Somalia has secured an agreement with international creditors to cancel more than $2 billion (1.8 billion euros) in debt, the Paris Club of creditor nations said.
The deal announced on Wednesday came after the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in December approved $4.5 billion in debt relief for the troubled Horn of Africa nation.
Somalia has endured decades of civil war, insurgency by militant group Al-Shabaab, and frequent climate disasters.
The Paris Club, an informal grouping of creditor nations, said in a statement that the $2 billion represented 99% of the debt owed by Somalia to its members as of January 2023.
Fiscal space
Those involved in the deal included representatives of the United States and Russia as well as European nations such as Britain and France.
"Paris Club creditors welcomed the Federal Republic of Somalia's determination to continue to implement a comprehensive poverty reduction strategy and an ambitious economic reform programme to create the foundations for sustainable, inclusive economic growth," the Paris club said.
Somalia's government "committed to use the fiscal space provided by this debt treatment for priority expenditure areas (health, education and basic infrastructure) identified in the country’s poverty reduction strategy", it added.
Around 70% of Somalia's population lives on less than $1.90 a day, according to World Bank figures.
External debt
The December IMF-World Bank deal came as Somalia reached the "completion point" of a debt management scheme known as the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative (HIPC).
Somalia's external debt has fallen from 64% of gross domestic product in 2018 to less than 6% by the end of 2023.
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