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- New constitutional crisis looms ahead : May14,2007

The strong-arm way the president of the Constitutional Court was replaced, with the approval of the President, is worrying the international community.
The international aid for the elections for the presidents of the three autonomous islands could be frozen following the recent events which have shaken the Constitutional Court. During March, the President of the Union Ahmed Abdallah Sambi had backed the manoeuvres by five members of this court to oust its president Ahmed Abdallah Sourette, who had been appointed to this post by the President of Anjouan, Mohamed Bacar.

Subsequently, and in spite of being a member of the Constitutional Court, Abdoulmadjid Youssouf, refused to participate in these manoeuvres. Mouzaoir Abdallah was then appointed its president in place of Sourette, in flagrant violation of constitutional procedure.

This crisis was at the centre of a meeting on 11 April at the Comoros ministry for foreign affairs, between the authorities of the Union and representatives of the international community. Speaking on behalf of his colleagues, the French Ambassador to Moroni, Christian Job, informed of their common “preoccupation” in the face of a “confusing situation at the Constitutional Court”. He hinted that this could hinder the funding of the election of presidents of the islands and asked the authorities of the Union to "reassure the international community as to the situation at the Constitutional Court".

For its part and on another subject, the European Union (EU) made a solemn protest to the authorities of the Union over their recent decision to put the premises of a small business regional centre on Ngazidja funded by the EU at the disposal of the Khomeiny Foundation.


- Record trade deficit : May14,2007

The explosion in oil prices and the deterioration in cash crop exports have eaten into the 2006 trade balance.
According to still provisional data supplied by the Comoros customs service, the islands’ trade balance in 2006 increased by 40%, reaching the dizzy all-time record of FC 49 billion (€ 98.8 million), compared to FC 35 billion (€ 70.5 million) the previous year. The import-export ratio fell to 7% in 2006 from 12% in 2005 and 22% the previous year. According to a document produced by the Banque Centrale des Comores (BCC) for the Franc Zone meeting in Lome (Togo) on 5 April, the steep increase in the trade deficit was brought on by the explosion in the price of oil and the deterioration of the exports of cash crops.

The value of vanilla exports fell by half last year, while that of ylang-ylang also dropped sharply. Only the exports of cloves recorded an increase in volume and value, taking advantage of an improvement in the state of the world market for the spice. Hence this product alone accounted for 66% of Comoros exports in 2006. At the same time as this fall in exports, the value of imports grew by 35% “related to the rise in price of petroleum products, the increase in cement imports and "other products".

Furthermore, the slowing down of tourist activity and the deterioration of public finances brought the GDP growth rate down from the 3.3% expected to just 1.2%. The implementation of the 2006 budget was indeed marked by a "worsening of the principal budget settlements" and by a fall of general income.

According to the provisional figures from the ministry of finance of the Union of the Comoros, Inland Revenue income in 2006 fell by 10% on the expected figure, while running expenses grew 8% from 2005. This resulted in a running budget deficit of FC 1.1 billion (€ 2.2 million), compared to a budget excess of FC 3 billion (€ 6 million) in 2005

- Suleiman Mohamed Ahmed : May14,2007

The French government has just accepted the accreditation of the new Ambassador of the Comoros to Paris (ION 1193). Born in 1950 in Mayotte with a mother from Mamadzou, Soulaimana Mohamed Ahmed is one of the sons of the late Mohamed Ahmed, from the island of Anjouan, a former French MP and Vice President of the Comoros. Highly qualified (MA in modern literature, MA in Spanish, UAP, further studies in tourism and development), Soulaimana Mohamed Ahmed has been the chief of staff of the late President Ahmed Abdallah Sambi and director of the Fonds d’Appui au Développement Communautaire (FADC, funded by the World Bank). He is also a former correspondent of the Agence de Coopération Culturelle et Technique (ACCT, which subsequently became the AIF) in the ministry for foreign affairs in Moroni. Friendly and polite, he is married to Echati and the father of five. The family split its time between Moroni, Mutsamudu and Paris.

