Burundi gets $2bn from donors

GENEVA - Burundi has secured $2bn in aid from international donors after asking for help in financing its development programmes due to be completed over the next four years, the United Nations said this week.

The country asked for $1.1bn at a two-day donor conference, but it ended up getting more than $2 billion in registered commitments at the conference says Pamphile Muderega of the National Aid Co-ordination Committee.

The donor windfall comes after a spike in violence in Burundi late last year that led many observers to fear the country could slide back into a full-blown civil war.

An earlier conflict ended with a 2006 ceasefire agreement after a decade of fighting that left nearly 300,000 people dead.

Burundi President Pierre Nkurunziza said that the central African country is now out of the post-conflict period and is truly committed to the path of development.

"Economic growth has risen from minus 1.2% in 2003 to 4.2% in 2011 while maternal and infant mortality have declined significantly," Nkurunziza said.

Source: AFP via I-NET Bridge