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United Nations

Eritrea to U.N.: Take This Aid And Shove It

By George Russell

In a stinging rebuff to the United Nations and its anti-poverty efforts, Eritrea, one of the poorest countries in Africa, has told the world body that it wants out of its long-term development agreement because the U.N. makes the problem worse, not better.

The reason, given in a January 26 notification letter from the country’s powerful Finance Minister, obtained by Fox News, is that “aid only postpones the basic solutions to crucial development problems by tentatively ameliorating their manifestations without tackling their root causes. The structural, political, economic, etc. damage that it inflicts upon recipient countries is also enormous.” In other words, the government argues, U.N. aid does more harm than good.

Whether that critique, which echoes the complaints of many critics in wealthy donor countries, is the true reason behind the U.N.’s rejection is unclear. Fox News tried to contact the Eritrean finance ministry for further explanations, but was told that the finance minister, Berhane Abrehe, was “unavailable.”

The Eritrean rebuff is another blow for the United Nations in a desperately poor and strife-ridden area of East Africa where the world organization has been struggling to maintain its presence, effectiveness and credibility.