Belgium offers aid to Burundi for health, civil service

Belgium has pledged an undisclosed sum of cash to support the reconstruction of the war-torn central African nation of Burundi as it moves towards peace, Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel and Cooperation Minister Marc Verwilghen said on Wednesday. They were speaking at a conference called by Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni at his official home in Kampala, as part of their tour of the Great Lakes region. Verwilghen told reporters at the conference that Belgium would sign "three conventions committing us to support the present government in Burundi": two offering aid to Burundi’s beleaguered health system and one pledging funds for "the administration of the country so it can pay its civil servants". Museveni, who is the chairman of the Regional Initiative on Burundi, said the country was nearing a final peace deal bringing all the belligerents together. "One sticking point is the FNL [Forces nationales de liberation] that is unhappy with some of the details of the deal. We will continue to strongly pressurise them to come to a final agreement," Museveni said. Michel said Belgium was focusing a lot of energy on finding solutions to troubles in the Great Lakes. "We have promised a sincere engagement of Belgium with central Africa and we intend to deliver on that. We have already been working closely with the governments of Burundi and the DRC," he said.