AIDS groups slam Africa's funding shortfall

Demonstrators carried a coffin outside a meeting of African Union health ministers on Wednesday to protest at what they called government back-sliding on pledges to fund the fight against AIDS.

A coalition of anti-AIDS groups which staged the protest urged governments to recognise the pandemic as an "emergency that needs an extraordinary response," saying most of the targets set in previous meetings had been missed.

"We refuse to be told that our lives are expendable and ... demand that our governments keep the promises they made and specific targets they agreed to," they said in a statement at the protest in Johannesburg.
Speaking on Tuesday ahead of the three-day gathering, AU Commission chairman Alpha Oumar Konare raised concern about governments' failure to stump up enough cash to fight the diseases on the continent.

"Last year we made new commitments to make resources available, but when I look at the tools being implemented, I see no positive developments."

A 2006 report by UNAIDS shows that 63 percent of all adults and children with
HIV live in Sub-Saharan Africa.