Geneva - Burundi has secured more than $2-billion in aid from international donors after requesting help toward financing development programmes over the next four years, the United Nations said on Tuesday.
The country had asked for $1.1-billion at a two-day donor conference, "but we ended up with more than $2-billion registered commitments at the conference," Pamphile Muderega of the National Aid Co-ordination Committee said in a statement released by the UN's development agency.
"This represents a doubling of our already optimistic expectations."
The donor windfall comes after a spike in violence in Burundi late last year that led many observers to fear the country could slide back into a full-blown civil war. The conflict ended in a 2006 ceasefire agreement after over a decade of fighting that left nearly 300 000 people dead.
But Burundi President Pierre Nkurunziza said in the statement that the Central African country "is now out of the post-conflict period and is truly committed to the path of development".
Economic growth has risen from minus 1.2 percent in 2003 to 4.2 percent in 2011, and indicators of maternal and infant mortality have declined significantly.
On Monday, Burundi's vice-president had asked the more than 400 donor representatives for aid toward a plan to boost economic growth and fight poverty between 2012 and 2016. - Sapa-AFP
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