UN appeals for $40 mln for agriculture development in Sudan

Jan 30, 2006 (ROME) — A U.N. food agency appealed Monday for US$40 million (A33 million) for Sudan, saying that supporting agricultural development in the African country is crucial to ensuring lasting peace.

Although a peace accord last year ended more than 20 years of civil war in southern Sudan, the country’s humanitarian needs for 2006 “remain immense,” said the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.

It cited the ongoing conflict in the country’s western Darfur region, the risk of a poor harvest and the return of hundreds of thousands of displaced Sudanese.

The Rome-based agency stressed that with agriculture remaining the mainstay of the Sudanese economy — compromising 45 percent of gross domestic product — humanitarian assistance must be coupled with longer-term development.

“Supporting returnees seeking to resettle will be a top priority, and ensuring adequate materials and services to enable returnees to engage in agricultural, livestock or fisheries-based livelihoods upon their return will be central to this process,” Anne Bauer, the agency’s director for emergency operations and rehabilitation, said in a statement.

(AP/ST)