The United Nations appeal to countries worldwide to absorb 1,300 mainly African refugees stranded in Libya is laudable. The UNHCR intends to evacuate them to Niger which has agreed to temporarily host the most vulnerable being evacuated, including unaccompanied children and single mothers, pending their processing and departure for resettlement, by the end of January 2018. A CNN footage that showed sale of Africans from Niger and other sub-Saharan countries at undisclosed locations in Libya created wide outrage.

It is quite sad that despite declarations from the African Union and international community, only Rwanda and Niger have practically demonstrated willingness to identify with the plight of their fellow suffering Africans. Doesn’t this show that Africa has a problem? The nationalities of the victims must be determined and their countries of origin taken to task over their departure. The continent must invest in its population as a prize resource. Africa must invest in tools of production and cohesion rather than tools of destruction and disintegration.