CAIRO: Egypt and Turkey on Sunday urged the world community to help raise $2 billion to rebuild Sudan s war-torn western region of Darfur at an international aid conference.
International donors were in Cairo for the one-day conference organized by the 57-strong Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), and co-chaired by Egypt and Turkey.
The Darfur issue is mainly an issue of development, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said as he urged donors to make significant pledges to Darfur, which has been devastated by a seven-year-war.
We are convinced that the key is to improve development and raise the standard of living for the Darfur citizen, he told the opening session.
Recent agreements signed between the government of Sudan and rebel groups were important and need to be implemented, he said.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu also highlighted the importance of the agreements, but said a solution to the Darfur conflict was not just political.
Peace in Darfur will not only be achieved through political agreements but also through humanitarian and development assistance, Davutoglu said.
Sudan is represented by former Darfur rebel and now presidential adviser Minni Minawi, as well as ministers and senior officials.
Several Western diplomats present told AFP they would not be making pledges at this conference.
Our presence here constitutes a political message, one of them said, adding that his would not contribute pledges because of the uncertainty of how the money will be used or channeled.
Another Western diplomat echoed the view. We cannot make pledges at this conference. We have donated money in the past through the World Bank, but there are still some difficulties in the country, he said.
The $2 billion which the conference aims to raise is to finance in cooperation with Khartoum a long list of development projects in agriculture, water supply, health and education.
The conference aims to send a clear message to the international community that development is a key factor in achieving peace and stability in Darfur, the host nation said in a statement.
Aid to Darfur has so far concentrated on humanitarian and relief efforts. But organizers are trying to shift gear by working on a more long-term vision for Darfur through development and reconstruction projects.
Funds raised can be directly poured into projects or go through the OIC in coordination with Sudan, and the pan-Islamic organization is due to form a follow-up committee to oversee the running of projects.
The ministerial level conference also hopes to “provide an incentive to all Darfur movements to join the peace process which has been taking place in Doha, the host said.
On Thursday Khartoum and a small Darfur rebel group, the Liberation and Justice Movement (LJM), signed a framework peace accord and last month Sudan inked an agreement with key Darfur rebel group, the Justice and Equality Movement.
The accord was hailed by the international community as a key step toward bringing peace to Darfur but talks have since run into difficulty.
The Cairo conference comes three weeks before Sudan holds its first multi-party elections since 1986, in which veteran leader Omar Al-Beshir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crime’s in Darfur, is seeking re-election as president.
Since ethnic minority rebels first rose up against the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum in 2003, the Darfur conflict has claimed about 300,000 lives and left 2.7 million people homeless, according to UN figures.
Khartoum puts the death toll at 10,000.
