The regional news of October 6, 2021

COMOROS

In the very long list of personalities indexed by the affair of the “pandora papers” on tax evasion, we find the son of the Comorian president Azali Assoumani, today adviser to his father at the presidential palace in Moroni.

Nour El Fath Azali is cited as the owner of a Dubai-based company called Olifants. This is a design office offering consultancy services. In the international survey conducted by a consortium of journalists, there are few details about this company. We do not know anything about what she may have had as an advisory activity, but two invoices appear in 2018 and 2019, when Nour Azali became adviser to President Azali at the Beit Salaam palace in Moroni. Nour Azali only explained that he had created this company before entering politics, that he had since closed it, and that it had never had any activity, adding that the choice of the United Arab Emirates s explained according to him “because it is the center of the world”. Nour El Fath Azali is often presented as his father’s successor. He was well educated, holding an MBA in international finance in the United States. The “Al Comorya” site has taken the investigations on the president’s son a little further, and reveals a detail that does not lack spice: the young man worked in a company in the United States, specializing in investigations against… money laundering.

SEYCHELLES

The Seychelles authorities say they want to fight tax evasion and better control capital movements. The government is getting help from an international NGO.

Everyone knows MSF – Doctors Without Borders, or RSF – Reporters Without Borders. Well there is also an NGO, which is less dreamy, called “Inspecteurs des Impôts sans Frontières”! An international expert is expected in Seychelles from India to provide assistance to the tax services of the archipelago. The Seychelles Minister of Finance, Patrick Payet, acknowledges that his administration suffers from some shortcomings in this area. The Seychelles have already been singled out by the European Union as being unscrupulous in controlling foreign capital arriving in the country.

MAURITIUS

We are awaiting the return of the leader of the Labor Party, Navin Rangoolam, affected by the Covid. He had gone to India for treatment.

Everyone remembers the saga of the medical evacuation of Navin Rangoolam, who fell ill with Covid when he was not vaccinated. On September 8, a Boeing had to be brought in from New Delhi to transport him to an Indian hospital. This expensive medical evacuation had provoked debates on the inequalities of treatment between the wealthy patients and the others. The 74-year-old former prime minister received good treatment and is considered cured. Indian doctors say he can go home. Back in Mauritius, he will have to isolate himself for 14 days before resuming his activities

MALDIVES

Some prisoners may say “thank you Covid”: they were released because of the virus, and will not return to prison despite the decline of the epidemic.

Last April, at the height of the epidemic, the prison administration of the Maldives decided to empty the prison where a cluster had declared itself. All frail or elderly detainees had been allowed to return home. Today the epidemic has clearly subsided, there are only a few cases left in prison, but this same administration has announced that the detainees thus released will be able to stay at home. Among them is former President Abdullah Yameen, sentenced to 5 years in prison for money laundering.