Foreign News
Coronavirus: France Urges Debt Relief for Africa
French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday called for a global moratorium on debt repayments by African countries, amid warnings that sub-Saharan Africa is headed for its worst economic performance in at least 50 years due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Macron said that he hoped a virtual meeting on Wednesday of finance ministers from the G20 industrialised countries and emerging economies could agree on the moratorium.
It should involve all major Western powers, China, Russia and the Gulf States, as well as multilateral lenders, Macron said.
Developed countries had all responded to the crisis with massive monetary and budgetary action, but Africa’s large debts as well as credit flight made such moves harder there, he said.
“Every year a third of Africa’s commercial exports go to service its debt,” he argued. “It’s crazy!”
Macron said he favoured a large-scale cancellation of African countries’ debts, but the AU considered that a moratorium was more likely to find agreement in the short term.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicted on Wednesday that sub-Saharan Africa’s economy is now set to shrink by 1.6 per cent this year, according to the head of its African Department, Abebe Selassie.
This is the worst performance seen since at least 1970, Selassie said.
“The possibility that growth could contract more still is quite high. No country will be spared,’’ he said.
He spoke of a “poisonous cocktail of shocks,” including the economic impact of restrictions that have been imposed to curb the spread of the new coronavirus.
And also falls in remittance flows, tourism, investment and demand for the region’s goods and services.
“A contraction in the size of the economy means that there’s less income that is being generated and that will translate into a decline in standards of living,” he said.
“I cannot stress how significant the threat to the region is,” he added.
“This crisis is unprecedented and equally calls for bold and decisive support from the international community.”
The IMF is set to provide about 11.5 billion dollars in new financing and debt relief to 32 sub-Saharan countries that have already requested help, he said.
Governments, multilateral institutions, philanthropic groups, non-governmental organizations and private businesses should all “join forces in an unprecedented effort to consolidate Africa’s health defences,” more than a dozen African and European leaders said on Tuesday.
They called for a stimulus package of at least 100 billion dollars to give African countries “the fiscal space they need to devote more public health resources to fighting the virus, while mitigating its economic and social consequences.”
“This crisis has shown how interconnected we all are. No region can win the battle against COVID-19 alone.
“If it is not beaten in Africa, it will return to haunt us all,” the leaders warned.
Africa has so far recorded around 16,000 cases and 875 deaths, according to the continent’s Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
Macron said there was no guarantee that African countries would continue to be spared the worst of the pandemic, but Europe would be better placed to help if the peak in Africa came after European countries had got over the worst of it.
African leaders should try and delay the epidemic on their soil with measures such as lockdowns, he suggested. (dpa/NAN)
Pope Leo XIV has announced he will be operated “in the coming days” after a nodule was found on his lung during a medical checkup.
“The doctors found an early, well-localised nodule on my lung,” he told the public during his weekly Sunday prayers in St Peter’s Square in Rome.
The 71-year-old pontiff said his medical team “believe it would be right to intervene” and he had agreed to the operation.
Pope Leo reassured pilgrims that the mass was “well-contained” and caught “at an early stage”.
He concluded his Angelus prayer by thanking everyone for their “spiritual closeness” and said he entrusted himself to their prayers.
Holy See Press Office spokesperson Matteo Bruni told the media that “the operation is scheduled for the first days of next week”.
Bruni added that the Pope is expected to take about a week to recover.
Vatican News, the Holy See’s news portal, said the operation will take place at Gemelli Hospital in Rome.
The hospital set up a special Papal suite following the failed assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II’s life in May 1981, which is still in use today.
Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni expressed her “personal solidarity” to the Pope in a post on X as he “faces the ordeal ahead in the coming days”.
Pope Leo, born Robert Francis Provost, succeeded Pope Francis in 2025. He is the 267th occupant of the throne of St Peter – and is the first American.
He was ordained in 1982 and spent years as a missionary in Peru, where he is remembered as a figure who worked with marginalised communities and helped build bridges.
During Sunday’s service, the Pope confirmed his visit to Uruguay, Argentina and Peru later in October will still go ahead.
UN Secretary General António Guterres on Monday called for a peaceful future for Israelis and Palestinians ahead of the third anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks by the militant organisation Hamas on Israel.
“Let this anniversary mark not only another year of mourning, but also a renewed determination to build a different future,” Guterres said in New York.
He said Israelis and Palestinians should be able to “live side by side in peace and security, with their rights, dignity, and aspirations fulfilled. “These horrors must never be repeated, “He added.On October 7, 2023, Hamas and other armed groups killed more than 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals and abducted 251 people to Gaza.The attacks triggered the Gaza war, in which more than 74,000 Palestinians have since been killed, according to the Hamas-controlled health authority in Gaza.
A ceasefire has been in place since October 2025, although deadly attacks have continued.
Relations between the Israeli government and the United Nations remain deeply strained, with Israel accusing Guterres of bias and the UN chief repeatedly criticising Israel’s conduct in Gaza.
Guterres also paid tribute to the victims of the Oct. 7 attacks.
“Nothing can justify these atrocities,” he said.
“Their suffering, and the enduring grief of their families, must never be forgotten.”
The UN chief also highlighted the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza following the war.
“Their suffering, too, demands an end, now,” he said.
Guterres said the ceasefire had brought some relief but had yet to deliver security, adequate humanitarian assistance or a credible path to recovery and peace.
He urged all sides to fully implement their commitments and move to the next phase of the ceasefire.
“It is time for the ceasefire to become permanent. It is time to allow humanitarian assistance at scale.
“And it is time to respect international law,” he said.
“We must build the political path to lasting peace across the whole region.”
Kenya has confirmed its first case of Ebola, a Kenyan citizen who has been living in the Democratic Republic of Congo for the past seven years.
Health Minister Aden Duale said the patient, who fell ill a month ago, and was treated in several hospitals in DR Congo, died days after arriving in Nairobi.
Duale said the patient boarded a flight on Saturday and underwent normal public screening at the main airport in Nairobi before he was transferred by a relative to a hospital in the city.
More than 4,000 people have died from Ebola in DR Congo this year, in what is the second most deadly known outbreak of the disease.
Shortly after DR Congo declared an outbreak of Ebola in May, it was also reported in Uganda, where two people have died. However, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the county free of the disease in August.
Since then, all cases of the disease have been declared in DR Congo.
The current outbreak has been caused by the Bundibugyo species of Ebola, which is relatively rare, with no known vaccine.
Duale confirmed that the Kenyan national had tested positive for the Bundibugyo species.
According to the minister, the patient first travelled by road from DR Congo to the Ugandan capital Kampala, where he boarded a flight to Nairobi
Duale said that after being taken to the Nairobi Hospital, the patient was transferred to an isolation facility which was built during the Covid-19.
It was there that the patient “developed fever, chills, intense fatigue and weakness, painful swallowing, muscle pain and bleeding under the skin”.
The patient died at 23:30 (20:30 GMT) on Monday and his burial is planned for later on Tuesday in line with public health safety protocols.
At least 28 contacts, including family members and healthcare workers, have been identified, while health authorities are tracing a further 23 passengers and four crew members who travelled on the same flight.
So far, WHO has recorded 4,082 deaths out of 8,463 cases since the emergence of the Bundibugyo species of the virus.
There are currently no approved vaccines or treatments for the species, which is highly infectious.
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