Why the world looks away

The bomb explosion took over 300 lives in the terrorist attack. It was a huge terrorist event but surprisingly it didn't get enough media attention globally.

An attack with that high number of casualties would be across the major global news networks for weeks. This was not the case. There hasn't been any collective outrage marked by hashtags and threads on social media?

Why doesn't the world care about Somalia or to put in a broader context- why doesn't the world care about tragic events that happen in Africa?

Not to compare notes but the Las Vegas killings got round the clock news coverage around the world. Eke Van Victor tweeted "The world is unfair; social media can attest to that. 276 died in Somalia and we aren't doing the same thing we did when it was Las Vegas."

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On August 14, 2017, a huge landslide in Sierra Leone killed at least 500 people with 800 people missing and 20,000 people displaced from their homes.

Famous football player Didier Drogba tweeted about the disparity in the response to the Sierra Lone tragedy and the Barcelona terrorist attack.

"As much as I respect people who died in Barcelona or everywhere else, this is sadly true #everylifematters #sierraleone #barcelona" tweeted the retired football star.

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While we do know that tragic African events don't get maximum attention in Europe or North America, we have to look inwards and see we are not doing better ourselves.

"Eiffel Tower can't even go dark for 600+ people that died in Sierra Leone, yet Africans would be the first to start the #PrayForParis" observed ___Perez94. And this is the truth.

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How many Nigerians tweeted #PrayForSierraLeone or #PrayBenue when the floods hit? Not many as you would expect. It seems we as Africans wait for outsiders to help us mourn or raise awareness.

Africa is made up of 1.2 billion people. That is more than enough to raise awareness on an issue that affects us. Why do we keep waiting for the western world to do what we should be doing?

Africa does not need the West to respond to its tragedies. We need to respond to our tragedies. Criticizing the West is just passing the buck. Africans need to take more responsibility for what happens on its continent.

The world doesn't really care about our tragedies because we care very little.