Sudan donors confirm 4.5 bln dlrs in aid

Mar 10, 2006 (PARIS) — Donor states meeting in Paris confirmed Friday they would go ahead with a 4.5-billion-dollar aid package to Sudan over the next three years, but urged an end to the civil war raging in that country’s Darfur region.

Sudan’s first deputy president, Salva Kiir, heard representatives from European states, the United States, the African Union (AU), the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund call for an end to the Darfur conflict.

“The international community expressed serious concern at continuing violence in Darfur, called on all parties to the conflict to put an immediate end to hostilities on the ground, and welcomed the commitment to the national government (of Sudan) to reaching an agreement in the AU-led peace talks in Abuja,” a joint statement said.

It said that humanitarian aid would be continued, “although the need for improved security and access on the ground was emphasised.”

The United States and the European Union have both been pressing Sudan to accept a UN peacekeeping force in Darfur, where rebels and militias backed by Sudanese troops have killed some 300,000 people and displaced two million others since 2003.

But the Sudanese government opposes such a move, saying that deploying a UN force in the region risks worsening the conflict and warning that Darfur could become a “cemetery” for foreign troops.

The donors’ group said it was agreed that, while there had to be “decisive steps to end the crisis in Darfur”, aid should not be conditional on a peace agreement.

(ST/AFP)