WASHINGTON: The world’s 26 poorest countries, home to 40 percent of the most poverty-stricken people, are more in debt than at any time since 2006 and increasingly vulnerable to natural disasters and other shocks, a new World Bank report showed on Sunday.
The report finds that these economies are poorer today on average than they were on the eve of the COVID-19 pandemic, even as the rest of the world has largely recovered from COVID and resumed its growth trajectory.
Released a week before World Bank and International Monetary Fund annual meetings get underway in Washington, the report confirms a major setback to efforts to eradicate extreme poverty and underscores the World Bank’s efforts this year to raise $100 billion to replenish its financing fund for the world’s poorest countries, the International Development Association (IDA).
The 26 poorest economies studied, which have annual per-capita incomes of less than $1,145, are increasingly reliant on IDA grants and near-zero interest rate loans as market financing has largely dried up, the World Bank said. Their average debt-to-GDP ratio of 72 percent is at an 18-year high and half of the group are either in debt distress or at high risk of it.
Two thirds of the 26 poorest countries are either in armed conflicts or have difficulty maintaining order because of institutional and social fragility, which inhibit foreign investment, and nearly all export commodities, exposing them to frequent boom-and-bust cycles, the report said.
“At a time when much of the world simply backed away from the poorest countries, IDA has been their lifeline,” World Bank chief economist Indermit Gill said in a statement. “Over the past five years, it has poured most of its financial resources into the 26 low-income economies, keeping them afloat through the historic setbacks they suffered.”
IDA normally is replenished every three years with contributions from World Bank shareholding countries. It raised a record $93 billion in 2021 and World Bank President Ajay Banga is aiming to exceed that with over $100 billion in pledges by Dec. 6.
Natural disasters also have taken a greater toll on these countries over the past decade. Between 2011 and 2023, natural disasters were associated with average annual losses of 2 percent of GDP, five times the average among lower-middle-income countries, pointing up the need for much higher investment, the World Bank said.
The report also recommended that these economies, which have large informal sectors operating outside their tax systems, do more to help themselves. This includes improving tax collections by simplifying taxpayer registration and tax administration and improving the efficiency of public spending.
World Bank says 26 poorest countries in worst financial shape since 2006
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World Bank says 26 poorest countries in worst financial shape since 2006
- IDA normally is replenished every three years with contributions from World Bank shareholding countries
UN chief says any attacks on Lebanon peacekeepers could be a war crime
- “UNIFIL peacekeepers remain in all positions and the UN flag continues to fly,” UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said in a statement
NEW YORK: United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned on Sunday that any attacks against peacekeepers “may constitute a war crime,” his spokesperson said after Israeli tanks burst through the gates of a peacekeeping base in southern Lebanon.
It was the latest accusation of Israeli violations and attacks against the UN peacekeeping mission, known as UNIFIL, in recent days.
“UNIFIL peacekeepers remain in all positions and the UN flag continues to fly,” UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.
“The Secretary-General reiterates that UNIFIL personnel and its premises must never be targeted. Attacks against peacekeepers are in breach of international law, including international humanitarian law. They may constitute a war crime,” he said.
Sweden wants EU to brand Iran’s Revolutionary Guards ‘terror’ group: PM
- Sweden’s Sapo intelligence agency has accused Iran of recruiting members of Swedish criminal gangs to commit “acts of violence” against Israeli and other interests in Sweden, a claim Iran has denied
STOCKHOLM: Sweden wants the European Union to officially deem Iran’s Revolutionary Guards a terrorist organization after several attacks on Israeli targets in Sweden, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said Sunday.
Sweden’s Sapo intelligence agency has accused Iran of recruiting members of Swedish criminal gangs to commit “acts of violence” against Israeli and other interests in Sweden, a claim Iran has denied.
Three attacks have been carried out against the Israeli embassy in Stockholm in the past year, and two attacks have targeted an Israeli military technology firm in the past six months.
“We want Sweden to seriously address, with other EU countries, the incredibly problematic connection between the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and their destructive role in the (Middle East) region, but also their escalating actions around various European countries, including Sweden,” Kristersson told the Expressen newspaper.
“The only reasonable consequence ... is that we get a joint terror classification, so that we can act more broadly than (we can with) the sanctions that already exist,” he said.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps is a special branch of the Iranian armed forces whose officers hold key positions in Iran’s establishment
In May, Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter cited documents from Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad as saying that the head of the Swedish criminal network Foxtrot, Rawa Majid, and his archrival Ismail Abdo, head of the Rumba gang, had both been recruited by Iran.
Swedish public broadcaster SVT reported in early October that two recent attacks on the Israeli embassies in Stockholm and Copenhagen had been ordered by Foxtrot at the behest of Iran.
France’s ‘unhappy’ Macron seeks new role after government shakeup
- In public, the 46-year-old Macron is still all smiles, but in private, he has been seething
PARIS: President Emmanuel Macron weathered a turbulent political summer, but he feels isolated and is frustrated with his new right-wing government, according to people close to him.
Macron’s appointment of 73-year-old conservative Michel Barnier as prime minister ended two months of political chaos after snap legislative elections in July.
In line with his new role under the power-sharing arrangement, the center-rightpresident has taken a back seat on the domestic front, letting Barnier name a Cabinet and concentrating on foreign policy.
