The World Bank unveiled Tuesday a plan to create a $75 million trust fund for strife-torn southern Sudan, due to become an independent country in July.
The Bank's executive board "today recommended that a $75 million trust fund be established to help provide health care, infrastructure, and employment for the people of South Sudan," the development lender said in a statement.
The Bank's 25-member board, representing individual countries or groups of countries, submitted the proposal to the Board of Governors, which represents the bank's 187 member nations.
Southern Sudan is set to declare its independence from the northern part of the African country on July 9, which will be recognized by the United Nations.
It has applied for membership in the World Bank and its sister institution, the International Monetary Fund (IMF). However, southern Sudan is eligible to receive aid before completing that process.
The $75 million will be provided from the Bank's International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, which raises most of its funds from the world's financial markets.
The IBRD aid "will be made available to South Sudan in the first few months after independence," the Washington-based development lender said.
The World Bank said it was "working closely" with the IMF to ensure that southern Sudan's application processes can be completed as quickly as possible.
"Once the new nation attains membership, it will likely become eligible for IDA resources," the World Bank said. The International Development Association provides interest-free loans and grants to the poorest countries.
The semi-autonomous southern region overwhelmingly voted to secede from Sudan in a January referendum after five decades of conflict between the mainly Christian south and the predominantly Arab, Muslim north.
The World Bank announcement came on the third day of talks between the rival north and south in a bid to end fighting that threatens to pitch the country back into an all-out civil war that raged between 1983 and 2005.
Since June 5 heavy fighting between the northern army, the Sudanese Armed Forces, and northern members of former southern rebel group the Sudan People's Liberation Army has raged across South Kordofan, the heavily armed state just north of the disputed border.
