The write-off covers debts owed by the West African country to the World Bank, the IMF, African Development Bank, commercial creditors, and other governments.

The debt relief follows the completion by Sierra Leone's government of an economic programme overseen by the World Bank and the IMF.

"At last Sierra Leone is getting the debt relief that is necessary," Mats Karlsson, the World Bank's country director for Sierra Leone said in a statement.

Devastated by a 1991-2002 civil war, Sierra Leone is the 21st country to become eligible for debt relief under the Enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative, the statement said.

It also qualified for the separate Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative agreed by the Group of Eight industrial countries in Gleneagles, Scotland, last year to further ease the debt burdens of the world's impoverished nations.

Nampa-Reuters

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