The suffering on the African continet is especially great. There are 11 million AIDS orphans in sub-Saharan Africa alone. More U.S. money would soon follow, he pledged. Bush was accompanied Friday morning by Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, who thanked the president for timing the U.S. announcement to coincide with his visit. Nigeria is one of the most vital sub-Saharan trading partners of the United States.
All humankind is challenged and called upon to make contributions to the global trust fund.
The two were also likely to talk of West African security. Nigeria has organized a number of local peace keeping forces whose mission have been to stamp out violent flare-ups in countries such as Sierra Leone . Annan praises U.S. effort Also on hand was U.N. Secretary General Koffi Annan, whose visit to the White House comes at the end of a very tense week between the United States and the world body. Earlier this week, the United States was voted off a U.N. human rights commission. The House of Representatives responded to that move Thursday by voting to hold back a massive U.S. payment of back dues to the U.N., though that vote was successful even against the stated wishes of the Bush administration.