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US ups development aid for DRC
18/03/2008 09:37 - (SA)
Kinshasa - The director of the United States foreign assistance and USAID chief Henrietta Fore announced that more than $100m of development aid this year for the war-ravaged Democratic Republic of Congo.
"US bilateral foreign assistance to the DRC is expected to surpass $100m this fiscal year," she said, adding that this would be solely for development projects.
"Our increase in assistance demonstrates the United States' commitment to working side by side with the Congolese people toward a more stable and prosperous country."
Total US aid to the sprawling mineral-rich country would be more than $500m this year over $460m last year.
Humanitarian aid alone, including American participation in the UN mission in the DRC, or Monuc, would total about $400m in 2008.
January ceasefire 'breached'
Monuc, which was helping the DRC recover from the 1998-2003 civil war that drew in more than half a dozen other African armies - still maintained more than 17 000 personnel in the country.
Fore evoked the fragile peace process in the restive eastern Kivu region, where a January ceasefire had been breached by warring groups, and urged the players "to build upon the current window of opportunity to cement a lasting peace after years of conflict".
She also mentioned the "unbearable suffering" of female rape victims she met while touring a hospital in Goma, the main city in Nord-Kivu.
"Without progress on peace and security issues, in particular security sector reform and disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration, progress in addressing the DRC's development challenges is in jeopardy," Fore said.
The country formerly known as Zaire and systematically pillaged by former dictator Mobutu Sese Seko now had elected post-war democratic institutions, but the east remained volatile and torn by rebel and militia activity.
Military reforms entailed retraining and incorporating former rebels into army ranks and creating a defence force capable of replacing the large United Nations mission of peacekeepers.
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