Saudi minister visits Republic of Zambia

LUSAKA: Saudi minister of state for African countries affairs, Ahmed bin Abdul Aziz Qattan, participated in the swearing-in ceremony and inauguration of Hakainde Hichilema as President of Zambia, in the presence of a number of world heads of state.
Hichilema has pledged to tackle Zambia’s “unsustainable” debt, lamenting that the national budget was overwhelmed by the cost of servicing it. Hichilema won a landslide election victory earlier this month over incumbent Edgar Lungu. It marked Zambia’s third peaceful change of power to an opposition party since independence from Britain in 1964. The new leader, who lost five previous presidency attempts, must now revive an economy weighed down by debt, unpredictable world commodity prices and COVID-19. Zambia became Africa’s first pandemic-era sovereign default in November.