Africa: Powell Ends Tour With Pledge to Keep Africa High on US Agenda

28 May 2001
allAfrica.com
By Ofeibea Quist-Arcton

Kampala — America’s top diplomat, Colin Powell, wrapping up a four-nation Africa tour in Uganda on Monday, has promised to keep the continent on the US foreign policy agenda.

In an interview with allAfrica.com the US Secretary of State said comments, made during last year’s election campaign, by President George W. Bush about Africa’s lack of strategic importance had been misinterpreted.

Powell said Africa certainly mattered, both to him and to President Bush. "Africa is important to him. So far he has shown that by, one, sending me here and, two, by finding US$200 million to launch the Global Health Trust at a ceremony with (the United Nations’ secretary-general) Kofi Annan, and Kofi Annan was very appreciative," Powell told allAfrica.com.

On his last stop, in Uganda on Sunday, Powell said the US would help Africa find a resolution to the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the long-running war in Sudan. On Sunday, he announced that America would be diverting 40,000 additional tonnes of emergency food to people at risk of drought and "on the verge of starvation" in Sudan.

Powell said urgent measures were needed to avert a famine in a country wracked by a 17-year civil war. "I’m moved by the desperate situation that exists in southern Sudan," said Powell, adding: "I call on the government of Sudan to do everything possible to provide access to these people desperately in need, and to remove all barriers to providing them with humanitarian aid."

Andrew Natsios, the head of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), said the extra food would be distributed to all those in need, on government and rebel sides of the conflict in Sudan.

The US Secretary of State said that he wanted to help the rival parties reach a ceasefire. America has been sharply critical of bombing attacks by the Sudanese government army on the beleaguered south. There have been reports of heavy fighting in Sudan, in recent weeks, with the combatants on both sides trying to bolster their military positions before fresh negotiations.

The other area of crisis in Africa that has dominated Colin Powell’s fact-finding mission is HIV/AIDS. After meeting activists and people living with the disease in South Africa and Kenya, Powell turned his attention Sunday to the AIDS prevention strategy of Uganda, which received high praise.

"I am deeply moved by Uganda’s experience in the face of AIDS. You are the leaders in this war. You have taken the battle into enemy territory," Powell told President Yoweri Museveni, noting that Uganda had succeeded in cutting the rate of HIV infection from 30 percent to 10 percent in a relatively short time.

Uganda is to receive US$50m from America to help fight AIDS. Powell told allAfrica.com that US$30m was destined for AIDS orphans and another US$20m for outreach programmes in Uganda.

The US Secretary of State left the Ugandan capital, Kampala, on Monday morning, heading for Budapest, Hungary to attend a meeting of Nato foreign ministers.

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