|
News
|
|
Page1 || Page2 || Page3 || Page4
|
- COMOROS Mzimba’s three French friends : June7,2007
Three French dignitaries are to go to Moroni to give their support to the lawyer Ali Ibrahim Mzimba in his bid to become President of the autonomous island of Ngazidja (ION 1202). They will be there from 7 to 14 June and speak in the last few of Mzimba’s campaign meetings. The first round of the islands' presidential election will be held on 10 June.
One of these French supporters is Stéphane Salord, second deputy mayor of the town of Aix en Provence and a member of the UMP (French presidential party). He and Mzimba became friends while they were both students at the Institut d'Etudes Politiques in Aix en Provence from 1990 to 1993.
The second member of the group is the Dean of the Reunion Island Law Faculty, Jean-Baptiste Seube, who got to know Mzimba when the latter headed the Association des Juristes de l'Océan Indien (AJOI). Finally, the third member of the trio is Mzimba’s friend and advisor in Paris, Christophe Kaiser.
|
|
- COMOROS ISLANDS Agreement with the IMF on the way : June2,2007
Taking advantage of the international community’s good feelings towards it, the government of the Union of the Comoros is preparing its case for the IMF.
The government of the Union of the Comoros is on the right road to sign an agreement with the International Monetary Fund in the coming months for a PRGF (Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility) fund. It is preparing its case which is scheduled to be examined by the IMF board in July. The majority of the international donors, spurred into action notably by France and the IMF, have expressed their interest for a PGRF to be awarded to the Comoros during 2007 and showed their willingness to ease the conditions on the Comoros so it could achieve the required conditions.
Hence, pushed by the French, the African Development Bank (ADB) decided in its annual general meeting in Shanghai in May, to attribute the Comoros the status of “post-conflict country”. It would hence gain the advantages related to this status. For example, the BAD would pick up the tab for one third of the Comoros’ arrears in its international debt repayment, evaluated at $31.2 million. However, this decision has yet to be ratified in June by the ADB board.
Meanwhile, the Emir of Sharjah, Sultan Bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, gave his in-principle approval to the President of the Union of the Comoros Ahmed Abdallah Sambi to discharge the arrears in the Comoros debt to the Islamic Development Bank (IDB). The Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (BADEA) has also accepted Comoros arrears, valued at ten billion Comoros francs (€20 million) to be rescheduled over 17 years. At the same time, the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development (KFAED) accepted rescheduling of Comoros arrears over 40 years, with a grace period of 16 years and a rate of interest of just 1%. The Abu Dhabi fund was similarly well disposed towards the Comoros.
As for the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), it said it would be happy with a written undertaking by the Comoros authorities expressing their desire to discharge their arrears by the end of the year. The Club de Paris, in other words mainly France, was the first to state that it was in favour of rescheduling the Comoros debt. Negotiations are still currently under way with the remaining creditor, the Saudi Fund, with a view to the cancellation of the Comoros debt.
|
|
- Soifiat Tadjidine : June2,2007
A young woman in her thirties, was appointed General Commissioner to the National Plan in a decree by President Ahmed Abdallah Sambi dated 16 May. She replaces Abal Anrab, who had been appointed to this post in November 2006 and so was in place for just six months. Until this appointment, Ms Tadjidine held the functions of commissioner for the Plan in the government of the autonomous island of Ngazidja. Elegant and slender, she is one of the daughters of the late Tadjidine Ben Massound who was very briefly President of the Union. Educated as an economist in France and the United States, her husband is PTT inspector Mohamed Alfeine. She is the mother of three Children.
|
|
- COMOROS ISLANDS Sounding Out Oil Prospects : May30,2007
After working for state-owned oil companies in Kenya and Tanzania, the seismics company GX Technology has turned its attention to Comoros.
Comoros vice president Idi Nadhoim last week penned an agreement in Nairobi with the development director of GX Technology, Peter Wakeling, that provided for the American seismics concern to conduct a survey of the oil potential of Ile de la Grande Comore, the main island in the Comoros archipelago. The results of the study are to be sold to oil firms and 20% of the proceeds will be turned over to Comoros.
GXT has focussed on East Africa over the past two years, conducing surveys on the Lamu basin for the National Oil Corporation of Kenya (NOCK) and on the deltas of the Rufiji and Ruvuma rivers for the Tanzania Petroleum Development Corp.
