Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2000. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Associated Press - Wednesday September 13, 2000
The bank said the first two African countries to benefit will be Ethiopia and Kenya, which will receive $59.7 million and $50 million respectively.
"Last April we promised that no sensible AIDS program in Africa would want for funding," said Bank President James Wolfensohn in a statement Tuesday night announcing the credit. "Today we deliver on that promise.
"We hope this program will help break the silence and inspire every country that needs help to ask for it," he said.
Nearly 25 million of the world's 34.5 million AIDS victims live in Africa and some 15 million Africans already have died from the disease. U.N. experts estimate African countries need $1 billion to $3 billion a year to combat AIDS.
The bank said African countries will use the credits to increase prevention campaigns, establish treatment programs and deal with the burdens they will face as millions with the HIV virus develop AIDS over the next decade.
The announcement of bank funds for the Caribbean, which faces the highest rate of HIV infection outside sub-Saharan Africa, came at the end of an AIDS conference in Bridgetown, Barbados, on Tuesday.
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