Tobacco-related diseases are likely to become the biggest killer in Africa in the next 20 years, according to the us -based Centres for Disease Control and Prevention ( cdc ). Tobacco will cause more deaths than malaria, tuberculosis, maternal mortality, automobile crashes, homicides and suicides combined, says Lawrence Green, a cdc official. He was speaking at the opening of a conference on regional tobacco control organised by the World Health Organisation. Legislators from English-speaking African countries and representatives of the World Bank, the Organisation of African Unity and non-governmental organisations attended the conference.