Sudan Seeks Debt Relief Before South’s Independence

Sudanese authorities want creditors to write off much of the country’s $38 billion foreign debt before Southern Sudan becomes independent in July, a minister in the southern government said.

Without debt relief, the northern and southern regions are likely to split the debt load, Gabriel Changson Chang, a member of the committee negotiating financial arrangements with the north, said today in an interview in Juba, the southern capital. At most, 75 percent of the debt will be written off, he said.