- Ali Bourhane : May14,2007

The Consul General of the Comoros in Tunisia is a former top international civil servant at the World Bank and the IMF. Ali Bourhane, 55, was born in Mutsamudu (Anjouan), studied at the Ecole Nationale d’Administration in Paris and is a cousin of President Ahmed Abdallaha Sambi. Married to a Tunisian and resident in Tunis, he has spent the majority of his career in Paris and Washington, with a brief spell in the Comoros as a French aid worker.

- Mzimba’s villa : March31,2007

Ibrahim Ali Mzimba has published his official declaration of property in order to cut short the attacks by one of his rivals in the election for President of Ngazidja.
Public discussion is in full swing in the sidelines of the next election for President of Ngazidja, with eleven candidates in the race. Some leaders of the Ridja party, whose chairman and lawyer on Reunion Island Saïd Larifou is also standing in the election, are beginning to ask questions in public about the way in which another candidate, the lawyer Ibrahim Ali Mzimba had purchased a villa (ION 1202). The latter has countered these veiled accusations by publishing his official declaration of property ownership on 21 March. It states that he owns a house in Voidjou in the Itsandra Hamanvou prefecture, which had been paid for by a loan from the Banque pour l’Industrie et le Commerce (BIC) as well as two vehicles (a BMW and a Peugeot 206), that he rents premises for his law practice and has two bank accounts at the BIC (one personal and one professional). According to our sources, the contract for the loan Mzimba used to purchase the villa was signed on 6 January 1999 and since then the repayments have been made every month on schedule. This house is currently under mortgage in additional to the BIC.

In addition to Mzimba, Larifou and the outgoing President of Ngazidja, Abdou Souleh Elbak, the other candidates in this election are Saïd Ali Kemal (former Ambassador to Paris), Youssouf Saïd (Deputy Speaker of the Parliament of the Union), Mohamed Abdoulwahab (the present chief of staff of President A. Abdallah Sambi), Fahmi Saïd Ibrahim, Saïd Mchangama (former Speaker of the National Assembly), Kamar Ezamane (former general inspector of oil), Ali Msaidie (former minister and former chief of staff of the former President Assoumani Azali) and Mtara Maecha.

- Cotecna pursues its claims : March31,2007

The Swiss company is considering going to international trade arbitration to recover two million euros the Moroni government owes it.
Emmanuel Jenni, the Swiss Ambassador resident in Dar es-Salaam also acting in the Comoros had a meeting with Ahmed Abdallah Sambi, the President of the Union of the Comoros in Moroni two weeks ago. In it he alerted the President about the state of a dispute between the Swiss company Cotecna Inspection S.A and the government of the Comoros and that the company was planning to take the matter to arbitration at the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris. The Union of the Comoros now owes Cotecna payment arrears of € 2 million. Cotecna has been providing an import verification service to the Comoros since 1995, but suspended this activity in May 2006 while awaiting an agreement for a repayment schedule for the payment backlog. But it considers its contract is valid until March 2009.

Now, a recent initiative by the government of the Union is worsening still further the relations with Cotecna. To be sure, without first informing the IMF and the World Bank, the Minister of Finance Hassani Hamadi issued a call for tenders in January 2007 for “a mission to support the Union of the Comoros in improving its tax revenue”, particularly customs duties. This call for tenders, which encompasses the activity that is covered by the Cotecna contract, comes after a proposal of services from Unitec, a small company from Togo and Benin. The government of the Union did not immediately accept this proposition but the subsequent call for tenders could be used to justify awarding the contract to Unitec. Four companies, including the French firm Bivac and naturally Unitec, had submitted bids for this call for tenders by the closing date of 30 January 2007. But to date their bids have not yet been opened and are still waiting on the finance minister’s desk. Hassani Hamadi would appear to be backing Vice President Idi Nadhoim in this affair – the latter is the brother-in-law of Philippe Bocco, the general manager of Unitec. Boco, a Togolese living in Benin, is married to Nadhoim’s sister.

