US Treasury secretary Janet Yellen yesterday said china was preventing Zambia from being able to restructure its debt. This restructuring is a condition to unlock a $1.3bn loan from the IMF.

This is part of Yellen’s 10-day tour of Africa, as the US works to improve relationships in the region.

Zambia defaulted in 2020 on $17bn of debt – over a third of which is owed to lenders in China.

These Chinese government and development banks had provided loans for energy, road and other infrastructure development projects.