Today, Africa is of no great strategic interest to the great powers. An economic interest remains, largely because of the continent's huge mineral deposits, but this is more effectively policed by multinational corporations, acting in tandem with powerful and often corrupt local elites. The war in the Congo region has sucked in eight African states but the flow of minerals to the West continues undisturbed. To Africans, too, the borders made by the colonists often seem to have little relevance. Cattle-herders bring their animals to water, regardless of national frontiers.
Refugees flee war, crossing borders in massive numbers.
Armed bands operate in many parts of central and east Africa, moving from country to country with impunity. So many other African phenomena refuse to be hemmed in by the straight lines drawn by the European powers. AIDS spread along the main trucking routes across the continent, and is now widespread throughout southern and eastern Africa. The Sahara eats away at arable land at an alarming rate, again without regard to borders. It's not surprising then that Africans today are questioning the status of the frontiers they have inherited.