Africa to get more money for peacekeeping

Africa to get more money for peacekeeping

By Muntu Lukhozi


More funding will be allocated to the African Peace Facility. This emerged at the end of the ACP-EU council of ministers meeting in Brussels yesterday - whose aim was a joint review of the Economic Partnership Agreements.

Development ministers from both the European Union and African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group of countries reaffirmed their commitment to end Economic Partnership Agreement negotiations by the end of this year.

Welcoming the decision, Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, German development minister and president of the council, she made a commitment that her government would provide a further $26 million for this purpose. This decision means further financial support will be allocated to the cash-strapped African Mission in Sudan in the next few months and assist in humanitarian aid in Somalia.

The ACP countries once again called for the trade-distorting subsidies in the cotton sector to be abolished. The meeting ended with an assurance that ACP countries had full support of the German EU presidency of this issue.