Sudan: Billions needed for peace, says Annan

Convening to put financial backbone in an accord ending two decades of war in southern Sudan, yet meeting under the shadow of ongoing conflict in the country’s western Darfur region, an international donors’ conference opened with United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan appealing for $2.6 billion to fan the flames of peace. “If ever there was a time for donors to get off the fence, it is surely today,” he told the gathering in Oslo, Norway, summoned to fund rehabilitation, with a massive shortfall already evident, after a peace agreement in January ended a civil war that killed 2 million people and drove more than 4.5 million other southerners from their homes.