ADEN, Yemen: Authorities on Yemen’s Socotra island burned two tons of the mild narcotic drug qat on Saturday, a shipment seized from smugglers trying to defy last week’s ban by the archipelago’s governor, local officials said.
Yemenis have chewed qat for centuries and although widespread, its use is seen as a social ill by some, sapping productivity and finances. Sessions begin in the afternoon and can last long into the night.
The national pastime has survived the last few years of turmoil in the impoverished Arab country, including the war that began last year involving air and ground troops from an Arab coalition led by Saudi Arabia. It is not uncommon to see Yemeni fighters and soldiers with a wad of qat leaves in their cheeks.
But last week the governor of Socotra, a sparsely populated island renowned for its exotic wildlife, sought to stamp out the habit by banning the import or chewing of qat.
According to Yemeni media, Saeed Ba Huqaiba introduced to the ban due to the health risks and financial consequences of qat use.
Local officials said on Saturday they had intercepted and burned a shipment of two tons of qat smuggled from the Hadramout province on the Yemeni mainland.
Qat is classified by the World Health Organization as a “drug of abuse that can produce mild to moderate psychological dependence.” Its physical symptoms can include hallucinations, depression and tooth decay.
Past surveys in Yemen suggest at least 80 percent of men, about 60 percent of women and increasing numbers of children under 10 — settle down most afternoons to chew.
(Reporting by Mohammed Mukhashaf, writing by Sami Aboudi)
Yemen’s Socotra burns qat after island bans drug
Yemen’s Socotra burns qat after island bans drug
Syria’s Sharaa grants Kurdish Syrians citizenship, language rights for first time, SANA says
- The decree for the first time grants Kurdish Syrians rights, including recognition of Kurdish identity as part of Syria’s national fabric
- It designates Kurdish as a national language alongside Arabic and allows schools to teach it
DAMASCUS: Syria’s President Ahmed Al-Sharaa issued a decree affirming the rights of the Kurdish Syrians, formally recognizing their language and restoring citizenship to all Kurdish Syrians, state news agency SANA reported on Friday.
Sharaa’s decree came after fierce clashes that broke out last week in the northern city of Aleppo, leaving at least 23 people dead, according to Syria’s health ministry, and forced more than 150,000 to flee the two Kurdish-run pockets of the city.
The clashes ended after Kurdish fighters withdrew.
The violence in Aleppo has deepened one of the main faultlines in Syria, where Al-Sharaa’s promise to unify the country under one leadership after 14 years of war has faced resistance from Kurdish forces wary of his Islamist-led government.
The decree for the first time grants Kurdish Syrians rights, including recognition of Kurdish identity as part of Syria’s national fabric. It designates Kurdish as a national language alongside Arabic and allows schools to teach it.
It also abolishes measures dating to a 1962 census in Hasaka province that stripped many Kurds of Syrian nationality, granting citizenship to all affected residents, including those previously registered as stateless.
The decree declares Nowruz, the spring and new year festival, a paid national holiday. It bans ethnic or linguistic discrimination, requires state institutions to adopt inclusive national messaging and sets penalties for incitement to ethnic strife.
The Syrian government and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), that controls the country’s northeast, have engaged in months of talks last year to integrate Kurdish-run military and civilian bodies into Syrian state institutions by the end of 2025, but there has been little progress.
