Experts told Sky News Arabia that the current population explosion leads to serious repercussions, most notably fueling terrorism, increasing poverty and drought, and exacerbating the food and education crises.
According to World Population, half of the population increase in Africa comes from 4 countries: Nigeria, which is mired in a spiral of terrorism, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which suffers from major security crises, and Ethiopia, which has high rates of poverty and food insecurity, in addition to Tanzania, which is affected by the current drought that affects many From the countries east of Cairo.
population explosion
Africa currently has a population of 1.4 billion out of a total world population of 8 billion, according to the latest report of the United Nations Population Organization.
There is a significant link between the repercussions resulting from the population increase in African countries, as the increase in the population leads to an increase in human activities that are harmful to the environment and cause droughts, which in turn deepen the food and water crisis that fuels civil conflicts and wars that cast a shadow on the efficiency of educational and health services. .
And in context; Halima Sharif, Director of the Family Planning Organization in Tanzania, told Sky News Arabia that the rapid population increase in Africa has great economic and social consequences. The population growth comes at a time when most African countries are struggling to cope with the rising cost of living, health and education services for their people.
Rapid population growth
The rapid population growth is considered one of the main causes of the current drought in most parts of Africa. Population growth leads to an increase in greenhouse gas emissions.
The main reason for the current acceleration of the drought and climate changes is due to human factors resulting from irrational dealing with the environment, and the increase in the accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which raises the temperature, and disturbs the natural balance between temperature, atmospheric pressure, condensation of water vapor, and wind movement.
The education sector is also affected by factors associated with drought, poverty and security conditions, all of which lead to an increase in the school dropout rate.
According to Save the Children, more than a fifth of Africa’s 7-year-old children lose the opportunity to enter school, while 60% of young people between the ages of 15 and 17 are forced to cut off their education due to economic and security conditions and natural disasters that strike most parts of the continent.
Holly Warren, Head of the Education Department at Save the Children, told Sky News Arabia that African countries face a complex set of factors that exacerbate the phenomenon of out-of-school attendance. A rising population reduces the assumed percentage of government spending on education.
Experts link the population explosion with the increase in terrorist activities in Africa; Terrorist groups take advantage of widespread poverty and unemployment to recruit more people into their ranks. In parallel with the large population increase over the past years; The number of terrorist attacks carried out in Africa increased by 55 percent; According to the estimates of the Terrorism Index for the year 2022; Published by the Institute for Economics and International Peace.
fueling political tension
Muhammad Khalifa, professor of political science and researcher at the Center for African Studies, points out the strong relationship between population growth, terrorism, and cases of security unrest. “The population increase contributes to fueling political tension and increasing friction between tribes in light of the scarcity of resources and the increasing droughts,” he told Sky News Arabia.
He added, “The population increase will have a great impact on raising the political tension, increasing the rates of migration, conflicts and civil wars, and the developmental imbalance, and thus increasing the suffering of the poorest people, which sometimes pushes many of them to join the ranks of terrorist organizations.”
Significant impact
- More than 40 percent of the continent’s 1.4 billion people live below the poverty line.
- About 800,000 people on the continent are currently at risk of food insecurity; While the population is expected to reach 1.6 billion by 2030, it is expected that the number of those in food poverty will rise to more than one billion; In light of the decline in agricultural production by more than 30 percent due to the effects of climate change and the increasing civil conflicts.
- The large population increase negatively affects growth in Africa, which ranks 35 of its countries in the list of 46 countries classified by the United Nations as the least developed countries in the world.
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