China has waived loans worth $50 million that it had given to Sudan, the two countries said over the weekend. The agreement comes three years into a war between Sudan’s army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) that has shrunk the country’s economy by roughly 40 percent, according to the United Nations.
The sum is small compared with what Sudan owes overall to external governments or agencies, an amount estimated at more than $56 billion before the war. But the waiver lands at a moment when Khartoum has few other international lenders extending any financial support.
China’s relationship with Sudan predates the war by decades, built on oil and infrastructure interests that survived multiple changes of government in Khartoum. But the war has narrowed Sudan’s options elsewhere, as Western governments have largely held back or imposed sanctions.
The signed protocol in Port Sudan cancels four interest-free loans worth 344 million yuan, about $50 million, with immediate effect, according to Sudan’s official news agency, SUNA.
Sudan’s Finance Minister Gibril Ibrahim welcomed the move, reportedly saying that China has continued investing in the country throughout the war while Western governments, including the United States and European Union members, have largely held back. Gibril himself was added to the US Treasury sanctions list in September 2025 for his alleged “involvement in Sudan’s brutal civil war and … connections to Iran”.
China’s charge d’affaires in Sudan, Xu Jian, reportedly said at the signing ceremony that China was ready to help rebuild what was destroyed during the war in Sudan.
Sudan’s external debt of more than $56 billion before the war is expected to have ballooned since. The $50 million debt relief amounts to not even 1 percent of the total external pre-war debt.
The war is now in its third year. More than 1.5 million people have been killed, according to the UN, and the war has displaced about 14 million people – about a quarter of the Sudanese population. The Sudanese pound has collapsed from roughly 600 to the dollar before the war to more than 5,000 to the dollar by June 2026.
Beijing’s decision to waive the $50 million loan is in keeping with a broader approach it has taken in recent years, helping cement China as Africa’s largest trading partner for 17 consecutive years. China has provided interest-free loan forgiveness as a diplomatic gesture to multiple countries.
At a time when the West is largely trying to isolate Sudan’s leadership, a small loan waiver gives China outsized influence in a country that sits at the intersection of the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa.
Source: www.aljazeera.com