The deadweight of African debt

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Gutteres, speaking at the opening of the African Union summit in Addis Ababa, announced $250 million from the UN emergency fund to crisis management, and also tackle famine risk. It may not be adequate for the crisis facing the continent of 55 countries which are embroiled in civil conflict, financial breakdown and drought. Gutteres is an angry man and also a helpless man as he lamented the fact that the international financial system is extorting deadly interest rates from the African countries. He is not in a position to change the international financial institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, nor is he in a position to convince leaders of the rich countries which call the shots in the IMF and WB to deal with greater consideration for the plight of the Africans. He bemoaned the fact: “The global financial system routinely denies (developing countries) debt relief and concessional financing while charging extortionate interest rates.”

Many countries have sought debt restructuring with the IMF but the negotiations have not borne fruit. Host Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said, “Nearly all of us want to put our economies back on a growth trajectory but this will not happen without sufficient restructuring to make our external debt sustainable.” The continent is also facing a food crisis, and on the verge of famine. World Food Programme (WFP) Director David Beasley said that the export from grains from the Ukrainian ports blockaded by Russia are crucial, especially in Africa, because they are on the verge of famine. The deal worked out by the UN and Turkey with Russia last year will end in March and a new deal has to be worked out.

Africa is beset with huge problems on the political and economic fronts, and the leaders participating in the African Union summit have a huge task before them, of sorting out the most difficult issues. The inner political turmoil whether in west African countries like Male and Burkina Faso, or north African countries like Tunisia and Libya trigger the economic crises in their countries, either directly or indirectly apart from natural disasters like drought and floods, which push people to migrate from their homes.

And in the political conflicts, foreign armies, many of them private, are making the conflict situation worse. It then becomes the responsibility of the leaders of the African countries to rise above their partisan ends, and look for broader solutions that will benefit people across national boundaries. For example, the leaders of Ethiopia, South Sudan and Egypt have to sit together and find a solution to the sharing of Nile waters. If each of these three countries were to assert its own riparian rights, it will only result in a deadlock, and it will harm the people.

The political deadlock in Libya and Tunisia are not good omens for the region either. And so is the inter-tribal and inter-faith conflict in Male and Burkina Faso. These issues have to be resolved by African leaders through dialogue and mediation. African unity need not remain a rhetorical ideal but it could become a reality like the European Union, and the arrangement could benefit all the people of the 55 countries. But this would require both pragmatism and extraordinary statesmanship on the part of the leaders.

European and other Asian powers will continue to exploit the continent if there is no political and economic unity among the African countries. Africa is often seen as the continent of the future but it has been bogged down by innumerable obstacles and problems which could be solved through cooperation among the countries of the continent.