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.”