Come buy forex, we have surplus now, Banks beg customers

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Banks are seeking customers to buy surplus foreign currencies they hold following the flooding of the banks with dollars by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

In an effort to support and shore-up the value of Naira, CBN resolved to flood commercial banks with dollars.

The banks are reported to be holding excess forex and were seeking customers to buy the foreign currencies.

The banks have cleared the backlog of requests for foreign currencies for basic travel allowance, school fees and medicals.

A banker said that his bank had so much dollars that its marketers were asked to encourage customers to request for the greenback.

The source said that the bank wanted to avoid a situation where it would be forced to return excess Forex to the CBN.

Doing so would force the CBN to reduce the quantity of Forex sold to the bank.

Another source from First Bank said following the CBN intervention, the bank had succeeded in clearing all pending requests for Forex as far back as September, 2016.

Also, a source in Guaranty Trust Bank commended the decision of the CBN to flood the market with Forex, thereby allowing the banks to meet legitimate requests from its customers.

It was also gathered from Heritage Bank that prior to now, the bank published the names of individuals and companies it disbursed forex in the  newspaper.

“Right now, we take two or three pages in the newspaper to publish names of legitimate individuals and companies that we disbursed forex to.

“We have more than enough foreign exchange to meet the request of our customers for school fees and others.”

In a data released by the CBN, the apex bank, within three weeks, injected more than 1.4 billion dollars for both wholesale and retail intervention into the interbank Forex market.

Mr Ayo Teriba, Chief Executive Officer, Economic Associates, is optimistic that the CBN would be able to sustain its intervention on the forex market.

Teriba said that increase in oil production and high oil prices had increased the foreign reserve base of the country.

“We are back to a situation where the forex at the disposal of the CBN is likely to go up.

“The CBN could not intervene in the forex market in 2016 because of low oil production, prices and because foreign reserves were also low.

“Today, oil price is up, reserves have also gone up, the outlook of the oil prices is stable and production in Nigeria is going back to capacity; so it has the capacity to intervene.

“In a couple of months, the apex bank should be able to meet all of the demands and all the multiple exchange rates will converge.”

 

The post Come buy forex, we have surplus now, Banks beg customers appeared first on Vanguard News.

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Excess forex as Nigeria floods banks with dollars

Trump, Abe say North Korea threat ‘entered a new stage’

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News footage shows a missile launch on a giant television screen outside the main railway station in Pyongyang on March 7, 2017.<br />Nuclear-armed North Korea said its missile launches were training for a strike on US bases in Japan, as global condemnation of the regime swelled. / AFP PHOTO / KIM Won-Jin

US President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe warned Monday that the threat from North Korea had “entered a new stage,” following another defiant missile test.

The two leaders spoke by telephone after North Korea fired off four ballistic missiles, in what Pyongyang provocatively called a training exercise for a strike on US bases in Japan.

“Japan and the United States confirmed” the launches violated UN Security Council resolutions and presented a “clear challenge to the region and international community,” Abe told reporters in Tokyo.

They also agreed that “the threat has entered a new stage,” Abe said.

The missiles traveled about 620 miles (1,000 kilometers) and three of them landed in waters close to Japan that are part of its exclusive economic zone.

North Korean weapons programs are rapidly proving to be the most prominent foreign policy question facing Trump’s young White House.

The president — who has little foreign policy experience — has described North Korea as a “big, big problem” and vowed to deal with the issue “very strongly.”

Intelligence officials believe that Pyongyang could be less than two years away from developing a nuclear warhead that could reach the continental United States.

Trump has baldly declared that “it won’t happen!” but has yet to articulate how he proposes to neutralize the threat.

Diplomacy has stalled and military options remain fraught.

Monday’s launches were the latest in a series of test-firings that have increased in tempo.

Last month, Abe’s visit to Trump’s Florida resort was marred by another North Korean missile test.

On that occasion social media posts showed Trump and Abe huddling with aides in a public dining room as they weighed how to respond.

