Press Release

No: 151/1999
Date: 7 September 1999

International community pledges significant support to IGAD peace prosess

Members of the international donor community today pledged renewed financial and political support to the newly revitalized peace process for Sudan. They reiterated their support for the IGAD peace process and reconfirmed their confidence in IGADs prime role in achieving a comprehensive peace in Sudan.

In his first meeting with the donors to the IGAD Sudan peace process, IGAD special envoy, Ambassador Daniel Mboya, reported that he has begun informal contacts with the parties to the dispute. Mboya, who was formerly Kenyan ambassador to Sudan, outlined his plans to accelerate the Sudan peace talks.

The discussions in Norway are the first between Mboya and the representatives of the international donors to the IGAD peace fund since he was appointed last July by the IGAD members at the last round of peace talks in Nairobi. His appointment is part of an effort to revitalize the IGAD process through the establishment of a secretariat and greater political and material support from the international community.

Donor countries representing a sub-group of the IGAD Partners Forum that have contributed financially to the IGAD Peace Fund met in Oslo September 6-7, 1999. There will be a full meeting of the IPF in Rome medio October where further discussions on the peace process will take place.

Ms. Hilde F. Johnson, Norwegian Minister of International Development and Human Rights, chaired the meeting. Participants included the Executive Secretary of IGAD, Dr. Tekeste Ghebray, the special envoy, Ambassador Daniel Mboya as well as representatives of Italy (co-chair of the Sudan committee of the IPF), and Belgium, Canada, Finland, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, UN and USA.

Oslo, 7 September 1999