US $11.5 million aid package

The Comoros were on Thursday awarded a US $11.5 million aid package in a show of support for the islands’ peace process, AFP reported, quoting World Bank officials. The 12-month funding cycle is aimed at fighting poverty and improving basic social services, reinforcing institutions and kick-starting the stagnating local economy, the World Bank’s Comoros representative Hafez Ghanem said. “We had fixed objectives, and we consider them to have been achieved,” said the islands’ Prime Minister Hamada Madi Bolero.

The Indian Ocean islamic republic between Madacascar and east Africa has been wracked by a secessionist and constitutional crisis since Anjouanese leaders declared unilateral seccession on August 3, 1997, and a bloodless 1999 coup - the 18th coup or attempted coup since independence in 1975. The secession of Anjouan was followed by deadly fighting between factions on the island, and the islanders also repulsed a seaborne invasion attempt by federal forces. A reconciliation accord was signed in February.