What the west can do to stop the global south being strangled by debt

A displacement camp in Awash Arba, Ethiopia. The country faces the threat of being sued by its creditors in the English courts. Photograph: Amanuel Sileshi/AFP/Getty Images

With borrowing costs rising and western governments including the UK cutting their aid budgets, unsustainable debts are driving a development crisis across the global south.

In the latest evidence, Ethiopia last week faced the threat of being sued by its creditors in the English courts, after long-running negotiations about restructuring $1bn (£740m) of its debt collapsed.