December 3, 2008

Africans to World Leaders: Fulfill Pledges to Fight AIDS

On the eve of the 15th International Conference on AIDS and STIs in Africa (ICASA), several hundred African AIDS advocates paraded giant puppets of U.S President-elect Barack Obama and French President Nicolas Sarkozy through the streets of Dakar, Senegal, to demand that both leaders honor their multimillion dollar commitments to anti-AIDS initiatives, Reuters reports.

According to Save the Children, the charity that helped organize the December 2 march, Obama had recently pledged to provide at least $50 billion by 2013 for the global fight against HIV/AIDS. France, which holds the rotating European Union presidency, has been a leading contributor to HIV initiatives in Africa by funding $458 million yearly.

“They have to walk the talk…the pledges they have made must be fulfilled,” said Velephi Riba, a spokesperson for Save the Children. “Obama and Sarkozy must not drop from these pledges by a single dollar or euro.”

Search: ICASA, Barack Obama, Nicholas Sarkozy, United States, France, Dakar, Senegal, Save the Children, Africa

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