UN appeals for $1.5 billion to help Sudan

GENEVA, Nov 30 (Reuters) – The United Nations appealed on Tuesday for $1.5 billion next year for Sudan to help secure peace in the south and meet a humanitarian crisis in the west.

Jan Pronk, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s Special Representative for Sudan.

Some $600 million would go to the western Darfur region, which the U.N. says faces some of the world’s worst humanitarian problems, while much of the rest would be spent in the south, where rebels and the government are seeking to conclude a peace deal.

“Without adequate support to save the lives of millions of vulnerable Sudanese and helping to rebuild destroyed communities, the chances of a lasting peace diminish,” the U.N.’s top representative said in a statement.

Jan Pronk, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s Special Representative for Sudan, was in Geneva to present the request, drawn up with the Sudanese government and representatives of the main SPLM/A rebel group in the south, to a donors’ meeting. It is more than double the $720 million sought in 2004.

Pronk presented the appeal to representatives from 38 donor countries at a one-day closed-door meeting in Geneva.

Southern rebels and government officials are racing to meet an end-December deadline for an agreement to end Africa’s longest-running conflict, which has cost the lives of around a million people.

But sporadic fighting continues in Darfur, where over 1.6 million people have been driven from their homes by violence, which pits rebels against government forces and Arab militias, with the latter accused of widespread human rights violations.

In its appeal, the U.N. said the number of those needing help in Darfur was expected to rise to 2.5 million next year, from some 2.2 million at present, because of the continued fighting and a local lack of food and other resources.

Around $550 million was needed for the south, where 640,000-1.2 million people, who had earlier fled violence, were expected to return over the coming 12 months, adding to the some 1.5 million people there already in need of help.

A further $300 million would be used for other areas of Africa’s largest country.

The money from the appeal, which does not include the cost of international peacekeeping operations, would cover food, education, mine clearance and other aid activities.

“The international aid community…has an important and irreplaceable role to play. Donors have been very generous in 2004…this must continue in 2005,” Pronk said.