As the World Bank and International Monetary Fund host the Spring Meetings in Washington this week, Africa’s development priorities hang in the balance.

With no high-level discussions on climate or gender — issues that are central to the continent’s growth and resilience — the agenda seems increasingly disconnected from the systemic challenges facing African nations. Instead, the focus remains on "Jobs and Macroeconomics," a framing that recalls the failed structural adjustment programmes (SAPs) of the 1980s and 90s.

Under the guise of growth and stability, these policies imposed austerity, deregulation and fiscal cuts that decimated public services, deepened inequality and burdened Africa with unsustainable debt. The current direction threatens to repeat this damaging legacy, while the institutions responsible for financing fossil fuel expansion and undermining climate resilience evade accountability.

In this context, Mission 300, launched at the Africa Energy Summit in Dar es Salaam in January, stands as a critical initiative. Led by the World Bank, African Development Bank (AfDB), African Union, and the government of Tanzania, Mission 300 aims to provide electricity to 300 million people across Africa by 2030.

But ambition without justice is not progress. And promises without integrity are not solutions. The truth is, Mission 300 risks becoming just another top-down, donor-driven project that fails to answer the fundamental question: whose development, on whose terms, and at what cost?

In line with this year’s Spring Meetings’ theme "Jobs and Macroeconomics,” we must critically assess whether Mission 300 will create clean, sustainable jobs that benefit communities across Africa. Will it empower young people in rural Kenya or women in informal settlements in Ghana — or will they be concentrated in urban industrial corridors and foreign contractor payrolls?

According to the International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena), Africa accounts for only 3 percent of global renewable energy jobs, despite its vast potential and growing population. If Mission 300 is to reverse this trend, it must move beyond megaprojects and pipelines, and instead prioritise community-led, decentralised energy systems that generate not just electricity but equitable, decent work rooted in local contexts.

Yet, early indications are troubling. The inclusion of fossil gas as a transitional energy source — backed by the World Bank and reflected in Senegal’s National Energy Compact — is a signal that the same polluting industries responsible for destabilising our climate are being rebranded as part of the solution.

Natural gas may offer short-term job spikes during construction, but these are neither green nor future-proof jobs. Moreover, the International Energy Agency has made it clear that no new oil and gas fields are compatible with net-zero by 2050.

The financing model raises equally serious concerns. Much of the funding promised under Mission 300 comes in the form of concessional loans. Even at a one percent interest rate over 40 years, this is debt — and for a continent where 40 countries face rising debt levels, and at least 19 are at high risk of debt distress, adding more liabilities to public balance sheets to fund fossil-dependent infrastructure is not development — it is exploitation.

African nations sink deeper into debt crisis. Their external debt has reached a staggering $11.4 trillion in 2023. According to a report by Christian Aid, across Africa, 32 countries now spend more on debt than healthcare, with $85 billion paid to external creditors in 2023, projected to increase to $104 billion in 2024.

As debt burdens grow heavier across the continent, the wave of billion-dollar pledges and commitments deserves careful attention.

The Africa Energy Summit generated headlines with pledges of over $5 billion from donors like the Rockefeller Foundation, AIIB, and Islamic Development Bank, but bigger numbers don’t always mean better outcomes.

With over $50 billion now committed to Mission 300, including $48 billion from the AfDB and World Bank by 2030, there is still no public guarantee of how these funds will be deployed.

This lack of transparency and the sidelining of critical climate concerns only amplifies the deeper contradictions within the World Bank/IMF policies and deeply alarms African civil society and vulnerable communities in Africa.

The World Bank committed at the 2023 Annual Meetings in Marrakech to a new mission: A liveable planet, in addition to poverty eradication. This new vision is now marginalised possibly due to fears of withdrawal by the Trump administration, revealing a major contradiction.

Regarding climate finance, Bretton Woods institutions must strengthen their climate financing capacities, particularly in ways that don’t create additional barriers for developing countries. The September 2024 report on MDB’s Joint Report on climate finance shows that MDBs contributed a record $125 billion in 2023.

But these funds often come in the form of debt and non-concessional finance, which limits the fiscal space of developing countries already struggling with climate impacts and high debt levels. There is an urgent need to significantly increase grant-based and highly concessional finance within their portfolios.

