The Economist May 14th 2022 Middle East & Africa 45
to rebuild a damaged economy,” he tells
The Economist,“but someone has to do it.”
The job starts with restructuring Zam
bia’s unsustainable public debt, which is
above 100% of gdp. Since the country de
faulted in 2020 it has not serviced most of
its external borrowing. As is the case with
many of the 23 subSaharan countries the
imfdeems to be in debt distress, it owes
money to a more diverse group of creditors
than African borrowers did in the 2000s,
when loans were forgiven by rich coun
tries and Westerndominated internation
al institutions. Of its $17.3bn in external
debt, only about half is owed to outfits like
that. The rest is to Chinese entities ($5.5bn)
and Western fund managers ($3.3bn), ac
cording to Bloomberg. Zambia is trying to
persuade its creditors to take losses. The
rest of Africa is watching closely.
Many African countries are sceptical of
the “Common Framework”, a set of loose
principles for resolving debt crises
launched in 2020 by the g20, a club of big
economies. It is meant to bring China and
commercial creditors to the table, yet no
country has gained debt relief this way. Mr
Hichilema insists the common framework
will work and that “China is on board”: it
will cochair, with France, a committee of
Zambia’s creditors. At least 18 Chinese enti
ties have lent money to Zambia; some
should expect to lose part of their princi
pal, not just see the loans extended, says
Situmbeko Musokotwane, the finance
minister. That would be unusual for China,
which prefers to reschedule debts.
Mr Hichilema does not completely rule
out a deal linking debtrestructuring to
proceeds from copper mining. But he is
aiming for one without “new liabilities” or
a reduction in the mining revenues that
could be used to invest in Zambia’s econ
omy. He is optimistic about striking a deal
with bondholders. He says Zambia has re
stored good faith with these creditors by
making clear the true scale of its debts to
China, which were about double what Mr
Lungu’s government had admitted.
The imf’s board will want to see pro
gress on debtrestructuring before it ap
proves a loan of $1.4bn. Mr Musokotwane
is “very confident” this will happen next
month. The fund has also endorsed a series
of reforms, which will probably include
cuts to fuel and electricity subsidies worth
about $800m a year.
“We told the voters that we would deliv
er change,” says Mr Hichilema. “The type of
change that would bring back economic
growth.” Won’t some of these policies hurt
Zambians? Voters don’t want to pay higher
prices, he concedes, but “it’s a necessary
process to rebuild our economy.”
There are encouraging signs. First
Quantum Minerals, a Canadian miner, will
expand a huge copper mine with an invest
ment of $1.3bn—the largest in Zambia in a
decade.MrHichilema wantstoincrease
annualcopperproductionfrom800,000
to3mtonnesovertenyears.Zambiawould
thenovertakeCongoasAfrica’slargestpro
ducer.Todosohewillalsoneedtoresolve
thefutureofotherminesthatwereunder
utilisedduringMrLungu’sreign,largely
becauseofdisputeswiththegovernment.
Mr Hichilema’s freemarket instincts
areinwelcomecontrast,notjusttothose
ofhispredecessor,buttothoseofmanyAf
ricanleaders.Yetthereisa riskZambians
willseeimfendorsedreformsasinflicting
painofthesortthatMrHichilemavowed
toendratherthanasnecessarymedicine.
Hesaysheisworking“torestorethecred
ibilityofthecountry”.Thatmeanswooing
friendsabroad.Buthemustkeepaneyeon
whathappensathome,too.n
Whereisyoursmined?
PalestineandIsrael
A death in Jenin
L
ikesomuchofherlife,ShireenAbuAq
leh’s final moments were captured in
the stark style of news footage. Seven shots
ring out. The cameraman creeps around to
show a woman, clad in a flak jacket la
belled “press”, lying prone in the dirt. A
young man tries to help her, only to retreat
after another shot. When he finally manag
es to lift her limp body, it is clear she is be
yond help: one of the most recognisable
faces in Arab media has been reduced to a
bloody pulp.
Ms Abu Aqleh, a correspondent for Al
Jazeera, a news channel based in Qatar, was
killed on May 11th. She was in Jenin, in the
West Bank, to cover a raid by Israeli sol
diers. Several witnesses, her employer and
the Palestinian health ministry say it was
those soldiers who shot her.
Naftali Bennett, Israel’s prime minister,
said it “appears likely” she was killed by
Palestinian gunmen. By way of evidence
his foreign ministry shared a 15second
clip showing a masked man shooting
down an alley. Nothing indicates when it
was filmed or what he was aiming at. Ben
ny Gantz, Israel’s defence minister, later
sounded less sure. b’tselem, an Israeli hu
manrights group, found where the clip
was recorded—300 metres away and out of
sight of the spot where Ms Abu Aqleh fell.
Ali alSamoudi, a colleague at Al Jazeera
who was also shot, says no armed Palestin
ians were nearby. Mr Bennett says the
shooting that killed her was “indiscrimi
nate and uncontrolled”. In raw footage,
volleys of gunfire can be heard in the dis
tance. The shots aimed at the journalists,
louder and closer, sound controlled and
seem to come from a single gun.
Ms Abu Aqleh, 51, started at Al Jazeera in
1997 and became one of its bestknown re
porters. Many young Arab journalists, es
pecially women, cite her as an inspiration.
A Christian Jerusalemite, she was omni
present in the West Bank. That meant regu
lar trips to places like Jenin. For the past six
weeks Israeli soldiers have conducted al
most nightly raids to nab suspects there,
following a series of deadly attacks inside
Israel, at least two of which were carried
out by Palestinians from the area.
Since March, 19 Israelis and 30 Palestin
ians have been killed. Ms Abu Aqleh was
the eighth Palestinian to die in the recent
raids on Jenin’s refugee camp. Among the
other victims was Muhammad Zakarneh, a
17yearold shot by soldiers looking for his
mother and brother.
Unsurprisingly, antiIsrael sentiment
in the camp has soared. Fighters are cele
brated as heroes. Alleyways are coated in
the flags and graffiti of Islamic Jihad, the
camp’s dominant militant group. Make
shift barricades guard its entrances.
This latest killing will rattle Israel’s un
wieldy eightparty coalition. The govern
ment lost its majority last month when a
member of Mr Bennett’s own party defect
ed. Ra’am, a conservative Islamist party, is
on the brink of bolting over clashes be
tween Israeli police and worshippers at the
alAqsa mosque in Jerusalem.
Mansour Abbas, the party’s pragmatic
leader, would like to remain in the co
alition to secure gains for his ArabIsraeli
constituents. On May 11th he said his party
would not back an opposition bid to dis
solve Israel’s parliament. Buteventslike
Ms Abu Aqleh’s killing make staying in
government ever trickier for him.n
D UBAI
A journalist who covered the conflict
with Israel is its latest casualty