The International Monetary Fund has granted partial debt relief to the three Western African countries worst hit by Ebola. IMF chief Christine Lagarde announced Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone will be reprieved of around $100 million in debt payments.

Christine Lagarde: “The IMF is giving debt relief to these three countries through the Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust, which will provide grant aid used to relieve the debt for the next two years. … I have actually received already from one major donor a commitment to provide additional funding, and I hope that he will not be the only one, that there will be more that will follow suit.”

The $100 million figure amounts to about one-fourth of the total the three countries collectively owe. The joint debt is set to jump to $620 million over the next three years because of previously announced loans. In a statement, the group Jubilee Debt Campaign said: “Grants should be given to cope with the impact of Ebola, not more loans which leave an unjust debt to be repaid over the next decade.”