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Ethiopia’s Appeal For Debt Relief Puts China’s Loan Portfolio Under the Spotlight

by Eric Olander
Zacharias ABUBEKER / AFP

Ten months ago, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed was the first African leader to sound the alarm over the debt crisis that would ensue from the then-nascent outbreak of COVID-19. African economies, he warned face an “existential threat” from the combined effects of an unprecedented public health emergency and its impact on countries’ finances.

Now, that crisis has come home. On Monday, the Prime Minister’s government became the latest African country to reach out to the G20 for help to restructure the country’s debt load. 

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