US to fund southern Sudan road repairs

NAIROBI, Kenya, Dec 10, 2004 (PANA) — The United States will sign a letter of intent Sunday granting 2.5 million US dollars to the war-torn southern Sudan to finance ongoing emergency road repairs and landmine clearance, the US embassy in Nairobi has said

The money will be given to the UN World Food Programme (WFP),
which said it requires US$32 million to carry out demining and road construction activities in southern Sudan to facilitate the inflow of relief food before the onset of heavy rains in May 2005.

Roger Winter, Assistant Administrator for the Bureau for
Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Affairs of the US Agency for
International Development (USAID), will sign the grant aid in
Naivasha, the venue of the Sudanese peace talks, the embassy
spokesman said in his Thursday statement.

The funds come a week after the UN relief body launched an appeal
for 64 million US dollars on the sidelines of the Nairobi Summit
on a Mine-Free World, which sought to galvanise support for
minefield clearance activities across the globe.

Sudan’s Humanitarian Affairs Minister Ibrahim Hamid told the
Summit that landmines posed the greatest threat to 600,000
returnees to the war-ravaged southern Sudan, torn by 21-years of
war waged by the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement currently in
the final phase of negotiating a peaceful settlement with
Khartoum.

WFP said it urgently required 4.8 million for relief food
distribution before the year ends and the rest would be needed
before May.