Measures to stop desertification in Sudan

Sudan\'s minister of environment, Hassan Abdel Kader Hilal The minister of environment, forests and urban development in Sudan, Hassan Abdel Kader Hilal has said the country is definitively confronting its social and environmental challenges including desertification, unemploymen t and poverty.
He stressed on the importance of exerting more efforts to promote anti-desertification projects in Sudan, and in Nahrel-Nil State in particular.
The minister made the remarks while addressing a celebration marking the World Day of Combating Desertification, organised by Zain Communication Corporation in collaboration with the National Corporation For Forests in Al-Damir City in Nahrel-Nil State.
Hilal added that Sudan, with its resources and capabilities, was able to build itself, revealing that the donations provided by the international donors \"are slow and not free of politicisation and Sudan will not wait for it\", explaining that the Sudanese authorities would exert \"their utmost efforts in fighting desertification\".
The general director of the National Corporation for Forests, Dr Abdalazim Mirghani said that desertification reduced the country\'s agricultural production capacity. He stated that there were 17 cities which contained 24,000 cultivated acres that need to be protected by new tree belts, as 52 percent of their original belts were removed. He further explained that addressing desertification meant the plantation of more trees in addition to the preservation of existing ones.
He said that Sudan had signed agreements related to addressing desertification, and the agreements included several policies and mechanisms which are already applied but proved ineffective.