The UN General Assembly has opened a line of credit worth $50.4 million in Morocco to finance MINURSO, the French acronym for the mission supervising a referendum in the Sahara, for the period between July 1, 2001 and June 30, 2002, Morocco’s official news agency (MAP) reported Tuesday.
The assembly allocated the new budget under a resolution contained in its latest reports on peacekeeping operations financed in the Sahara.
The UN Security Council has decided to extend the MINURSO mission beyond next June 30.
The assembly has allocated a total of $1.8 billion for all of the 12 peacekeeping missions worldwide.
According to the agency, the most funds went to the mission in East Timor ($563 million), followed by Sierra Leone ($550 million), Kosovo ($400 million) and the Democratic Republic of Congo ($273 million).
Two leading UN agencies called on donors three weeks ago to provide at least $1.2 million per month to assist West Saharan refugees living in remote desert camps in Algeria.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the UN World Food Program (WFP) called on donor countries to assist some 155,000 refugees who have been living in four desolate camps in southwest Algeria since 1976 – Albawaba.com
