Behind 'Smokescreen' of Charity, Global Financial Elite Pillage African Nations $60bn Each Year
Published on Tuesday, July 15, 2014 by Common Dreams
Behind 'Smokescreen' of Charity, Global Financial Elite Pillage African Nations $60bn Each Year
"Notions of aid and charity are in reality aiding politicians and multinational corporations to continue plundering Africa behind a shroud of ‘generosity’."
- Lauren McCauley, staff writer
Under the "smokescreen" of giving aid or charity, western governments and multinational corporations are pillaging states in sub-Sahara Africa with losses nearing $60 billion each year, according to research published on Tuesday by a coalition of 10 Africa and UK-based NGOs.
The report, Honest accounts? The true story of Africa's billion dollar losses (pdf), finds that while an estimated $134 billion flows into the continent annually through a combination of loans, foreign investment and aid, African nations lose approximately $192 billion in profits made by foreign multinational companies, as well as through tax evasion and the costs of adapting to climate change.
"Notions of aid and charity are in reality aiding politicians and multinational corporations to continue plundering Africa behind a shroud of ‘generosity’," the report's authors write. "It is preventing governments from being held accountable for policies that have a far greater impact on Africa and diverting attention from the structural changes needed to eliminate poverty and gross inequality."
The losses stem from abuses across a wide range of areas including: "illicit financial flows; profits taken out of the continent by multinational companies; debt payments; brain drain of skilled workers; illegal logging and fishing and the costs incurred as a result of climate change."
According to the report, if other countries keep looting Africa at the same rate, over the next 10 years the African people will lose $580 billion.
More:
https://www.commondreams.org/headline/2014/07/15-4
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