Gender has also been sidelined in World Bank discussions for far too long. Despite the Bank’s ambitious Gender Strategy for 2024-30, which promises to prioritise gender equality in global development, the reality remains far removed from these claims. Women’s needs, particularly in vital sectors like energy access, continue to be neglected.

Nearly 900 million people in Africa still rely on harmful biomass for cooking, and the burden falls disproportionately on women. This is not merely a climate or environmental issue— it’s a health crisis, a significant economic vulnerability, and an unaddressed inequality. Reliance on polluting fuels costs $791.4 billion annually, with health-related impacts accounting for $526.3 billion.

The Spring Meetings must be seized as a turning point. While the hopes may be tempered by the complexities and challenges ahead, giving up is worse. Expectations are low, given the history of unfulfilled promises and empty rhetoric. Yet, this moment presents a critical opportunity for African leaders to reject outdated models of debt-driven growth, fossil-fuelled development, and gender-blind planning.

Dr Wafa Misrar is the Campaign and Policy Officer at CAN Africa, and Said Skounti is a researcher at IMAL Initiative.

In Uganda, there is a similarity between this year’s Easter week and that of 1979 – unstable power supply. In 1979, the blackouts were related to an external (military) force entering Uganda; today they are related to an external (business) force exiting Uganda.

The war that removed Uganda’s military government with the overrunning of Kampala on April 11 had started six months earlier in Kagera, the north-western region of Tanzania.

On the eve of Uganda’s Independence Day, October 8, 1978, the Tanzania Peoples Defence Forces finally returned the fire to the plundering Uganda Army which had earlier invaded and annexed Kagera region, even provocatively naming a Ugandan district commissioner for it.

In February 1979 as the war advanced northwards on Ugandan soil, the country started experiencing power blackouts. Rumours attributed this to sabotage by Ugandan guerrillas working with Tanzanians to overthrow President Idi Amin.

By the time of the Catholic Centenary in Uganda on February 17, power cuts had become daily. Guests from all over the world including the main celebrant from the Vatican (it was a world Catholic event courtesy of the 22 Uganda Martyrs) had a taste of what celebrating amid wartime darkness is like.

As Amin fled eastwards after losing power on April 11, a new fear arose over the safety of Owen Falls Dam at Jinja and its vital bridge that connects Mombasa/Kenya to Kampala.

For in his last broadcasts over Radio Uganda, he had promised dire consequences should he lose power to invaders and their “unpatriotic collaborators”. However, Amin passed Jinja without blowing up the dam and exited Uganda to exile where he died peacefully 25 years later.

After Amin’s exit that 46 years ago threatened to reduce Uganda’s hydro electricity generation from 150MW to 0, the country’s generation continued deteriorating for two decades, until the Museveni government with partners like HH The Aga Khan got production capacity growing again and has now grown 15 times higher to over 2,000MW.

Partnering with the Commonwealth Development Corporation, Uganda expanded power distribution that had shrunk due to a deteriorating grid network, now 10 times up from 250,000 to now 2.5million connections.

Then this April, with the exit of the CDC-led distribution consortium called Umeme, the long-forgotten power outages returned, hopefully temporarily. But citizens aged 50 and above can relate this Easter season to the power cuts of April 1979 when Amin was exiting.

Read: Uganda scrambles to fund Umeme exit as deadline looms

The power cuts related to the Umeme exit of March 31 could have been due to two or more reasons. First, the expected physical stripping by junior technicians unsure of their jobs under new management could have ‘disappeared’ a few kilometres of wire from the grid and a few thousand litres of transformer oils and other consumables.

Second is the stalled investment in grid maintenance (which should be constant) that must have arisen during the lengthy uncertain transition when the distributor was on the way out.

The replacement —the state agency for whose mandate Umeme had been executing —the Uganda Electricity Distribution and Corporation Ltd (UEDCL) — is subject to government procurement procedures that are lengthy and bureaucratic.

But grid maintenance and expansion are all about procuring transformers, wires, poles and securing passage across thousands of kilometres, period.

Last week UEDCL was engaging the government procurement agency to waive bureaucratic delays, otherwise the vultures that influence public tenders can reverse the gains of grid expansion and consistent power supply backwards by three decades in a short time, aggravating inconsistent lighting this Easter to widespread blackouts by Christmas and total darkness by the time of the general election time next year. We don’t want that, do we?

