WASHINGTON — The world’s 26 poorest countries, home to 40% of the most poverty-stricken people, are more in debt than at any time since 2006 and increasingly vulnerable to natural disasters and other shocks, a new World Bank report showed on Sunday.

The report finds that these economies are poorer today on average than they were on the eve of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, even as the rest of the world has largely recovered from COVID and resumed its growth trajectory.

Released a week before World Bank and International Monetary Fund annual meetings get underway in Washington, the report confirms a major setback to efforts to eradicate extreme poverty and underscores the World Bank’s efforts this year to raise $100 billion to replenish its financing fund for the world’s poorest countries, the International Development Association (IDA).

The 26 poorest economies studied, which have annual per-capita incomes of less than $1,145, are increasingly reliant on IDA grants and near-zero interest rate loans as market financing has largely dried up, the World Bank said. Their average debt-to-GDP ratio of 72% is at an 18-year high and half of the group are either in debt distress or at high risk of it.

Most of the countries in the study are in sub-Saharan Africa, from Ethiopia to Chad and Congo, but the list also includes Afghanistan and Yemen.

Two-thirds of the 26 poorest countries are either in armed conflicts or have difficulty maintaining order because of institutional and social fragility, which inhibit foreign investment, and nearly all export commodities, exposing them to frequent boom-and-bust cycles, the report said.

“At a time when much of the world simply backed away from the poorest countries, IDA has been their lifeline,” World Bank Chief Economist Indermit Gill said in a statement. “Over the past five years, it has poured most of its financial resources into the 26 low-income economies, keeping them afloat through the historic setbacks they suffered.”

IDA normally is replenished every three years with contributions from World Bank shareholding countries. It raised a record $93 billion in 2021 and World Bank President Ajay Banga is aiming to exceed that with more than $100 billion in pledges by Dec. 6.

Natural disasters have also taken a greater toll on these countries over the past decade. Between 2011 and 2023, natural disasters were associated with average annual losses of 2% of GDP, five times the average among lower middle-income countries, pointing to the need for much higher investment, the World Bank said.

The report also recommended that these economies, which have large informal sectors operating outside their tax systems, do more to help themselves. This includes improving tax collections by simplifying taxpayer registration and tax administration and improving the efficiency of public spending. — Reuters

TAIPEI — China’s military launched a new round of war games near Taiwan on Monday, saying it was a warning to the “separatist acts of Taiwan independence forces,” drawing condemnation from the Taipei and US governments.

Democratically governed Taiwan, which China views as its own territory, had been on alert for more war games since last week’s national day speech by President Lai Ching-te. Mr. Lai’s address was condemned by Beijing after he said China had no right to represent Taiwan even as he offered to cooperate with Beijing.

The Chinese military’s Eastern Theatre Command said the “Joint Sword-2024B” drills were taking place in the Taiwan Strait and areas to the north, south and east of Taiwan.

“The drill also serves as a stern warning to the separatist acts of Taiwan independence forces. It is a legitimate and necessary operation for safeguarding state sovereignty and national unity,” it said in a statement carried both in Chinese and English.

The command did not state when the drills would end.

It published a map showing nine areas around Taiwan where the drills were taking place — two on the island’s east coast, three on the west coast, one to the north and three around Taiwan-controlled islands next to the Chinese coast.

Chinese ships and aircraft are approaching Taiwan in “close proximity from different directions,” focusing on sea-air combat-readiness patrols, blockading key ports and areas, assaulting maritime and ground targets and “joint seizure of comprehensive superiority,” the command said.

However, it did not announce any live-fire exercises or any no fly areas. In 2022, shortly after then-US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan, China fired missiles over the island.

In rare operations, China’s coast guard circled Taiwan and staged “law enforcement” patrols close to Taiwan’s offshore islands, according to Chinese state media.

Taiwan’s Defense ministry and coast guard said both agencies had dispatched their own forces while officials said Mr. Lai’s National Security Council met on Monday to discuss the situation.

National Security Council Secretary-General Joseph Wu said China had ignored Mr. Lai’s message of goodwill.

“Using military force to threaten other countries goes against the basic spirit of the United Nations charter to peacefully resolve disputes,” he told reporters in Taipei.

Chinese state media said the rocket force carried out simulated missile launches while fighter jets “opened up air assault corridors” and bombers carried out long range missions.

In a propaganda video, the Eastern Theatre Command showed a cartoon caricature of Mr. Lai with pointed ears like a devil and fighter jets and warships around the island, before ending with the image of a fist turning into hammer and then a sword pointed at Taiwan.

