Archive for May 26th, 2023

26/05/2023

Escaping Debt Slavery: Ethiopia, Africa, and the IMF

Human Wrongs Watch

By Ann Garrison | Black Agenda Report – TRANSCEND Media Service*

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In 1987, at the Organization for African Unity, Thomas Sankara said, “Debt is a cleverly managed reconquest of Africa.” Ethiopia might actually be better off if the US keeps the IMF from signing off on its latest loan request.

The US is holding up Ethiopia’s request for a $2 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for postwar reconstruction and development. I spoke to Robert J. Prince, Retired Senior Lecturer at the University of Denver’s Josef Korbel School of International Studies , about Ethiopia, Africa, and the IMF.

ANN GARRISON: A source who preferred to remain anonymous told me that the US is holding Ethiopia’s loan up, demanding accountability for wartime atrocities, but that their real goal is to force Ethiopia to distance itself from Russia and China, but most of all from Eritrea. That sounds plausible, but what do you think?

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26/05/2023

As Game of Thrones Rages in Sudan, the Neighbors Pay the Price

Human Wrongs Watch

CAIRO, May 25 2023 (IPS)* – The conflict in Sudan is impacting the economy in Egypt, and those who make their living moving goods across the borders have spent weeks hoping the situation will normalize.
 
Long wait at the border between Sudan and Egypt. Credit: Hisham Allam/IPS

Long wait at the border between Sudan and Egypt. Credit: Hisham Allam/IPS

Muhammad Saqr, a truck driver, left Cairo with a load of thinners on April 13, heading to Khartoum. By the time he had arrived at the border, the battle had flared up.

Saqr remained, like dozens of trucks, waiting for the borders to be reopened.

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26/05/2023

‘No time to spare’: Israel-Palestine ceasefire holds, but hunger, tensions mount

Human Wrongs Watch

(UN NEWS)* — Swift action is needed to prevent flare ups of Israeli-Palestinian violence and avert a looming food crisis, the top UN official in the Middle East told the Security Council on Wednesday [].

Nearly 600,000 people have visited the Holy Sites in Jerusalem since the beginning of Ramadan.
UN News/Maher Nasser | Nearly 600,000 people have visited the Holy Sites in Jerusalem since the beginning of Ramadan.

“There is no time to spare,” said Tor Wennesland, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process.

“We must take action, not only to ensure Palestinian well-being and governance, but as an integral part of ending the occupation and restoring a political horizon toward a viable two-State solution, based on UN resolutions, international law and previous agreements,” he said, briefing the Council on recent grim and dangerous security and humanitarian concerns.

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