Editorial: VP leads ‘Stop Bleeding Africa Rally’

Africa’s sovereign debt reached US$2.14trillion in 2024, with 22 countries at high risk of distress.

Africa’s Non-State Actors, led by Vice President Jane Naana Opoku-Aygeman, will join African Trade Unions under the African Regional Organisation of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC-Africa) banner, together with other civil society organisations for a historic Pan-African rally in Accra for Debt Cancellation and Trade Justice on August, 29 .

The rally is part of Africa’s Non-State Actors, particularly the Stop Bleeding Consortuim that gives pragmatic expression to the African Union’s theme for the year – Reparative Justice for Africa and Peoples of African Descent.

The May 2025 African Union Summit on debt in its Lome Declaration affirmed this odious debt trap, hence the call for total cancellation of Africa’s debt. The rally also seeks to stand against trade injustice and more than 50% of the unions warn that unenforeceable labour and social protections risk repeating patterns in the continental trade agreement (AfCFTA), if not adequately addressed.

Trade must deliver decent jobs, not just GDP growth. A powerful coalition of ITUC, TUC AFRODAD, FEMNET, Pan African Lawyers, Tax Justice Network and others will throng Obra Spot to demand ‘Stop Bleeding Africa now’!

The rally makes clear that Africa will no longer accept a system of modern-day neo-colonial exploitation in which its abundant natural resources are systemically plundered to serve interests other than African. Lenders and borrowers have also been written to, as well as embassies and financial institutions, to recognise this continental campaign.

‘Stop Bleeding Africa’ is a rallying call for reparative and trade justice, now!

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