Somalia needs humanitarian aid to stem its short-term suffering, but that cash will not break the country’s deadly cycles of drought, hunger, and poverty. To do that, the IMF must forgive Somalia’s crushing debt, just as it has for nearly every other heavily indebted poor country.
LONDON Julius Nyerere, the first president of Tanzania, once asked his countrys creditors a blunt question: Must we starve our children to pay our debts? That was in 1986, before the public campaigns and initiatives that removed much of Africas crushing and unpayable debt burden. But Nyereres question still hangs like a dark cloud over Somalia.
