same program. In fact, economic development, trade and investment being associated with the majority of African nations to many people then was almost unthinkable. Instead, foreign aid was thought to be the panacea for Africas economic ills. Addressing democracy in Africa was through getting rid a despot while putting up with those who not who, though not democratic, were favorably disposed to acceding to the will of powerful nations. Fortunately, we have evolved as evidenced by African leaders being treated as partners in the political, international, and economic realms. Progress has been made not only by international actors but by many African nations in adopting sound and economic practices. Decades ago, instead of counting countries among the 54 nations comprising the continent where conflicts were ongoing, we counted the very few countries where there were happened to be peace and stability.With respect to the Great Lakes region named after a number of lakes, as we know the best of known are Lake Victoria, Lake Tanganyika, Lake Albert, and Edward. Today were going to talk about Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, and Uganda, though some other classifications include Tanzania and Kenya. According to the 2015 UNHCR sub-regional operations profile, governments in the Great Lakes sub-region have made great strides towards socioeconomic development and institutional stability, but conflict remains a pervasive problem in the Great Lakes. The complexities of remedying conflict in the region is due to a myriad of issues, including land ownership, ethnicity reconciliation after genocide, extreme poverty. Many of these challenges have existed for a prolonged period of time and require examining patterns, all the stakeholders pervasive injustice, the shifting of refugee populations, the lack of respect for national sovereignty so as to gain access to minerals and other resources.Theres a strange dichotomy between the emerging economic prowess of several countries in the Great Lakes region with GDP growth between 5 to 6.3 percent, and strong regional cooperation is evidenced in the East African community yet at the same time today according to reports there is a bloody conflict which we are witnessing now in Burundi where it is reported that dead bodies are strewn throughout the streets in the aftermath of a controversial election. We know there are other presidential elections coming up, other constitutions which should not be changed, and the lack of democratic institutions.While we all remember the genocide in Rwanda, the Lords Resistance Army in Uganda, how the Democratic Republic has been ravaged from the inside and the outside, and were seeing this violence in Burundi, we are also cognizant of the thousands of refugees both in this region and those who are trying to leave this continent in other regions only to encounter in some instances a worse fate. But we must be ever vigilant, redouble our determination, and remain hopeful. We must also call to mind the seven fastest growing economies in the world are in Africa; that the fact that the most populous country, Nigeria, in that country democratic elections were successfully held; and that increasingly terrorism will give way to