Albright winds up West African tour

Sierra Leone can expect a US $55-million windfall in US aid if former foes in the West African country implement a peace pact that ended some eight years of war, US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said on Monday. “We and the international community will be watching to see that the rebels make good on their promises to end the fighting and disarm,” she said in Freetown. The money would help to resettle displaced persons and reintegrate former fighters into society. Albright told reporters, after a meeting with Sierra Leonean President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah and former junta leader Johnny Paul Koroma, that the US would forgive another $65 million in debt once Sierra Leone reached agreement with the International Monetary Fund, the US Information Agency reported on Monday. Albright said more money was envisaged for the proposed UN peacekeeping mission that would field some 6,000 troops in Sierra Leone. The West African Peace Monitoring Group, ECOMOG, will get an additional US $11 million in US aid on top of the US $15 million already received, she said. “We will continue to be the largest provider of humanitarian assistance,” she said. Albright began her a week-long six-nation tour of Africa with a visit to Guinea on Monday. Other stopovers include Nigeria, Kenya and Tanzania, where she was scheduled to attend the funeral of late president Julius Nyerere. In Mali, Albright reviewed on Tuesday Malian peacekeeping troops trained under President Bill Clinton’s Africa Crisis Response Initiative of 1996. Some of them have served in Sierra Leone and will return there, Reuters reported, to help supervise the peace agreement signed by the government and the rebels in July. Albright announced a US $2-million grant for teacher training and scholarships for Malian women and girls. The United States has allocated $38 million in aid to Mali this year and Albright said she expected to maintain that level in the next financial year, Reuters reported.