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afrol News, 20 July - The newly founded African Union (AU) makes its first grant to Senegal. Senegal is to receive a grant totalling US$ 193,810 from the AU's Special Emergency Assistance Fund for Drought and Famine in Africa, for financing reforestation in the northern region of the country. An agreement to this effect was signed today in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia between the Acting Interim Chairman of the AU, Ambassador Mohamat Habib Doutoum, and the Permanent Representative of Senegal to the AU Commission, Ambassador Mame Balla Sy, according to a press release by the AU. Ambassador Sy on behalf of his government had "expressed appreciation" to the Interim Chairman of the African Union Commission, Mr. Amara Essy, and to the Policy Committee of the Fund, for making the grant available for reforestation in his country. Sy had "underscored the importance of the Special Emergency Assistance Fund in assisting to alleviate poverty and reducing conflicts and instability within the continent," according to the statement. The Senegalese Envoy also expressed his hope that such a gesture to his country, which "symbolised the spirit of accommodation and care with which the Fund had been utilised in the interest of the Continent, should be continued as a noble cause to help achieve the objectives of the African Union." The northern region of Senegal, which is to receive the grant, is the driest part of the Sahelian country. Agriculture is concentrated to the River Senegal Valley at the Mauritanian border. The region has been degraded by widespread deforestation. Torrential rainfalls early this year further lead to widespread destruction of the region. The AU's grant to Senegal is the first one made in the Union's short history. The AU was founded in Durban (South Africa) on 19 July and is the heir of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which ceased to exist the same day. The OAU closed its humanitarian efforts with a grant totalling US$ 1.2 million in humanitarian assistance to Zambia, Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Tanzania and Mozambique.
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