KHARTOUM — China and Sudan agreed to waive loans totaling $50 million, an announcement made over the weekend. A signed protocol in Port Sudan canceled four interest-free loans worth 344 million yuan with immediate effect, according to Sudan's official news agency, SUNA.

Sudan's Finance Minister Gibril Ibrahim welcomed the move. China's charge d'affaires in Sudan, Xu Jian, said at the signing ceremony that China was ready to help rebuild what was destroyed during the war in Sudan.

The war between Sudan's army and the Rapid Support Forces has been ongoing for three years. The United Nations stated that the conflict has shrunk Sudan's economy by roughly 40 percent and that more than 1.5 million people have been killed. The war has displaced about 14 million people, which accounts for roughly a quarter of the Sudanese population. The World Health Organization stated that less than 14 percent of health facilities in Sudan are still functioning.

Prior to the war, Sudan's external debt to governments or agencies was estimated at more than $56 billion. The Sudanese pound exchange rate shifted from approximately 600 to the U.S. dollar before the conflict to more than 5,000 to the dollar by June 2026. Sudan continues to have more than $5 billion in outstanding debt to China.

From the mid-1990s, China's National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) invested billions of dollars in Sudanese oil fields and pipelines. The CNPC requested a formal exit from Sudan in December 2025. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with Sudan's Foreign Minister Omar Seddik at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing on May 14, 2025.

China has served as Africa's largest trading partner for 17 consecutive years. Research from the Johns Hopkins China Africa Research Initiative found that China forgave at least $3.4 billion of interest-free debts across the African continent between 2000 and 2019. In September 2025, Gibril Ibrahim was added to the U.S. Treasury sanctions list for alleged involvement in Sudan's civil war and connections to Iran.