International donors have pledged $2.2 billion for the Central African Republic to be directed towards the country’s recovery efforts.
80 countries and international agencies on Thursday pledged the money at a conference in Brussels, to be used for the next four years.
“We need to aid the most vulnerable, the many displaced, those who sought refuge in neighbouring countries and to help them go home,” said Andre Vallini, France’s junior minister for development, of the former French colony.
The departure of French troops this month puts the onus on U.N. peacekeepers and an EU military training mission, as well as an International Monetary Fund programme, to try to rebuild the country in sub-Saharan Africa.
“We’re here to help the country back on its feet,” Vallini said, adding France would give 85 million euros for the 2017-2019 period, having pledged 75 million euros in 2014.
The C.A.R has been plagued by inter-religious and inter-communal conflict since 2013 when the mainly Muslim Seleka rebels seized power, prompting reprisals from the anti-Balaka militia, many of whose fighters are nominally Christian.