Capitalizing on the sudden interest of oil companies in East Africa, seismic companies have carried out a large number of campaigns in the region and often trade surveys for stakes in the most interesting acreage.
That, for instance, has been the formula adopted by Upstream Petroleum Services (UPS), a seismic firm based in Dubai and headed by British geologist Jeff Hume. UPS won stakes in Tanzania and Madagascar in return for surveys. UPS is currently engaged in a 2D campaign covering nearly 3,000 sq.km. on Seychelles’ continental shelf on behalf of the Seychelles Petroleum Company. The company wants to peg out new licenses and put them on the market.
|
|
- COMOROS Contract signed with GX Technology : May24,2007
Idi Nadhoim, the Vice President of the Union of the Comoros, flew to Nairobi on 23 May together with the Comoros minister of energy. The purpose of their trip was to sign a contract with the executives of the American company GX Technology (GXT) for a series of studies to detect the presence of oil and gas in Comoros territorial waters. Two experts provided by the Arab League at the request of President Ahmed Abdallah Sambi went with the Comoros ministers to help them negotiate the contract.
These negotiations in Nairobi come after a letter of intent was initialled in Moroni at the beginning of May between the government of the Union and Peter C. Wakeling, GXT’s director of development (ION 1214). To begin with, the studies will last one year and concentrate on Grande Comore (Ngazidjah). Their results will then be sold to an oil exploration company that will accept to embark on prospecting. The proceeds of this sale will be split, with 80% going to GXT and 20% for the Union of the Comoros.
The authorities of the Comoros believe that certain Western countries have confidential documents in their possession stating that oil is present in its territorial waters, particularly around the island of Grande Comore. According to a Comorian former diplomat who asked to remain anonymous, the late President Taki had intended to sign an oil and gas prospecting contract with a Canadian company, but died in early 1998 before he could do so.
|
|
- Saïd Abeid Abderamane : May19,2007
Mutsamudu Retired Colonel Saïd Abeid Abderamane went back to Anjouan on 17 May, where he was greeted by several hundred sympathisers at his arrival at the port of Mutsamudu. His candidature for the election for President of the island next month has been rejected by the Constitutional Court. However, even if he cannot be a candidate in this poll, Anjouan’s former strong man will no doubt be delighted to wage campaign against the person who brought about his downfall, the outgoing President Mohamed Bacar, by supporting one of his rivals. A leader of the Anjouan independence movement, Abeid had been overthrown by Bacar, then a commander in the Anjouan gendarmerie. Bacar took his place as President of the island in August 2001 and made himself Colonel in December the same year.
|
|
- The Knights of Malta : May19,2007
This influential hospitaller order draws its members from among those close to Navin Ramgoolam.
Hervé de Fontmichel has once again been designated the Ambassador of the Order of the Knights of Malta to Mauritius, with accreditation for the Comoros. He had already held this function in the past but left it in 2000 to be replaced by Bernard Dorin. A French barrister and close to the late Seewoosagur Ramgoolam, father of the current Prime Minister of Mauritius, De Fontmichel is now back in the company of some of his friends who had contributed to forging relations between the Order and Port Louis. Among them are two executives of Amicale Maurice-France: François de Grivel, who is also the chairman of the Mauritius Export Processing Zone Association (MEPZA) and Armand Maudave, chairman of the board of La Sentinelle, the company which publishes the daily newspaper L’Express.
Many of the founder members of the Knights of Malta order in Mauritius, such as Louis Espitalier-Noël, are now deceased, but other Mauritians close to the present Prime Minister have now joined the order. They include: Regina Maudar, the mayor of Quatre-Bornes and a member of the PMXD (one of the parties in the ruling coalition); Maurice Piat the Bishop of Port Louis who has been accused by some of his detractors of being a stooge for Navin Ramgoolam; Jean-Paul Adam, former boss of General Construction and also a personal friend of the Prime Minister’s; Sheila Baguant, the director of the Forest-Side based Shelter for Women and Children in Distress and who was now a staunch supporter of Ramgoolam; Paul Corson, an executive at the Mauritius Commercial Bank (MCB).
At the end of June/early July, De Fontmichel is to head a delegation to the Comoros, which has no native members in the Order of Malta. The Order is represented in Moroni by a Belgian, Father Geenits, and in Anjouan by an Italian, Severio Grillone. Nevertheless, De Fontmichel’s relations with the President of the Union of the Comoros, Ahmed Abdallah Sambi, are very good.
|
|
- Mohamed Bacar’s false exit : May19,2007
The outgoing President of Anjouan has accepted that an interim President be named in his stead, provided that he is the person to select him.
