One corner of the city of Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia. (Wikipedia)
In this world there are always two different poles, one of them is wealth.
Many countries are rich enough that their people live in prosperity and prosperity.
However, not a few countries that enter the category of poor who are still struggling to raise the standard of living of their people.
Usually a prolonged war plus political instability and authoritarian leaders are the main causes of a country's poverty.
Here is a list of the 5 poorest countries in the world today that all happen to be on the African continent.
1. Somalia
Somalia, located in the Horn of Africa region in ancient times had become a significant trade center.
In fact, at that time some kingdoms in Somalia such as Ajuran Empire, Adal Sultanate, Warsangali Sultanate, and Geledi Sultanate had dominated regional trade.
In the 19th century, Britain and Italy occupied the coastal area of this country and began to make their Somali colonies.
Italian rule ended in 1941 and afterwards Somalia became fully British colony.
In 1960, two protectorate regions of Somaliland England and Italian Somaliland united and formed the state of Somalia.
In 1969, the Supreme Revolutionary Council under the leadership of Mohamed Siad Barre seized power and established the Democratic Republic of Somalia.
The Siad Barre government collapsed in 1991 and sparked a civil war with competing armed factions fighting for power.
With a very weak government power can even be said to vacuum, Somalia becomes a failed state.
Although slowly Somalia began to clean up and the national government supported the West began to form, poverty due to the prolonged war has not moved from this country.
Somalia now has a population of about 14 million people with per capita income of only 400 US dollars. With this fact, Somalia is the poorest country in the world.
2. Central African Republic (CAR)
CAR is a country without a former French colony coast has an area of 620,000 square kilometers with a population of about 4.6 million people.
This country has actually existed for thousands of years, but its borders today are purely made by the colonizing French since the late 19th century.
After independence from France in 1960, the CAR was repeatedly led by autocratic leaders, even attempting to become a kingdom despite its failure.
In 1993 the first multi-party elections were held in the country which led Ange-Felix Patasse as president.
However, in 2003, Patasse ousted General Francois Bozize through a coup that triggered a civil war in 2004.
Although a peace agreement was signed in 2007 and 2011 an armed inter-factional war broke out in December 2012 which leads to ethnic cleansing and adherents of minority religions.
The country actually has abundant natural resources such as petroleum, gold, diamond, cobalt, wood, and hydropower.
However, because of the continuous war of the abundant natural potential is not handled so as to make CAR become one of the poorest countries in the world.
By 2015, according to the Human Development Index (HDI), CAR is the country with the lowest human development level of 188 countries in the world.
As a result, the country is so poor with the per capita opinion of its people only amounted to 684 US dollars a year.
3. Burundi
Burundi is a small country in the Great Lakes region of Africa bordering Rwanda, Tanzania, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
For more than 200 years, Burundi was an independent kingdom until Germany occupied the tiny land in the early 20th century.
When Germany lost World War I, Burundi was then handed over to Belgium until independence in 1962.
After independence, Burundi remained a kingdom but a series of killings, coups and regional instability turned Burundi into a republic with a single political party in 1966.
In the 1970s and then in the 1990s there was a civil war and ethnic cleansing that made the country too busy thinking about economic development.
As a result the people of Burundi only earn per capita income of 800 US dollars a year. In addition, Burundi is also crowned as the second most unhappy country by 2017.
4. Republic Democratic of Congo (RDK)
One more Central African country former French colony that entered in the category of the world's poorest countries.
The country has the second largest area in Africa and is the 11th largest country in the world.
With a population of over 78 million people, RDK is the fourth most populous country in Africa and the 17th in the world.
Since 90,000 years ago humans have inhabited the DRK territory. Major kingdoms once stood like the Congo, Luba, and Lunda.
Until 1885 as a result of the Berlin Conference, Congo became a private property of King Leopold II of Belgium.
King Leopold then forced the Congolese people to plant and produce rubber. As a result in the period 1885-1908 millions of Congolese people died from starvation and exploitation.
In 1908, the Belgian government took over the management of the Congo and changed its name to Belgian Congo.
The Belgian Congo then became independent on June 30, 1960 and called itself the Republic of Congo with Patrice Lumumba becoming First Prime Minister and Joseph Kasa-Vubu becoming the first president.
It did not take long, the political crisis then emerged in the new country when Katanga Province led by Moise Tshombe and Kasai Selatan tried to break away.
Lumumba was later fired from his post after asking for Soviet assistance to deal with the crisis in Congo.
Ten with the help of the United States and Belgium, troops loyal to General Joseph-Desire Mobutu captured Lumumba as well as a coup.
Lumumba himself was handed over to Katanga troops on January 17, 1961, and then executed by the Belgian-led Katanga forces.
In 1965, Joseph-Desire Mobutu later known as Mobutu Sese Seko did a second coup. In 1971 he changed the name of the country to Zaire and run as a one-party state.
Although authoritarian, the government of Mobutu got US support for opposing the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
In the 1990s Mobutu's power began to weaken. The displeasure of the Tribal Tribe of Congo triggered the Rwandan invasion of 1996 which resulted in the outbreak of the First Congo War which ended the 32-year rule of Mobutu Sese Seko.
On May 17, 1997, Laurent-Desire Kabila, Tutsi militia leader from South Kivu Province became president and changed the name of the country to the Democratic Republic of Congo.
In 1998-2003 the Second Congo War broke out and involved at least nine African countries and about 20 armed factions. This war resulted in 5.4 million people killed.
These two wars destroyed the RDK economy. In 2001 President Laurent Kabila was killed by his own bodyguard. Eight days later his son Joseph Kabila came to power.
Although rich in natural resources, war and political instability and poor infrastructure make the RDK economy stalled.
As a result the people of this country only has a per capita income of 800 US dollars making this country one of the poorest in the world.
5. Liberia
Despite having a flag similar to the United States, the fate of Liberia is not the same as the US, especially in the affairs of wealth.
The country in West Africa has an area of 111,369 square kilometers with a population of about 4.5 million people.
Liberia originated from a settlement of the American Colonization Society (ACS), which believes blacks have a better chance of living in Africa than in the United States.
The country declared its independence on July 26, 1847 and Britain became the first country to recognize Liberian independence.
The United States did not admitted Liberia's independence until the outbreak of the American Civil War on 5 February 1862.
With this fact, Liberia became the first African country to proclaim independence and become the first and oldest republic in Africa.
However, political tensions led to a military coup in 1980 that ousted the rule of President William R. Tolbert.
After the overthrow of Tolbert, for five years the military came to power and then continued civilian rule followed by two Liberia civil wars.
As a result of both wars, as many as 250,000 people or 8 percent of the population of Liberia, were killed. Another impact is that Liberia's economy shrank by 90 percent.
The peace deal signed in 2003 led to democratic elections in 2005 that led Ellen Jonhson Sirleaf to the presidency.
Slowly the economy of Liberia began to crawl but 85 percent of the country's citizens are still living in poverty with revenues of only 880 US dollars per year.
