Germany resumes aid

Germany is to resume aid to Burundi following a nine-year break, the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development announced in a press release on Tuesday. A total of 45.2 million euros (almost US $40 million) has been earmarked for projects involving the reintegration of Burundi refugees, HIV/AIDS-related activities, and rural water-supply projects, which had also been financed by Germany prior to 1993, the statement said. The decision put Germany "in harmony" with the rest of the international community, which committed itself to assisting Burundi at a Geneva conference held in December 2001, in support of the transitional government, the statement quoted Parliamentary State Secretary Uschi Eid as saying. It was to be hoped that the money allocated towards reintegration programmes for refugees would contribute to the stabilisation of the Great Lakes region in general. The statement added that a meeting held last week in the German capital, Berlin, between Eid and Burundi Foreign Minister Terence Sinunguruza had focused on future cooperation between the two countries and the preconditions necessary, specifically in relation to the security situation in Burundi and the region in general. German aid to Burundi was suspended in 1993, when civil war erupted between Hutu rebels and the predominantly Tutsi military. The war has claimed the lives of an estimated 250,000 people, most of them civilians. A power-sharing government was established on 1 November 2001, following a peace accord signed in August 2000.