Buwembo is a Kampala-based journalist. Email: [email protected]

In 1977, Kenya police banned the performance of Ngaahika Ndeenda by Ngugi wa Thiong’o and Ngugi wa Mirii. The actors were small-scale farmers and workers in and around Kamirithu Village.

The play, directed by Kimani Gecau, was performed in an open-air makeshift theatre in the middle of the village. Before its stoppage, thousands of people had travelled from afar to watch the play.

The play showed how the church allied with the political class to keep the poor in subjugation. It narrated the story of how ordinary people rose up against British colonialism. It disputed the depiction of African culture as savage.

The play showed that the anti-colonial ideals were the true basis for a more progressive and democratic country. The play utilised the dramatic resources of art to tell its multi-themed story.

The banning of the play was the less harsh response by Jomo Kenyatta’ s regime. Ngugi wa Thiong’o was abducted at night and detained without trial at Kamiti Maximum Security Prison.

Kimani and Mirii evaded a police dragnet and escaped into exile. Later, the police descended on the theatre in Kamirithu and in avenging fury razed it to the ground.

In 2022, Ngaahika Ndeenda was performed at the Kenya National Theatre. I took my Gen-Z daughter and nephew to watch the performance. I listened carefully to their assessment. They remarked on the dramatic and comedic elements.

Neither of them said they were inspired to commandeer a tank to storm government buildings. We emerged from the theatre to find throngs of mostly young people excitedly debating the merits and demerits of the performance.

The play was an artistic experience, not a call to arms. If there was any revolutionary seed planted, it was in their understanding of history, and the hypocrisy of individuals and society.

History has repeated itself. A few days ago, armed Kenya police raided the venue of a secondary schools' drama festival to stop the rehearsal and performance of a play.

Echoes of War by Cleophas Malala was to be performed by Butere Girls School. Police threw tear gas to disperse the girls and reporters.

Echoes of War talks about the cultural and political divide between the older and younger generations. The characters decry bad governance.

Like their real-life Gen-Z counterparts, the characters use social media to criticise bad governance and corruption. In the end, the dictator in the play agrees to listen to his youthful critics, and they all resolve to work together for the good of the country.

Echoes of War, like Ngaahika Ndeenda, does not call for violent rebellion. The play is a simple dramatisation of normal political discourse we have daily on TV and radio. Only fully fledged or fledgling dictatorships can be so thin-skinned.

The violent overreaction even embarrassed the ODM side of the regime. Had the regime allowed the play, we might never have heard of it, and Ruto’s regime would not have dug itself even deeper in the hole of ignominy.

Tee Ngugi is a Nairobi-based political and social commentator.

At least 10 people were killed in a gold mine collapse in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the rebel-appointed governor of South Kivu province said on Thursday.

M23 rebels have seized east Congo’s two biggest cities since January in an escalation of a long-running conflict rooted in the spillover into Congo of Rwanda’s 1994 genocide and the struggle for control of Congo’s vast mineral resources.

Congo’s government and M23 pledged in a statement released on Wednesday after talks in Qatar to work towards peace, raising a glimmer of hope in the latest cycle of violence.

Douglas Dunia Masumbuko, the M23-appointed South Kivu governor, told Reuters on Thursday that the death toll at the Luhihi mine had reached 10 “and could rise given the number of injuries.”

He blamed the incident on “uncontrolled construction and poor maintenance of gold wells” in the area.

Mining accidents are rife in the giant Central African country, especially at small, artisanal sites.

Governor Jean-Jacques Purusi, who was governor of South Kivu before M23 took over, confirmed there had been a collapse at the mine but did not provide a death toll.

The Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda-backed M23 rebels on Wednesday pledged in statements released after talks in Qatar to work towards peace after violence flared in January, raising fears of a wider regional war.

Their agreement to the text raised a glimmer of hope that the latest cycle of violence in a decades-long conflict rooted in the Rwandan genocide might ease. But sources in the two delegations expressed frustration over the pace of negotiations.

Ceasefire

Each side released the same statement separately after their delegations departed Qatar earlier in the week, following more than a week of discussions.

"Both parties reaffirm their commitment to an immediate cessation of hostilities, a categorical rejection of any hate speech, intimidation, and call on local communities to uphold these commitments", the statement said.

The statement described their talks as "frank and constructive", but it was unclear if or when another round of talks would take place.

M23 has staged an unprecedented advance since January, seizing eastern Congo's two largest cities in an assault that has killed thousands and raised fears of a wider regional war.

