Donors should fulfil their pledges to keep recovery effort on track - Annan

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan called upon international partners and donors to seize the moment and honour their commitments to support Sudan’s fledgling peace process in his latest report to the UN Security Council published on Thursday. Given the immense challenges facing the country, "I again urge all donors to convert the pledges already made without further delay, and to commit additional resources needed to meet the outstanding requirements for 2005," he said. "Billions were pledged more than six months ago at the Oslo donor conference, and the four largest donors - the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Community and the Netherlands - still account for close to 80 percent of funding received to date," Annan added. Of the US $1.96 billion needed for recovery and humanitarian assistance, outlined in the Workplan for the Sudan 2005, only 47.5 percent had been funded so far. Thus far, aid programmes in Darfur had received 60 percent of funding, while southern Sudan had received 42 percent. Eastern Sudan and the transitional areas had received a mere 22 percent of the support they required. "With the rainy season coming to an end, hundreds of thousands of refugees and internally displaced persons are expected to return in the weeks and months ahead - to some of the most impoverished areas in Africa," the report warned. "They and their host communities need urgent assistance, as do the millions of Sudanese who remain displaced," Annan added. The sectors with the largest shortfalls included rule of law and governance (4 percent funded), cross-sector support to return and reintegration (10 percent), protection (14 percent), shelter and nonfood items (16 percent) and education (17 percent). Annan stressed that the role of the international partners and donors was crucial for the implementation of the peace agreement, throughout the six-year interim period. The assistance of the international community "will never be more important than at the present time, given the challenges faced by the embryonic administration in southern Sudan," he observed. The report noted the importance of helping the huge numbers of displaced who had started to return home. Other key areas to be addressed included countrywide security-sector reform and disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration of combatants. Annan called on countries to come forward and take the lead on some of these critical issues. The Secretary-General also recommended that the Council renew the mandate of the UN Mission in Sudan for another 12 months, until September 2006. The Comprehensive Peace Agreement, signed by between the Sudanese government and the southern Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army on 9 January, ended the country’s 21-year civil war that killed at least 2 million people, uprooted 4 million more and forced some 600,000 to flee to neighbouring countries.