Broken promises leave three million children to die in Africa

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,5210724-103681,00.html

Broken promises leave three million children to die in Africa
As Blair and Bush close in on deal over debt, UN report reveals human cost

Larry Elliott and Patrick Wintour in Washington
Wednesday June 8, 2005

Guardian

Three million children will die in the poorest countries of sub-Saharan Africa as a result of the failure of the global community to meet its promise of slashing the death rates of the under-fives by 2015, the UN will reveal tomorrow.

The grim figure emerged as George Bush paved the way for a landmark deal on lifting the huge debt burden on Africa's poorest countries when he announced that the US will stump up extra cash that in the long term will cancel $15bn (about £8.2bn) of accumulated debt.

Following talks with Tony Blair in Washington, he also said he would do more on aid, but did not set out a specific figure. The UK is looking for an initial $25bn boost from across the G8 industrialised nations and the EU.

A study by the UN development programme, timed to put pressure on G8 leaders ahead of the summit at Gleneagles next month, showed that on current trends, the global community will miss by a wide margin the targets it set for poverty, infant mortality and education in the millennium development goals agreed by the UN in 2000.

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