Sudan will require more than 1.8 billion U.S. dollars to fund humanitarian, recovery and development projects in 2007, according to the UN Work Plan for Sudan, launched here on Thursday. This represents nearly half of the total 3.7 billion U.S. dollars requested by Secretary General Kofi Annan for humanitarian assistance worldwide in 2007, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a statement. What's needed is the complete dissolution of this monstrosity. And the monstrosity in Sudan needs to go, too.
According to the UN plan, the vast majority of the funds - some 1.26 billion U.S. dollars - will go to fund humanitarian activities for large numbers of the population still in considerable need. The ongoing humanitarian operation in the strife-torn Darfur region will require more than 650 million U.S. dollars in 2007. Nearly 4 million people have been affected by three years of conflict between rebels and government forces in Darfur, and the majority of the 2 million displaced persons there are entirely dependent upon direct food aid for survival, the statement said.
It added that more money was needed to support "recovery and development activities" in the region, which has been described by the United Nations as the site of the world's worst humanitarian crisis. Other funds are needed for aid and reconstruction programs in southern Sudan, where a 2005 peace deal ended over two decades of civil war. That conflict, which was separate from the one in Darfur, was the African continent's longest running fight at the time.