JUBA: South Sudan plans to cut down on expatriate workers and force foreign firms and aid groups to hire more local residents to combat high unemployment, President Salva Kiir said yesterday. The move by the government of one of the world’s poorest countries comes after decades of civil war with the north and would affect mainly nationals of Arican neighbours such as Uganda, Ethiopia and Kenya.
The government has been trying to create jobs for Sudanese who often lack the skills to work at foreign firms or with aid groups.
“We do not need foreigners to work as housekeepers, washerwomen, drivers, gardeners and shopkeepers. These jobs should be filled by our own people, who badly need work,” Kiir told lawmakers, according to a copy of his speech. “Foreign firms, international organisations and NGOs must be obliged to employ South Sudanese in all jobs which do not require specialist skills that our work force cannot supply,” he added. He said the labour ministry was working on a bill to cut down on immigration. South Sudan has been trying to attract firms outside its vital oil sector but an economic crisis, lack of legislation and tribal violence have deterred investors.
US sanctions against Lebanese firms
WASHINGTON: The United States designated two Lebanese foreign exchange firms as significant money launderers yesterday, saying they moved money for drug traffickers and benefited the Hezbollah militia. The US Treasury named Kassem Rmeiti & Co. For Exchange and Halawi Exchange Co. for sanctions which freeze any assets they have on US soil and ban Americans and US businesses from any transactions with them.
It said both had been used to move money by the Ayman Joumaa narcotics network, a primary target in recent years of US law enforcement, since the Treasury cracked down on the Lebanese Canadian Bank in 2011 for its alleged money laundering activities.
Algeria hands death penalty to Qaeda chief
ALGIERS: Jihadist leader Mokhtar Belmokhtar, who Chad said was killed in Mali last month, and four members of his group were condemned to death in absentia by an Algerian court yesterday. Four other defendants present in court were jailed for 13 years and fined 1 million dinars (¤10,000) each, with another two sentenced to one and nine years respectively.
Agencies
