Annan asking for aid in south of Sudan

A report by the United Nations and World Bank, backed by the Khartoum government and the former rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), says Sudan needs $2.6 billion in aid up to the end of 2007 to build everything from schools to roads.

In January, the Sudanese government and southern rebels signed a final accord to end the war, which killed an estimated two million people.

Former rebels and Sudan’s government vowed to stick to their January deal to end 21 years of fighting in one of the world’s poorest nations and donors at the 60-nation conference in Oslo and made pledges, totaling hundreds of millions of dollars.

He told donors that money is urgently needed to resettle tens of thousands of Sudanese refugees who will need basic services such as clean water, hospitals, and schools.

“We will run out of food for 2 million people in a matter of weeks,” U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned delegates at the two-day talks in a central hotel. “If ever there was a time for donors to get off the fence, it is now.”

“In south Sudan we are starting from scratch,” SPLM leader John Garang said. Annan said Sudan needed to raise just under $1.0 billion for the rest of 2005 alone out of a planned $1.5 billion needed for the year.

More than 2 million people were killed and 4 million displaced by the war that pitted the mainly animist and Christian south against the Arab north in a conflict complicated by issues of oil, ethnicity and ideology.

Norway promised to give $250 million to Sudan in the three years to 2007, and Japan said it was offering $100 million. Germany said it would provide 25 million euros ($32.05 million) if Sudan carried out the January accord.

Donors, such as the United States, warn that peace will not be achieved in the south unless violence is curbed in the western region of Darfur. But Annan said the donations for the south must be given unconditionally.

As donor pledges started coming in, a large part of the development aid for Sudan was allocated to the new so-called multi-donor trust funds, which are to be administered by the World Bank. This way it would be made sure that aid efforts were coordinated, following the wishes of Sudanese authorities and managed in a transparent way. World Bank managing director Shengman Zhang further promised the clearance of US$ million of Sudan’s arrears to the Bank.

The trust funds are to cover three geographical areas of Sudan, making it possible for donors only to sponsor their allies. One fund is for the South, which will attract many Western governments. Another is for the three most destructed provinces at the border between the North and South and the last is for development aid for Sudan at large.

Sudan’s Vice President Ali Osman Mohamed Taha also said “When people in Darfur see that the prize for peace is support and encouragement by the international community, I think that’s a very important incentive for peace to prevail in Darfur.”

Annan separately urged Sudan’s First Vice President Ali Osman Mohamed Taha to accelerate efforts for peace in Darfur in western Sudan. He called the situation “extremely grave” with attacks on civilians by Arab militia allied to the government.

Ninety percent of people in southern Sudan live in poverty; only about a third of young adults are literate and one child in four dies before the age of five.

The Darfur crisis was triggered in February 2003 when rebel groups took up arms against the government in a struggle over power and resources in the arid region. Khartoum retaliated by arming nomadic Arab militia, who are accused of a campaign of murder, rape and arson against villagers.

More than 2 million people have fled their homes and tens of thousands have died in the region.