Report highlights Africa war toll

African leaders know they must do more to end wars

A leading think tank has said that half of the world's 60,000 war victims in the last year were killed in Sub-Saharan Africa.

South Africa has the region's most ambitious procurement programme

The London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies said the immediate outlook for the continent's stability was bleak.

According to its annual "Military Balance" report, military spending in the region rose by four percent to $9.4bn, with Nigeria spending the most.

It noted that conflicts in Somalia, Angola and Burundi had escalated over the past year, but wars in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sierra Leone had scaled down.

Billions spent

The institute noted that military spending in Nigeria and Sudan had been fuelled by higher oil prices.

The immediate outlook is bleak

But on a positive note, it said the development of the oil industry in Sudan had made the country more sensitive to its international image.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, the accession to power of Joseph Kabila had also led to a decline in fighting.

South Africa's arms procurement programme was the region's most ambitious, but the report said it was probably too expensive to be fully implemented.

It has also been plagued by allegations of corruption.

Conflict resolution

In July, African leaders began transforming the Organisation of African Unity into the new African Union with hugely ambitious plans to eradicate poverty and promote economic growth and development.

But the question of conflict resolution dominated their summit.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned that if Africans wanted to follow the example of Europe after World War II and build a union, they would have to resolve their conflicts.

Heads of state know they must do more to end wars in Africa if they are to lift the continent out of poverty and crisis.