UN News Service: “A two-day donors’ conference to support the peace accord between the Government and rebels in southern Sudan has pledged $4.5 billion for 2005-2007, nearly $2 billion more than the amount United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan identified as needed to resurrect the ravaged region over the next two and a half years.
Addressing the opening session yesterday in Oslo, Norway, Mr. Annan had appealed to participants to “pledge – and pledge generously,” quipping when asked about the tendency of governments not to honour their pledges that “pledges are good, but cash is better.”