US pledges Uganda $50m Aids cash

Colin Powell: "Money loves security and stability"

US Secretary of State Colin Powell - now at the end of his first tour of Africa - has announced that Washington will give $50m to Uganda to fight Aids and help the victims of the disease.

Speaking to government officials and Aids victims in Kampala, Mr Powell said there was no challenge more serious than the war against Aids in sub-Saharan Africa.

There is no war that is more serious, no war that is causing more death and destruction... than the war we see here in sub-Saharan Africa against HIV/Aids

Colin Powell

It is estimated that some 25 million people in sub-Saharan Africa carry the HIV virus which causes Aids - about 70% of the world's total carriers.

In the past week Mr Powell has visited Mali, South Africa and Kenya and he is due to leave Uganda on Monday morning at the end of his first tour of Africa as secretary of state.

Emotional attachment

He has held discussions with African leaders on regional crises, in particular, concerning the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sudan, but the broad message from the new Bush administration has been that Africa's future depended largely on the actions of its own leaders.

Announcing the $50m to Uganda, he saluted the programme for sharply cutting the country's HIV-AIDS rate from nearly 30% to about 10%.

Kenya's Moi was given an easy ride

The Bush administration announced earlier this month it was contributing an initial $200m to a global $7bn fund to combat Aids. That is on top of about $460m the US had earlier committed to fighting Aids earlier this year.

BBC correspondent David Bamford says Mr Powell has been listened to politely by his hosts, despite what they might have been thinking about the apparent contradictions of this warrior turned diplomat.

On the one hand he is an African American who spoke convincingly of his emotional attachment to the continent of his ancestors.

But he is also a conservative Republican who warned his African audiences against waiting around for financial aid.

Treading lightly

"Money loves security and stability," he said, insisting that foreign investment gravitate towards sound economics and good governance.

Mr Powell also said good leaders knew when it was time to step down as had happened in Mali, Senegal and Zambia, but clearly not in Zimbabwe.

But he trod lightly in Kenya, praising democratic trends there, but emphasising the importance of constitutional rule.

This was taken as diplomatically saying the President Daniel arap Moi should retire next year, as required by the constitution.