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Saudi Fund for Development Breaks Ground for Library at University of Sarajevo

Officials at the ceremony in Sarajevo. (SPA)
Officials at the ceremony in Sarajevo. (SPA)
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Saudi Fund for Development Breaks Ground for Library at University of Sarajevo

Officials at the ceremony in Sarajevo. (SPA)
Officials at the ceremony in Sarajevo. (SPA)

Saudi Fund for Development (SFD) Board of Directors Chairman Ahmed bin Aqeel Al-Khateeb laid the foundation stone on Monday for the construction of the new library at the University of Sarajevo.

The important project is being funded through a generous $22 million grant provided by Saudi Arabia through the SFD, reported the Saudi Press Agency.

Present at the ceremony were Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina Elmedin Konakovic, Prime Minister of Sarajevo Canton Nihad Uk, Saudi Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina Osama bin Dakhil Al-Ahmadi, Rector of the University of Sarajevo Prof. Dr. Rifat Skrijelj, Deputy CEO of SFD Eng. Faisal Al-Kahtani, and other officials.

The new library will act as a central hub to connect the university’s 28 sub-libraries, and will help boost its educational and research capabilities. Covering an area of 13,590 square meters, it will be equipped with the latest technology and digital learning tools, helping to future-proof the university, and allowing it to better meet the needs of its students.

More than 22,000 male and female students, 1,618 staff and faculty members will be able to access the new facility.

Additionally, the library will play a key role in supporting the advancement of the university’s research and innovation capabilities, while helping build the research skills of students and graduates. It will also contribute towards realizing the UN Sustainable Development Goals, specifically SDG 4, Quality Education, and SDG 10, Reduced Inequalities.

Al-Khateeb stressed: "This project reflects the strong and lasting developmental ties between Saudi Arabia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, which began three decades ago. We are confident that the new library will help meet the needs of both male and female students at the University of Sarajevo, and the surrounding community."

Konakovic stated: "Thanks to a generous grant from the Kingdom, through SFD, this project has become the largest post-war investment in the infrastructure of our University. It will enrich our academic community, while reflecting the strong ties and mutual respect between our two nations.”

“The library will serve as a symbol of our joint efforts to promote education and advance knowledge, and as a place where generations of students and researchers can gather to contribute to the development of our society, country and wider region."

Uk said: "The building for which we are laying the foundation stone today is significant because it will also be the most visible bridge of friendship between Saudi Arabia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. We are grateful to Saudi Arabia for this investment.”

“The library is a symbol of knowledge, cultural upliftment, communication, and I believe that our cooperation and friendship will develop precisely in these directions in the future.”

During the past three decades, SFD has helped to fund 11 projects and development programs across Bosnia and Herzegovina, through soft development loans worth a total of $185 million.

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Adieu Paris as Niger Nixes Colonial French Place Names

This photograph taken in Niamey on October 15, 2024 shows children standing in front of the new plaque where Avenue General Charles de Gaulle was renamed to Avenue Djibo Bakary, named after the Nigerien political figure (1922-1998) who was the first mayor of Niamey (1956-1958), the president of the Niger Government Council (May 1957-October 1958) and a supporter of the immediate independence of Niger in the referendum called in 1958 by Former French President General Charles de Gaulle. (AFP)
This photograph taken in Niamey on October 15, 2024 shows children standing in front of the new plaque where Avenue General Charles de Gaulle was renamed to Avenue Djibo Bakary, named after the Nigerien political figure (1922-1998) who was the first mayor of Niamey (1956-1958), the president of the Niger Government Council (May 1957-October 1958) and a supporter of the immediate independence of Niger in the referendum called in 1958 by Former French President General Charles de Gaulle. (AFP)
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Adieu Paris as Niger Nixes Colonial French Place Names

