 Lemme get this straight: They're wading in oil and they need reconstruction money? Might I suggest an alternative to handing them large sums of cash...? | Donors yesterday pledged far more than what is needed to help rebuild Sudan's pacified southern and northern areas at a conference here as the United States tied its aid to improvements in the strife-torn Darfur region. "This conference has pledged $4.5 billion for 2005, 2006 and 2007," Norway's Minister for Development Aid Hilde Frafjord Johnson told the donors gathered in Oslo. She said "at least two billion dollars" were promised in bilateral funding to assist Sudan's reconstruction. Based on a joint United Nations, World Bank and Sudanese needs' assessment, donors were asked to contribute $2.6 billion by the end of 2007 for reconstruction and development after a January peace accord ended 21 years of civil conflict in Sudan's south and parts in the north. |