Just days before the eighth edition of the high-profile Forum on China Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) Ministerial Conference took place in Dakar, Senegal, China got caught in the eye of the storm. Details published in a report in the Daily Monitor newspaper stated that Uganda allegedly had to “surrender” one of its national asset—the Entebbe International Airport—to China’s EXIM Bank for defaulting on its loan repayments. Chinese officials had evidently rejected Uganda’s request to re-negotiate certain “toxic clauses” in the US $200 million loan issued in 2015, for the purpose of upgrading and refurbishing the Entebbe airport. This development spread quickly over social media and was reported by several media outlets.
China and Uganda’s Entebbe International Airport: Reading between the lines | ORF (orfonline.org)