President Sambi’s reshuffle last week of the Comoros government could change the way the cards are stacked. The ministry of finance and economy was split in two. Hassani Hamadi stayed in charge of the economy, but finance went to Mohamed Ali Soilihi, who had already held this post in 1998.

- UNITED STATES/MADAGASCAR : March31,2007

Niels MarquardtIf the US Senate approves his appointement by President Georges W. Bush, the next United States Ambassador to Madagascar and the Comoros will be an ace diplomat always ready to trump the cards of his French counterparts. R. Niels Marquardt is curently on post in the Cameroon where he has good contact with President Paul Biya, at least as good as that of the French Ambassador Georges Serre. These last few years Marquardt has played the role of “Mr Clean” in the Cameroon and made the heads roll of several of the regime’s barons. Born in San Diego and a graduate of the American Graduate School of International Management where he met his wife, Marquardt spent two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Rwanda (1977-79) before becoming a diplomat. After various posts abroad - Germany, France, Thailand and Congo Brazzaville in 1983-85 - he took up an important function at the State Department in Washington: special coordinator for diplomatic readiness (2001-04). The father of four, he is an adept of The Way International Christian Church created in Ohio in 1942.

- INDIAN OCEAN Solo "Dollar" Behind Bars in Moroni : March30,2007

The two leading players in an oil contract awarded to the Malagasy concern Nestair in Comoros in late 2006 (ION N°1209) were jailed a few days ago in Moroni on suspicion of swindling public funds. They are the boss of Nestair, Madagascar-born Solo Raveloson "Dollar", and the managing director of the Societe Comorienne des Hydrocarbures (SCH), Salim Ben Ali.

According to Mohamed Abdou, examining magistrate in charge of the case, Raveloson used the oil contract to "acquire petroleum products out of SCH’s stocks at a low price and sold them at market rates to service stations in the capital, with the complicity of SCH’s managing director."

Judicial sources revealed that a police raid on the home of Solo "Dollar" turned up FC 30 million (€ 61,000) in cash. The sources believe that several dozen million Comoran francs resulting from the scam that Raveloson mounted with Ali’s complicity were additionally transferred abroad, leading to a sharp loss of earnings for SCH.
Raveloson is the father in law of Xavier Ratsiraka, son of the former Malagasy president.

- The government of the Comoros has still not been reshuffled : March17,2007

The words uttered by President Ahmed Abdallah Sambi against his entourage last month had led to a widespread expectation of a reshuffle of the government of the Union and of the president’s office. However, after many hesitations, Sambi would appear for the time being to have set this idea aside. Moreover, he did not rush to greet the former World Bank expert and member of his family, Ali Bourhane, when he came to Moroni at his request to help him determine the structure of his new government team. Hence, the members of the government of the Union and of the presidential office whose ousting had been announced by Sambi’s immediate entourage and who had resigned themselves to the idea of leaving, now have a new-found assurance and a feeling of relief.

- Everything hangs on the ADB : March17,2007

The IMF approval of funding is partly hanging on the discharge of the huge debt the Comoros has with the African Development Bank.
The IMF approval of funding is partly hanging on the discharge of the huge debt the Comoros has with the African Development Bank. The signature of a funding programme with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) scheduled in April provided the evaluation mission expected in Moroni on 18 March gives a positive outcome, is partly conditional on a prior agreement for the Comoros to discharge its debt arrears with the African Development Bank (ADB). Several ADB missions have been to Moroni during the last few months in order to find a solution to this debt, which is currently evaluated at $31.2 million. But this has not yet resulted in lifting the sanctions the African Development Bank has imposed on the Comoros due to these payment arrears.