A Taiwan security source said there were so signs so far of any missile launches.

‘BLATANT PROVOCATIONS’
Taiwan’s China policy making Mainland Affairs Council said China’s latest war games and refusal to renounce the use of force were “blatant provocations” that seriously undermined regional peace and stability.

Taiwan’s presidential office said in a statement that China should face up to the fact of the existence the Republic of China -— Taiwan’s formal name — and respect the people of Taiwan’s choice of a free and democratic way of life.

It should “refrain from military provocations that would disrupt the status quo of peace and stability in the region, and threaten Taiwan’s democratic freedoms,” the statement said.

In Washington, officials from the administration of US President Joseph R. Biden said they were monitoring the drills and there was no justification for them after Mr. Lai’s “routine” speech. 

“We call on the PRC to act with restraint and to avoid any further actions that may undermine peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and in the broader region, which is essential to regional peace and prosperity and a matter of international concern,” State department spokesperson Matthew Miller said, using the initials for the People’s Republic of China (PRC), China’s official name.

A senior Taiwan security official, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of the situation, said they believed China was practicing blockading Taiwanese ports to the north and south of the island and international shipping lanes as well as repelling the arrival of foreign forces.

Taiwan’s stock exchange largely brushed off the tensions, with the benchmark index rising 0.4% in late morning trade, and there was no sign of public alarm.

“I am actually worried that there might be accidental fire between the two sides, but I have total confidence in our country and our national army,” said finance worker Ben Lai, 51, watching jets land and take off at the Hsinchu air base.

Taiwan on Sunday had reported a Chinese aircraft carrier group sailing to the island’s south through the strategic Bashi Channel which separates Taiwan from the Philippines and connects the South China Sea to the Pacific.

Chinese state media has since Thursday run a series of stories and commentaries denouncing Lai’s speech, and on Sunday the Eastern Theatre Command released a video saying it was “prepared for battle”.

The People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) Liberation Army Daily newspaper wrote on Monday that “those who play with fire get burned!”

“As long as the ‘Taiwan independence’ provocations continue, the PLA’s actions to defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity will not stop,” the paper said.

China held the “Joint Sword-2024A” drills for two days around Taiwan in May shortly after Mr. Lai took office, saying they were “punishment” for separatist content in his inauguration speech.

Mr. Lai has repeatedly offered talks with China but has been rebuffed. He says only Taiwan’s people can decide their future and rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims. — Reuters

SEOUL — North Korea is getting ready to blow up roads that cross the heavily militarized border with South Korea, Seoul said on Monday, amid an escalating war of words after the North accused its rival of sending drones over its capital Pyongyang.

North Korean troops were working under camouflage on the roads on its side of the border near the west and east coasts that are likely preparations to blow up the roads, possibly as early as on Monday, South Korea’s military spokesman said.

Last week, North Korea’s Army said it would completely cut roads and railways connected to South Korea and fortify the areas on its side of the border, state media KCNA reported.

Separately, North Korea on Friday accused South Korea of sending drones to scatter a “huge number” of anti-North leaflets over Pyongyang, in what it called a political and military provocation that could lead to armed conflict.

Lee Sung-jun, a spokesman for the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, declined on Monday to answer questions over whether the South Korean military or civilians flew the drones.

In further statements over the weekend, North Korea warned of a “horrible disaster” if South Korean drones were again found to be flying over Pyongyang. On Sunday, it said it has put eight fully armed artillery units at the border “on standby to open fire.”

South Korea’s military has said its refusal to answer questions on the drones is because addressing what the North has alleged would be to get drawn into a tactic by Pyongyang to fabricate excuses for provocations.

South Korea has sought to boost its anti-drone defenses since 2022, Mr. Lee said, when five North Korean drones entered its airspace and flew over the capital Seoul for several hours.

Lee Kyoung-haing, an expert in military drone operations at Jungwon University, said civilians would have no trouble getting drones with ranges of 300 km (186 miles), the round trip from the South to Pyongyang, with light payloads such as leaflets.

On Sunday, North Korea’s defense ministry said the drones, which it said were detected over Pyongyang on three days earlier this month, were the kind that required a special launcher or a runway and it was impossible a civilian group could launch them.

The two Koreas are still technically at war after their 1950-53 war ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.

The cross-border links are remnants of periods of rapprochement between the countries including a 2018 summit between the leaders when they declared there would be no more war and a new era of peace had opened.

North Korea has reintroduced heavy weapons into the Demilitarized Zone border buffer and restored guard posts, after the two sides declared a 2018 military agreement aimed at easing tensions no longer valid. — Reuters