New From CFR: John Campbell on Diamonds in Zimbabwe and Immunization in Nigeria
By experts and staff
- Published
- Development Channel Staff
This week on his blog, CFR senior fellow John Campbell has highlighted two major African concerns: resource wealth and immunization. He first explores the question of what is happening to the income generated by Zimbabwe’s Marange diamond fields. As he writes:
...many think that the revenue from diamonds is bypassing the Treasury and going directly to Robert Mugabe’s ruling Zanu/PF party and its operatives. The four largest companies exploiting the Marange diamond mines are all closely tied to the ruling party.
Campbell also examines a series of attacks against health workers involved in a polio vaccination campaign in northern Nigeria. The incidents, he writes, are sure to hinder ongoing vaccination efforts. As he explains:
Opposition to the polio vaccination is long standing on the basis that it is a Western and Christian plot sponsored by the federal government in Abuja to limit Muslim births. It is a radical Islamist cause that builds on opposition dating back to controversial pharmaceutical trials by an American company in the 1990s.