As a presidential candidate, Trump had called into question a mutual defense pact with Japan, insisting Tokyo must pay its own way. He has since softened that rhetoric.

Abe said that “President Trump said the United States is 100 percent with Japan and he told me to convey his remarks to the Japanese people.”

“He said he wanted us to trust him and the United States 100 percent,” Abe added.

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Liverpool report £19.8m annual loss…See full details

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Liverpool's Brazilian midfielder Roberto Firmino (L) celebrates with team-mates including Liverpool's English midfielder Jordan Henderson (R) and Liverpool's English midfielder Adam Lallana (floor) after scoring their second goal during the English Premier League football match between Liverpool and Stoke City at Anfield in Liverpool, north west England on December 27, 2016. Paul ELLIS / AFP

Liverpool announced a pre-tax loss of £19.8 million ($24.5 million, 23.2 million euros) for last year on Wednesday despite record revenue of £301 million.

The loss in the year ending May 2016 was due to investment in the first-team squad and pay-offs to manager Brendan Rodgers, who was sacked in October 2015, and his back-room staff.

But with commercial revenue projected to climb and Anfield’s towering new Main Stand now complete, the club predicted “significantly improved results” for the current financial year.

“These results demonstrate the solid financial progress that’s been made over the past six years under the leadership of FSG (Fenway Sports Group) with continued investment in the playing squad and the completion of the Main Stand,” said chief operating officer Andy Hughes in a press release.

“The increase in the underlying revenue adds further strength to the club’s financial position despite the cost of football rising with player transfer fees, wages and agents’ costs.”

Liverpool signed 12 players in the 2015-16 accounting period, spending £32 million on striker Christian Benteke, who has since left, and £29 million on Brazilian forward Roberto Firmino.

They agreed six contract extensions and incurred costs relating to the redevelopment of the Main Stand.

But the club also earned £49 million from the sale of Raheem Sterling to Manchester City.

Overall revenue has grown every year since American owners Fenway Sports Group took over in October 2010 and rose to £301 million from £279.9 million.

– ‘Solid financial progress’ –
Commercial revenue dropped slightly, falling £700,000 to £115.7 million, but there were increases in match-day (up £3.4 million to £62.4 million) and media revenue (up £1 million to £123.6 million).

Liverpool were ranked ninth in financial consultants Deloitte’s latest Football Money League despite being the only club in the top 10 who did not play in the Champions League last season.

Hughes added: “Since this reporting period … we have continued to make solid financial progress and we expect to see further growth in our revenues following the successful opening of the Main Stand and the new media deal.

“Our commercial operations continue to thrive through new partnerships, global retail growth and developing our international soccer schools, with our newest academy opening recently in Australia.

“The investments from this ownership have been a key factor to our financial and global progress.

“We have seen continued investment in the playing squad, the expanded Main Stand, the new flagship retail store opening later this year, fully refurbished retail stores in Liverpool and Belfast, and we are consulting on a proposed development at our academy in Kirkby to bring together the first team and our young players.

“These investments all contribute to further progress and strengthen the club’s financial position which ultimately serves to support all of our football ambitions.”

Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool are currently fifth in the Premier League table, a point off the Champions League places, reached the League Cup semi-finals and have been knocked out of the FA Cup.

They did not qualify for European football this season.

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Aid worries rise for South Sudan refugees inside Sudan…Read full details

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A South Sudanese refugee receive medical treatment as many cross along the border in Sudan's White Nile state on February 28, 2017. The UN refugee agency UNHCR said tens of thousands of South Sudanese are expected to pour into Sudan in the coming months. / AFP PHOTO / ASHRAF SHAZLY

As hundreds of South Sudanese fleeing famine and civil war enter Sudan each day, aid workers warn of a lack of vital relief supplies, especially for malnourished children.

“We have a shortage of medicines and we have shortages of workers also,” said Viola James, a doctor treating refugees at a transit camp along the border in the Sudanese state of White Nile.

