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Africa Horn
Qatar pledges $500m in aid to rebuild Darfur
2013-04-09
DOHA — Qatar pledged $500 million in aid to Sudan’s Darfur on Monday at a donors’ meeting in Doha, even as rebels launched new attacks in the troubled region scarred by a decade of conflict.

“Qatar has pledged an amount of $500 million as grants and contributions for rebuilding Darfur,” said the country’s Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs, Ahmed bin Abdullah Al Mahmud. In February 2010, Qatar had promised to establish a bank with a capital of one billion dollars to develop Darfur.

Germany also pledged 60 million euros in aid
...better to Darfur than to Cyprus, I guess...
at the conference as other delegates expressed their support for development in Darfur without announcing their contributions.

Britain had on Sunday offered at least £11 million ($16.5 million) for Darfur annually over the next three years to help communities to grow food and to boost skills for employment.
Assuming the remaining rebels and the Janjawed leave everyone alone...
The latest pledges came on the second day of a meeting of representatives of donor countries and aid groups in Doha. The conference aims to endorse a strategy to rebuild Darfur, where the conflict has shocked the world with atrocities against civilians. The meeting, which drew condemnation from rebel groups still fighting the regime, was agreed under a July 2011 peace deal which Khartoum signed in the Qatari capital with an alliance of rebel splinter groups.

It seeks support for the six-year, $7.2-billion strategy to move Darfur away from food handouts and other emergency aid, and lay the foundation for lasting development through improved infrastructure. While the worst of the violence has long passed, rebel-government clashes continue along with kidnappings, carjackings and other crimes.

The African Union-United Nations Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) on Sunday reported a fresh spate of violence. It said rebels of the Sudan Liberation Army’s Minni Minnawi faction “attacked and seized” the towns of Muhagiriya and Labado, while “several possible air strikes” were also reported in the area.

The violence prompted thousands of civilians to seek protection around peacekeeping bases.

Rebels had on Saturday said they killed government troops and occupied the areas, about 100 kilometres east of the South Darfur state capital Nyala.

Some 1.4 million people have been displaced by DarfurÂ’s decade-long conflict.

Coinciding with the donorsÂ’ meeting, displaced people have staged demonstrations in several camps in Darfur, demanding that security take priority, with some saying they would not return to their villages until peace is restored.
Security before prosperity? What a revolutionary idea...
Posted by:Steve White

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