Impractibility, Mutual Mistake and Related Contractual Bases for Equitably Adjusting the External Debt of Sub-Saharan Africa

At the end of 1988, the combined external indebtedness of the third world' (referred to below as less developed countries or "LDCs") was estimated at nearly $1.3 trillion.2 In the same year, the United Nations agency United Nations International Childrens' Emergency Fund ("UNICEF") attributed the deaths of 650,000 children in LDCs to re-duction in basic living standards caused by diversion of resources to servicing external debt.3 Some experts say prospects for solving this huge and growing problem are actually growing worse due to "debt fatigue."