China’s Debt Grip on Africa

The pandemic is confronting highly indebted poor countries with a fateful dilemma. As Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, lamented last April, leaders have been forced to choose whether to “continue to pay toward debt or redirect resources to save lives and livelihoods.”

And when they choose the latter, it is often China – Africa’s biggest bilateral lender – to which they have to answer.