AFRICA - Africans increasingly urbanised

Rome (Agenzia Fides)- Forget pictures of rural Africa: the slum is now advancing. A report issued by the International Institute for Environment and Development said that Africa urban population is larger than that of North America and that 25 African cities register the highest population growth in the world.
The report highlights the gap between rapid urban growth and government capacity to plan and mange this phenomenon. Moreover, the most serious problems related to present climate change are registered in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
Half of the world's urban population lives in Asia, which has half the world's most populated cities.
The greater part of population growth in the last century was registered in low and medium income countries, the report says. Most of these countries lack the legal and financial institutional systems to manage the rapid urban change which has occurred in the past 15 years and to deal with urban poverty and its associated risks (crime, etc..). The report says however that well managed urbanisation can be an opportunity for growth and better living conditions.
UN-Habitat offices in Nairobi, Kenya which deals with urbanisation, says that at present two thirds of Africa's urban population lives in slums or “informal” settlements without running water or drains, or systems of transport and healthcare. Underlining that that by 2030 most Africans will be living in cities instead of rural areas, UN-Habitat stressed the need to offer serious future prospects to young slum dwellers, uprooted from traditional African culture and in danger of falling into the trap of crime or even terrorism. A prospect well known to western armies staff officer plans to train and arm their own troops in view of possible urban and slum warfare. Wouldn't it be better to spend more on improving the living conditions of these peoples? (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 6/11/2007 righe 27 parole 330)