Development assistance should be prioritized over military aid in the Sahel region of Africa.

OBSERVATION: I. PRESERVING HUMAN LIFE SHOULD BE THE PRIORITY IN DETERMINING THE TYPE OF ASSISTANCE. Human life is the precondition for all values attributed to human persons. Human life has been referred to as "an almost absolute value in history." The need to protect human life and the more stringent imperative of do not kill are regarded as basic, constitutive elements of the moral life of any society. The relationships embodied in and shaped by humans rest on the inviolability of human life. The inestimable value of human life is based on the consideration that each person has been raised to a sublime dignity. II. DEVELOPED NATIONS HAVE A MORAL OBLIGATION TO PREVENT SUFFERING WHERE POSSIBLE. "Famine, Affluence, and Morality," Peter Singer claimed that affluent people in the developed world are morally obligated to transfer large amounts of resources to poor people in the developing world. He derived this conclusion from two principles, both of which he believed are backed by the authority of common sense. The first principle is "that suffering and death from lack of food, shelter, and medical care are bad." The second is that "if it is in our power to prevent something bad from happening, without thereby sacrificing anything of comparable moral importance, we ought morally to do it." CONTENTIONS: I. HUMANITARIAN NEED REPRESENTS THE GREATEST THREAT TO LOSS OF LIFE IN THE SAHEL REGION. A. ECONOMIC DEPRIVATION THREATENS MASSIVE LOSS OF LIFE IN THE SAHEL REGION. Key socioeconomic indicators and the living conditions of the population continue to deteriorate, while Mali"s health and development indicators rank among the worst in the world. Urban populations are most affected as a result of job losses and the need to sustain large displaced populations in the cities. At least 77 per cent of Malians live under the international poverty line, most of them lacking access to safe drinking water and sanitation services of any kind. Medical facilities in Mali are very limited, and medicine is in short supply. Mali"s population also suffers from a high rate of malnutrition, as well as high rates of child death, and high risks of infant and maternal death. The humanitarian situation remains critical, with millions of people affected by the crises. More than 4.3 million Malians were in need of assistance in 2012 because of the food and nutrition crisis. Despite good harvests in late 2012, approximately 747,000 people were in need of immediate food assistance and an additional 1.3 million were at risk of food insecurity. As access to commodities has been dramatically curtailed in northern Mali, humanitarian partners are scaling up to meet protection needs, such as prevention and support to victims of sexual and gender-based violence and exploitation, as well as assistance to children who had been recruited into armed groups. Last year was a very dramatic year in terms of food crisis. The Sahel was plagued by an historic drought, which created serious food shortages for some 18 million people. This year, the Sahel has enjoyed better rainfall and better harvests. Despite this, Piper says 11 million people continue to be food insecure. Contention 2: MILITARY AID FAILS TO INCREASE SECURITY IN THE SAHEL REGION Western governments look set to increase their military support for Sahelian and Saharan countries. But they do this based on incorrect assumptions, misguided objectives and questionable methods. At best, this trend will cost a lot of money and lives, and achieve little. At worst, it will lead to a worsening spiral of violence, producing the very outcomes Western powers fear. More military aid to countries in the region means even more weapons and resources to go around. More foreign military personnel means more potential targets, maybe providing the incentive for thus-far local terrorist groups to adopt a more global agenda, as with al-Shabaab in Somalia. And increased terrorist activity will sooner or later lead to calls for drones to be armed and the Sahara to become the latest theater in the "shadow drone war". All these dynamics will introduce new layers of violence. It is not clear what Western politicians and strategists are hoping to achieve by going down this road. No exit strategy and only vague objectives have been formulated. It appears that in their quest to find military solutions to fundamentally non-military problems, Western governments will get themselves lost in the sands of the Sahara, and so far they do not even seem to realize it.