Africa's External Debt Tops $1 Trillion as Fossil Fuel Extraction Expands

African governments are expanding fossil fuel production to service mounting external debt, which has doubled since 2020 to over $1 trillion, with interest payments more than doubling over 15 years to an estimated $163 billion, according to a report by African Forum and Network on Debt and Development and the Fossil Fuel Treaty initiative. The debt burden is forcing cuts to public services including health and education, with women bearing a disproportionate share of the resulting social costs.

The report documents how structural adjustment programmes, trade liberalisation and IMF-imposed austerity measures have directed African government revenues from social services toward debt repayment. Countries on the continent are described as trapped in an economic architecture designed to extract wealth toward the Global North, adopting austerity measures and resource extraction simultaneously. The fossil fuel sector continues to receive investment under the narrative that it is necessary for Africa's energy security and development, despite evidence that extraction reinforces debt-based entrapment rather than alleviating it.

The report identifies specific gendered consequences of fossil fuel-driven debt dynamics. In Mozambique, Nigeria, Uganda and Tanzania, women and girls face heightened risk of land dispossession, displacement and sexual violence linked to the militarisation of oil and gas extraction zones. Women's unpaid labour absorbs the social services that governments cut to reassure creditors. The authors introduce the concept of petromasculinity — the fusion of authoritarian masculine identities with militarism and corporate fossil fuel interests — as a framework for understanding how fossil fuel extraction systems perpetuate gender-based violence.

The report calls for African countries to participate in an international Fossil Fuel Treaty that would support a planned and just transition away from fossil fuels, with wealthiest and historically most responsible nations acting first and fastest. The proposed treaty would create a platform for renegotiating and cancelling some external debt, freeing fiscal space for equitable renewable energy transitions. The authors recommend decentralised, accessible renewable energy for all communities as the target model, alongside phase-out of oil, gas and coal and development of diverse, resilient and gender-just economies across the continent.

Key figure — African external debt has doubled since 2020 to over $1 trillion; annual interest payments estimated at $163 billion