The Kuwaiti General Directorate of Residence Affairs recently announced a ban on recruitment of domestic workers from five African countries.
The latest ban raises the list to 20 countries.
According local media sources, the Kuwaiti ministry of foreign affairs issued a circular mentioning the names of the 5 countries, which include Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Bhutan, Guinea and Guinea-Bissau.
Additionally, the other 15 African countries are Djibouti,Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, Togo, Senegal, Malawi, Chad, Sierra Leone, Niger, Tanzania, the Gambia, Ghana, Zimbabwe and Madagascar.
The circular also included five other African countries whose domestic workers faced a temporary ban, including Cameroon, the Congo, Burundi, Eritrea and Liberia.
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Showing posts with label congo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label congo. Show all posts
Tuesday, 30 April 2019
Tuesday, 22 November 2016
CAMEROON: Douala City
Douala is the largest city in Cameroon, and the capital of Cameroon's Littoral Region. Home to Central Africa's largest port and its major international airport, Douala International Airport, it is the commercial and economic capital of Cameroon and the entire CEMAC region comprising Gabon, Congo, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, CAR and Cameroon.
Consequently, it handles most of the country's major exports, such as oil, cocoa and coffee, timber, metals and fruits. As of 2010 the city and its surrounding area had an estimated population that surpassed 3,000,000 inhabitants. The city sits on the estuary of the Wouri River and its climate is tropical.
Settlements had already existed in present-day Douala prior to the arrival of the Portuguese, British, and Germans; however, it was during the German colonization that the city began to develop rapidly as a commercial and political hub of the German colonial administration. During World War I a bitter battle was fought for control of Douala.
The city surrendered to British and French forces on September 27, 1914. A joint Anglo-French condominium governed the city until a comprehensive agreement ceded it and much of Cameroon to the French.
After the independence of Cameroon, Douala grew rapidly. Local industries, trade, and other opportunities have attracted an unprecedented influx of migrants, especially from the western region of Cameroon.
People from other countries in the region have also permanently settled in the city; they include Nigerians, Chadians, and Malians. In recent times city authorities have been overwhelmed by rapidly increasing population; services are stretched and there is an urgent need to enhance the city's ability to cope with the rapid growth.
Douala is the first city in tropical Africa to have a piped natural gas supply presently serving only industrial customers. It was ranked in 2015 as the most expensive city in Africa. It has had the highest standard of living among all African cities for the majority of the last 40 years.
A very high number of European, American and Asian expatriates live in the city due to its highly developed infrastructure and peaceful environment for successful business and good life.
The city is located on the banks of the Wouri River, the two sides linked by Bonaberi Bridge. In 2013, the president Paul Biya made a decree that a new bridge would be built over the Wouri River to accommodate the growing population of the citizens in Douala. The bridge is still under construction.
The city of Douala is divided into seven districts Akwa, Bassa, Bonabéri, Bonapriso, Bonanjo, Deïdo and New Bel and it has more than 120 neighborhoods.
Akwa is Douala's business district and Bonanjo its administrative district. Plateau Joss is the name used historically for the current district of Akwa. The name of the districts refer to the Douala lineage, as well as the neighborhoods.
For example, Akwa was historically divided between Bell and Deido into Bonadibong, Bonamilengue, Boneleke, Bonalembe, Bonejang, Bonamuti, Bonabekombo, Bonaboijan, and Bonakuamuang; the prefix "bona" means "descendant of".
Consequently, it handles most of the country's major exports, such as oil, cocoa and coffee, timber, metals and fruits. As of 2010 the city and its surrounding area had an estimated population that surpassed 3,000,000 inhabitants. The city sits on the estuary of the Wouri River and its climate is tropical.
Settlements had already existed in present-day Douala prior to the arrival of the Portuguese, British, and Germans; however, it was during the German colonization that the city began to develop rapidly as a commercial and political hub of the German colonial administration. During World War I a bitter battle was fought for control of Douala.
The city surrendered to British and French forces on September 27, 1914. A joint Anglo-French condominium governed the city until a comprehensive agreement ceded it and much of Cameroon to the French.
