KHARTOUM,
January 7 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Rich countries will
be acting “immorally” if aid money for victims of the tsunami-hit
countries is taken from cash meant for helping poor Africa, such as
recovering Sudan from its 21-year long civil war, relief officials
warned.
“I
fear (aid) might be taken from Africa,” Hilde Frafjord Johnson, who
is co-chair of the Sudan donors’ group known as the IGAD partners'
forum, told Reuters Thursday, January 6.
“If
other poor people are supposed to pay the bills to help the needy
people after this (tsunami) catastrophe it’s immoral,” said
Johnson, who is also Norway's minister of international development.
Over
150,000 people have been confirmed killed and thousands have been
missing in walls of tidal waves triggered by a 9.0 magnitude
underwater earthquake - the world’s biggest in 40 years - which
struck deep in the Indian Ocean off the west coast of Indonesia’s
Sumatra Island on December 26.
Meeting
in the Indonesian capital Jakarta Thursday, world leaders pledged more
than 4 billion dollars in aid and to work together closely in a
long-term reconstruction aid for countries devastated by the Asian
disaster.
UN
Secretary General Kofi Annan exhorted countries to come forward
immediately with nearly a billion dollars in cash. He also appealed
for $977 million to cover basic humanitarian needs for an estimated 5
million people in the next six months.
Darfur
Crisis
Johnson
said aid pledges to help the tsunami-stricken countries should be new
money rather than taken from aid budgets of the rich countries.
He
noted that the Sudan civil war, for one, left two million people
killed and forced four million to leave home since 1983.
The
Khartoum government and the main rebel Sudan People's Liberation
Movement (SPLM) are due to sign a final peace deal in the Kenyan
capital Nairobi Sunday, January 9, to end a 21-year long civil war in
the Arab country.
But
the deal has no bearing on the western region of Darfur, where at
least 10,000 people have been killed in a 15-month-old conflict
pitting two rebel groups against government forces.
Additional
Funds
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Reuters photo of the year (2004), from Darfur
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Nina
Bowen, Care International's acting regional director for southern and
West Africa, also said commitments made by rich countries for the
tsunami-stricken countries must come out of additional funds from
national budgets.
“I
hope we don't hear a giant sucking sound away from our major aid
programs in Africa what we don't want to do is to rob Peter to pay
Paul,” he told Reuters Wednesday.
Irish
rock star Bob Geldof, who led the Live Aid efforts to relieve famine
in Africa in the 1980s, also appealed for not turning a blind eye to
Africa's plight in the rush to help Asia.
“The
tsunami must be dealt with, it is an act of God, an act of nature,”
he said.
“Africa's
an act of man. Millions die each year completely unnecessarily and
that can be adjusted. The issue is one of poverty and debt and it need
not be.”
After
the earthquake hit Asia, hundreds of millions of dollars were
collected swiftly across the world to help send relief supplies to the
victims in an unprecedented scene of solidarity.
The
World Bank offered last week $250 million for tsunami relief, bringing
total aid contributions from around the world to nearly $500 million,
the United Nations said.
The
British public has donated 32 million pounds (45 million euros, 62
million dollars) for victims of the Asian tsunami, with calls to an
aid line hitting a peak of almost a million an hour, charity
organizers told AFP Friday.
Such
world figures as Annan and Secretary of State Colin Powell also rushed
to visit areas affected by the tidal waves.
Leading
American and British organizations have also launched
online donations and appeals to people worldwide to immediately send
contributions.