This photograph taken in Niamey on October 15, 2024 shows children standing in front of the new plaque where Avenue General Charles de Gaulle was renamed to Avenue Djibo Bakary, named after the Nigerien political figure (1922-1998) who was the first mayor of Niamey (1956-1958), the president of the Niger Government Council (May 1957-October 1958) and a supporter of the immediate independence of Niger in the referendum called in 1958 by Former French President General Charles de Gaulle. (AFP)
This photograph taken in Niamey on October 15, 2024 shows children standing in front of the new plaque where Avenue General Charles de Gaulle was renamed to Avenue Djibo Bakary, named after the Nigerien political figure (1922-1998) who was the first mayor of Niamey (1956-1958), the president of the Niger Government Council (May 1957-October 1958) and a supporter of the immediate independence of Niger in the referendum called in 1958 by Former French President General Charles de Gaulle. (AFP)

Niger bid goodbye to the Avenue Charles de Gaulle on Tuesday as its ruling junta renamed several historic sites in the capital Niamey which previously bore references to old colonial master France.

Since taking power in a coup in July 2023, the Sahel nation's military rulers have turned their backs on Paris, instead forging ties with fellow juntas in Burkina Faso and Mali -- as well as Russia.

With the sound of marching bands blaring in the background, several junta officials took to the streets to witness the new names' inauguration.

"Most of our avenues, boulevards and streets... bear names that are simply reminders of the suffering and bullying our people endured during the ordeal of colonization," said Major Colonel Abdramane Amadou, Minister for Youth and a junta spokesman.

"The avenue which once bore the name of General Charles de Gaulle is henceforth christened 'Avenue Djibo Bakary'," Amadou added.

A socialist politician who died in 1998, Bakary was a key figure in the struggle for Niger's independence, which it obtained in 1960.

A few hundred meters further on, the memorial to those who died in the two world wars now pays "homage to all civilian and military victims of colonization to the present day".

With the ruling junta frequently accusing France of wishing to topple it, the renaming of monuments and streets marks a symbolic confirmation of Niger's break with its former imperial ruler.

Since the coup, Niger's authorities have expelled both the French soldiers fighting against the region's persistent extremist threat and the French ambassador, while the Franco-Nigerien cultural center is no longer run as a joint venture and has been renamed after Niger's filmmaker Moustapha Alassane.

- 'Honour our ancestors' -

Other monuments across Niamey will bear new names from Tuesday onwards.

A portrait of French commander and explorer Parfait-Louis Monteil, engraved for decades in stone, was replaced by a plaque bearing the effigy of neighboring Burkina Faso's iconic communist leader Thomas Sankara.

An anti-imperialist hero nicknamed Africa's Che Guevara, Sankara was killed in a 1987 coup his widow and supporters accuse France of having a hand in organizing.

Amadou hailed Sankara as a man whose "struggle for liberation" and "emancipation of peoples" was "still inspiring people" today.

Meanwhile the Place de Francophonie was renamed after the Alliance of Sahel States -- a confederation created with Mali and Burkina Faso in 2023, cementing relations between the coup-hit countries.

All three had their membership suspended to the 88-state International Organization of La Francophonie in the wake of their coups.

From now on "we are going to honor our ancestors", vowed General Assoumane Abdou Harouna, the capital region's governor and a junta figure.

Oumarou Abdourahamane, president of the Niger branch of the NGO Urgences Panafricanistes, welcomed the new names.

"It makes no sense for our streets to continue to bear the names of former colonists... and so justice is being done by renaming these streets, by naming them after our country's heroes," he said.

Urgences Panafricanistes is headed at the international level by activist Kemi Seba, known for his virulent anti-Western views, who was arrested on Monday in Paris for as-yet unknown reasons.

Seba, who was born in France to Beninese parents, holds a Nigerien diplomatic passport as special adviser to junta leader Abdourahamane Tiani.

The controversial militant, who was recently stripped of his French nationality, is a radical black power activist who is regularly accused of anti-Semitism and has been sentenced in France several times for incitement to racial hatred.

In June 2023, shortly before the coup that toppled elected president Mohamed Bazoum, Niger also adopted a new national anthem titled "For the honor of the fatherland", which references the anti-colonial struggle.

It replaced "La Nigerienne", whose lyrics were written by French composer Maurice Albert Thiriet in 1961, a year after the country gained its independence.