century without a government, but with many warlords who are
keeping busy by looting, and even attacking humanitarian aid convoys. All
they have achieved is the immediate prospect of starvation for the
hundreds of thousands (Stam Predrag, "'Children of the abyss': The
continent of Africa is in a crucial fight for a brighter future, but it
has yet to defeat widespread corruption, disease, poverty and civil
war," The Ottawa Citizen, April 22, 2000, L/N).
The third area of concern in the Greater Horn is Sudan:
''We will never accept Sharia law to be implemented in the south of
Sudan and we are going to fight for the autonomy for our people,'' William
Deng, one-time rebel leader, told me exactly 32 years ago. Two years
later, Mr. Deng was killed in an ambush on a side road in the south of
Sudan. However, the largest country in Africa (2,505,810 sq km) which
gained its independence on Jan. 1, 1956, is still fighting a war between
the mainly Muslim north and the Christian and Anymist south. The war has
claimed the lives of more than one million people to date, but the army
of Gen. Omar el Bashir, the present head of state, still has not
succeeded in conquering the entire south. The humanitarian situation in
the south of the country is devastating. Large groups of malnourished
children are dying each day from starvation or disease, while many people
are still being rounded up and sold into slavery at the onset of the 21st
century. A tragic scenario, especially since this country of 35 million
people has the potential to feed the whole of Africa (Stam Predrag,
"'Children of the abyss': The continent of Africa is
in a crucial fight for a brighter future, but it has yet to defeat
widespread corruption, disease, poverty and civil war," The
Ottawa Citizen, April 22, 2000, L/N).
Pedrag concludes, "Protracted and devastating civil wars are one of
the main causes for the disastrous situation in which many African
countries find themselves nowadays," which certainly indicates it is
a "root cause" and a great area for debate. And, of course,
the solutions and causes are easily debateable. Pedrag also notes,
"It is to easy to blame Africa's former colonial masters (slavery,
state boundaries drawn by rulers of the past which often left ethnic
communities spread out over several countries, exploitation and the
like). But, 40 years after many African countries gained independence,
there is a growing number of statesmen, politicians and academics who are
openly questioning whether their presidents are capable of leading the
African people to a renaissance."
Water is also a
significant concern. As illustrated above, famine and drought are having
a significant influence on the region. And, certainly unless there are
some agreements on the use of water in the Greater Horn, war could
result. Ataker Ejalu, a former Cabinet Minister and editor in Uganda,
reports:
Negotiations between countries of the Nile Basin over equitable
utilisation and sharing of water resources take place against a
historically contentious legacy of colonial treaties made between Britain
and (mainly) Egypt, and others between Britain and Italy, France, Belgium
and Germany.
Ongoing negotiations, which climaxed with a recent meeting in Khartoum,
Sudan, are not only about use of the River Nile's water, but also water
in other regional sources such as the Blue Nile and the Kagera, Semliki,
Isango, Lake Tsana and Sabot rivers. Riparian states involved include
Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt. The discussions have
particularly been spurred by warnings that the world's water supply is in
a crisis. Analysts even fear that an expected
"megadrought" could trigger a worldwide "water
war" between nations ("The Third World War Will Be All About
Water," The East African (Nairobi), April 17, 2000, http://www.africanews.org/east/stories/20000417/20000417_feat2.html).
These three areas of concern (famine, civil war, and water) are all
significant problems that result in a multitude of other
problems. Millions of people are at risk, millions more are threatened
if issues are not settled in the Greater Horn. The remainder of this
paper will be devoted to justifying an examination of the Greater Horn as
a term within the resolution, providing backgrounds of the
"countries" within the Greater Horn, and justifying the United
States as the actor and examining actions that could be taken. The last
part of the paper will be devoted to specific wordings that could be used
for resolutions.
Defining the Greater Horn of Africa
(Drew Butler, Primary Author)
The original intent
of the authors of this paper was to look only at the "Horn of
Africa." However, the focus has now changed to look at the
"Greater Horn of Africa." The "Horn of Africa" was
abandoned after looking at several definitions. Those definitions
generally included Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Sudan, and Somalia. One
definition included the Seychelles. However, the idea of using the
geographic term "Horn of Africa" was abandoned when the
following definition was found:
Easternmost projection of Africa; variously used of Somalia, SE or all of
Ethiopia, and sometimes Djibouti (Merriam Webster's Geographical
Dictionary, 3
