Confronted with an “existential threat,” Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed issued an urgent plea to G20 countries for immediate debt relief. The “dramatic decline in exports, disruption of global chains, and the sudden drying up of travel of tourism are sure to wreak havoc to our economies,” he said on Tuesday in a statement published on Twitter.

Africa’s economies, he added, are “fragile and vulnerable even in the best of time” and incapable of handling a crisis of this magnitude on their own. In response, the Prime Minister is called on G20 leaders to take decisive action at their upcoming virtual summit that is expected to happen sometime this week.