After the independence of Cameroon, Douala grew rapidly. Local industries, trade, and other opportunities have attracted an unprecedented influx of migrants, especially from the western region of Cameroon.
People from other countries in the region have also permanently settled in the city; they include Nigerians, Chadians, and Malians. In recent times city authorities have been overwhelmed by rapidly increasing population; services are stretched and there is an urgent need to enhance the city's ability to cope with the rapid growth.
Douala is the first city in tropical Africa to have a piped natural gas supply presently serving only industrial customers. It was ranked in 2015 as the most expensive city in Africa. It has had the highest standard of living among all African cities for the majority of the last 40 years.
A very high number of European, American and Asian expatriates live in the city due to its highly developed infrastructure and peaceful environment for successful business and good life.
The city is located on the banks of the Wouri River, the two sides linked by Bonaberi Bridge. In 2013, the president Paul Biya made a decree that a new bridge would be built over the Wouri River to accommodate the growing population of the citizens in Douala. The bridge is still under construction.
The city of Douala is divided into seven districts Akwa, Bassa, Bonabéri, Bonapriso, Bonanjo, Deïdo and New Bel and it has more than 120 neighborhoods.
Akwa is Douala's business district and Bonanjo its administrative district. Plateau Joss is the name used historically for the current district of Akwa. The name of the districts refer to the Douala lineage, as well as the neighborhoods.
For example, Akwa was historically divided between Bell and Deido into Bonadibong, Bonamilengue, Boneleke, Bonalembe, Bonejang, Bonamuti, Bonabekombo, Bonaboijan, and Bonakuamuang; the prefix "bona" means "descendant of".
Thursday, 3 March 2016
Tourism Trade With Africa Benefits Few African Countries
LAST year, to much fanfare, 26 African nations signed off on a free-trade ‘super bloc’ that seeks to improve the absurdly low levels of intra-regional trade on the continent, at the Egyptian seaside resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
In the same city at the Africa 2016 Forum last weekend, African Development Bank (AfDB) president Akinwumi Adesina painted a picture of just how insufficient trade with other African countries is.
African trade represents just 2% of the global total, and intra-African trade makes up 12% of the continent’s activity, compared to 60% in Europe and 35% in Asia.
“This is not acceptable,” Adesina said.
He added that AfDB will continue to invest heavily in regional infrastructure, especially rail, transnational highways, power interconnections, ICT, air and maritime transport, reducing the bottlenecks that cost the region billions in inefficiencies and lost opportunities.
While tariffs on the continent are high—according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) an African company making sales on the continent would pay more than three times the 2.5% average tariff rate elsewhere – non-tariff barriers tend to wreak more damage than levies.
Despite an abundance of trade blocs on the continent—17 at the moment—their poor internal workings has led potential benefits such as comparative advantage trading to be erased by red-tape heavy protectionist approaches.
African countries have also kept the same export-geared infrastructure, leaving the continent vulnerable to global market shifts.
One promising way of solving this is seen as ramping up regional trade in services—a model that has contributed to the booming growth in many Asian countries.
It may be already happening and could herald exciting possibilities.
The number of tourists visiting Kenya from neighbouring countries has increased over the past few months as the East African nation set off on promotions around the region to make up for dwindling numbers from its traditional source markets in Europe.
While tourists arriving at the nation’s two main airports dropped by 13% to 748,771 last year, the decline was less steep than the previous year’s reduction of 28%, according to the country’s statistics agency. Visitors have shied away from going on world-renowned safaris in the country or lounging on its white sandy beaches after a series of deadly attacks by al-Shabaab Islamists in the past few years.
The government targets annual tourist arrivals of 10 million in about a decade’s time. Visitor numbers are expected to rise now that France, the US and Britain have lifted travel bans to the country, which will allow tour operators to market the destination once again.
East African holidaymakers staying at Amani Tiwi Beach Resort on the Indian Ocean Coast more than doubled in the past three months, General Manager Aditya Mata said in Kwale County, at the Kenyan coast. “Forty five to 50% of our visitors have been from Kenya and the rest of the East African countries,” he said.
Bed occupancy improved to 85%, compared with 50% a year earlier, he said.
