The emigration of skilled South-Asian professionals may have contributed to brain drain in Kenya, Grace Puliyel tells Pambazuka News, but it is also bringing with it a form of brain gain through financial remittances and access to wider knowledge networks, as many migrants choose to retain ties with the country. It’s a balance governments need to fully understand, says Puliyel, if they want to make the most of the benefits migration offers, while minimising its negative impacts.

Abousfian Abdelrazik, cleared of accusations of having ties to al-Qaeda, has returned home to Canada after spending six years in a Sudanese prison, Gerald Caplan tells Pambazuka News. But Abdelrazik’s ordeal is not over, says Caplan, with his name placed on the ‘1267’, a United Nations terrorist blacklist that imposes a total asset freeze on anyone on it. The Canadian government has told him he must get himself off the list, but without their help, this is impossible.

‘Comfort and complacency’ have replaced ‘international law and rigour’ at Minurso, a UN mission set up in 1991 to oversee a referendum for the self-determination of the Sahrawi, Nikolaj Nielsen tells Pambazuka News. With the political will of the UN Security Council to push forward the referendum weakened by economic interests, says Nielsen, the Sahrawi are steadily losing patience with relying on international laws and human rights protocols in their struggle for independence.

August 2009 marks the 30th anniversary of Teodoro Obiang Nguema’s coup d’état against Macias Nguema, but it is not an occasion that many in Equatorial Guinea will be celebrating, writes Agustín Velloso. Yet for all his unpopularity, Obiang has won election after election with more than 95 per cent of the vote. Velloso shares with Pambazuka News Obiang’s strategy for playing ‘the democratic game’ in front of the international community.