Addis Ababa — The African Union Commission recently donated US$ 600,000 to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) programs in four African countries.

The donation was a sign of the continental body's recommitment to solving the problem of forced displacement in Africa, the UN agency said.

UNHCR's programmes in Liberia and Sierra Leone will receive US$ 200,000 each while those in Cote d'ivoire and Guinea will each get US$ 100,000, according to UNHCR.

"The UN refugee agency duly acknowledges the donation and thanks the AU for this important gesture of solidarity with the agency, with the refugees it supports and with governments at both ends of the displacement problem," UNHCR said in a statement on Tuesday.

"UNHCR also commits itself to utilizing the money for the purpose it has been donated," it added.

According to the statement, the donation followed two assessment visits to the four countries by members of the Sub-Committee on Refugees, Returnees and Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) of the AU Permanent Representatives Committee (PRC).

The PRC Sub-Committee on Refugees, Returnees and Internally Displaced Persons, a body representing all African countries accredited to the AU, deals with all matters pertaining to forced displacement on the continent on behalf of the African Union, which for years now, has been extending such important humanitarian donations, said the statement.

In 2007 the AU made donations amounting to US$300,000 to victims of natural disasters in Togo, Ghana, Sudan and Uganda.