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Addis Ababa, March 17, 2017 (dpa/NAN) The European Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development, Neven Mimica, on Friday indirectly criticised cuts in U.S. foreign aid, saying that any cuts on development assistance went against global development goals.
Mimica in Addis Ababa, where the European Union announced an aid package worth 177 million dollars for eastern Africa, kicked against the cuts announced by U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration.
“Any cut or withdrawal of funds from development assistance projects goes against the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals that the world adopted in September 2015 at the UN.
“Any withdrawal or cut in the development assistance would actually go contrary to the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals agenda.
`We need good partners to the global development assistance effort, the EU, however, shall do its best to be the best donor in the world,” the commissioner said.
The EU’s new aid package will support humanitarian needs in South Sudan, which is being ravaged by a military conflict and where 100,000 people are facing a famine.
The package will also respond to the needs of millions of people facing food insecurity in drought-stricken Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya.
“The package will scale up the aid worth more than 400 million euros that the EU allocated in 2016 to address humanitarian crises and the effects of the climatic phenomenon El Nino in the region.
“With this additional support, the EU shows the way to other members of the international community to also respond urgently,” Mimica said.
The White House’s budget blueprint for 2018 seeks major cuts in U.S. diplomacy and foreign aid, in favour of boosted defence spending. (dpa/NAN)
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Edited by Celine-Damilola Oyewole/Abdullahi Yusuf