YOKOHAMA: Japan said Sunday it would give $1 billion in aid to help stabilise the militants-infested Sahel region of Africa, five months after the death of 10 Japanese in a hostage crisis.
"Japan will provide 100 billion yen ($1 billion) in assistance over five years for the development and stability of the Sahel," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told a gathering of African leaders in Tokyo.
The money is part of a $14 billion aid package to be given to Africa over five years, which Abe announced Saturday.
It comes in addition to a $120 million aid pledge Tokyo announced in January, days after militants overran a gas plant in the Algerian desert, killing dozens of foreigners.
Japan's death toll of 10 was the highest of any nation and rocked a country not used to its citizens being caught up in unrest.
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