Maputo, 12 Feb (AIM) – Mozambique has negotiated an 80 per cent reduction in its debt to Iraq, according to a joint release from the Mozambican Ministries of Finance and of Planning and Development.
The debt, of 60.3 million US dollars, was contracted in 1979 and 1980 and concerned the purchase of Iraqi oil. In those years, Mozambique’s fuel needs for defence purposes had soared, due to the war of destabilisation waged by the South African apartheid regime.
The government of Mozambique’s first President, Samora Machel, sought oil on favourable terms from several north African and Middle Eastern countries, including Iraq, then ruled by the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein.
Although Saddam Hussein was swept away, following the American invasion of 2003, the debt remained, and kept growing, reaching over 320 million dollars, according to the Mozambican release.
Mozambican and Iraqi officials met in Abu Dhabi from 2 to 6 February, where they negotiated an 80 per cent reduction in the debt, Iraq pardoned 256.1 million dollars of the debt.
Payment of the remaining 20 per cent of the debt has been reprogrammed over a period of 15 years, preceded by a four year period of grace. The debt should be fully paid off by 2043.
(AIM)
Pf/ (2011)
