Mozambique is currently struggling with the consequences of the devastating cyclone Idai. Millions of people have lost their livelihoods as a result. Another cyclone, Kenneth-19, has devastated the north of Mozambique in recent days. The country now urgently needs money to alleviate the plight of the people and start the reconstruction process.
But instead, the country is sitting on a huge mountain of debt and had to declare its insolvency at times – at the expense of the long-suffering population. A large part of this debt, two billion US dollars, is due to the opaque granting of loans by Credit Suisse and a Russian bank. The money was officially supposed to be used to modernize the coastal protection and tuna fishing fleet in order to boost the Mozambican economy. The deal bypassed parliament and the National Bank of Mozambique and the money went to three dubious parastatal companies. The boats were overpriced and are apparently still not in use today. And some of them simply disappeared.
However, because the state guaranteed the loans, it has to pay off the debt – plus horrendous fees – instead of being able to provide emergency aid after the disasters. The UN, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund estimate the cost of reconstruction at around USD 2 billion – which is almost exactly the amount of the loan.
What we demand
Credit Suisse blatantly violated its duty of care when granting the loans and must cancel Mozambique’s debts and pay back the horrendous fees. The population must not be punished for the opaque loans granted by their government. Instead of being used to service the debt, the money must be used to help the victims of the recent natural disasters.
Therefore, please sign the petition to Credit Suisse. It is a joint initiative of Helvetas, terre des hommes schweiz, Multiwatch, KEESA, ATTAC and the Mozambican Budget Monitoring Forum network. We collect the signatures decentrally on our websites and update the total here at regular intervals. We will hand over all signatures to Credit Suisse in June.
The collection of signatures is finished. We will soon hand over the petition to the CS.
