Burundi gets $2bn in aid
2012-10-31 08:32
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Geneva - Burundi has secured more than $2bn in aid from international donors after requesting help toward financing development programmes over the next four years, the United Nations said on Tuesday.
The country had asked for $1.1bn at a two-day donor conference, "but we ended up with more than $2bn registered commitments at the conference,” Pamphile Muderega of the National Aid Co-ordination Committee said in a statement released by the UN's development agency.
“This represents a doubling of our already optimistic expectations."
The donor windfall comes after a spike in violence in Burundi late last year that led many observers to fear the country could slide back into a full-blown civil war. The conflict ended in a 2006 ceasefire agreement after over a decade of fighting that left nearly 300 000 people dead.
But Burundi President Pierre Nkurunziza said in the statement that the central African country "is now out of the post-conflict period and is truly committed to the path of development".
“Economic growth has risen from minus 1.2% in 2003 to 4.2% in 2011, and indicators of maternal and infant mortality have declined significantly.”
On Monday, Burundi's vice-president had asked the more than 400 donor representatives for aid toward a plan to boost economic growth and fight poverty between 2012 and 2016.
- SAPA
