Doha, Apirl 23: The emir of gas-rich Qatar said on Thursday on a brief visit to the Comoros that his country would pay the salaries of the island nation’s civil servants who have not been paid for months, an official said.
The official QNA news agency quoted a member of Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani’s delegation as saying he would cover all of the civil servants’ salaries for the nine months to the end of April, without specifying amounts.
Sheikh Khalifa, whose Gulf state has estimated natural gas reserves of more than 900 trillion cubic feet (25 trillion cubic metres) — third largest in the world after Russia and Iran — visited the Comoros for several hours Thursday.
It was the first official visit by an Arab head of state to the poor Indian Ocean archipelago, a politically tense state which has been rocked by more than 20 coups since independence from France in 1975.
The three islands of Grande Comore, Anjouan and Moheli that form the Union of Comoros have a system of rotating presidency and President Ahmed Abdallah Mohamed Sambi, who is from Anjouan, was to hand over power to a leader from Moheli when his term ended in May.
But elections have been fixed for November 2011, and residents and political leaders in Moheli have protested the move, terming it a coup which is delaying their turn at the presidency.
On April 13 Libyan troops took up duty as part of Sambi’s guard, in a move that prompted concern by opposition groups who say they are mercenaries for the president.
Sambi said Tripoli had undertaken to pay the salaries of the Comoran military for a year, beginning this month.
–Agencies