France gives DRC cash boost
2004-07-15 15:53
Kinshasa - France has released €5m in aid to Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to help prepare elections planned for next year as a final step toward lasting peace after a devastating five-year war.
"Financial aid of €5m has just been allocated to DRC," France's ambassador in Kinshasa, Georges Serre, said on Wednesday.
"France wishes to back up the process (of transition) and believe in it very firmly", he said.
The money is earmarked for an independent electoral commission which is planning the elections, as well as to bolster the vast central African country's customs service and to create a police rapid intervention force, added Serre.
The aid tranche "comes on top of our current ongoing support of €30m", the ambassador said in an announcement timed to mark France's national Bastille Day.
A peace pact enacted by Congolese President Joseph Kabila in April last year formally ended a five-year war in DRC that claimed some 2.5 million lives, both in combat and through disease and hunger.
An interim government in which former rebel groups are now taking part is tasked with leading DRC to its first elections since those held more than 40 years ago when the country won independence from Belgium.
France has already providing training for members of the future DRC police rapid intervention force.
The 25-member European Union has also promised €80m in support for the DRC elections.
Even as DRC plans the end of its transition to democracy, the process continues to be unsettled by violence, with two attempted coups d'etat in recent months and continued fighting in the east.
- SAPA