A DONOR meeting for Darfur held in Cairo on Sunday raised less than half the targeted $2 billion for development in Sudan’s violent western region after several countries refrained from pledging over security worries.
Despite the shortfall, Sudan said it was not disappointed by the results of the one-day meeting, which officials said raised $841 million for projects such as cement plants, roads and villages for displaced people in Darfur.
“What is more important is that the international community has pledged support to the Sudanese government in order to achieve peace in Darfur,” said Abdel Malik al-Naeem, media adviser for the Sudanese delegation.
Countries including the United States, Canada, Norway and Britain did not pledge at the meeting, saying the region was not secure enough for the proposed work.
Qatar, which in recent weeks oversaw the signing of two ceasefire deals between rebel groups and Khartoum, pledged $200 million in a further move to fashion itself a leading role in resolving the Darfur crisis. The Gulf Arab state had already pledged $1 billion to a separate fund for Darfur .
Egypt said it would consider the proposal and recommended forming a committee that included major donors to look into where the bank would be based and other details.
The Islamic Development Bank of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), which backed the meeting, said it would give $355 million.
Turkey said it would give $60-75 million from now until 2015 for water, education and agricultural projects, and the European Union pledged $95 million collectively.
The United Nations estimates up to 300,000 people have died since rebel groups took up arms against the Sudanese government in 2003.
Ireland did not pledge at the donor meeting for Darfur but a spokeswoman for Irish Aid said yesterday the decision was not security related.
“It was never intended that we would pledge at that meeting,” she said.
She stressed that Ireland nonetheless gives quite a significant amount of money to Sudan via the United Nations and NGOs on the ground.
“There are a lot of donor conferences and we don’t pledge at every single one. But there is one on Haiti on March 31st and we will pledge at that,” she said.