STWR - Share The World's Resources

The UN called for urgent action today to avert "disaster" in Africa as it outlined the human cost of a business-as-usual approach to development in the world's poorest continent.

A new "scramble for Africa" is taking place among the world's big powers, who are tapping into the continent for its oil and diamonds.

Forty-six countries in the world are listed as politically "fragile" by the Department for International Development, and 23 of them are in sub-Saharan Africa.

The UK has pledged to pay 10% of the developing world's foreign debt bill in an attempt to fight poverty.

No-one can fail to have been moved by the recent pictures from Darfur, Sudan. Hundreds upon thousands of people driven from their homes, by terrible violence and fear. Tales of unspeakable atrocities are filling column inches, and night by night, our television screens bear witness to the unfolding humanitarian tragedy.

By UK Prime Minister Tony Blair has been chairing the first meeting of his Commission for Africa on Tuesday.