Africa is a continent of 53 independent countries which makes up about 22% of the world’s total land area. Almost completely encircled by water, Africa’s terrain includes vast deserts, tropical rain forests, rugged mountains and fertile grasslands. The fifteen least developed nations in the world are found in Africa; 70% of its population survives on less than $2/day; disease and famine continue to kill millions each year; and even the most basic education is denied to a large percentage of its children.

The population growth rate is declining largely due to the effects of AIDS and the return of killer diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis. An estimated 3,000 children under the age of five die each day from Malaria and at least 25 million people in Africa are HIV positive.

Religious freedom has increased over much of Africa during the 1990s, but persecution of Christians by Muslims has also increased. Violent Islamist movements have deeply affected the continent. Bitter guerrilla warfare in Algeria, terrorist attacks in Kenya, jihad against Christians in Sudan and massacres of Christians in northern Nigeria are just some of the evidences of this. ‘Ethnic cleansing’ has caused tragic bloodshed, tides of refugees and even armies with many child-soldiers in Rwanda, Burundi, Congo, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Sudan and Uganda.

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