WEDNESDAY, 5.00PM
The new leader of the Comoran island of Anjouan, Abdullah Ibrahim, on Wednesday held the first meeting of his “cabinet” since Anjouan and Moheli broke away from the Comoros Islamic Republic at the weekend.
The new cabinet ordered an audit of the amount of money left in government coffers on Anjaoun, where all government offices have been at a standstill for the last two weeks.
Ibrahim, a 71-year-old Koranic teacher, was appointed president on Tuesday by the separatists who declared independence at a mass rally on Sunday.
The separatists on both impoverished islands want to return to the French fold, with a status similar to that of Mayotte, the fourth island in this archipelago between Madagascar and mainland Africa, or as independent micro-states in association with France, which is vehemently reiterating its belief in the integrity of the Comoran Islamic federation.
Comoran President Mohamed Taki Abdoulkarim on Monday called on all citizens of his tiny federation to favor “discussion [and] co-operation … to face together the major challenges that history and the present have imposed on them.” The government has set up a crisis unit to try to establish contact with the separatists, while information minister Mmadi Mogni Aziri said a demonstration is planned to “call for calm and reason.”
Support for secession appears near-total on Anjouan, where clashes between separatists and security forces have left four dead and some 30 injured since March 14.