Diani Reef Beach Hotel in the same county received vacationers from Rwanda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo and Ethiopia in the past six months, according to Chief Executive Officer Titus Kangangi. “Even Nigeria, which is a first for me,” he said. “I would put the number of regional visitors at around 10-15%, excluding Kenyans. It’s very good, it’s looking up.”
Carriers such as Ethiopian Airlines and RwandAir now have flights to the coastal resort city of Mombasa.
While cash remittances and agricultural exports have relegated tourism to third place in the hierarchy of leading foreign exchange sources, the industry is still key for the economy. As many as one million Kenyans depend on it for their livelihoods at the coast.
Regional visitors account for a third of arrivals with Uganda the second highest source market after South Africa, acting Kenya Tourism Board Chief Executive Jacinta Nzioka Mbithi said by e-mail.
It is perhaps no surprise that the East African Community bloc is seen as the regional grouping that has made the most trade gains on the continent.
If such chains continue to grow, concerns about external market performance could soon be a flash in the pan as the continent’s future growth is powered from within.
In the same city at the Africa 2016 Forum last weekend, African Development Bank (AfDB) president Akinwumi Adesina painted a picture of just how insufficient trade with other African countries is.
African trade represents just 2% of the global total, and intra-African trade makes up 12% of the continent’s activity, compared to 60% in Europe and 35% in Asia.
“This is not acceptable,” Adesina said.
He added that AfDB will continue to invest heavily in regional infrastructure, especially rail, transnational highways, power interconnections, ICT, air and maritime transport, reducing the bottlenecks that cost the region billions in inefficiencies and lost opportunities.
While tariffs on the continent are high—according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) an African company making sales on the continent would pay more than three times the 2.5% average tariff rate elsewhere – non-tariff barriers tend to wreak more damage than levies.
Despite an abundance of trade blocs on the continent—17 at the moment—their poor internal workings has led potential benefits such as comparative advantage trading to be erased by red-tape heavy protectionist approaches.
African countries have also kept the same export-geared infrastructure, leaving the continent vulnerable to global market shifts.
One promising way of solving this is seen as ramping up regional trade in services—a model that has contributed to the booming growth in many Asian countries.
It may be already happening and could herald exciting possibilities.
The number of tourists visiting Kenya from neighbouring countries has increased over the past few months as the East African nation set off on promotions around the region to make up for dwindling numbers from its traditional source markets in Europe.
While tourists arriving at the nation’s two main airports dropped by 13% to 748,771 last year, the decline was less steep than the previous year’s reduction of 28%, according to the country’s statistics agency. Visitors have shied away from going on world-renowned safaris in the country or lounging on its white sandy beaches after a series of deadly attacks by al-Shabaab Islamists in the past few years.
The government targets annual tourist arrivals of 10 million in about a decade’s time. Visitor numbers are expected to rise now that France, the US and Britain have lifted travel bans to the country, which will allow tour operators to market the destination once again.
East African holidaymakers staying at Amani Tiwi Beach Resort on the Indian Ocean Coast more than doubled in the past three months, General Manager Aditya Mata said in Kwale County, at the Kenyan coast. “Forty five to 50% of our visitors have been from Kenya and the rest of the East African countries,” he said.
Bed occupancy improved to 85%, compared with 50% a year earlier, he said.
Diani Reef Beach Hotel in the same county received vacationers from Rwanda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo and Ethiopia in the past six months, according to Chief Executive Officer Titus Kangangi. “Even Nigeria, which is a first for me,” he said. “I would put the number of regional visitors at around 10-15%, excluding Kenyans. It’s very good, it’s looking up.”
Carriers such as Ethiopian Airlines and RwandAir now have flights to the coastal resort city of Mombasa.
While cash remittances and agricultural exports have relegated tourism to third place in the hierarchy of leading foreign exchange sources, the industry is still key for the economy. As many as one million Kenyans depend on it for their livelihoods at the coast.
Regional visitors account for a third of arrivals with Uganda the second highest source market after South Africa, acting Kenya Tourism Board Chief Executive Jacinta Nzioka Mbithi said by e-mail.
It is perhaps no surprise that the East African Community bloc is seen as the regional grouping that has made the most trade gains on the continent.
