Men outside a mobile COVID-19 screening clinic in Johannesburg, South Africa, Tuesday April 21, 2020 -
Themba Hadebe / AP / SIPA
To enable them to reduce their debt and cope with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Monday approved the payment of new emergency aid for 28 of the most poor people of the world.
This announcement, which comes after an identical measure decreed in mid-April for 25 countries, should help these countries cover the repayments of their debt to the IMF for the next six months and "free up their meager resources for their emergency efforts. medical and aid ”in the face of the pandemic.
Mali in suspense
The 28 countries benefiting from this second tranche of aid are Afghanistan, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, DR Congo, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Gambia, Guinea , Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Nepal, Niger, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Togo and Yemen.
Mali, which is also eligible for this aid, has not yet been added to this list, because "there is a lack of clarity as to whether the international community recognizes / treats the current military regime as the government Mali, ”says the IMF.
Aid estimated at 959 million dollars
This debt relief goes through the Disaster Assistance and Response Trust Fund (ARC Trust Fund) which enables the IMF to provide grants to the poorest and most vulnerable countries hit by natural or public health disasters. with disastrous consequences.
Subject to sufficient resources from the ARC Trust Fund, grants could be made for a period of two years, until mid-April 2022, for a total estimated amount of $ 959 million.
The IMF's goal is to endow the ARC trust fund with $ 1.4 billion so that it can also meet needs in the future.
So far, the amount of contributions amounted to 506.5 million dollars, coming from several countries, including the United Kingdom, Japan, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Norway, China, Mexico, Sweden, Bulgaria, Luxembourg and Malta.
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