About 5,000 refugees lived in the camp, James said, and she had only five workers to help provide medical aid.

“On top of that we’re also helping nearby villages,” she said as she checked a young boy suffering from malnutrition.

“There are many malaria cases among the refugees,” she said.

South Sudan, the world’s youngest nation formed after splitting from the north in 2011, has declared famine in parts of Unity State, saying 100,000 people face starvation and another million are on the brink of famine.

The UN refugee agency UNHCR said tens of thousands of South Sudanese are expected to pour into Sudan in the months ahead.

Sudan already hosts nearly 330,000 South Sudanese who have fled the civil war that erupted in their country in December 2013.

Several transit camps have been set up along the border to receive refugees.

The camp where James works is made up of several tents housing mainly women and children, an AFP correspondent touring the border area said.

– ‘No food for days’ –
It has makeshift toilets, bathrooms and plastic tanks from which dozens of women and children come to collect water supplies.

Some refugees said food was delivered to the camp once a week only.

Aid workers said the main challenge was to provide immediate food and medicines to women and children who arrived exhausted after undertaking long and risky treks.

“You can see from their faces that they’re in a miserable condition,” said Adam Saeed of the Sudanese Red Crescent, which is stationed along the border to register refugees entering Sudan.

“They have had no food for days. We get many children suffering from malnutrition.”

As an immediate measure all children up to 15 years old are given food at the border itself, he said.

“We put them through quick nutrition checks, then give them some food and ensure they’re vaccinated, mainly against cholera.”

Behind Saeed, several refugees carrying bags on their heads or in donkey carts cross the border.

Once through the checkpoint on the Sudanese side, their details are taken and they are given first aid if necessary.

“When we started we were scared and thought we wouldn’t make it. But finally we’re here,” said Vivian Fiter, who travelled from the city of Malakal in Upper Nile state with her sister and their children, including a four-month-old baby.

– Not enough aid, funding –
Fiter had embarked on the risky journey to be with relatives she said live in a camp run by the United Nations in Sudan.

“Those not living in the UN camps are really suffering. They have no food or any other aid,” she said.

Aid workers at the border whisked her children off for a check-up and to get them vaccinated.

“When they arrive in such conditions we simply have to double our efforts,” said Emad Abdurrahman, head of UNHCR’s office in White Nile.

“Our problem is we don’t have enough aid items or funding.”

The UNHCR and its partners have appealed for $166.65 million to meet the needs of South Sudanese refugees in Sudan this year, but so far have managed to raise just five percent of that target.

“We have to come up with a new plan. The number of refugees is simply increasing,” Abdurrahman said.

For many South Sudanese arriving at the border, they were actually returning to what was their home country before the split.

“I was shot in the leg one night in Juba,” said Mour Mokor, who arrived at the border on Tuesday in a wheelchair and wanted to get to Khartoum.

“There is only misery there,” he said of the South Sudanese capital.

“Now I want to join some family members in Sudan, where I used to live before the partition.”

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Iran’s Ahmadinejad writes open letter to Trump

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Iran's ex-president Mahmud Ahmadinejad

Iran’s ex-president Mahmud Ahmadinejad published Sunday an open letter to Donald Trump, welcoming his criticism of the US political system but taking issue with his visa ban and attitude to women.

Many Iranians see the new US president as cut from the same cloth as Ahmadinejad, who shocked the establishment with his sudden rise to power in 2005, combining hardline rhetoric and populist economic policies to win a powerful following among Iran’s lower classes.

At times in the long and rambling letter, published in English and Farsi on his website, he appears to find a kindred spirit in Trump.

“Your Excellency (Trump) has truthfully described the US political system and electoral structure as corrupt and anti-public,” he writes.

But much of the letter is spent exhorting Trump to end interventions in the Middle East and ditch the “arrogance” of past US administrations.

Ahmadinejad also takes issue with Trump’s visa ban on seven Muslim-majority countries, including Iran.