If such chains continue to grow, concerns about external market performance could soon be a flash in the pan as the continent’s future growth is powered from within.
Thursday, 21 January 2016
CONGO: Congolese Airline To Launch Dubai Flights
The carrier, also known as ECAir, launched its maiden flight to Dubai from Brazzaville on Wednesday night, carrying officials from the Republic of Congo.
The airline will start of a three times a week service between Dubai International and Brazzaville, Congo, from March 31, the airline said in a statement.
The new route will operate a Boeing 757 aircraft for the Monday, Thursday and Saturday flights, it added.
Airline chairman Jean Louis Osso said: "This is a historic event for ECAir because this will strengthen our Middle East network through one of the most important hubs in the world.
"This flight is the first direct connection from Brazzaville, Congo to the United Arab Emirates. The Middle East, particularly Dubai, is one of the most preferred destinations of travellers from Central Africa because it has so much to offer to both leisure and business travellers."
Helen Woodrow, vice president of Forecasting & Research at Dubai Airports added: "Africa is a fast growing market with huge potential and we are happy to welcome ECAir as an important link between the Republic of Congo and Dubai one that is sure to further boost tourism, trade and commerce between both markets."
According to the annual traffic report released recently by Dubai Airports, the world's second busiest hub for international passengers showed a 13 percent increase in 2013 in passenger traffic arriving from Africa.
ECAir has a fleet of five aircraft, and flies more than 300,000 passengers per year to seven destinations.
Friday, 21 August 2015
Illegally Poached African Elephant
Most illegally poached African elephant ivory can be traced back to just two areas of Africa, research shows.
Scientists were able to locate the hotspots by matching the DNA fingerprint of seized ivory to DNA profiles from the dung of elephants living throughout the continent.
Around 50,000 elephants are thought to be poached each year.
The worst area for poaching was identified as Tanzania and nearby parts of Mozambique.
The Tridom, which spans parts of Gabon, the Republic of Congo and Cameroon, was also highlighted.
The researchers say the data, published in Science, may increase international pressure to stop the killing.
This week, the US government hopes to send out a message against the illicit sale of elephant ivory by destroying one tonne of elephant ivory in New York's Times Square.
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) banned the international trade in ivory in 1989, but a black market trade continues to thrive.
Ivory is used for trinkets, souvenirs and also in traditional medicines.
With an estimated population of less than half a million, the ongoing African poaching problem is rapidly driving the animal towards extinction, according to some conservationists.
International efforts to try to stop the ivory pipeline focus on points of sale and tightening up controls at potential shipping routes.
But, Dr Samuel Wasser, a conservation biologist from the University of Washington and lead researcher on the Science paper, thinks other measures might be more effective.
The source populations are where it all starts, and to be able to focus on the source populations, especially the major source populations, is very very effective at trying to target these killings.
In an effort to identify where illegal ivory was originating from, Dr Wasser and his team turned to genetic analysis.
Elephants live in social groups, or herds. Animals living in one location are more genetically related to one another than they are to animals living elsewhere.
So, by analysing the DNA sequence - particularly those stretches that reveal relatedness - from animals living across Africa, the researchers could build a geographical map of elephant genetic diversity.
Elephants are large, wary and not easy to sample directly, but their dung provides an abundant source of the essential elephant blueprint; that tell-tale DNA. An analysis of dung samples from 1,500 individuals, each from a separate family group and living in different locations across Africa, resulted in a detailed DNA geographical map.
As Dr Wasser explained, this allows them to pinpoint the source of illegal ivory: We are very accurate.
Most importantly, areas are further apart than 300km so that, combined with knowing the natural history of the area - what parks are there and where the elephants live - it means you can get it to the precise park.
Essential groundwork done, they were poised to analyse ivory to pinpoint its source, and there was no shortage of material to analyse.
The team focussed on 28 seizures made between 1996 and 2014.
"We analyse large animal seizures that are over half a tonne in weight, and that's important because these large seizures represent about 70% of all ivory smuggled," Dr Wasser said.
"They reflect the involvement of large transnational organised crime syndicates."