The latest peace push by Qatar comes after the Gulf state successfully brokered a surprise meeting last month between Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi and Rwandan President Paul Kagame. Both leaders called for a ceasefire after the meeting.

The session apparently paved the way towards direct talks between Congo and M23.  Congo had long rejected the idea of holding talks with M23, branding it a terrorist group.

Rwanda, in turn, has long denied helping M23, saying its forces are acting in self-defence against Congo's army and ethnic Hutu militiamen linked to the 1994 Rwandan genocide that killed around 1 million people, mostly ethnic Tutsis.

Congo's position is supported by the United Nations and Western governments, who say Rwanda is supporting the rebels by sending troops and arms.

Deep mistrust

Some participants in the Qatar talks complained that the meetings quickly bogged down in technical details.

Sources from both sides said potential confidence-building measures, such as the release of Congo-held prisoners accused of links to Rwanda and M23, inflamed tensions and almost derailed the outcome.

"They are asking for too much. They don't even control two of the 26 provinces," a Congo government source said. "Our justice system is independent. We cannot give in to every whim. Crimes have been committed. Some people must pay."

A source from the rebel coalition that includes M23 said the parties left Doha when the disagreements over confidence-building measures became an insurmountable obstacle to substantive talks.

Ultimately, however, diplomats briefed on the talks said, Qatar managed to pressure the two sides into releasing a joint statement agreeing to continue to work on a truce.

"This is a crucial step towards ending the violence," Maxime Prevot, Belgium's foreign affairs minister, said Wednesday on X.

A United Nations source told Reuters on Wednesday that fighting had resumed in the Congolese territory of Walikale.

M23 withdrew from Walikale town, a strategic mining hub, earlier this month, a move it described as a goodwill gesture ahead of planned peace talks with the government.

Delegations representing Congo’s government and Rwanda-backed M23 rebels have left peace talks in Qatar with no immediate plans to return, sources from both camps told Reuters, after making no significant progress towards a ceasefire.

M23 has staged an unprecedented advance since January, seizing eastern Congo’s two largest cities and raising fears of an all-out regional war.

As African mediation efforts faltered, Qatar last month brokered a surprise sit-down between Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi and Rwandan President Paul Kagame during which the two leaders called for a ceasefire.

That was meant to lead to direct talks this month between the Democratic Republic of Congo and M23. But while the two sides sent delegations to Doha, the meetings quickly bogged down on technical details and potential confidence-building measures such as the release of Congo-held prisoners accused of links to Rwanda and M23, the sources said.

Sources from both sides said M23 had demanded the release of hundreds of prisoners, which the Congolese government refused.

“They are asking for too much. They don’t even control two of the 26 provinces,” a government source said.

“Hundreds of prisoners, charges dropped, convictions overturned - our justice system is independent. We cannot give in to every whim. Crimes have been committed. Some people must pay,” the government source added.

A source from the rebel coalition that includes M23 also said that all parties had left Doha after “prerequisites” proved to be an insurmountable “stumbling block” to substantive talks.

Beyond ending legal proceedings against its members, the source said M23 wants Tshisekedi to commit to a political dialogue.

Tshisekedi long rejected the idea of sitting down with M23, branding it a group of terrorists.

A United Nations source told Reuters on Wednesday that fighting had resumed in the territory of Walikale.

M23 withdrew from Walikale town, a strategic mining hub, earlier this month, a move it described as a goodwill gesture ahead of planned peace talks with the government.

The fighting in eastern Congo this year has resulted in thousands of deaths and forced hundreds of thousands more people from their homes.

The East African Community (EAC) Council of Ministers is meeting in Arusha this week to discuss issues affecting the region, including the deteriorating security situation in eastern Congo and budgetary constraints hampering the operations of the Secretariat.

The ministers are expected to review the interventions of the joint EAC-SADC (Southern African Development Community) initiatives to restore peace, security and stability in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

A paper from the Secretariat notes that since the start of the year, more than 700,000 people have been displaced in the Congolese provinces of North and South Kivu due to the resurgence of the M23 armed group.

“The resurgence has also worsened the humanitarian situation in the two provinces,” the EAC says.

The ministers will also review the bloc’s financial situation, which has affected the implementation of its mandate and the payment of statutory obligations, including staff salaries.

