armed conflicts are spread the in middle east and north africa the most

But the rise of less-known Isis affiliates, such as so-called Islamic State West Africa, and regional jihadist groups is a cause of growing concern, says the US-based Council on Foreign Relations.Ībout 2.4 million people in the Lake Chad basin are displaced. In Nigeria, the notorious Boko Haram insurgency has been pegged back. Across this vast area, home to numerous other under-reported conflicts, the developed world’s present-day neglect is sowing a poisonous future harvest.

Its instability reflects that of its neighbours – Nigeria, Chad and the Central African Republic – and the wider Sahel region. Though the specifics vary, Cameroon does not suffer in isolation. Hundreds of villages have been burned down, tens of thousands of people are hiding in the bush with no humanitarian support, and attacks are taking place every day.” Both the government and separatists are accused of “horrific human rights violations”. Since 2016, conflict between government forces and non-state armed groups has forced 450,000 people from their homes.Īccording to the report, “780,000 children are out of school. According to a new Norwegian Refugee Council report, Cameroon is the world’s most neglected displacement crisis. Oil-dependent Libya saw its GDP fall 24 percent in 2014, the IMF said.Īfter three years of conflict, Middle Eastern and North African countries wracked by fighting suffered average GDP losses of 6-15 percentage points, compared to a 4-9 percentage-point average worldwide, according to the study.Ĭountries bordering a high-intensity conflict zone suffered an average annual GDP decline of 1.4 percentage points worldwide, with a bigger drop of 1.9 percentage points in the Middle East and North Africa region.Political repression may be the least of Cameroon’s worries.

In a new study analyzing 179 conflict countries since 1970 to quantify economic costs, the IMF found that the drops in economic output in war-torn Syria, Libya and Yemen in recent years have far exceeded the worldwide average.Īfter five years of war, Syria’s gross domestic product is less than half its pre-conflict level in 2010, while Yemen lost 25 percent to 35 percent of its GDP in 2015 alone. People shop at a vegetables market near a damaged building in the rebel held al-Shaar neighborhood of Aleppo, Syria, August 30, 2016.

Armed conflicts are spread the in middle east and north africa the most