Creating Conditions for More Violence
Though Obama said in his 2009 Ghana speech that he would support “strong institutions, and not strong men,” his military approach to the continent has left a generation of young men in nations like Libya and Somalia without future prospects, making them easy targets for recruitment by extremist groups offering nothing more than $20 and a cellphone, according to Shank. Similarly, it is no surprise that some of the most unstable and insecure countries in sub-Saharan Africa perform the poorest in the JustJobs Index’s ranking of countries with employment opportunity, income security, employment security, safety at work and healthy work conditions, equality of treatment and opportunity. Whether in Libya, Somalia, Nigeria, Egypt, South Sudan or the Central African Republic, any young man or woman is going to be much less inclined to pursue violence if they’ve got a good job, a quality education and legitimate socio-economic opportunities available to them.
