Ahtisaari friends donate funds for school project in Sudan

Helsinki (dpa) Friends of former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari have donated more than 100,000 dollars for a school project in his name in southern Sudan, a Finnish aid agency said Friday.

The funds were raised in connection with Ahtisaari's recent 70th birthday, and would be channelled via FinnChurchAid that conducts development and aid programmes on behalf of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Finland.

Donations for the project were open through the end of August, FinnChurchAid said.

Ahtisaari was president 1994 to 2000. He has been involved in numerous missions aimed at solving international conflicts, ranging from Northern Ireland to the Indonesian province of Aceh and most recently Kosovo.

A school in the Namibian capital Windhoek is a tribute to Ahtisaari's role in overseeing the country's independence from South Africa in 1990. dpa lsm sc