De Britse bank Barclays heeft in maart verkondigd de rekeningen van 250 money transfer bedrijven in Afrika en Azië te sluiten. Deze money service businesses (MSBs) bieden internationale geldoverdrachtdiensten aan, en worden door de Afrikaanse en Aziatische diaspora gebruikt om geld te sturen naar familie in hun land van herkomst, ook wel remittances genoemd. Aangezien een groot deel van de Somalische bevolking afhankelijk is van deze remittances, zou het sluiten van de MSBs erg negatieve gevolgen kunnen hebben.
Afgelopen weekend organiseerden wij de jaarlijkse Leadership Academy in Armenië. Voor de 5e keer op rij, reisden trainers van de FMS, VVD en CDA naar Armenië om een uitgebreide training te geven aan jongeren uit 7 verschillende partijen, zowel regering als oppositie.
Voormalig minister van Financiën Soumaila Cissé tweette laat gisteravond dat hij vertrok van het huis van Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, “ toekomstig president van Mali, om hem te feliciteren met zijn overwinning. God zegene Mali.” Hoewel de officiële resultaten nog niet binnen zijn, is het duidelijk dat Keita de tweede ronde van de presidentiële verkiezingen heeft gewonnen.
Millions of Zimbabweans took to the polls yesterday to cast their votes in the country’s presidential elections. Unlike the elections in 2008, voting passed peacefully and without major incidents. Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai of the MDC is again hoping to unseat President Robert Mugabe of ZANU-PF, though a ZANU-PF source has told Reuters that it is again 89-year old Robert Mugabe that has won the elections, while the MDC calls the elections rigged.
Despite ousting the Finance Minister Mlađan Dinkić and his United Regions of Serbia (URS) from the ruling coalition, no early elections will be held in Serbia. According to the main opposition Democratic Party (DS), that has called for early elections, the government reshuffle is a farce through which the government tries to distract attention from its catastrophic results.
On July 29, Tunisian Prime Minister Ali Laarayedh has called for early elections, in order to cease the unrest after the murder of legislator Mohamed Brahmi on July 25. The elections are to be held on December 17. The Tunisian opposition had been calling for the resignation of the Islamist led government, stating that the murder of Brahmi signaled the governments inefficiency of protecting its citizens. The social democratic party Ettakatol, one of the ruling Troika coalition partners, has joined opposition forces in calls for a ‘government of national unity’, that would replace the current government.
On July 24 the Egyptian First Deput Prime Minister and Minister of Defence General Abdel Fatah al-Sissi called on Egyptians for mass rallies on Friday Juli 26, to support the military efforts towards confronting terrorism and violence and to show support of what’s happening in the country. “Egyptians must take to the streets on Friday to give me the mandate to face violence and terrorism,” Sisi said.
The speech followed a deadly bombing of a security headquarter in the city Mansoura, in which one died and 27 officers and civilians were injured.
On 24 July dozens of hooligans and anti-gay-demonstrators shouted ‘kill the gays’ at the first ever gay pride parade in Montenegro coastal town of Budva. Eggs, stones and bottles where hurdled at around 40 participants in the parade mostly arriving in a police escorted bus from the capital Podgorica.
On July 23 Kyrgyz officials stated that an Uzbek border guard has been killed in an exchange of fire between Uzbek en Kyrgyz border patrols. Another Uzbek guard has been injured. There were no casualties on the Kyrgyz side.
In het mooie Oekraïense stadje Lviv organiseerde Foundation Max van der Stoel in samenwerking met de UK Labour Party tussen 16 en 21 juli een Zomeracademie. De 23 jonge deelnemers waren afkomstig uit Armenië, Azerbeidjaan, Georgië, Rusland, Belarus Moldavië en Oekraïne.
