In about 20 countries, the per-capita income is lower than 20 years ago. The majority of African countries are marginalised in world economic relations. The unemployment rate in Africa's cities has doubled between 1975 and 1995 from 10 to 20-22 per cent. Access to public services in the region dropped by 50 per cent since 1980. 45 per cent of the population in Sub-Saharan Africa is living in poverty.
Income disparities are among the highest in the world.
In 18 countries, there is armed conflict or civil war. Landmines threaten people in Angola, Mozambique, Eritrea, Somalia, Sudan, and other countries. The seven million refugees in Africa south of the Sahara are more than half of all refugees in the world. 63 per cent of the 1.9 million victims of conflicts in Southern Africa during the 1980s were babies and small children. More than half of all children below the age of five who lived in January 1992 in Somalia had died by the end of the year.