“The presence and constructive effort of the elite and scientists of different nations, including the million-plus population of my Iranian compatriots has had a major role in the development of the US… the contemporary US belongs to all nations.”

He also finishes with a short lecture on respecting women — a possible reference to Trump’s recorded claims that he has sexually assaulted some.

“The great men of history have paid the highest level of respect to women and recognised their God-given capabilities,” Ahmadinejad writes.

Ahmadinejad has a fondness for writing to world leaders, having sent letters to former US president Barack Obama, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the pope — as well as an 18-page missive to previous US leader George W. Bush.

When Trump was elected in November, many Iranians joked about the similarities to their former president, whose tenure ended in 2013.

“When Ahmadinejad said that he intended to export his method of managing the world, we didn’t take him seriously…” wrote one bemused commenter on social media.

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Supporters gather for Mugabe’s lavish birthday party

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Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe blows out candles during a private ceremony to celebrate his 93rd birthday on February 21, 2017 in Harare. Mugabe, the world's oldest national ruler, turned 93, using a long and occasionally rambling interview to vow to remain in power despite growing signs of frailty. / AFP PHOTO / Jekesai NJIKIZANA

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, who turned 93 this week, celebrates his birthday on Saturday with a lavish party attended by thousands of loyalists outside the second city of Bulawayo.

The ruling ZANU-PF party is hosting the event for Mugabe, who has held power since 1980 during a reign marked by repression of dissent, vote-rigging and the country’s economic collapse.

Now the world’s oldest national leader, his actual birthday on Tuesday has been celebrated in a week-long extravaganza with state media filled with tributes and praise.

The annual party — reported to cost up to $1 million (0.9 million euros) — includes a multi-course feast and vast birthday cakes, angering many Zimbabweans as the country endures severe food shortages.

Holding the event at a school in Matobo has also riled locals as it is close to where many victims of Mugabe’s deadly crackdown on dissidents in the early 1980s are thought to be buried.

At least 20,000 people are believed to have been killed in the massacres by North Korean-trained Zimbabwean troops, according to rights groups.

“This should not be a place for celebration,” Mbuso Fuzwayo, spokesman for the Bulawayo-based campaign group Ibhetshu Likazulu, told AFP.

“The whole area is a crime scene where the bones of victims of the massacres are buried.”

– Increasingly frail –
Mugabe gave a faltering television interview this week, vowing to remain in power despite growing signs of frailty.

During the pre-recorded birthday broadcast, Mugabe paused at length between sentences and spoke with his eyes barely open.

“The call to step down must come from my party,” he said.

“If I feel that I can’t do it any more, I will say so to my party so that they relieve me. But for now, I think I can’t say so.”

The state-owned Herald newspaper on Tuesday published a 24-page supplement of congratulatory messages from government departments and regime loyalists.

Local ZANU-PF party activist Sibongile Ndiweni described hosting of the party as “a blessing”.

“It’s an honour and privilege to have such a luminary icon celebrating with us,” he said.

“President Mugabe is a national president who has the right to have an event wherever he feels like.”

ZANU-PF has endorsed Mugabe as its candidate for general elections next year, and he remains widely respected as a liberation hero by other African leaders.

He has avoided naming a successor, but his wife, Grace, 51, is seen as a possible candidate along with vice-president Emmerson Mnangagwa.

Born on February 21, 1924, Mugabe trained as a teacher and taught in what was then Rhodesia and Ghana before returning home to join the guerrilla war against white-minority rule.

He became prime minister on Zimbabwe’s independence from Britain in 1980 and then president in 1987.

All schools around Bulawayo were closed on Thursday and Friday.

“Our children were told their classrooms have been turned into boarding facilities, and they are being frogmarched to join the birthday party,” local poet and opposition activist Desire Moyo told AFP.

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Nigerian universities deny 9m students admission in six years

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The National bureau of Statistics(NBS) said Monday that out of a total of 11,703,709 applications from students seeking admission into universities across the 36 states and Federal Capital Territory(FCT), only 2,674,485 students were given admission within the period under review.

