Annan to Appeal for Aid to Address Sudan Crisis

[psychopomp]

Article alludes to difficulties the UN is having procuring any funding from the rich countries of the Persian Gulf: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. Also, Pakistan claims that because it it is "not a very rich country" it is still "considering" how to help in this instance.

Annan to Appeal for Aid to Address Sudan Crisis

By Colum Lynch
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 28, 2004; Page A16

UNITED NATIONS, July 27 -- Frustrated by a chronic funding gap for the U.N. relief effort in the Darfur region of Sudan, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan will issue an urgent appeal Wednesday to wealthy European, Asian and Middle Eastern governments that he believes have been too stingy in addressing the humanitarian crisis, senior U.N. officials said Tuesday.

-snip

Sudan, meanwhile, said Tuesday it would fight any foreign troops sent to Darfur to stop the violence. "If we are attacked, we will not sit silent, we will retaliate . . . but we definitely hope we do not reach that situation," Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail told reporters in Turkey, according to Reuters.

-snip

Annan's latest appeal for funding reflects growing frustration as the United Nations has failed to collect even half of the $350 million it requested in March to run its relief operation in Darfur, a violence-torn, impoverished province roughly the size of France. In an effort to reach that goal, Annan will send private letters asking Japan, Germany, France, Spain, Italy and Belgium -- which have provided a total of just over $11.5 million in contributions since March -- to increase their funding for the United Nations' operations.

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Egeland said that the bulk of the U.N. operations have been sustained by the United States, which has underwritten 45 percent of the U.N. budget for the issue, and Britain, the Netherlands and Norway.

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