UK offers Ethiopia 133 million pounds to fight poverty

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Britain said on Thursday it will give Ethiopia 2.5 billion birr (133 million pounds) this year to help the Horn of Africa country try to achieve the U.N. Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Some of the money will be used to send 1 million children to school and buy three million mosquito nets to prevent the spread of malaria, one of sub-Saharan Africa's biggest killers.

British High Commissioner (ambassador) to Ethiopia Norman Ling said the assistance was the biggest Britain has offered to any African country, adding the aid would be provided through the UK's Department for International Development.

"The UK is fully committed to helping Ethiopia achieve the MDGs as the assistance of the 2.5 billion birr for this year shows," Paul Ackroyd, the head of DFID, told a news conference.

DFID has spent some 2.7 billion birr on programmes in Ethiopia over the past four years, Ackroyd said.

One of the U.N. Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) aimed at halving global poverty by 2015 is reversing the trend toward a constant increase in the incidence of malaria, HIV/AIDS and other diseases.

(Reporting by Tsegaye Tadesse; editing by Katie Nguyen)

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