On Wednesday 12 April 2005, sixty wealthy nations attended an international donor conference in Oslo, Norway to raise money which United Nations (UN) pledged to use to rebuild Southern Sudan following the final peace agreement on power and wealth-sharing reached in Kenya on 9th January 2005 by the Sudan Government and the Sudan's people Movement. The long civil war between North and the South has caused enormous suffering to the people of Southern Sudan and much devastation to the South. The United Nations has asked for 2.6 billion dollars to fund the refugee programme and to reconstruct the devastated infrastructures in the Southern Sudan.

Kofi Annan, United Nations Secretary General, urged the donors to show commitment to rebuild the South, which has emerged from a long years of devastating civil war. He said, "The money for the South must be given unconditionally".

At the end of the second day of the conference the donors pledged 4.5 billion dollars, more money than the U.N. had asked for for the reconstruction of Southern Sudan. This great response to the Southern needs for rebuilding and settlement has taken many by surprise including the Government of Sudan. The donors were:

US: $1.7billion, EU: $765m, UK: $545m, Norway: $250m and Netherlands: $220m, Arab league: $200m, Germany: $161m, Sweden: $110, Japan: $100m and Denmark: $90

The leader of SPLM, Dr. John Garang said, "The four and a half billion dollars pledged was good news."

This is a good response for helping the people of the Southern Sudan to revive the battered southern infrastructures. The international community should make sure that the money goes to help the right people, as experience tell us that donations in many cases like this have ended up in the hands of governments and those in real need are left worse off.

Whilstthe international response to the United Nations call for pledges to fund the return of refugees and to rebuild the infra-structure in Southern Sudan was good, the international community seems to have ignored the recovery and reconstruction needs of other war-affected areas including the Nuba Mountains. The latter has been devastated by the 19 years of civil war; all the main infrastructure has been destroyed or badly damaged and will need rebuilding and thousands of Nuba refugees living inside and outside Sudan need international assistance to return to their homes in the Nuba Mountains.

The United Nations should make a similar call to the international donor community for pledges to assist the war affected areas of Darfur, Nuba Mountains, Southern Blue Nile, Beja Hills. Darfur is a classic example as some 180,000 people are last month reported to have died from disease and hunger and more than two million have been forced from their homes in what the US calls "genocide in Darfur". The people of the Nuba Mountains too have been victims of the government's genocidal policy during the "Jihad War". At this time the world turned a blind eye and it was too late when it came to rescue, as many thousands of men, women and children had already been killed and hundred of thousands displaced. They remain living in appalling conditions in shanty towns established around big cities in northern Sudan and have little hope of returning to their homes because of lack of humanitarian support.

Whilst the international community is trying to help rebuild the Southern Sudan it should not ignore the humanitarian catastrophe in Darfur, Nuba Mountains, Southern Blue Nile and Beja in eastern Sudan, as some of these areas were severely affected by the war and their situation is even worse than Southern Sudan. The government is not going to help people of these regions to rebuild their communities and infrastructure. Therefore, it is important that the international community should set up a "Special Trust Fund" to help reconstruct and develop these neglected and war-affected areas.