First African Union Conference on Debt
The first African Union (AU) Conference on Debt came to an end on Wednesday in Togo’s capital Lomé. More than 500 delegates – including high-ranking government representatives from AU member states as well as top personnel from central banks and international financial institutions – spent three days discussing ways out of the debt crisis. The conference, organised by the AU Commission, the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the Togolese government, was held under the motto ‘Africa’s Public Debt Management Agenda – Restoring and Safeguarding Debt Sustainability’ and aimed to develop a joint and sustainable strategy for dealing with the escalating debt of African countries.
This common position is reflected in the Lomé Declaration on Debt adopted at the conference, which includes various measures for reforming the international financial architecture and solving the debt problems of African countries. In particular, it calls for a revision of the G20 Common Framework for Debt Treatments, which is criticised for being too slow, outdated and creditor-driven. It was emphasised several times that existing global debt relief instruments are not sufficiently tailored to the structural challenges of African economies.
The envisaged measures and reform projects include, for example, the creation of a framework for monetary and financial stability, prudent, transparent debt management and the strengthening of macroeconomic resilience. In addition to debt financing, alternative models such as public-private partnerships (PPPs) or emissions trading are to be used to mobilise new financial resources. These will be supplemented by innovative financing instruments such as debt-for-climate swaps, in which a state exchanges part of its public debt for a commitment to use money for climate protection projects, or so-called panda bonds – Chinese renminbi-denominated bonds from non-Chinese issuers that are placed in China. The declaration also provides for a legally binding mechanism for debt settlement and debt restructuring.
A key project whose implementation is to be accelerated is the establishment of the African Financial Stability Mechanism (AFSM), an AU initiative under the umbrella of the African Development Bank. The mechanism is intended to make it easier for African countries to access international capital markets and provide them with more favourable credit conditions, thereby helping to strengthen their economic resilience (Press Review CW 8/2025). At the same time, the establishment of a pan-African rating agency is being pushed forward to enable a more independent and context-appropriate assessment of African countries. The background to this is the criticism that international rating agencies charge African countries excessive risk premiums, making access to capital unnecessarily expensive.
According to World Bank data from March of this year, 25 African countries are currently considered to be over-indebted. Observers therefore see the conference in Lomé as an important step towards a more sustainable, independent debt policy. Increasing over-indebtedness is no longer just a fiscal issue, but is becoming a threat to social and economic development on the continent, warned AU Commissioner Moses Vilakati. The conference thus not only provided new political and financial impetus, but also demonstrated the central role that the issue of debt is likely to play in Africa’s future economic policy orientation.
Tidjane Thiam is re-elected PDCI party leader
On Wednesday, Tidjane Thiam was elected leader of the largest Ivorian opposition party, the Parti Démocratique de Côte d’Ivoire (PDCI), at an extraordinary party congress. The 62-year-old, who had only announced his resignation from this role on Monday, was the only candidate for the PDCI leadership post and won the election with 99.8%. The background to his resignation and the new election held shortly afterwards are ongoing legal disputes over his election as party leader in December 2023 and his presidential candidacy for the election on 25 October this year.
At the end of April, a court in Abidjan ordered the former head of Credit Suisse to be removed from the list of presidential candidates, citing the Ivorian nationality law of 1961. Thiam, who was born in Côte d’Ivoire, had taken French citizenship in 1987 and thus lost his Ivorian citizenship, according to the court. Although Thiam officially renounced his French citizenship in March of this year, he was nevertheless excluded from the presidential election. There are also legal proceedings against Thiam within the party. Party member Valérie Yabo filed a lawsuit against the legality of his first election as party chairman in 2023, as Thiam still held French citizenship at the time – which is not permitted under the party statutes. A court was originally due to convene in this case on Thursday, but the proceedings were postponed to 22 May. With his resignation from the party chairmanship and his subsequent re-election, Thiam has created a new basis for his office before the court hearing.
However, it is unclear whether Tidjane Thiam can achieve a revision of the list of candidates and still enter the presidential race as a candidate for the PDCI. Thiam had announced that he would take the case to the court of the regional organisation ECOWAS. In addition to him, three other opposition candidates were also excluded from taking part in the election, including former President Laurent Gbagbo and former Prime Minister Guillaume Soro, both due to legal charges. In view of these developments, Thiam described the proceedings against him as part of a targeted campaign of legal harassment and accused his opponents of instrumentalising the judiciary to hinder his political career. The government under President Alassane Ouattara (Rassemblement des Houphouétistes pour la Démocratie et la Paix, RHDP) firmly rejected these accusations. The decision to exclude Thiam and others from the election was taken by the courts and was based on legal texts, explained Communications Minister and government spokesman Amadou Coulibaly.
The government therefore sees no basis for intervention. 83-year-old Ouattara, who has ruled the country since 2011, has not yet officially declared his intention to run for office again. However, he has stated that he is prepared to continue leading the West African country if his party supports him. It would be Ouattara’s fourth term in office, although his current term is already constitutionally controversial. The final election list is to be published on 20 June.
In other news
The internationally renowned curator and museum director Koyo Kouoh passed away on Saturday at the age of 57. At the end of last year, she was the first African woman to be appointed curator of the 61st Art Biennale 2026 (Press Review KW 49/2024) and was due to present her concept in Venice on 20 May. Koyo Kouoh is regarded as one of the most important voices in the contemporary African art scene. Born in 1967 in Douala, Cameroon, she later lived in Dakar, Cape Town and Basel, among other places. She began her career in the 1990s with the founding of the Raw Material Company, an independent centre in the Senegalese capital Dakar that promotes art, knowledge and society on the African continent. Most recently, Kouoh headed the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Mocaa) in Cape Town, which she developed into a leading centre for contemporary African art. She also became internationally recognised through her work on the curatorial team for the Documenta 12 (2007) and 13 (2012) in Kassel. Her work was characterised by the consistent promotion of African and diasporic artists. The Biennale Foundation honoured Kouoh’s ‘extraordinary intellectual and human commitment’ and spoke of a great loss for the art world.