Musings From Abroad

China calls for more efforts from US over debt burden on African countries

Published

2 years ago

April 10, 2023

China has urged the United States to take seriously its obligations and make more effort to resolve the debt problems in African countries.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson, Wang Wenbin made the call on Monday at a press briefing while responding to claims made by some U.S. and World Bank officials that China was a barrier to African debt relief.

Wenbin maintained that China attaches great importance to debt issues in Africa, and actively helps African countries cope with the issues. He said China had made the largest contribution to the G20 Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI).

“China has always been committed to providing support for the economic and social development of developing countries, including African countries, and has always carried out investment and financing cooperation with developing countries on the basis of equality and mutual benefit. Our country has always done its best to help developing countries ease their debt burden,” said Wang.

“China is not the source of the debt trap of African countries, but a partner in helping them and other developing countries get out of the poverty trap,” Wang added.

“Some Western politicians are weaving traps to disrupt and undermine China’s cooperation with developing countries. Their tricks have been seen through by developing countries and the international community, and there is no market for them,” said the spokesman.

Although China is the main creditor for some countries like Zambia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe, Wang argued that “data from the World Bank showed that multilateral financial institutions and commercial creditors hold nearly three-quarters of Africa’s total external debt, creating the biggest debt burden for African countries. which constitutes the biggest source of debt pressure on developing countries”.

“The debts of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) account for nearly 70 percent of the total debt held by multilateral financial institutions. The United States is the largest shareholder of the World Bank and IMF, and financial capital from the U.S. and Europe is the largest commercial creditor of African countries. There is a unshirkable responsibility for the U.S. to participate in solving Africa’s debt problems.

“We urge the U.S. side to earnestly shoulder its responsibilities and make greater efforts to promote the substantive participation of multilateral financial institutions and commercial creditors in addressing Africa’s debt issue,” said Wang.

In October 2022, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) described the near-term outlook for Sub-Saharan Africa as “extremely uncertain”. The Fund warned public debt and inflation were at “levels not seen in decades” and says several countries face “difficult sociopolitical and security situations.”

Several African countries like Zambia, Nigeria, Ghana, Tunisia, and Egypt, amongst others, are grappling with high foreign debt.

Related Topics:China Featured Foreign debt IMF

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Musings From Abroad

UN Security Council deliberates stance on Sudan war

Published

4 days ago

November 13, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

The UN Security Council is discussing a British-drafted resolution calling on Sudan’s warring parties to stop hostilities and permit safe, quick, and unimpeded assistance supplies across borders and front lines.

The world’s largest relocation crisis began in April 2023 when the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces engaged in a power battle ahead of a planned transfer to civilian administration.

Waves of ethnically motivated violence have resulted, with the RSF mostly to blame. The RSF has blamed the action on rogue actors and denies causing harm to civilians in Sudan. Two RSF generals were named last week by a Security Council committee in the first U.N. sanctions levied during the ongoing conflict.

“Nineteen months into the war, both sides are committing egregious human rights violations, including the widespread rape of women and girls,” Britain’s U.N. ambassador, Barbara Woodward, told reporters at the start of this month as Britain assumed the Security Council’s presidency for November.

“More than half the Sudanese population are experiencing severe food insecurity,” she said. “Despite this, the SAF and the RSF remain focussed on fighting each other and not the famine and suffering facing their country.”

According to diplomats, Britain wants to vote on the draft resolution as soon as possible. A resolution must receive nine votes or more to pass and not be vetoed by the United States, France, Britain, Russia, or China.

Nearly 25 million people, or half of Sudan’s population, require aid, according to the U.N., since 11 million people have abandoned their homes and famine has spread to displacement camps. Of those, around 3 million have departed for other nations.

In its draft language, Britain “demands that the warring parties immediately cease hostilities” and “demands that the Rapid Support Forces immediately halt its offensives” throughout Sudan.

It also “calls on the parties to the conflict to allow and facilitate the full, safe, rapid, and unhindered crossline and cross-border humanitarian access into and throughout Sudan.”

Additionally, the draft urges that assistance deliveries continue to be made through the Adre border crossing with Chad “and stresses the need to sustain humanitarian access through all border crossings, while humanitarian needs persist, and without impediments.”

Sudanese authorities have permitted the U.N. and relief organisations to enter Darfur through the Adre border crossing for three months, ending in mid-November.

Musings From Abroad

South Africa worry Trump’s victory might affect climate fight

Published

7 days ago

November 10, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

South Africa’s environment minister has expressed concern about the potential effects of Donald Trump’s victory on climate change negotiations.

The demise of Germany’s coalition government this week and Trump’s election coincide with COP29 negotiations to address global warming, which experts credit for this year’s devastating hurricanes, floods, and heatwaves.

“We are concerned about America because we don’t know what they’re going to do … how (it) is going to approach COP,” South African Environment Minister Dion George told Reuters.

“Mr. Trump said that he would withdraw from the Paris Agreement, but we don’t know what will happen,” George added in a telephone interview on Friday.

International partners are concerned that the prospect of an administration led by Trump, who has called climate change a hoax, will de-motivate poor and middle-income countries who want rich nations to shoulder more of its financial burden.

South Africa, which is one of the world’s top 15 greenhouse gas emitters and accounts for 30% of the continent’s emissions, has accepted $11.6 billion from rich nations, mainly in loans, for a switch from coal to renewable energy.

This is seen as a potential model for other ‘Global South’ countries who say financing pledges of $100 billion, which took years to come through, are insufficient.

“It’s certainly not enough. We need another target,” George said. “But then the question is: as the voter base is shifting in developed economies, are they actually going to pay it?”

The South African minister said he had been reassured by German officials that Europe’s stance at the COP29 climate talks will not be hurt by Berlin’s political crisis.

George said that Jennifer Morgan, Germany’s state secretary for international climate action, had contacted him to say it will be up to the European Union to maintain leadership.

“Their position is not changed and that is how they will approach COP,” George said, adding: “They’re on Team Europe. The European Union and German have clearly set out their objectives.”