Mozambique’s population knows what a debt crisis feels like. Teachers aren’t getting paid; schools can’t provide furniture for the students. “In our hospitals the doctors tell the patients: You came here for nothing. We don’t have the drugs,” says Eufrigina dos Reis, a Mozambican human rights activist.
Mozambique’s coffers are empty, drying up all funding for education or health. In 2017, the country’s debt made up 102 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP). According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), even having a debt worth of 50 percent of a country’s GDP is dangerous. According to the 2017 figures, Africa’s average debt equaled nearly 46 percent of its economy. Almost half of all African countries on the continent are therefore at risk. “We are very concerned,” says Julius Kapwepwe form the Uganda Debt Network.