Read: EAC on the brink: Cash crunch bites as defaults mount

Somalis movement

Meanwhile, Somalia has complained to the Secretariat about the challenges its citizens face when travelling within EAC member states.

Mogadishu says Somali officials, including those holding diplomatic and service passports, face obstacles in obtaining visas in advance, hence hindering their ability to travel and participate fully in regional initiatives.

“In this respect, member states are reminded of their commitment to observe and implement the provisions of the [Common Market] Protocol and to provide reciprocal treatment to citizens of partner states in matters enshrined in the Protocol,” the Secretariat says.

At least 10 people were killed in a gold mine collapse in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the rebel-appointed governor of South Kivu province said on Thursday.

M23 rebels have seized east Congo’s two biggest cities since January in an escalation of a long-running conflict rooted in the spillover into Congo of Rwanda’s 1994 genocide and the struggle for control of Congo’s vast mineral resources.

Congo’s government and M23 pledged in a statement released on Wednesday after talks in Qatar to work towards peace, raising a glimmer of hope in the latest cycle of violence.

Douglas Dunia Masumbuko, the M23-appointed South Kivu governor, told Reuters on Thursday that the death toll at the Luhihi mine had reached 10 “and could rise given the number of injuries.”

He blamed the incident on “uncontrolled construction and poor maintenance of gold wells” in the area.

Mining accidents are rife in the giant Central African country, especially at small, artisanal sites.

Governor Jean-Jacques Purusi, who was governor of South Kivu before M23 took over, confirmed there had been a collapse at the mine but did not provide a death toll.

Tanzania has banned the importation of agricultural products from Malawi and South Africa, saying it was retaliation for similar hostile trade measures from both countries.

The three countries all belong to a regional economic bloc, the Southern African Development Community, SADC.

Tanzania had demanded that both countries rescind bans on imports of agricultural goods from Tanzania by Wednesday, but they had not done so, Agriculture minister Hussein Bashe said in a video posted on his X account late on Wednesday.

Malawi had recently banned imports of Tanzanian commodities like maize flour, rice, ginger, and bananas, among others, while South Africa has also proscribed the import of bananas shipped by Dar es Salaam.

“I would like to officially announce that from this night ... we won't allow any agricultural products from South Africa in our country,” Bashe said, adding a similar ban was being imposed on Malawi.

Talks to resolve the trade impasse, however, would continue with both countries, he said.

He said Tanzania will start prohibiting the transit of agricultural goods from other countries through its territory to land-locked Malawi, and will also ban the export of Tanzanian fertiliser to Malawi.

“We are taking this measure to protect our business. This is business, and we should all respect each other,” Bashe said.

Kenya’s Pharmacy and Poisons Board (PPB) has issued an immediate recall of Augmentin, paracetamol and esomeprazole from the market, citing safety concerns.

These are widely-used drugs. The recall affects both prescription and over-the-counter medications that are common in homes and hospitals.

Augmentin, an antibiotic, was flagged due to forged batches (batch numbers 8X3K and EU7C).

The antibiotic is used to treat infections of the urinary tract, respiratory tract, ear, sinuses, and skin, as prescribed by a medical doctor.

Paracetamol is an over-the-counter pain reliever and fever reducer, while esomeprazole is a prescription medication used to reduce stomach acid production and treat conditions like acid reflux and ulcers.

Paracetamol injections were found to have colour changes, making them unsafe. Affected brands include:

• Lumidol injection – batch numbers CM4594007, CM4594008 and CM4594009
• Blink injection – batch numbers CS4594004 and CS4594005
• Paragen injection – batch number K4290027

All were manufactured by KamlaAmrut Pharmaceutical LLP, India.

Esomeprazole (S-Prazo 40mg) was found to contain a strip of a different drug in batch number SPZ404.

What to do

Healthcare providers have been asked to stop prescribing the affected drugs immediately.

PPB says patients should consult medical professionals for alternatives.

Pharmacies and hospitals have been directed to cease distribution and return the listed batches to suppliers or health facilities.

PPB has labelled the flagged products as forged or substandard and urged the public to stop using them and follow recall instructions.

The African Development Bank (AfDB) says a new law introduced by Zimbabwe to curb civil society activities is a major setback to the southern African country’s push for urgent debt relief.

Zimbabwe owes foreign creditors $21 billion, with arrears making up a significant portion of the debt overhang and preventing the country from accessing low-cost loans from institutions like the World Bank and AfDB.

