Somalia has announced that the U.S. will write off more than $1.1bn (£860m) in outstanding loans, about a quarter of the country’s remaining debt.
The announcement is the latest in a series of agreements under which Somalia’s creditors have pledged to forgive its debts.
Much of Somalia’s debt was incurred during Siada Barre’s military dictatorship, which collapsed in the early 1990s and sparked a 30-year civil war.
Somalia’s President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said the country was “suffocating under a huge burden of oppressive debt” as interest payments that could not be paid piled up during a “painful, long period of state collapse.”
On Tuesday, the U.S. and Somalia signed an agreement that officially commits to canceling $1.14 billion in debt.
