Donor Support – 1996
1996
After cantoning the Tuareg combatants, donor agencies were interested in providing support for the peace process. The demobilization process was financed by the UN Trust Fund. Those 3,000 ex-combatants who surrendered their arms received a $200 premium and the 7,000 more ex-combatants who were identified later and did not go through the cantonment process received $100.1 Programs to reintegrate ex-combatants were carried out by the UNDP. The Support Program for the Socio-Economic Reintegration of Ex-combatants in Northern Mali (PAREM) was created and funded by the UNDP’s trust fund. In May 1996, 6,000 ex-combatants who did not go through the cantonment process participated in the PAREM programs. In 1997, this number increased to 7,795 with the participation of an additional 1,659 cantoned ex-combatants who were not taken into the army or civil administration. A total of 866 projects were funded benefiting 9,509 ex-combatants. As a pre-condition for the initial funding for a program, each registered ex-combatant was required to develop a viable project.2 27 different donor and development agencies were involved in different development programs worth more than $200 million/3 Donor agencies also contributed to the repartition and rehabilitation of the refugees.