EU promises multi million dollar donation to restore peace

The European Union is poised to donate some 100 million euros, or 126 million dollars, to help restore peace in Cote d’Ivoire, including funds to supply water and sanitation to the most vulnerable population, officials said on Thursday. The pledge makes the EU one of the largest donors to the war-torn West African country. Some 40 million euros destined for urgent humanitarian aid was announced on Wednesday following a meeting between Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny and EU Commissioner Louis Michel in the Belgium capital Brussels. “The Prime Minister stressed the necessity to help Cote d’Ivoire and its government with emergencies [and] to respond to immediate humanitarian problems like water,” Michel told reporters. “The influx of 1.5 million people to [the main city] Abidjan has caused potable water and infrastructural problems,” he added. But an official at the EU delegation in Abidjan told IRIN the total amount marked for short-term disbursal to Cote d’Ivoire stood at nearly 100 million euros. Funds are destined for an array of programmes, from education, good governance, reinsertion of ex-combatants, to an identification process meant to provide an estimated 3 million disenfranchised Ivorians with nationality documents. However, money earmarked for the much-delayed disarmament and identification programmes will only be disbursed once they actually start, he added. The population of Abidjan has swollen to an estimated four million people due to the outbreak of civil war in September 2002. Although the fighting has stopped, the country remains split in two with rebels holding the north. A recent UN survey found that most of the displaced are sheltered by family members, but humanitarian workers warn that their situation is increasingly precarious.