African children poverty

Africa includes some of the poorest countries in the world. In much of Africa south of the Sahara, harsh environmental conditions exacerbate the conditions of poverty. Dry and barren land covers large expanses of this region. As the poor try to last long out livings through farming and other subsistence practices, they exhaust the land, using up the soil nutrients needed to grow crops. Over time this has led to desertification, a process in which once fertile land turns in to a desert. During the late 20th century, desertification contributed to famines in a number of African nations, including Somalia, Ethiopia, and Mali. Political instability and wars in many sub-Saharan countries have also contributed to poverty. As a result of such factors, the number of people living in extreme poverty in sub-Saharan Africa grew from 217 million in 1987 to more than 300 million in 1998. This are some examples of this terrible situation that African people lives in their daily life; 200,000 child slaves are sold every year in Africa, there are an estimated 8,000 girl-slaves in West Africa alone. Also, about 120,000 African children are participating in armed conflicts, some of them has 7 years old. One in six African children dies before the age of fiveand the worst thing is that most of these deaths could be prevented.