New York - Germany became the first country on Monday to donate funds to the Darfur Community Peace and Stability Fund, which supports programmes to develop local livelihoods alongside efforts to achieve for peace and security. The fund was set up last October by the United Nations and international donor countries to foster peace and reconciliation in Darfur, where an ethnic war since 2003 has killed hundreds of thousands and made more than 2 million refugees.
German UN Ambassador Thomas Matussek said in announcing the 350,000-euro donation that the fund represents a new approach to work for peace in Darfur.
"Political progress is linked with community-based support for development," Matussek said.
The fund will complement positive developments in the political and security process with an immediate improvement in living conditions of local inhabitants and help local political leaders to work for peace, he said.