According to a report titled ‘JAMB Admitted Candidates by State and Gender within Faculty report(2010-2016)’ made available to the Guardian On Monday by the NBS, the extent of disequilibrium between the number of students yearly seeking admission through JAMB and those who succeed in the end were fully highlighted.

“The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board data reflected that a total of 11,703,709 applications were
received between 2010 and 2016 while a total of 2,674,485 students were admitted across the 36 states and the FCT between 2010 and 2015″, the NBS said.

According to the report, in 2010, a total of 1,513,940 applications were received while 423,531 students were admitted. This represents that 28% of students who applied for admission were admitted across the 36 states and the FCT in the year under review.

Adamawa and Niger States both admitted 38% of students who applied for admission in 2010. Both states received 14,483 and 16,556 applications while 5,678 and 6,278 students were admitted respectively.

Similarly, a total of 1,636,356 applications were received while 417,341 students were admitted in 2011.This simply means that 26% of students who applied for admission were admitted across the 36 states and the FCT in 2011.

Yobe State with 7,879 applications and 3,185 admissions has 40% of students who applied for admission admitted.

1,632,835 applications were received in 2012 while 447,176 admissions were granted in 2012 representing 27% of applications to admissions during the year. Yobe State with 9,064 applications and 4,138 admissions has the highest percentage of applications to admissions with 46% recorded.

The lowest percentages of applications to admissions were recorded in 2013 and 2014 with 24% and 25% of
applications to admissions recorded respectively during the period under review.

Yobe State with 11,222 applications and 4,084 admissions has the highest percentage of applications to admissions with 36% recorded in 2013 while Jigawa State with 16,214 applications and 6,169 admissions has the highest percentage of applications to admissions with 38% recorded in 2014.

The highest percentage of applications to admissions was recorded in 2015 with 30% of applications to
admissions recorded.

Yobe State with 17,461 applications and 9,703 admissions has the highest percentage of applications to admissions in the year with 56% recorded.

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Army training exercises, operations help to curb criminality in 2016 – Buratai (Read full details)

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Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai

The Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai, said the training exercises conducted by the Nigerian Army in 2016 helped to curb criminality and other nefarious activities during the period.

Buratai made the remark on Saturday at the West African Social Activities, WASA, organized by the Army Headquarters Garrison at the Mogadishu Cantonment in the FCT.

He said the climax of the exercises and operations was the “Operation Rescue Finale” in the North East.

According to Buratai, that operation led to the fall of Sambisa forest and capture of Camp Zero, the last stronghold of the terrorists in the forest.

“As we commence another training cycle, I urge you all to remain committed in the discharge of our collective responsibility of ensuring peace and stability across the country.

“We must remain focused, dedicated and resilient in order to consolidate on the achievement so far recorded, ” he said.

Also speaking, the FCT Minister, Alhaji Mohammed Bello, who was the special guest at the occasion described the army as “one of the pillars which continue to give hope to the citizens in our collective aspirations to be a stable, peaceful and developed country. ”

Bello noted that in spite of internal security challenges, the commitment of the army to regional and international peace and stability remained unshakable.

“I salute the courage and gallantry exploits of the personnel of the Nigerian army, ” he said.

Earlier, the Commander of the Garrison, Maj.-Gen. John Malu recalled that WASA was usually observed by the army to mark the end of each training year.

Malu said that it was introduced during the colonial era of the “Royal West African Frontier Forces (RWAFF)” to take officers and soldiers away from their regimented life to an atmosphere where they relax freely.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the event featured various cultural display by soldiers, reflecting the Nigerian setting.

