Donors to meet July 7 on Darfur reconstruction
June 6, 2006 (BRUSSELS) — Major international donors will meet in Brussels next month to pledge funds to help rebuild Sudan’s Darfur region and urge implementation of a fragile peace deal, a senior European Union official said.
The July 7 conference, to be hosted by the European Union, follows a United Nations’ request to establish a plan for the reconstruction of Darfur and the gradual return of the more than 2 million refugees, the official said.
Among those attending will be the United Nations, the World Bank, the African Union, and donors including the United States, he said.
The conference will also try to find additional financing to extend the African Union peacekeeping mission in Darfur to September.
“There won’t be any return of refugees if they don’t feel safe, if there is no military mission,” the official said.
The military head of the 7,000-strong AU mission in Darfur said last week it needed extra funds immediately and 4,000 more troops.
On May 5, under intense global pressure, one of three rebel factions signed a deal with the Sudanese government to end three years of rape, killing and looting in the remote western region of Darfur. However, two other factions have refused to sign and violence continues in Sudan’s vast west.
(Reuters)