In public, the 46-year-old Macron is still all smiles, but in private, he has been seething.
“I did not choose this government,” Macron recently told a trusted confidante, who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity.
“They make me feel ashamed,” the president said of some of the most conservative ministers.
The most hard-line member of the new government, Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, stirred controversy just days into the job, vowing to crack down on immigration and saying that “the rule of law is neither intangible nor sacred.”
After performing strongly in the snap election but failing to secure an outright victory, Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally party is a potential kingmaker that could decide the fate of Barnier’s fragile minority government.
Comoros to hold parliamentary elections on Jan. 12
- “We are not ready to take part in legislative elections until we know what is going to happen,” Salim Issa Abdillah, leader of the opposition JUWA party, who stood against Assoumani in the last election, said
MORONI: Comoros will hold elections to its 33-seat parliament on Jan. 12, according to a decree published on Saturday.
Opposition parties have said they will boycott the poll. The Indian Ocean archipelago, with a population of about 800,000, last had parliamentary polls in January 2020.
In January, incumbent President Azali Assoumani was reelected for another five-year term, but the opposition rejected the results, alleging instances of ballot stuffing and of voting being ended before the official closing time.
The government denied the claims.
“We are not ready to take part in legislative elections until we know what is going to happen,” Salim Issa Abdillah, leader of the opposition JUWA party, who stood against Assoumani in the last election, said.
“We do not trust Azali Assoumani because no matter what commitments he makes, he will not respect them.”
Orange, another opposition party, has also said it will not participate in the poll because the president had re-appointed the current head of the electoral body, Idrissa Said, whom they accuse of favoring the ruling Convention for the Renewal of the Comoros party.
Said denies the allegations.
Assoumani’s opponents suspect him of wanting to prepare his eldest son, Nour El-Fath, to replace him in 2029 when his current term ends.
Assoumani has been ruling Comoros since 1999 when he came to power through a coup. He has since won three elections.
Sri Lankan politicians urge cutting Israel ties after attack on UN peacekeepers
- Two Sri Lankan troops on UNIFIL mission were wounded by Israeli shelling on Friday
- Politicians in Colombo want legal action against Tel Aviv, boycott of Israeli products
COLOMBO: Politicians from multiple Sri Lankan parties are calling for a break in diplomatic ties with Tel Aviv after Israeli attacks wounded two UN peacekeepers from the South Asian nation.
Sri Lankan troops are part of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon, which is tasked with helping the Lebanese Army keep control over the south of the country, which borders Israel.
The Sri Lankan contingent consists of 125 personnel who are deployed to the UNIFIL headquarters in Naqoura village. Israeli tanks that entered the area earlier this month have been firing on the peacekeeping forces and on Thursday wounded two Indonesian soldiers. On Friday, Israeli tank fire wounded two Sri Lankans.
Sri Lanka Army spokesperson Brig. Nilantha Premaratne told Arab News the country’s troops were securing the UNIFIL’s headquarters. Two of them — lance corporals from the Vijayabahu Infantry Regiment and from the Armored Corps — were hit by shrapnel and had to be hospitalized.
“One is treated in the hospital inside the base camp, and one was transferred to another hospital. He had to undergo surgery,” Premaratne said.
Another source familiar with the matter told Arab News the soldier was in “serious condition.”
The incident sent a shockwave through the South Asian nation, with its Ministry of Foreign Affairs issuing a statement condemning the attack, but politicians in Colombo say it is not enough.
Marjan Faleel from Sri Lanka People’s Front, the country’s largest party, called for diplomatic ties to be cut and Israeli products embargoed.
“Enough of Israeli atrocities. Now they are laying their hands on the peacekeeping mission,” he told Arab News.
“Sri Lanka should take up this matter at the International Court of Justice and also sever all diplomatic relations with Israel, and also boycott all its products.”
Sri Lanka has already cut ties with Israel two times — in 1971 and 1992 — each time for nearly a decade.
For Azath Salley, leader of the National Unity Alliance, it was time to do it again, as he vowed that his party would work toward a diplomatic break with Tel Aviv after next month’s parliamentary election.
“It is Israeli terrorism, and the world knows it well,” he said. “The first thing we are going to do is go to parliament and (call) to sever all ties with Israel. We don’t want any Israelis to come to Sri Lanka.”
The need for action on the international level is seen as necessary to put an end to Israel’s impunity in the wake of its deadly war on Gaza since October 2023 and the invasion of Lebanon, which began two weeks ago.
Hussein Mohamed, former diplomat and member of the United National Party expected Sri Lanka’s newly appointed government to “take up this matter at all international fora” and act.
“Israeli atrocities should not be tolerated. Sri Lanka should take legal action,” he told Arab News.
Inaction was affecting all the UN rights mechanisms and their applicability to others, according to Shreen Abdul Saroor, Sri Lankan rights advocate with the Women’s Action Network.
“Israel has been violating almost every human right and humanitarian international law and convention,” she said, adding that it may set different standards for all those in the Global South, who might abandon the UN and Western-set order.
“The recent attack is very problematic because the UN peacekeepers in Lebanon have been attacked by Israel and Western countries are (indifferent) about it. They are not criticizing anything.”
