The African continent is rich with treasure, it lush dense jungles are lusted after by logging and timber industries, its fertile grasslands and plains sought by agricultural corporations.  Many of the countries have large deposits of gold, silver, uranium, diamonds, plutonium, oil, copper, coal, salt, and many other ores ripe for the plucking.  Wildlife is an important resource for the genetic corporations, as many of the animals in Africa can be found no where else in the world.  To the African peoples of the north the most valued and rare resource is water, as the majority of northern Africa is a desert wasteland.  The largest natural resource in Africa however, are its people.  After years of poverty, disease, persecution, and starvation, Africa is the best place in the world to find cheap labor.  The people will work for pennies.  This exploitation is perhaps the greatest gift, and greatest atrocity granted the African people by the western world.  This is most evident in the mass recruitment by Orbital Air of the Kenyan people for employment as work gangers in space.  Thousands have died, but this practice continues to this day.  Over all, the majority of countries in Africa are abundant with natural resources, this makes them a valued prize to their neighbors and to the west.  The conflict over these resources will most likely be a long one.