in the world. Probably one wouldn't mind about this scenario if Africa had sufficient mechanisms and systems to provide for the well-being and rehabilitation of those with disabilities. But does it? So why "manufacture" so many persons with disabilities whom we are so inadequately prepared to support and protect? What a waste!

To start off, Africa does not have an African charter or convention on the rights and dignity of persons with disabilities. The majority of government and states in Africa have no clause in their constitutions or legislation and policies for the recognition and adequate protection of the rights of disabled persons. Disability and the concerns of people with disabilities are the least prioritized and inadequately factored section of the national budget and planning. Disability is still surrounded with a lot of guilt, shame, and stigma in most of African societies.

Survival is the issue for Africa's disabled children and adults

The infrastructure and facilities in this continent are neither there nor sufficiently adapted to meet the special needs of those with disabilities. In fact, many children born with learning disabilities rarely live to see their fifth birthday in Africa. In Europe or America such children would live to their adulthood due to advanced health care, rehabilitation and handsome social security systems.

While our friends with disabilities in the northern hemisphere talk of equalization of opportunities, here in Africa persons with disabilities are still grappling with the question of where they will get their next porridge. In Africa it's a question of survival. It is that serious, folks.

Back to conflicts and disability. It is estimated that between 350-500 people become amputees due to landmines per day. For every one person killed during war and related violence, two more become maimed. While many other factors that increase the disability toll in Africa may be excused, disability caused by conflict can longer be tolerated. It must be condemned, for it's preventable.

Serious issues of governance

The question of conflict, disability and the treatment of those with disabilities are serious issues of governance. Exclusion is indeed an indicator of bad governance. It should be one of the areas of concern and scrutiny under the much-publicized African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM). Indeed the nation's level of human development and democracy should be gauged from the point of view of how it treats its disabled persons. Disability and the concerns of the disabled persons should be among the indices or yardstick of a nation's socio-economic and democratic development.

During the OAU era, African governments did hide under the so-called non-interference in the sovereignty of other states. Under this useless policy, dictators would rape their countries with impunity, nobody would touch them. Many lunatics and terrorists in the name of presidents were tolerated and given safe havens in other African states.

What will be the role of the African Union?

The idea of an African peacekeeping force was long resisted. As Africa burnt and bled from endless conflicts, whether tribal and politically instigated, its leaders dined and hugged at OAU summits. What a contradiction? The OAU was an impotent bull, a toothless bulldog. But has the African Union (AU) changed that hopelessness? Is the African renaissance guaranteed under AU?

The new partnership for African development, NEPAD, and its African Peer Review Mechanism APRM has been touted as holding a lot of promise for African's restoration and economic take off. But, wait a bit...the African economic take off. Where is the peace and security that will guarantee investors a secure and predictable environment? That will allow peasant farmers in Ivory Coast to plough their cocoa farms. That will allow children to go to school in Darfur, Sudan or northern Uganda? Where is the peace to allow rural women in Kenya to engage in self- help initiatives and merry-go-rounds? Economic take off and predictable environment are inseparable in my view.

For AU to make a difference, it must break with the past OAU policies of non-interference and sovereignty. AU must be sufficiently equipped to prevent conflicts and address them from their roots. Progressive African leaders and the architects of novel ideas like NEPAD must summon sufficient coverage to tell off their wayward peers. APRM must wield a big stick and carrot for it to have meaning. It must encourage good governance across Africa but must also firmly and decisively deal with deviations from the accepted norms and benchmarks of good governance and democracy.

Ineffectiveness of "soft diplomacy" in Rwanda and Darfur

The so-called soft diplomacy and soft handling of rogue leaders must stop. Look at what happened to Rwanda. It shouldn't have happened. The Rwanda genocide could have been prevented by the OAU. African leadership did very little, very late. And after the genocide, they blamed the international community, the United Nations and their own son, Kofi Annan, for not doing enough. Of course the international community has a share of its responsibility for the African instability and conflicts. But, what has been the African leadership's role in that conspiracy? When will African leadership learn to own up to what is really their own mess? We can't keep scapegoating forever!!

Take the Darfur question for instance. By the end of that worst humanitarian crisis, a lot of people will not only have been butchered but also maimed and disabled. The Darfur crisis will massively increase the disability toll. For over 18 months now, the Sudanese Government backed militia, the Janjaweed, has brutalized, raped, killed and maimed thousands of blacks in Darfur region.

The international media has showed us and told us of the untold suffering the people in Darfur have had to endure. What we have not been told is how many have been made disabled. What lives are they leading? If some were lucky enough to get into refugee camps, what is life like for them there? What is their future? Human Rights watchdogs should tell us more about this. Why are they silent when disabled persons' rights are violated?

How has the AU handled this crisis? How firm and resolute has the AU leadership been with President Omar Hassan El Bashir of Sudan and the way he has dealt with the Darfur question? As the AU leadership procrastinates and prevaricates, another Rwanda style genocide is brewing up. And when that happens, they will blame the US, the United Nations, the international community and lack of resources as President Olegusun Obasanjo of Nigeria did the other day, in an interview with Jeff Koinage of CNN. President Obasanjo is being economical with the truth. He cites lack of resources to deal with conflicts in Africa but where does Africa get the resources to ignite and fuel them, in the first place? We must come clean on this!

Need for conflict resolution and accountability

AU must also be more serious about conflict resolution and peace making in Africa. Some warlords in Africa have made peace talks an industry and a lifetime career. From the great lakes region to the horns of Africa to Ivory Coast to Liberia to Sierra Leone. These warlords roam African capitol cities and live in five star hotels in the name of peace talks, which they have also absolutely no intention of honouring. They sign cease-fires and peace agreements in daytime only to trash them at night.

At some stage these militiamen and warlords must be rounded up and put in jail to stand trial for crimes against humanity. Instead of making them accountable for the torture, killings and disability they have caused much of Africa, we arm them and give them asylum when need arises. Charles Taylor of Liberia, for instance should have been handed over to UN war crimes tribunal in Sierra Leone. But what have we seen, instead? President Obasanjo, the chairman of African Union (AU), gave him protection in the name of asylum.

African people and leadership and the international community must rein in this primitive culture of carelessness, recklessness and impunity. This culture must be banished, ostracized and demonized on the continent. How for instance will one explain the endless, shapeless and timeless Somali and Sudan peace talks that Kenya has been brokering under the IGAD initiative?

Disabled Africans: get involved!

Countries like Kenya must review and reassess their support to these lopsided peace talks. Peace making in Africa now seems like chasing wind! Africa can and must put a stop to murderous conflicts that keep on adding to the number of disabled persons. That will require practical commitment and ruthlessness on the part of the continent's top leadership. Jokes aside! And to disabled people, stand up and demand an end to these senseless and stupid conflicts. Be involved and demand to be involved in conflict resolution and peace making initiatives. Be involved in the so-called African Peer Review Mechanism. Don't be left out. Never again.

Enough is Enough!

The writer has a physical disability and can be reached online: Phitalisw@amrefke.org

 printer-friendly format