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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-30933860 The simplest answer to this isn't through how they get money, weapons, or people. I'd like to refer to a line from the 2005 Matthew McConaughey movie Sahara: "Don't worry. It's Africa. Nobody cares about Africa." -General Zateb Kazim Not a great movie, but that line sums up the world's view of Africa. The only reason SA was ever considered important was for its diamonds. Other than that, the governments do next to nothing but cling to a non-existent power (if allowing their country(ies) to be taken by enemies is any indication of their power). They have no money because they have nothing to give. The money sent for aid, if it ever even reaches the government, typically goes directly to the ruling party/individual and their cronies. The people have nothing. Thousands are displaced by the insurgents, warlords, or corrupt governments, stealing ancestral lands, destroying homes, etc. Basics nearly every other continent has for the most part just don't exist. I can imagine the common people live in fear much of the time and just do everything they can to survive. Not to say everyone there is poor and living in mud huts. They have socio-economic classes, too, but they aren't like ours. Ours also aren't under constant, imminent threat of religious extremists. The people just want to live. Just have a normal, day-to-day life. Have a home, have a job, have a family. It's safe to say there are many who want to fight but are without means. They would fight to keep their homes if they could, but they aren't warriors or soldiers. Their governments sometimes gives groups guns, maybe training, but in the end, they're on their own against religious fanatics. I'm not saying the U.S. needs a direct hand in Africa. We don't even really need to fund them. We need to teach the governments, down to the lowest assistant/secretary/clerk, to stop being such shitstacks swindling each other and looking out only for "number one." It's the same problem in the M.E. The governments are so full of people who would stab their neighbor(s) in the back for a little extra that next to nothing ever gets done. It's true that our legislative branch is especially like that, but it's not on a scale that civil services, if they exist, are extorting people for their mail or some such. People here just don't get how lucky our boring lives are. Those who are all for sending our military in to do something they, themselves, don't understand should be challenged to take their Durrmocracy and Second Amendment over there to see how long their guns can win themselves a life like they have here. It is largely our fault the Taliban, Boko Haram, IS, etc. exist in the first place. This is what happens when you suddenly invade countries with zero plan. WW II was entirely different. There was no power vacuum. You had organized, educated, civic-minded individuals waiting on the sidelines to pick up the pieces. The M.E. had thousands of years of tribal culture that had no concept of a functioning State, only their immediate surroundings. Family was and still is their number one. Same in Africa. Those people we have "Americanized" are typically so corrupt, they'll wipe out entire villages just for a few thousand dollars. No different than what extremists are doing, just for different reasons. The funny thing is, if we focused on creating an environment that facilitated a mostly honest, civic-minded government devoid as possible of religious influence, we'd have seen a change. We'd be safer in the end, too. Instead, we fight for them and leave them just as ignorant as when we arrived. In the end, we're lucky we have an ocean between us and a government always watching us, because those are the only things stopping them from organizing here. But, it's Africa... It's over there. No one cares...