Global Policy Forum

The United Nations said yesterday that donors must honour pledges of more than $4.5bn in aid for Sudan or endanger a January agreement ending Africa's longest civil war in the south of the country. Speaking after southern rebel leader John Garang took the oath of office as first vice president in a peace government, the UN Secretary-General said he would be writing to major donor countries to remind them of the urgent needs in Sudan.

"We do need support. We do need resources," Annan said, a day after he attended a meeting of the world's eight richest countries in Scotland. "We have got less than half of that we require and it would be a shame that having worked so hard for peace that it does fall apart for lack of cash."

"Yesterday at the G8 (Group of Eight) I did raise this issue — the need for support, the need to honour the pledges for Sudan and I will be writing to the major donors to urge them to convey their pledges into action," he added.

The southern war broadly pitted the Islamist government in Khartoum against the mostly Christian and animist south, complicated oil, ethnicity and ideology. More than 2 million people died and more than 4 million fled their homes.

The top UN envoy in Sudan, Jan Pronk, said the world body this year alone needed almost $2 billion in aid for Sudan, to reconstruct the south and provide aid to more than 2.5 million people in the western region of Darfur, where a revolt has raged for two-and-a-half years. It has received only $650m. In April donors pledged about $4.5bn over the next few years, but most have yet to deliver on the promises.

The southern peace deal does not cover the fighting in Darfur, where tens of thousands have been killed and more than 2 million forced from their homes. A smaller conflict in the east of the country also escalated recently. Earlier this year the UN Security Council adopted a resolution threatening sanctions, including a travel ban and asset freeze, against anyone who violated a shaky ceasefire signed last year in Darfur.

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