Cairo (HOL) — The Arab League has agreed to cancel 75 percent of Somalia’s debts after Mogadishu requested relief from nearly four decades of unpaid annual membership contributions, Somali officials said Tuesday.

Somali Ambassador to Egypt and Permanent Representative to the Arab League, Ali Abdi Aware, called the decision a “historic achievement” during the League’s 164th session of permanent representatives in Cairo. He thanked member states for supporting Somalia’s request, saying the outcome reflected “sustained diplomatic efforts” by the Somali Embassy in Cairo under the guidance of national leaders.

It was not immediately clear how much Somalia owed in unpaid contributions. Somalia joined the Arab League in 1974, fourteen years after independence.

The waiver comes as Somalia continues to push for broader debt relief. In 2024, the Paris Club — a group of major creditor nations including the United States, United Kingdom, Russia, Norway and Japan — announced the cancellation of 99 percent of Somalia’s $2 billion debt, a move hailed as critical for the Horn of Africa nation’s fragile economic recovery after three decades of conflict.

The Paris Club said part of the debt forgiveness was carried out on a voluntary bilateral basis, while the remainder fell under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative, a debt-relief framework managed by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.