TUNIS- The African Development Fund, AFDB, says African development fund has provided $55 million to promote subsistence farming and food security in Ethiopia.
The fund, an arm of the AFDB group, has given the Ethiopia, which is threatened by severe drought, $26 million, while the remaining $31.50 million is in the form of a loan. The money is to pay for the irrigation of 7 500 hectares of farmland at 59 sites and for the collection and storage of rainwater to supply almost 60 000 families.
The AFDB group has been operating in Ethiopia since 1975 and has committed $1.8 billion in funds for 75 projects. -Sapa-AFP
ANNAN SADDENED BY UN MILLITARY OBSERVER'S DEATHKINSHASA -Reports say United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan is profoundly saddened by the death of a military observer in north-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The UN Mission to Congo observer was killed in an ambush this week.
The Secretary General has reaffirmed the UN mission's determination, in co-operation with the government of Congo, to pursue the culprits and bring to justice all those who were responsible for the crime.
The Kenyan observer was killed when armed men opened fire on a UN convoy leaving Katoto, 22-kilometers north-west of Bunia, in Ituri Province. Tensions in the region have been rising over the past several weeks.
Inter-ethnic violence in Ituri has clamed about 50 000 lives and displaced half a million people since 1999. About 4 700 UN soldiers are deployed in several Ituri towns. -SAPA
ZUMA TO ADDRESS MATOLA COMMEMORATION PRICHETT- South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma was due to address South Africans and Mozambicans at a commemoration ceremony in Maputo in Mozambique to mark the 1981 Matola raid. The ceremony will honour liberation fighters killed in a cross-border raid by apartheid security forces. The cleansing ceremony is meant to make symbolic reparations for the evil committed at the time. It is the second such event organised by the Freedom Park Trust outside South Africa's borders. -SABC
MBEKI IN KIGALI ON NEPAD MISSIONKIGALI- Thabo Mbeki, the South African President, has arrived in Kigali for a two-day summit on New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) business.
The summit will focus on the formal adoption of a Peer Review Mechanism, whereby participating African states will agree to have their achievements and shortcomings with regards to good governance and human rights evaluated by the others.
President Omar Bongo of Gabon, John Kufuor of Ghana and Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal are in also Kigali for the summit. Other leaders who are due at the summit include presidents Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, Denis Sassou Nguesso of the Republic of Congo, and Joaquim Chissano of Mozambique. -Sapa-AFP
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