The Paris Club has decided a moratorium from May to December 2020 on the servicing of the external debt of the Republic of Congo, which could avoid the country default on June 30 on its Eurobond.
However, we remain astonished to note that the Paris Club takes for granted the promise of the Congolese government to devote the resources freed up by this initiative to the increase of the expenses dedicated to attenuate the health, economic and social impact of the COVID-19 crisis .
A simple observation of the situation on the ground reveals the misappropriation of the Chinese gifts of the Billionaire Jack Ma, the idleness of the populations and the police exactions in the form of a mask’s racket. The price of public transport has gone from simple to double and statistics on the number of Covid-19 patients are impossible to objectively confirm, a journalist having been suspended for asking for verification.
While the processions in the major capitals of the World are shouting #BlackLivesMatter, this agreement is artificial respiration on a bloody Regime without any compensation. Even the humanitarian measures to reduce congestion in prisons advocated by the United Nations have not been applied. The regime is more concerned with sending the Chief’s Falcon for review than ensuring the reduction of the impact of the Covid-19.
It is useful to recall that the debt of the Republic of Congo towards the Paris Club remains around 10% of the total and that the People’s Republic of China (State as well as private) constitutes the remaining 90% of the external debt.
Finally, since the opaque agreement to the disadvantage of the Congo in May 2019, the People’s Republic of China is reimbursed on the tribute models with the takeover for 30 years of the Brazzaville Pointe Noire Route, of all the waterways of the countries for an unknown period and the transfer from 2016 of high seas fishing to Rongchang Fisheries Company, whose fridges have been identified as one of the Covid-19 clusters.
We continue to demand full transparency on the China / Congo agreement of May 2019 and strongly urge the Paris Club to defend the imposition of the strict democratic conditions.
About Andréa Ngombet :
Running candidate to the office of President of the Republic of the Congo
One Young World Ambassador
Head of the Anti-Kleptocracy Strategy of Sassoufit Collective
ICDR Member
The post PARIS CLUB DEBT MORATORIUM TO CONGO-B : DEMOCRATIC CONDITIONS TO HELL? first appeared on The African Gazette.