Date: Wednesday, 11 August 2021
A decision in its favor will help the Qatari bank identify and seize Eritrea’s overseas assets, according to the complaint it filed in the U.S. court in February. The legal battle may further discourage investment in the African country, which currently stands second from last among 190 economies in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business rankings.
Eritrea ignored the ruling, according to QNB. The bank then turned toward the U.S. court in February in a bid to enforce the judgment. Eritrea has chosen not to defend itself in either case.
Staff at the Eritrean embassy in London “responded with extraordinary efforts to frustrate” the U.K. proceedings, QNB said in its complaint to the U.S. court.
Embassy officials locked one of the bank’s lawyers in the building until he agreed to leave without delivering the court documents, while another representative was “physically assaulted,” according to QNB’s filings.
On one occasion, “the receptionist physically knocked the documents out of a process server’s hands and threw them on the pavement outside the embassy’s front door,” the complaint said. A British judge eventually allowed the bank to send paperwork by email or post.
In its latest court filing, QNB said Eritrea’s debt has risen to $295.3 million. The amount is equivalent to more than 10% of the nation’s $2.3 billion gross domestic product.
Neither Eritrea’s Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel nor QNB’s media department responded to phone calls or emails seeking comment. Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund owns 50% of QNB.
Afwerki committed to repaying the loan through tax revenue and income from the Bisha mine, a gold-copper-zinc project currently controlled by China’s Zijin Mining Group Co. that entered production ten years ago, according to a letter sent in March 2009 by the president’s office to QNB, which the lender filed to the court in Washington.
Afwerki has ruled Eritrea since it gained independence in 1993. The country began emerging from decades of international isolation when it signed a peace deal with neighboring Ethiopia three years ago.