Russia to cancel Ethiopia debt

2007-03-07 17:10

Addis Ababa - Russia will write off the remaining $160m debt owed to it by Ethiopia, said Moscow's ambassador to the Horn of Africa nation on Wednesday.

In 2005, Russia cancelled just over $1.1bn owed to it by the Horn of Africa nation, which was ruled from 1974-'91 by former Marxist dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam and his Soviet-backed regime.

"Ethiopian and Russian officials have conducted discussions, and have agreed on how best to cancel the remaining $160m debt which Ethiopia owed to the former Soviet Union," said the Russian envoy Michael Afanasiev.

Trade between Ethiopia and Russia had recently improved, although it is not as big as it was in the 1980s, when Ethiopia was still under Soviet influence, Afanasiev said.

In the 1980s, Soviet exports to Ethiopia stood at more than $300m, about 10 times more than total imports and exports between the two nations in 2006, trade sources say.

Ethiopia mainly exports flowers and coffee to Russia, which sells fuel, fuel products, vehicles and spare parts to Ethiopia.

Mengistu, popularly known as the "Black Stalin", has been sentenced to life in prison in absentia for killing thousands of people during his 17-year reign.

He was said to have spent billions of dollars on weapons from eastern Europe in an attempt to suppress dissent before he was ousted in 1991.

- Reuters