Spain increases humanitarian, reconstruction assistance to Sudan

August 21, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — At the 25 June 2007 Paris Conference on Darfur, Spain announced a contribution in the amount of 10.000 million euros to humanitarian efforts in that region.

Spain joined in July 2007 the Common Humanitarian Fund for the Sudan, with an initial contribution of 6,5 million euros.

Spain also joined in July 2007 the Multi Donors Trust Funds for the Sudan, with an initial contribution of 10.000 million euros, equally divided between the North and the South.

In response to the devastion caused by floods during the present rainy season in the Sudan, Spain’s AECI has also allotted 250.000 euros to relief efforts being carried out by the Spanish Red Cross and their partners in the Sudan.

After fifteen years without direct presence in the Sudan, Spain recently reopened its Embassy in Khartoum as a sign of its renewed commitment to Africa and to the Sudan. Sudan occupies a very distinguished position in Spain’s “Action Plan for Sub-Saharan Africa” or “Africa Plan-2006-2008”, enacted last year by the Government of Spain, with a total budgetary allotment of over 300 million euros. As part of this effort, Spain pledged for the period 2005-2007 the sum of 30 million euros at the April 2005 Oslo Donors’ Conference on Sudan, most of which has already been disbursed.

Spain is well aware that it has come back to the Sudan at a crucial and complex juncture, which, at the same time, however, is filled with promise. Thus, Spain’s commitment responds not only to Sudan’s present needs, but mainly to the faith of the Government of Spain in the ongoing process of peace and national reconciliation in the Sudan and in the realization of its many potentialities.