A coalition of civil society organisations and trade unions has called on France to cancel unsustainable African debts and reverse its opposition to a United Nations (UN) sovereign debt restructuring framework, as Africa prepares to spend nearly $90 billion on external debt payments in 2026 alone.
The joint statement, issued ahead of the Africa Forward Summit hosted by France and Kenya on May 11 and 12, named Ghana, Kenya and Zambia among the African countries now devoting between 30 and 50 percent of government revenues to debt servicing, amounts that exceed the combined health and education budgets of most African nations.
Africa’s public debt nearly doubled between 2010 and 2024, rising by 183…