Absolutely not, Armitage says.

Question: Should we leave Africa alone?

Armitage:    Absolutely not.  There are humanitarian reasons why we shouldn’t.  There are also, as I say, cold calculations of national security.  The humanitarian reasons have to do with the infectious diseases and HIV/AIDS, which has been a terrible scourge for that continent primarily.  And it could be a great scourge for all the rest of us if we don’t try to contain it.

On the cold calculation aspect and on the security side, there are tribal and ethnic disputes.  There are religious disputes.  There is extremism.  Tanzania and Kenya come to mind in those . . . the embassy bombings.  So there are . . .  Somalia right now.  There are good foreign policy reasons why we ought to engage in Africa.  And here’s one that perhaps you don’t know.  The African continent as a whole grew at over 5% in economic rate last year and the year before.  So there are economic reasons to get involved, and there are energy reasons – all of which are understood by the Chinese who are trying desperately to get involved.  Just by the way, you know that Africa is 16% of the world’s population.  That’s not an insignificant number.