US cancels Sierra Leone’s US$58m debt

The US and Sierra Leone Thursday signed a bilateral debt relief agreement, under which the US cancelled its share (US$58 million) of the US$363 million, owed by Sierra Leone to Paris Club creditors.
A US State Department statement obtained here said the American Ambassador to Sierra Leone, Thomas N. Hull, and Sierra Leone’s Finance Minister, John O. Benjamin, signed the 100% debt relief agreement in Washington DC. It said the agreement was sequel to the multilateral accord signed with the Paris Club of creditors 27 January and reflected Sierra Leone’s successful completion of economic reforms under the Enhanced Heavily-Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative. “Under the agreement, the United States commits to forgive its approximately $58 million share of the US$363 million Sierra Leone owed to all Paris Club creditors,” the statement said. “Through the HIPC Initiative, the United States and its partners in the international community seek to help the most heavily indebted poor countries relieve their unsustainable debt burdens,” it added.
Sierra Leone is recovering from the effects of a decade brutal civil war that ended in 2002.