The daily star.com.lb – BEIRUT/OUAGADOUGOU: Three Lebanese nationals, including a pregnant woman, were among 18 killed in a terrorist attack on a Turkish restaurant in Burkina Faso’s capital Ouagadougou, Lebanese authorities said Monday. A statement from the Lebanese Foreign Ministry identified the Lebanese victims as Ahmad al-Bali, Mohsen Fneish and his wife who was pregnant at the time but was not named in the statement. It added that they were killed in the crossfire between security forces and the terrorists who had attacked the restaurant. At least eight foreigners of multiple nationalities were among the deceased. Prime Minister Saad Hariri ordered the head of the Higher Relief Committee Gen. Mohammad Kheir to coordinate with his counterparts in Burkina Faso and offered them any resources they might require to help the affected Lebanese nationals. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, which took place Sunday evening. However, Burkina Faso’s Communications Minister Remi Dandjinou said that it was “a terrorist attack.”

Amy Sawadogo, waitress at the popular restaurant, told AP about the horror of the attack. Sawadogo was still searching for her colleagues as of Monday morning. “I just want to go to the hospital and see who is still alive,” the distraught young woman, who was still dressed in her uniform said Monday. “I am calling them in vain, no response.” The Aziz Istanbul restaurant is often packed with expats who would go there to watch football. Authorities said that many of the victims are children dining with their families. The attack began around 9 p.m. Sunday when the restaurant was full with customers. Two young men wearing jeans and jackets drove up on motorcycles and began indiscriminately shooting at the people inside with Kalashnikovs, witnesses told AP.

“I heard a noise when they smashed a car with their motorbike and before I understood what happened they started shooting at the customers on the terrace,” Assane Guebre, who had been keeping an eye on customers’ cars parked outside, said. “They were close to me, and I still don’t know how they did not hit me first,” Guebre said. His hands were still bleeding from the cuts he had suffered when he threw himself to the ground to avoid the bullets.A Reuters witness saw customers running out of the Aziz Istanbul restaurant as police and paramilitary gendarmerie surrounded it, amid gunfire. The shots rang into the night before the country’s special forces ended attack hours after it began. Initially, authorities had said there were three or four assailants. However, government spokesman Remy Danguinou told reporters early Monday that two attackers had been killed by the authorities.

In January, Kuwait’s highest court overturned the death sentence imposed by a lower tribunal against one of the men, reducing it to life, it also reduced the life sentence for another man to 15 years in prison and sentenced several others previously judged “not guilty” to 10 years. Twelve of the Kuwaiti nationals convicted in absentia were arrested Saturday on charges of spying for Iran and Hezbollah. Two other Kuwaitis and one Iranian national remain at large. In July, Kuwait expelled 15 diplomats for alleged links to the cell. “There is a great Kuwaiti resentment toward [this matter] and they are right about it, and we in Lebanon will cooperate on the issue,” Hariri said.

Following a meeting with his Kuwaiti counterpart, Sheikh Jaber al-Mubarak al-Sabagh, Hariri said he was hopeful this resentment would not translate into measures against Lebanon, but said the issue had to be addressed “clearly and boldly” in order to prevent further strains between the two countries. President Michel Aoun also pledged to follow up on the issue. “The Kuwaiti people, state and emir always treated Lebanon and the Lebanese as they treat the Kuwaitis. I hope that the relations will improve,” Hariri said. The diplomatic strain recently led to speculation that Gulf Cooperation Council countries could implement a blockade against Lebanon, similar to that against Qatar, with dire repercussions for economic stability.

Daily Star.com.lb – Federica Marsi – BEIRUT: Prime Minister Saad Hariri raised the importance of renewing ties between the country and the Lebanese diaspora, at the launch of a new virtual network of entrepreneurs, businesspeople and creative minds Thursday. Diaspora ID – designed by the private company Netways and financed by a $1 million grant from USAID – seeks to virtually connect Lebanese entrepreneurs outside and inside the country, thus spawning mutually beneficial business relationships. “Diaspora ID has created an unimaginable opportunity for Lebanese at home and abroad. Its possibilities are endless,” Prime Minister Hariri said at the launch event held Thursday at the Grand Serail. “It has created a new IT solution and used cutting-edge artificial intelligence to capitalize on the enormous potential of the Lebanese diaspora to contribute to employment and economic growth in Lebanon,” Hariri added.

A video presentation of the project showed a world map of connected dots, representing Lebanese expats, located geographically with a pin containing the platform’s symbol – a bird with spread wings. No part of the world lacked its fair share of pins, each labeled with a Lebanese name. The Lebanese diaspora is estimated to be in the range of 14 million people – several times larger than the Lebanese population of the country. According to Hariri, many expats maintain an emotional bond with their native country and would be eager to give back to it and contribute to its development. “I am here today because I believe in your power, the power of today’s innovators and the power of Lebanon’s diaspora,” he said.

Engineer and Netways Managing Partner Rola Mousa conceived of the platform as a way to give back after having lived for a long time outside of the country. “I had a dream to provide the Lebanese with a similar opportunity,” she said at the launch event Thursday. As Mousa explained, the platform will serve several functions. By listing their companies on the platform, users inside and outside Lebanon can describe their services and their needs and be matched to users with a complementary profile. The platform will also provide users abroad with information on the history of their ancestral villages in Lebanon. “This will serve particularly medium and small companies, which represent 93 percent of businesses in Lebanon,” Mousa said.

She echoed Hariri, saying that many Lebanese nationals living outside the country share her eagerness to contribute to their homeland. Consequently, Diaspora ID also provides the opportunity for skilled individuals in a variety of sectors to offer virtual training to similar businesses in Lebanon that might be in need guidance and expert advice. “This is what I call ‘brain circulation,’” Mousa said, adding that the transfer of knowledge facilitated by the platform will give the Lebanese diaspora an easy and quick way to contribute to Lebanon’s development.