African leaders warn of economic 'chaos'

African leaders are sounding a stark warning about the global financial crisis. In a meeting on Monday with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the heads of several African states said that Africa could “go under” and warned of widespread chaos and violence if the developed world doesn’t also provide aid to the continent as part of their efforts to rebuild the world economy.

The leaders, including Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, said that Africa was suffering badly because of the fall in the price of natural resources (like oil), a decline in tourism, and a sharp drop in money sent home by Africans abroad who are losing jobs in developed countries. The leaders noted that while Africa had no part in cooking up the financial schemes that led to the crisis, they are feeling the effects.

The argument they made was that giving African nations money now to help their economies would only be a fraction of what developed nations would likely spend in the future on emergency humanitarian aid and peacekeeping operations if Africa did in fact plunge into chaos because of the global economic slowdown. “The cost of sustainability in reform and recovery is much, much less than the cost of peacekeeping were the crisis to engender a return to conflict,” said Pres. Johnson-Sirleaf. They also warned that widespread conflict in Africa would also likely cause a refugee crisis in Europe as millions of Africans tried to flee the crisis.

Brown apparently agreed to take their concerns to the G20 global economic summit early next month, a gathering of the group of the world’s top industrial and developing nations where economic reform is expected to be the main topic of discussion.