Libya promises to implement humanitarian projects in Darfur

November 21, 2008 (KHARTOUM) – Libya pledged to implement humanitarian projects in Darfur in the field of water, education and health utilities, according to Sudanese State Minister of Humanitarian Affairs Ahmed Haroun.

Haroun, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Darfur, met with a Libyan delegation of the Gaddafi Foundation.

There are roughly 4.7 million conflict-affected people in the Darfur region, which has been torn by war since an insurgency escalated in 2003, according to the UN coordinating agency for humanitarian affairs.

Some 2.5 million people are displaced to camps and other locations in Darfur, and 250,000 fled to eastern Chad. UN experts estimate that about 300,000 people died in the conflict.

The Libyan delegation informed Haroun that it is ready to begin implementing the projects that Libya had pledged during the Arab Conference for Humanitarian support to Darfur, which was hosted in Khartoum over a year ago.

At that conference, Arab League chief Amr Musa said that Arab nations had pledged 250 million dollars for the war-ravaged region.

Haroun said that a joint technical delegation, composed of members from the Sudanese Commission for Humanitarian Aid and the Gaddafi Foundation, would visit Darfur to begin coordinating with the three state governments of Darfur.

The Libyan delegation stated that it also wishes to contribute to land mine removal in Southern Sudan and join efforts to develop factories for producing artificial limbs.

(ST)