On the other hand, the mission in December 2006 laid down the basis for a resumption of relations with the ADB. The leaders of the Comoros pledged to honour the repayment calendar for the year, paying FC 50 million (101,000 euros) a month and undertaking to take steps with the international donors to find a way of financing these arrears. The Comoros government did indeed honour its repayment schedule in January and February 2007 and a request for funding has been sent to 24 countries and financial institutions. The aim of its strategy is to find solutions to enable it to pay only a maximum of one third of the $31.2 million owed to the ADB.

The latest mission of six ADB experts to Moroni in February 2007 led by Hassan E. Khedr, had meetings with the Comoros authorities on the possibility that this organisation could participate in discharging the Comoros arrears. The idea is that the Comoros would gain the status of “Fragile State” that France is planning to introduce at the next meeting of the board of the ADB. The Comoros authorities also asked the ADB to help them organise a meeting of friendly countries and institutions to try and raise funding to pay off the arrears. They also requested support from the administrators of the ADB to convince the management of this financial institution not to make the discharge of the arrears a prior condition to obtaining credit from the IMF. Finally, the leaders of the Comoros expressed the desire to be allowed to attribute the sum of $7.7 million to their balance of payments. This is the amount the ADB plans to attribute the Comoros as FADX and would enable them to use this sum to repay a portion of the arrears.

- Boléro wants to be a candidate for President of the Comoros : March3,2007

The former Prime Minister and former Minister of Security, on the way down since he was replaced last year at the head of the Office de la Radio et Télévision des Comores (ORTC), may not have said his last word yet. Born in Mohéli, Hamada Madi “Boléro” is one of the forty or so former government officials that the present government of the Union of the Comoros has banned from leaving the country. War weary after spending six months asking for permission to leave the country, Bolero finally left Mohéli for Mayotte before going on to France where he is currently staying. He is writing his memoirs in which he will describe his seven years spent as a student in the former Soviet Union but which should also contain some revelations on issues he has handled while he was a minister. He should also outline how his government at the time paid Anjouanese officers to accept the Foumboni reconciliation agreement and also how Abdoul Wahab, the current chief of staff of the office of President Ahmed Abdallah Sambi in charge of defence, benefited from his generosity while he was Prime Minister. Settling a few old scores, Hamada Madi is hoping to also position himself as a candidate for the 2010 election for President of the Union of the Comoros, when it will be the turn for the function to go to someone from the island of Mohéli.

- Solo "Dollar" makes waves in Moroni : March3,2007

The oil contract awarded to the Madagascan company Nestair is dividing the Société Comorienne des Hydrocarbures and is sparking a new conflict of competency.
Société Comorienne des Hydrocarbures (SCH) is split into two rival sides over a contract discreetly negotiated on 14 October 2006 between the Minister of Finance of the Union, Hassani Hamadi and the CEO of the Madagascan company Nestair, Solo Raveloson. The Director General of SCH Salim Ben Ali supported by the government of the Union is in favour of this contract, while the personnel, led by the Secretary General of SCH, Selassie Saïd Mohamed are against. Under the terms of this three year renewable contract, the government of the Union rents Nestair storage space for oil products in the SCH depots in Moroni so that it can exercise various activities such as the storage of oil products in transit, import-export of oil products, distribution of fuel and other oil products in the Comoros. This contract was complemented by a memorandum of understanding signed on 15 February for work on the storage vats, to be carried out with the help of a loan by Nestair to SCH.

The SCH personnel accuse the government of the Union of having “sold SCH at bargain basement prices and violated the monopoly for importing and marketing oil products”, a monopoly which is protected in law. Meanwhile, the President of Ngazidja, Abdou Souleh Elbak, filed a complaint with the Constitutional Court, considering the affair a new conflict of competency between the government of the Union and that of the autonomous islands.

Nicknamed “Dollar”, Solo Raveloson is a rich businessman from North West Madagascar who had favourable treatment from the various governments under former President Didier Ratsiraka. He is he father-in-law of Xavier Ratsiraka, the former President’s son, who married his daughter Anissa in July 1995.