So-called ‘migrant crisis’

Why are so many Africans starving when their continent has the most fertile land on the planet?

I do think the key is Education. All the world needs to wake up and see the destruction and chaos around.

Climate is changing, whether you buy into “man made climate problems” or the historical facts that the world has previously gone through different climate conditions.

I think that mankind is contributing to the climate problems.

Jalima
It's not just the land. The eu have negotiated 'deals' for eu trawlers to fish in the West African countries waters. Yes, these countries do receive money but the eu trawlers are decimating the fish stock.
When the fish are gone, what's left for these poor nations?

GG13
Totally agree Re education. That's why I've supported several children through the charity Plan. One of my girls has just turned 18. I've supported her schooling since she was 8. She is going on to be a teacher. All the children are in Zimbabwe.

Petra, Plan is one of the better charities to support they do such a good job with education, which I feel is especially important for the females of so called third world countries.

It helps that they can go on to have a career and help others. As well as education around contraception and giving them the tools to have a better life.

The eu have negotiated 'deals' for eu trawlers to fish in the West African countries waters. Yes, these countries do receive money but the eu trawlers are decimating the fish stock.
So presumably the governments of these West African countries benefit but may not pass on the benefits to their people. Meanwhile, the west in the form of the EU government plunders their fish stocks whilst making our own and EU fishermen conform to the Common Fisheries Policy for conservation purposes.

Jalima
That's about the size of it. What's even worse, a lot of this fish (caught off the west coast) is being transported to Norway and Russia!!!
Coles to Newcastle springs to mind.

The greedy West plundering the poor and needy, whilst the governments of the poor and needy line their pockets, perhaps.

I watched a report on The Congo the other week - rich in mineral deposits and rich soil for agriculture, huge resources of fresh water - but with one of the poorest populations on earth.

Bad and corrupt government plus war and conflicts is what is causing migration. Africa has sufficient resources, enough rich land to provide for all its people, even if some areas are drought-stricken.

Absolutely true Jalima1108!

Africa has sufficient resources, enough rich land to provide for all its people

But 'Africa' is not one nation ; the concept of 'sharing' resources to benefit the whole of the African population is no doubt even more alien and unwelcome to its individual countries than the idea of the UK sharing its resources fairly among its citizens is in this country...

The whole planet could possibly sustain its population if resources were shared but no-one really wants to do that. Judging by responses on this thread the idea that what we have is ours and cannot be shared by people from other nations is sufficiently widespread as to make any 'sharing' policies deeply unpopular...

Excellent post Chewbacca..my town..Bolton has changed beyond belief and NOT for the better...our schools,surgeries, hospitals etc are stretched to the limit...thank goodness that our GM mayor Andy Burnham is onto it.....

Well observed Maizie

But 'Africa' is not one nation
Well, neither is the EU - I'm not saying they should share the resources without payment, rather that more resources could be utilised for the benefit of their own people and countries such as The Congo, Zimbabwe (formerly the bread basket of Africa) could export food to countries which have problems growing sufficient food for their people.

It is not lack of resources, it is corrupt governments and conflict causing the problems.

It's all one huge bloody mess, isn't it?

So what are the starving people in sub-Saharan Africa going to use to pay for food from other African countries?

And isn't Africa one of the places that Brexiters are proposing to exploit for cheap food?

It feels a bit like the Irish famine in the 19th C when grain from Ireland was being exported when the population was starving...

MaizieD
This leaver isn't proposing to exploit the African nations, but we will give them a better deal than the eu one which protects Spain (mostly) which makes some produce more expensive for us.
So for me it's a win win. They will have lower or no tariffs and we will have cheaper food etc.

Well I for one would rather get food from Holland or Spain and pay their farmers a decent whack than from somewhere in Africa where you’d have to pay them a lot less to make it worth the increased cost of transportation, and what about the impact on the environment. It’s just crazy.

There is an area in Spain covered in polly tunnels where the migrant workers are paid peanuts and exploited dreadfully.
I try to avoid imported Spanish fruit and vegetables where possible.

The truth is we are all humans , the truth is there are too many of us
The truth is that there is STILL total inequality throughout the World
The truth is that there is No Worldwide Consensus to implement basic equalities of food & shelter
The truth is words are meaningless if we can’t ensure that all humans are given the same chance to survive. Sadly I don’t see any determined effort throughout the world to accomplish this . In fact it is probably more unlikely now than it ever was.

I was looking online to see from which countries we import most of our food.
I wondered how much we imported from African nations. Apparently they export 90% of their wood to China and some of the food WE import is distributed to countries nearer to us (Holland etc) than the country we imported it from.
Some results are quite surprising.
I can't put a link from my phone but here are a couple of pie charts. Nope...they're pdf files so I'll post them after sending this

Found it.

Africa's biggest exports are palm-oil, diamonds, oil and timber and Spain has fallen to second place for our orange imports.
I doubt we'd want to import more palm-oil, given the recent thread on the subject. Diamonds are purportedly a girl's best friend but not purse friendly. Oil? We'll always need oil but most of ours is from the Middle East and Russia (correct me if I'm wrong)
Africa's timber trade is mostly with China but I think that Africa's government doesn't share the spoils of trade equally over all areas, neither do we.

Well I for one would rather get food from Holland or Spain and pay their farmers a decent whack than from somewhere in Africa where you’d have to pay them a lot less to make it worth the increased cost of transportation, and what about the impact on the environment. It’s just crazy.
crystaltipps did you see the programme about the huge areas of polytunnels in Spain from where we get our fruit, our tomatoes - and the plight of the migrant workers from Africa who are exploited there?
It was absolutely appalling and heartbreaking.
The other face of the EU.

I take it, then, Maizie, that you are not keen on African countries becoming less corrupt, growing food and helping each other.
They may be different countries on that continent (we didn't need that pointing out btw) but so are the disparate countries of Europe yet we did manage to join together and help each other and try to bring the poorer ones up to a higher standard.

Would it be better for 153 million potentially starving people from African countries to come to Europe or would it be better for that continent to pull together and start to co-operate to use their vast resources and potential to help each other?