Une enquête originale du groupe des journalistes africains dévoile un fait décevant: au cours des 10 prochaines années, le nombre d’utilisateurs des drogues augmentera de 40 %.
Selon l`opinion des chercheurs, cela est principalement dû à l’ampleur croissante de la production parallèle, de la contrebande et des ventes.
Much is still uncertain about the new AUKUS ‘enhanced trilateral security partnership’. The deal for at least eight nuclear submarines to be built in Australia is described as a ‘first initiative’ but the partnership’s aims, and whether there will be a governing treaty, are not yet clear.
One of the clauses of the February 2020 agreement between the Taliban and the United States (U.S.) made it obligatory on the insurgents to prevent the soil of Afghanistan from being used by global terror groups like the al Qaeda against the U.S. and its allies. Just like the Trump administration, the Biden administration too reiterated that decimating al Qaeda was the primary objective of the U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan. Votaries of the drawdown of troops, hence, argued that since al Qaeda has been weakened and the Taliban have promised to prevent the group from reviving, the U.S. troops can return home from the forever war. Ground level situation and recent developments in Afghanistan, however, underline that this logic is deeply flawed. Under the new Taliban government, global terrorism is all set to flourish, with a devastating impact on the region and beyond.
Assassiné par Al-Qaïda deux jours avant les attentats du 11 septembre 2001, le commandant Massoud avait alerté les Occidentaux des dangers du terrorisme islamiste, sans être écouté. Il jouit d’une bonne image chez nous. Pourtant, dans un pays terriblement rétrograde et en guerre, la plupart des Afghans gardent un souvenir mitigé de lui.
Diplomate, Jean-Yves Berthault a été en poste à l’ambassade de France à Kaboul entre 1979 et 1981. Conseiller politique de la mission spéciale de l’ONU en Afghanistan en 1997, il a dirigé la mission diplomatique française à Kaboul de 1998 à 2001. Il est l’auteur de Déjeuners avec les Talibans, Révélations d’un diplomate.
De juillet 2020 à juillet 2021, le franc CFA ouest-africain est passé de 1,9 le naira à 1,3 F CFA, selon les données du dernier bulletin mensuel des statistiques de la Banque centrale des États de l’Afrique de l’Ouest (BCEAO) consulté par Financial Afrik. La même source indique que la monnaie de l’UEMOA se négociait à 95 cedis ghanéen en juillet 2021, contre 111 GHC un an auparavant (données officielles).
Le dernier round du bras de fer entre le groupe koweïtien Al Kharafi et le fonds souverain libyen se joue ce mardi devant la Cour de cassation à Paris. La LIA pourrait perdre plusieurs centaines de millions d’euros.
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham in Idlib has ended the work of its security apparatus that has been accused of controlling people’s lives.
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) has ended the work of Al-Falah apparatus, which it launched in May 2020 as part of the religious police apparatus — Hisbah — that it established in 2014, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported Sept. 3.
Al-Falah apparatus is tasked with monitoring markets and forbidding the mixing of men and women among other functions, to impose its control over the smallest details of the people’s daily lives. This apparatus continued to harass the population until it was recently suspended, following popular protests against it for interfering in the people’s personal lives and imposing many restrictions on them.
According to an analytical reading prepared by the Istanbul-based Jusoor Center for Studies, Al-Falah apparatus consists of several offices: Women’s Patrols Office, Mohtasiboun, Executive Force, Judicial Office and Complaints and Follow-up Office. Its members have absolute authority, such as arresting and holding perpetrators of legal violations accountable, and its actions range from advising to using direct force under the principle of “the duty of enjoining the good and forbidding the evil.”
One of Al-Falah’s most prominent tasks is to prevent men and women from mixing in public places by erecting control points on university campuses and in parks, preventing men from selling women’s clothes, banning the display of mannequins at shops, monitoring wedding halls and banning music and smoking. In addition, it is known to interfere with women’s clothing and accessories and forcing humanitarian organizations to separate their staff by gender.
The director of public relations in HTS’ affiliated salvation government, Mulham al-Ahmad, told Al-Monitor, “In conjunction with terminating the work of Al-Falah, HTS started forming an alternative apparatus under the name of the ‘moral police.’ It will be affiliated with the salvation government’s police institutions, and its tasks will be limited compared to Al-Falah’s.”
He noted, “It will focus on moral issues and refrain from interfering in the details of the lives of civilians. It will have a civilian capacity to solve conflicts within the community, which is part of the salvation government’s measures to govern various fields in the areas under its control. Al-Falah has played its role throughout the last phase. Now, these measures are in accordance with the new plan drawn up by HTS.”
Ending Al-Falah’s work comes as part of a series of changes that HTS is gradually making within the framework of opening up to the outside world and marketing itself as a legitimate opposition group and ruler of Idlib, with whom partnerships and understandings can be built.
However, it seems that HTS is forced to form the moral police in order to satisfy the extremist current within it, which does not accept many of these new changes.
Muhammed el-Sukkeri, a researcher at the Jusoor Center for Studies, told Al-Monitor, “HTS focuses on rearranging its house through its government institutions and is working in an organized manner because it realizes that its militaristic character and the way it manages Idlib according to its ideologies could never allow it to make it on the regional and international scene.”
He said, “HTS has thus started paying more attention to its civilian authority in an attempt to find tools to help deal with the international community, especially after bringing in aid, which is an important step for HTS.”
Sukkeri noted, “HTS’ desire to be part of the political process — to have a foothold in the future Syria and to enter the Syrian parliament — prompted it to reconsider its previous policy and work to showcase itself as a civilian authority, so as to persuade the West to allow it to play its role and represent Idlib. However, ending the work of Al-Falah and forming the moral police can be a mere change of name.”
The Hisbah apparatuses have a long record of violations against civilians, most notably the attacks on girls in the Idlib city market in June 2017. In addition, a female preacher once beat up the director of exams at Idlib University due to a dispute over her outfit. Bus drivers affiliated with the nongovernmental Violet Organization were arrested, and teachers and students of Al-Orouba High School, the Pythagoras Institute and the Center for Development and Technology were beaten up, all under the pretext of men and women mixing. These apparatuses have also carried out floggings, against the perpetrators of Sharia violations.
The chairman of the Syrian Network for Human Rights, Fadel Abdul Ghany, condemned the extremist practices of the Hisbah apparatus in Idlib.
“These apparatuses impose restrictions on the population in the areas under their control, interfering in personal affairs and freedoms, according to their hard-line ideology. They beat up civilians, arrest them and force violators to pay fines. They violate basic rights provided by international human rights laws,” he told Al-Monitor.
He added, “Through these apparatuses, HTS is trying to control society to fully comply with its ideology. The international community should help Syrian society get rid of extremist organizations by taking serious steps according to a specific and strict timetable to achieve a political transition toward democracy that guarantees stability and human rights.”
The Turkish army and its allied Syrian factions have recently increased attacks against the Syrian Democratic Forces in northeast Syria.
The Turkish army has intensified its attacks against the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in northeast Syria over the past few weeks.
The Turkish defense industry saw a significant decline in its revenues last year according to newly released data, but companies in the sector remain optimistic about their growth prospects.
Turkey’s defense industry has been a rising star in the country’s economy in recent years, attracting well-established entrepreneurs and novices alike. Pro-government business people — in particular those eager to draw close to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan — have vied fiercely for a place in a sector where political dividends are as high as economic ones.