African Leaders Call for Debt Relief for All African Countries

Six African leaders held meetings on 19th June 2005 in Abuja, Nigeria. The main topic of the meeting was debt cancellation for all African countries.

In the joint statement all leaders praised the decision of G8 finance ministers to cancel the debt of 18 mostly African countries. However, during the meeting they called "for steps to be taken to include all African countries."

The G8 countries: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and United States, chaired by Britain this year, agreed to cancel the debt owed by 18 countries, 14 of them from the African continent. The debt amount reaching US$40 billion was owed to the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and African Development Bank.

The Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo chaired the meeting that was attended also by Presidents Abdelaziz Bouteflika of Algeria, John Kufuor of Ghana, Paul Kagame of Rwanda, Ahmad Tejan Kabbah of Sierra Leone and Thabo Mbeki of South Africa.

Also Mozambique Prime Minister Luisa Diogo was present to hear the report on progress on UN Millennium Developments Goals before the G8 summit held on 6th-8th July 2005.

In the statement all the leaders also asked for more funding of African Union's peace and security programme. In addition it was requested for development assistance to double over three years and to continue to rise so Africa can meet its millennium goals.

The creation of the US$20 billion-development fund, managed by the African Development Bank (ADB) was among the requests as well. The fund would be used for financing the projects in the areas of infrastructure, health, education, water, sanitation and agriculture, within the framework of the ambitious programme for African development known (NEPAD).

The meeting in Abuja is the third meeting of African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), a voluntary programme where African countries are inspected by other countries.