These initiatives will improve both relief and development planning and program implementation. The U.N. has also decided to make Sierra Leone a pilot case in the Strategic Framework process. We are confident that these efforts can be fully coordinated to help give Sierra Leoneans the peace and recovery that they deserve. As I mentioned earlier, the United States has been closely involved in efforts to conclude a cease-fire agreement in the Congo war. Only an end to that war and a cessation of hostilities will provide an opening for recovery and development for the people of that devastated country.
Congolese refugees continue to flee to Tanzania and Zambia.
Long-term insecurity in eastern Congo prevents sustained delivery of relief assistance, raising fears that the coping mechanisms are being exhausted and that an extensive humanitarian disaster is imminent. The USG has also been intimately involved, in cooperation with the special envoys of several other nations, in seeking to bring peace to Burundi, where internal and external peace processes are ongoing. It is difficult to predict when a peace agreement will be concluded. Meanwhile, the unfortunate number of Burundi refugees in Tanzania continues to grow. The ongoing tragic wars in Angola, in Somalia, in Sudan, and between Ethiopia and Eritrea are also of great concern to the U.S., as well as to this body.