World Bank suspends aid

The World Bank has suspended its post-conflict assistance programme to the Congo due to mounting insecurity since December 1998, a World Bank statement sent to IRIN on Thursday said. The statement said the suspension will affect a US$ 915,000 donation approved in June 1998 to support a government recovery programme set up after the 1997 civil war. About half of the donation had already been used by the local European Union delegation, acting on behalf of the World Bank, to purchase computers and other equipment for the planning and finance ministries and to fund a privatisation programme, the statement said. Recent insecurity and population displacements in the city did not permit the fielding of World Bank consultants to conduct required audits of banks, the civil service, public investments and infrastructure, it said. Patasse offers mediation role Congo has denied reports that it accepted Central African Republic President Felix-Ange Patasse as mediator in the country’s conflict, news agencies said on Wednesday. Patasse told RFI he had been chosen to mediate between President Denis Sassou-Nguesso and his foes, former president Pascal Lissouba and former prime minister Bernard Kolelas. Patasse said: “we have already taken practical measures to host on Central African soil the various delegations that might visit in accordance with a schedule that is to be agreed upon.” However, AFP quoted Congolese Communications Minister Francois Ibovi as saying his government had “not confided a mission to President Patasse for any round-table in Bangui.”