African war costs

Wars in Africa have cost as much as the hundreds of millions of dollars the continent has been given in international aid, according to a report released yesterday.

But while it called for global controls on the arms trade and said "many African governments feel let down by the international community", analysts said that African leaders were more to blame for armed conflict than anyone else.

On average, war, civil war or insurgency shrank each affected country's economy by 15 per cent a year, with the continent losing $18 billion annually as a result.