The country’s debilitating debt crisis took centre stage at a major event on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank Spring Meetings in Washington this week.

AfDB president Akinwumi Adesina told the roundtable on Zimbabwe’s Arrears Clearance and Debt Resolution Process that the recently passed Private Voluntary Organisations (PVO) Act posed a threat to the debt resolution talks.

“Zimbabwe has made a lot of progress, against all odds,” said Dr Adesina, before pointing that that the PVO law was “a significant setback and poses a risk to the arrears clearance and debt resolution process.”

After the controversial bill was signed into law by President Emmerson Mnangagwa on April 11, the European Union (EU) immediately suspended its financial support for governance reforms that creditors had set as one of the key conditions for talks.

The EU said it was disappointed that Zimbabwe had failed to live up to its own commitments in the process, particularly on expanding civic space.

President Mnangagwa ignored advice from United Nations experts and local civil society groups to sign the new law that amended five major pieces of legislation and triggered sweeping changes to Zimbabwe’s regulatory framework for civic groups and NGOs.

It gives the authorities extensive powers to monitor and control the operations of voluntary organisations, including the ability to scrutinise their ownership structures, funding sources and affiliations.

Talks progress

Former Mozambican President Joachim Chissano, who is the facilitating the debt relief talks, said Zimbabwe needed to pay attention to civil society engagement, democratic elections, judicial processes, freedom of assembly and freedom of expression as part of the reforms needed for the debt talks to yield results.

“These challenges show that dialogue is still needed for reforms to take root.

“They also show that political reforms are not a linear process,” Mr Chissano said, adding that these challenges “should mobilise us to redouble our efforts and re-energise the dialogue process.”

He, however, expressed optimism that the debt relief talks would bear fruit as he felt that the country had made some progress on the required reforms.

“The parameters of the dialogue have been set,” Mr Chissano said. “Most issues have been dealt with. Commitments and targets have been agreed upon.

“We should all be proud of the dialogue process and what it has achieved.”

Zimbabwe was pushing for a $2.6 billion bridging loan to clear its arrears with international creditors as part of the debt relief talks.

“The government of Zimbabwe has proposed a plan to secure bridge financing of $2.6 billion to clear arrears to international financial institutions,” the AfDB said after the roundtable in Washington.

The temporary loan would help Zimbabwe to pay off its overdue debts to international lenders, which could pave the way for the country to be allowed to access cheaper loans from global financial institutions.

Arrears clearance

Dr Adesina said other crucial steps included exploration of additional resources from the African Development Fund and prioritisation of Zimbabwe’s arrears clearance within the G20 Common Framework.

He said the AfDB was mobilising resources for the country’s arrears clearance, which could materialise towards the end of this year.

“Similarly, we encourage the World Bank’s International Development Association to do the same to clear arrears,” Dr Adesina said.

“To move the arrears clearance and debt resolution forward, the African Development Bank Group is financing the global sovereign advisory and legal advisors, Kepler-Karst, to support the arrears clearance and debt resolution process with clear timelines.”

Mr Chissano said Zimbabwe had undertaken to introduce reforms that will see its central bank ceasing quasi-fiscal operations, relaxing exchange rate controls and making token payments to creditors.

He said the payment of compensation to more than 4,000 white Zimbabweans who were dispossessed of their farms during a chaotic land reform two decades ago was also part of the process that needed be prioritised.

Read: Broke Zimbabwe to pay $3bn to white landowners whose farms State seized

In November last year, Zimbabwe agreed to accelerate the arrears clearance and debt resolution process by working with the International Monetary Fund for a staff monitored programme (SMP) that was meant to start in January 2025.

The IMF programme falls under the economic reforms Zimbabwe is undertaking as part of the process to clear its $21 billion public debt and arrears. The EU, along with the United States, has been one of the biggest financiers of the process.

The US pulled out of the process last year following President Mnangagwa’s controversial re-election and demanded both economic and political reforms as part of its conditions for returning to the table.

The country’s biggest Paris Club creditors are Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Japan and the US with a combined external debt stock of $2.9 billion, representing 74 percent of the total Paris Club external debt.

Zimbabwe’s debt stock has risen in recent years as the country has sought cheap loans from China for infrastructure but has been unable to repay the money due to an unending economic crisis characterised by hyperinflation and currency instability.