Donor countries have pledged to give $4,5-billion over the next two years to cover Sudan’s humanitarian and reconstruction needs, organisers of a 60-nation conference said on Tuesday.
”I am very pleased with the amount that has been pledged,” Norwegian Development Aid Minister Hilde Frafjord Johnson said in closing the two-day conference. ”I think the main point is that we have a strong commitment to Sudan.”
The United States is a major donor, pledging $1,7-billion on Tuesday.
Before the Oslo meeting, organisers had hoped for promises totalling $3,6-billion from the conference, most over the two-year period, with the rest — about $1-billion — for immediate assistance.
A peace accord signed in January ended a 21-year civil war in southern Sudan, but violence continues unabated in a separate conflict in the troubled western region of Darfur.
Johnson cautioned that collecting the exact amounts promised from donors could be difficult, but said she considered the pledges a guarantee that the most basic needs will be met.
Former southern rebel leader John Garang, now a member of Sudan’s new government, said everything, from roads to power, is needed in the south.
”Give me $10-billion, and I assure you, I will spend it,” Garang said at a closing news conference.
In opening the meeting on Monday, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan said $2,6-billion is needed by 2007 to help Sudan, much of it as immediate cash to prevent two million people in the south from running out of food within a few weeks.
At Tuesday’s session, US Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick announced that the US has pledged $853-million for this year, and that the US administration has asked lawmakers for almost $900-million more.
”This is a time of choosing for Sudan,” said Zoellick.
Sudan can either build peace, democracy and economic recovery, or ”slip back into the depths” of conflict, he said. — Sapa-AP