Bush’s Africa Tour and Foreign-aid Bonanza

By: JBS Staff
March 17, 2008

President George W. Bush and first lady Laura Bush wound up a six-day, five-nation tour of Africa on April 21 in Monrovia, Liberia, doling out more than $1 billion in additional foreign aid to the beleaguered continent. In Liberia, the president pledged continued support to train Liberia’s army, and also to provide one million textbooks and 10,000 school desks and chairs. In Tanzania, President Bush provided President Jakaya Kikwete’s government with a $698 million Millennium Challenge Compact grant.

The tour also included stops in Benin, Ghana, and Rwanda. Benin is the recipient of a $307 million Bush Millennium Challenge grant. Ghana has signed a $547 million Millennium Challenge Compact with the United States and receives millions more in various U.S. aid programs. President Bush announced a $100 million grant to the UN-African Union mission in the Darfur region of Sudan. Along the way, Bush also reiterated his call for Congress to double his President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, from $15 billion to $30 billion over the next five years.

http://www.thenewamerican.com/node/7267