UN pledges more development aid to South Sudan

As Sudan prepares to mark the second anniversary since the signing of a landmark peace agreement to end Sudan's 21-year North-South civil war on Tuesday, the UN World Food Program has pledged continued assistance to help consolidate peace.

In a statement issued in Nairobi, WFP said it has helped to lay the foundations for the recovery of South Sudan's economy after two decades of war by feeding nearly 2 million people a year including 600,000 people who have returned to the South.

"The South still faces tough challenges. WFP will continue to work together with the people of the region to help consolidate peace, through programs aimed at the long-term recovery of South Sudan," said Kenro Oshidari, WFP representative in Sudan in a statement.

"WFP congratulates the people of South Sudan on their achievements since the peace agreement was signed," Oshidari said in a statement issued to mark the second anniversary, which will be marked in Sudan on Tuesday.

The UN agency said it would continue feeding school children, supporting skills training and repairing roads in the vast region.

"In 2007, we will increasingly focus on recovery and development- oriented projects such as Food for Work, Food for Training and Food for Education, aimed at assisting the people of the South to revive their economy and rebuild their lives and livelihoods so they can sustain themselves," the statement said.

The two-decade long conflict in South Sudan left more than 2 million people dead, 4 million displaced and a further 600,000 living as refugees in neighboring countries.

The Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) ended the war and set up a governing and wealth-sharing agreement between South and North Sudan. The Government of National Unity governs the whole of Sudan, and the CPA also outlines the role of the Government of South Sudan (GOSS).

WFP said it plans to provide food assistance to 430,000 returnees to meet their immediate needs and support reintegration into their home communities.

The agency said 450,000 children will receive school feeding, nearly 100,000 people will benefit from therapeutic, supplementary and institutional feeding, and more than 160,000 people will participate in Food for Work and Food for Training.

"In addition, nearly 568,000 South Sudan residents ?C many of them children and mothers ?C are expected to receive food aid to meet their nutritional needs in 2007," it said. Since the peace agreement, WFP said it has made tangible improvements to the battered infrastructure of South Sudan, by repairing more than 1, 850 kilometers of roads and removing more than 250,000 pieces of unexploded ordnance from transport routes.

The Road Repair and Mine Clearance Project, which received a 30 million U.S. dollars donation from the government of South Sudan last year, will continue to rebuild 1,000 kilometers of roads in 2007.

"WFP started repairing the roads so that we could move food aid throughout the South. It has created long-term benefits for the South Sudan economy," it said.

"Thanks to the WFP road repair project people have much better access to markets and health care. For many, the cost of public transport has been cut in half, and people are able to reunite with loved ones," said Oshidari.

The road repair and mine clearance project has created jobs for some 2,000 Sudanese workers. "WFP's emergency operational budget in 2006 for Sudan stood at 746 million dollars. By the end of the year, it was almost 90 per cent funded ?C reflecting the strong commitment that donors have shown to WFP's work in Sudan," it said.

Source: Xinhua