The mediation of the African Union (AU) special envoy, Francisco Madeira, has put an end to the crisis that has gripped Anjouan since the beginning of May following the destitution of the island’s President Mohamed Bacar by the President of the Union of the Comoros Ahmed Abdallah Sambi. Under the terms of the agreement signed on 11 May, Bacar left the Anjouan presidential palace after appointing an interim President, in the person of his then Minister of the Economy, Dhoihirou Halidi.
By means this false exit, Bacar gave the impression of being a candidate on an equal footing with the others in the election to choose the island’s new President, to be held in two rounds on 10 and 24 June. However, the reality is something completely different. To be sure, he has already got a large number of the local personalities in his pocket, including unsuccessful candidates to the presidency of the Union in 2006: Cambi El Ayachroutu, Halidi, Abdérémane Ibrahim, Nassuf Ahmed Abdallah, Nouroudine Mdiladj (MP in the Union Assembly), Abdallah Sourette (former president of the Constitutional Court), Mohamed Abdou Madi (former Prime Minister and ex-Ambassador to Madagascar).
Bacar will nevertheless have to face two serious competitors from among the ten or so candidates in the running for the presidency of Anjouan: they are Mohamed Djanffar, a wealthy ship-owner from Sima, Deputy Speaker of the Assembly of the Union and unsuccessful candidate to the Presidency of the Union; and Ibrahim Mohamed Allaoui, a wealthy trader from Domoni who has the support of Sambi, the President of the Union. However, Sambi’s hostility to Bacar is not decreasing. In a speech on 13 May, he calls the inhabitants of Anjouan to reject "this sanguinary dictator".
|
|
- President Sambi’s new clothes : April28,2007
Ahmed Abdallah Sambi feels cramped in his role of President of the Union, since he is obliged to share power with the Presidents of the three autonomous islands.
On the approach to the end of his first year as President of the Union of the Comoros, Ahmed Abdallah Sambi revealed in a lengthy interview broadcast in Moroni on 20 April that he would like to revise the constitution and so bring an end to system whereby each of the three autonomous islands has a government and President of its own. He made a strong attack on the current institutions, considering it "absurd" that a small country like the Comoros "is run by four Presidents, four Parliaments and has four separate armies". He castigated the heads of the executives of the three islands with which his relations are stormy and considered it "abnormal" that the latter are referred to as President or Minister, which can "lead to confusion with the Comoros’ external partners".
Sambi also criticised the organic law on the way competency is split between the Union and the islands, stating that “it generates a paralysis of the State and weighs heavily on the initiatives of the government of the Union”. He strongly denounced the Anjouan government, which he described as “over-armed” and “scorns the institutions and defies the authority of the government of the Union”. He went on to threaten to disarm the President of Anjouan, Mohamed Bacar, himself if the international community does not do so.
Since he became President of the Union of the Comoros in May 2006, Sambi has blown hot and cold over the split and transfer of competency between the Union and the autonomous islands. But his external allies, beginning with Iran which signed a defence agreement with him, are bothered by the multiplicity of Comoros institutions. Teheran would like its local partner to concentrate all of the different authorities in the Comoros so that it can calmly concretely put into place the defence and cooperation agreements.
|
|
- Blue Turtle : April28,2007
The government of the Union of the Comoros has just made its choice in favour of the South African group Blue Turtle to take over the Galawa Beach hotel complex on the island of Ngazidja. This little known group which is believed to have had skirmishes with the South African judiciary is headed by Ray Richardson, Mike Shapiro and Greg Millard (ION 1206). Two other foreign operators had also bid to take over the management of this hotel:
the South African Orion Group created in 1991 by Franz Gmeiner and Imad Saba, the Arab promoter of the company Ngazidja Air which has provided charter aircraft services to transport pilgrims from Afghanistan to Mecca.
|
|
- Telephone dispute between Paris and Moroni : April14,2007
Since April 1st, Mayotte stopped using the Comoros Islands telephone code 269 to replace it with the Reunion Island code 262. In addition to the diplomatic impact of this change, due to the dispute between France and the Comoros over Mayotte, the Comoros authorities will lose income close to FC 3 billion (€ 6 million). Moroni has just handed a protest note to Paris over this issue.
|
|