Army training exercises, operations help to curb criminality in 2016 – Buratai

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Muslim world’s shock, outrage at Trump’s visa ban (Read full details)

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Protesters gather to denounce President Donald Trump's executive order that bans certain immigration, at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport on January 28, 2017 in Dallas, Texas. President Trump signed the controversial executive order that halted refugees and residents from predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United States. G. Morty Ortega/Getty Images/AFP<br />G. Morty Ortega / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP

Families split, a father unable to reach his son’s wedding and officials warning of a “gift to extremists” — President Donald Trump’s visa ban on seven Muslim countries has triggered shock and confusion among those affected.

“There is mass hysteria among the Iranian-American community — that’s no exaggeration,” said Saam Borhani, an attorney in Los Angeles.

He said clients were bombarding him with questions since Trump passed an executive order on Friday, suspending refugee arrivals and imposing tough controls on travellers from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

With more than one million Iranians living in the United States, the restrictions have already caused chaos for students, businessmen and families.

“I have several clients impacted by the executive order — married couples whose spousal visas have been stopped, causing them to be separated. A father living in Iran who is unable to come to his son’s wedding in California,” said Borhani, who was himself born in the US to Iranian parents.

US State Department figures show Iran accounted for around a quarter of the 31,804 visas granted to citizens from the seven countries last year.

Among thousands facing difficulties, an Iraqi family was barred in Cairo from taking their connecting flight to New York on Saturday.

“I had sold my house, my car, my furniture. I resigned from work and so did my wife. I took my children out of school,” Fuad Sharef, 51, told AFP.

“Donald Trump destroyed my life. My family’s life. I used to think America was a state of institutions but it’s as though it’s a dictatorship,” he said.

An Iranian woman blocked from boarding at Tehran airport on Sunday said she had waited 14 years for her green card.

“Even during the hostage crisis at the US embassy (in 1980), the US government didn’t issue such an order. They say the US is the cradle of liberty. I don’t see freedom in that country,” she said, asking not to be named.

– ‘Gift to extremists’ –

The US embassy in Baghdad said on Facebook that dual nationals from the seven countries would be barred from entering the United States, excluding those with American passports.

“Daeshi decision,” Baghdad resident Nibal Athed wrote in response to the post, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group.

He asked why the list excluded Afghanistan, Pakistan, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, which he described as the “biggest sponsors of terrorism”.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Sunday that Trump’s move “will be recorded in history as a great gift to extremists and their supporters.

“Collective discrimination aids terrorist recruitment by deepening fault-lines exploited by extremist demagogues to swell their ranks,” he tweeted.

His ministry said earlier that it would reciprocate with a ban on Americans entering the country, though it will not apply to those who already have a valid visa.

Meanwhile, Yemen’s Huthi rebels, who control the capital Sanaa, also criticised the ban, stating: “All attempts to classify Yemen and its citizens as a probable source for terrorism and extremism is illegal and illegitimate.”

Yemenis made up the largest contingent — 12,998 — of immigrants to the US last year from the seven countries.

– ‘Trump’s wall reaches Iran’ –

The situation has been complicated by a US federal judge, who ordered authorities on Saturday to stop deporting refugees and other travellers stuck at US airports.

“Uncertainty is the key word. Things are changing quickly and we’re trying to keep people updated,” said Borhani, the lawyer in LA.

Getting a visa was already tough for Iranians, who had to travel to Turkey or the United Arab Emirates for the nearest US embassy.

BBC Persian reported that 9,000 Iranian asylum seekers were now blocked in Turkey.

After rising hopes under former president Barack Obama that relations between Iran and the US were improving, Trump has thrown everything back up in the air, Borhani said.

“I don’t know what the future is going to hold, whether people here will be cut off permanently from their families in Iran. It’s very stressful.”

Meanwhile, Iran’s leading daily Hamshahri was headlined: “The United States has cut its relations with the Iranian people.”

Top reformist paper Shahrvand led with: “Trump’s wall has reached Iran”.