A comparison of the DNA fingerprints in the seized ivory to their geographical map of elephant DNA enabled them to pinpoint the sites of this mass animal slaughter.
The results were astonishing.
Virtually all of the large seizures from the last decade that were analysed came from just two poaching hotspots.
African elephants are divided into two sub-species: the forest elephant and the Savannah elephant.
The majority of forest elephant deaths had occurred in or close to the protected area known as the Tridom, including parts of Gabon, the Republic of Congo and Cameroon. Some deaths were also occurring in the adjacent Dzanga Sangha Reserve in the Central African Republic.
Savannah elephant slaughter was focussed in Tanzania, with spill-over into Mozambique. This was the biggest poaching hotspot of all.
Dr Wasser hopes that the weight of evidence will force the international community to put pressure on these countries to "clean up their act" and to be made more accountable by government aid agencies and private donors.
Scientists were able to locate the hotspots by matching the DNA fingerprint of seized ivory to DNA profiles from the dung of elephants living throughout the continent.
Around 50,000 elephants are thought to be poached each year.
The worst area for poaching was identified as Tanzania and nearby parts of Mozambique.
The Tridom, which spans parts of Gabon, the Republic of Congo and Cameroon, was also highlighted.
The researchers say the data, published in Science, may increase international pressure to stop the killing.
This week, the US government hopes to send out a message against the illicit sale of elephant ivory by destroying one tonne of elephant ivory in New York's Times Square.
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) banned the international trade in ivory in 1989, but a black market trade continues to thrive.
Ivory is used for trinkets, souvenirs and also in traditional medicines.
With an estimated population of less than half a million, the ongoing African poaching problem is rapidly driving the animal towards extinction, according to some conservationists.
International efforts to try to stop the ivory pipeline focus on points of sale and tightening up controls at potential shipping routes.
But, Dr Samuel Wasser, a conservation biologist from the University of Washington and lead researcher on the Science paper, thinks other measures might be more effective.
The source populations are where it all starts, and to be able to focus on the source populations, especially the major source populations, is very very effective at trying to target these killings.
In an effort to identify where illegal ivory was originating from, Dr Wasser and his team turned to genetic analysis.
Elephants live in social groups, or herds. Animals living in one location are more genetically related to one another than they are to animals living elsewhere.
So, by analysing the DNA sequence - particularly those stretches that reveal relatedness - from animals living across Africa, the researchers could build a geographical map of elephant genetic diversity.
Elephants are large, wary and not easy to sample directly, but their dung provides an abundant source of the essential elephant blueprint; that tell-tale DNA. An analysis of dung samples from 1,500 individuals, each from a separate family group and living in different locations across Africa, resulted in a detailed DNA geographical map.
As Dr Wasser explained, this allows them to pinpoint the source of illegal ivory: We are very accurate.
Most importantly, areas are further apart than 300km so that, combined with knowing the natural history of the area - what parks are there and where the elephants live - it means you can get it to the precise park.
Essential groundwork done, they were poised to analyse ivory to pinpoint its source, and there was no shortage of material to analyse.
The team focussed on 28 seizures made between 1996 and 2014.
"We analyse large animal seizures that are over half a tonne in weight, and that's important because these large seizures represent about 70% of all ivory smuggled," Dr Wasser said.
"They reflect the involvement of large transnational organised crime syndicates."
A comparison of the DNA fingerprints in the seized ivory to their geographical map of elephant DNA enabled them to pinpoint the sites of this mass animal slaughter.
The results were astonishing.
Virtually all of the large seizures from the last decade that were analysed came from just two poaching hotspots.
African elephants are divided into two sub-species: the forest elephant and the Savannah elephant.
The majority of forest elephant deaths had occurred in or close to the protected area known as the Tridom, including parts of Gabon, the Republic of Congo and Cameroon. Some deaths were also occurring in the adjacent Dzanga Sangha Reserve in the Central African Republic.
Savannah elephant slaughter was focussed in Tanzania, with spill-over into Mozambique. This was the biggest poaching hotspot of all.
Dr Wasser hopes that the weight of evidence will force the international community to put pressure on these countries to "clean up their act" and to be made more accountable by government aid agencies and private donors.
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