FROM LEFT: Qatar’s Deputy Prime Minister H E Ahmed bin Abdullah Al Mahmoud, Sudanese presidential adviser Mustafa Osman Ismail and Sudan’s Liberation and Justice Movement leader Eltigani Seisi address the news conference at the end of the International Donor Conference for Reconstruction and Development in Darfur, in Doha, yesterday.
Doha: Qatar yesterday pledged $500m to support development projects in Darfur.
This is part of the $3.6bn committed by the participating countries at the International Donors Conference for reconstruction and development of Darfur which concluded here yesterday.
Qatar will make an immediate contribution of $88m, half of the $177m needed for urgent projects in the war-torn region, Deputy Premier and Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs H E Ahmed bin Abdullah Al Mahmoud said yesterday.
The pledges include the $2.65bn committed by the Sudanese government in a July 2011 peace deal.
Qatar is also contributing $200m initially to the $2bn Darfur Development Bank, Amin Shakawi, the Deputy Country Director of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) said at the end of the conference.
Although the pledges fell short of the $7.2bn the UN had hoped to raise, the biggest commitments were made by Arab countries.
“Qatar has pledged $500m… some countries might increase their pledge when they look at the projects in detail,” said Al Mahmoud
Qatar’s charitable organisations announced $141m for rehabilitation projects in Darfur at the conference.
This included pledges by Qatar Charity, Sheikh Thani bin Abdullah for Humanitarian Services (RAF), Sheikh Eid Charity, Qatar Red Crescent, Al Asmakh Charity and the Sheikh Jassim bin Jabor Charity.
The 2011 Doha Peace Document on Darfur, signed with an alliance of rebel splinter groups, seeks support for the six-year, $7.25bn strategy to wean Darfur off food handouts and other emergency aid, and lay the foundation for lasting development through improved infrastructure.
The European Union (EU) promised $35m and Germany agreed to contribute €13m in aid.
Britain had on Sunday offered at least $16m for Darfur annually over the next three years to help the communities grow food and develop employment skills.
A declaration issued at the end of the conference stressed that the Darfur development strategy was the main approach to the gradual shift from humanitarian aid to development.
The statement welcomed the Justice and Equality Movement joining the Doha agreement for peace in Darfur and called on other parties that have not signed the agreement to follow suit to achieve security, stability and development in the region.
The meeting approved a one-year technical committee chaired by Qatar with one representative each from Sudan, the Regional Authority of Darfur, the United Nations Country Team (UNCT), UNAMID, and donors’ partners to activate speedy implementation of the development strategy, in particular the basic short-term projects. It commended international and regional efforts led by Qatar to promote the peace process and support development and stability in the Darfur region, and its ongoing efforts to encourage movements and non-signatories to join the peace process.
The statement stressed that a lasting solution to the Darfur crisis was to be achieved through peaceful dialogue that leads to sustainable peace, pointing out that Darfur now needs a transition from humanitarian relief to early recovery, reconstruction and development.
Meanwhile, thousands of civilians in Sudan’s troubled Darfur have sought protection around peacekeeping bases after rebel attacks, as international donors seek support for a region scarred by a decade of conflict, AFP reports from Khartoum.
The African Union-United Nations Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) Sunday confirmed rebels of the Sudan Liberation Army’s Minni Minnawi faction “attacked and seized” the towns of Muhagiriya and Labado. There were also reports of possible air strikes. “Thousands of civilians, many with their livestock, are concentrated around UNAMID team sites in Muhagiriya and Labado for protection. The pressure from the presence of civilians, especially in Muhagiriya, is growing,” the peacekeepers said in a statement.
On Saturday the rebels said they had killed government troops and occupied the areas, about 100km east of the South Darfur state capital Nyala.
The latest unrest came as insurgents, who have been fighting for 10 years in Darfur, denounced an international donor conference which seeks support for “rebuilding” the devastated region.
“I would like to condemn very strongly” the meeting which began Sunday in the Gulf state of Qatar, said Abdel Wahid Mohammed al-Nur, who heads another faction of the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA).
“To have (a) donors’ conference you have to have peace and security on the ground first,” said Nur, who launched the uprising in 2003. Speaking to AFP, he alleged that donated money “will not go to the people”. Gibril Adam Bilal, spokesman for the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), asked the international community “not to participate in giving the government of Sudan a chance to conduct crimes” against the people.
The Doha conference, which ends yesterday, was agreed under a July 2011 peace deal which Khartoum signed in the Qatari capital with an alliance of rebel splinter groups.
“This conference is a unique opportunity for Sudan and Darfur to turn the destiny of this conflict-ridden region,” said Jorg Kuhnel, team leader of the UN Development Programme in Sudan. In his speech at Doha, Sudanese Vice President Ali Osman Taha urged “all armed groups to make the historic decision to respect the will of the people of Darfur,” referring to militants who have so far refused to join the 2011 peace agreement. Major rebel movements including JEM and the SLA have refused to sign the peace pact, although a breakaway faction of JEM acceded to the deal on the eve of the donors’ conference.
While the worst of the violence has long passed, rebel-government clashes continue along with inter-Arab battles, kidnappings, carjackings and other crimes.
But the $7bn draft development strategy on the table in Doha says there will probably never be an ideal time for recovery, and delays can only make the process more difficult. Sudan is perceived as one of the world’s most corrupt countries. The development plan proposes an independent monitoring mechanism and says other safeguards will be built in, including from the United Nations and World Bank.
