Japan grants $10m for Sudan’s election
October 18, 2009 (KHARTOUM) — The Government of Japan has decided to grant financial support of $ 10 million to support the organization of general election in Sudan in April next year.
2010 poll in Sudan will be the first in more than 20 years under the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that ended over two decades of civil war between north and south Sudan.
“On October 16, the Government of Japan decided to extend emergency grant aid amounting to approximately 10 million USD (1.03 billion JPY) to support the implementation of the elections in the Republic of the Sudan to be conducted in April 2010,” said a statement released by the Japanese government.
This assistance, which will be provided through the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), is the largest-scale contribution among Japan’s electoral assistances ever provided in Africa.
Japan has been actively contributing to the implementation of the CPA in the areas of disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR).
The UN Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Alain Le Roy told a closed session of the UN Security Council (UNSC) on July 17, 2009 that Sudan asked for over $1 billion for the elections, said a UN official who attended the meeting.
(ST)