EU restores ties with Sudan, offers quick aid
The European Union restored ties with Sudan on Monday and offered 50 million euros ($65 million) in aid to help boost a peace agreement in the African country, plagued by civil war in the past two decades.
Senior EU and Sudanese officials signed a cooperation agreement, which the European Commission said would launch an immediate aid package of 25 million euros for the northern region and a further 25 million for the south of the country.
"This meeting is the starting point of normal relations between the European Union and Sudan," EU Development and Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Louis Michel told reporters.
The EU, the world's leading aid donor, suspended cooperation with Sudan during the war in 1990. It resumed political dialogue with Khartoum in 1999 but did not relaunch cooperation.
Normal relations between Khartoum and Brussels will mean that Sudan now also has access to a 400 million euro development aid package from the EU's executive Commission.
Rebels in the south and the Khartoum government signed the peace deal on Jan. 9 this year, ending 21 years of north-south war. Two million people, mostly civilians, have died in the south from violence, disease or famine in the oil-rich region.
Sudanese Vice-President Ali Osman Mohamed Taha pledged to implement the peace pact, which in turn could help end the Darfur conflict in which over 1.2 million people have been left homeless by rampaging militia and Sudanese security forces.
"We are committed to use the same drive and to draw from our experience in resolving the conflict in southern Sudan to bring a prompt and fair answer to the conflict in Darfur," Taha said.
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