Environmental Crimes Change Face of Sub-Saharan Africa
The refugee crisis that has sent hundreds of thousands of people from the Middle East and Africa to Europe this year is overwhelmingly fueled by civil war, threats from terror groups and poverty.
But another factor is exacerbating the crisis: New evidence suggests that environmental crime—including pervasive exploitation and illegal trade in natural resources—is helping to push some people out of sub-Saharan Africa.
According to the United Nations Environment Program's executive director, Achim Steiner, intense competition for extraction of environmental resources is fueling violence and creating desperate conditions on part of the continent.
The alarming pace of brutality and level of sophistication of illegal and unsustainable exploitation of natural resources by organized local and foreign criminal syndicates is now a key element toward intensifying flows of migrants from Africa to Europe, Steiner said.57982059202.
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