Muslim world’s shock, outrage at Trump’s visa ban

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Gangs’ car bombs rattle Montenegro’s capital (Read full details)

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Montenegran police officers investigate a crime scene in the capital Podgorica on January 19, 2017. Heavily-armed police are guarding the streets of Montenegro's capital after a spike in gangland violence rattled the Balkan country, which is on the brink of joining NATO. Drug mafia feuds began in the coastal towns of Bar and Kotor, hotbeds of organised crime, where anti-terrorist police swooped in to tackle the deadly rivalries last summer as tourists came and went on cruise ships. But the troubles have come to the streets of the capital Podgorica in the past few weeks, with two people killed and two others seriously injured in three explosives.<br />SAVO PRELEVIC / AFP

Heavily-armed police are guarding the streets of Montenegro’s capital after a spike in gangland violence rattled the Balkan country, which is on the brink of joining NATO.

Drug mafia feuds began in the coastal towns of Bar and Kotor, hotbeds of organised crime, where anti-terrorist police swooped in to tackle the deadly rivalries last summer as tourists came and went on cruise ships.

But the troubles have come to the streets of the capital Podgorica in the past few weeks, with two people killed and two others seriously injured in three explosions.

“Recent events in Podgorica and events that preceded them in other towns have understandably provoked the anxiety of citizens, who expect the authorities to do all they can in a merciless struggle against organised crime,” said Interior Minister Mevludin Nuhodzic.

He admitted that “in some way, order is threatened”.

Twelve people were killed last year as a result of gang feuds in the country of 620,000 people, whose tourism sector is growing under the threat of powerful organised crime.

In one incident in September, a sniper shot a prisoner dead in broad daylight in a yard in Montenegro’s highest-security jail in Podgorica. The man had been jailed for extortion.

The recent spike in attacks has resulted in dismissals and resignations at the top of the police force and an intensified presence on the streets.

After nightfall for the past several days, heavily-armed officers have patrolled the squares of the capital, closely monitored customers in bars and cafes and carried out tight security checks on cars.

So far they have seized several guns, drugs and one vehicle, but no arrests over the Podgorica blasts have been announced.

Residents of the capital fear becoming collateral damage of the warring gangs.

“This has crossed all limits… the whole society is descending into the underworld. I am afraid of innocent people being killed,” said Milos, 45, an economist who witnessed the latest blast in the centre of Podgorica on January 19.

A young man with a criminal record was killed in the explosion and the passenger in his car had to have her leg amputated.

– ‘Unbearable’ –
Another resident in the capital, 47-year-old lawyer Ana, described the situation as “unbearable” and wondered “what has prevented the authorities from strengthening their fight against crime?”

Local people who spoke to AFP were reluctant to give their family names for security reasons.

Nuhodzic insisted the government was “taking permanent action. Our goal is to create insecurity for criminals”.

But Nebojsa Medojevic, a leader of the main opposition Democratic Front alliance, said the security situation was “worrying” and that there was a “political character” to Montenegro’s organised crime.

“There are no boundaries between the state and crime,” he told reporters on Friday.

NATO signed an accession agreement with Montenegro last year, paving the way for the country to become the 29th member of the Western military alliance.

So far more than 20 of the 28 NATO allies have ratified the accession of the former Yugoslav republic, which is also a candidate for European Union membership.

But mountainous Montenegro, which declared independence from Serbia in 2006, has struggled to contain the widespread scourge of organised crime and related violence. The EU regularly urges authorities to do more.

– Political links? –
Last summer, dozens of anti-terrorist police descended on the medieval fortress town of Kotor, a popular tourist destination on the Adriatic coast, after a string of public shootouts between rival drug-trafficking gangs.

Nine men were later arrested over the violence.

Montenegro’s veteran leader Milo Djukanovic stepped down after his party only narrowly topped an election in October, handing the prime ministership to a close ally. But many Montenegrins still see Djukanovic as the real boss.

The former PM, who led the country towards closer ties with the West, is accused by critics of links to organised crime, which he denies.

On election day authorities arrested of a group of Serbians whom they accuse of plotting to seize parliament and assassinate Djukanovic.

Gangs’ car bombs rattle Montenegro’s capital

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