Sudan needs US$7.8 billion for emergency reconstruction

By RODRIQUE NGOWI, Associated Press Writer

NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 9, 2005 (AP) — Sudan needs some US$7.8 billion (A?5.89 billion) over the next 2 1/2 years for emergency reconstruction now that a 21-year civil war in the south has ended, government officials and former rebels said in a joint appeal Wednesday.

A southern Sudanese crew repairs roads in the provisional capital of Rumbek. Reparing infrastructure is a priority of Sudan People’s Liberation Movement. (AFP) .

The money will finance a recovery and development program for southern and northern Sudan. The plan, however, does not cover the troubled Darfur region of western Sudan, where a campaign of violence by pro-government militia fighting rebels has forced an estimated 2 million people to flee their homes.

Darfur needs another US$2 billion (A?1.5 billion) a year for operations to secure the region and meet its humanitarian needs, said Ishac Diwan, the World Bank country director for Sudan and Ethiopia.

Sudan’s government and southern rebels signed a peace agreement on Jan. 9 to end Africa’s longest-running civil war. The treaty sets out power- and wealth-sharing rules. After six years, the deal says, the south will hold a referendum on whether to remain part of Africa’s largest country.

Government and rebel officials agreed that Sudan will provide US$5.14 billion (A?3.88 billion), or 65.9 percent of the money needed to rebuild the country from July 2005 to 2007, Sudanese officials and former rebels from the Sudan People’s Liberation Army said in a joint statement.

Sudan is seeking US$2.66 billion (A?2.01 billion), or 34 percent of the funds, from the international community. The plan will be presented at the first postwar international donors’ pledging conference on April 11-12 in Oslo, Norway, officials said.

The plan, however, does not cover money needed to disarm and demobilize combatants and debt relief, which would free up massive resources for development projects, Diwan said.

The north-south war pitted Islamic-dominated Khartoum against rebels seeking greater autonomy and a greater share of the country’s wealth for the Christian and animist south. The conflict is blamed for more than 2 million deaths, primarily from war-induced famine and disease.

The emergency reconstruction plan for Sudan will not cover Darfur because the government and rebels in the region have not reached a political settlement to that conflict, Diwan said.