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afrol News, 16 August - This week, the President of the Municipal Chamber of Ribeira Grande (island of São Antão), Jorge Santos, raised his voice to criticise the central government for not doing anything to the serious problem of unemployment on the island. At the same time, it has been announced that an Italian company is going to initiate the oil exploration on the island. Jorge Santos, President of the Municipal Chamber of Ribeira Grande (island of São Antão), expressed his "displeasure" concerning the problem of unemployment on the island and the passivity of the Cape Verdean central government, which does not take appropriate actions to improve this serious situation, he holds. Santos says he does not understand the government's "silence" concerning the problem. According to Santos, the situation is worrisome. It had developed to a point where many of the island's families were experiencing a situation of undernourishment due to the lack of income and economic aid of some kind. Santos, in his critics of the central government, gives more details about the ills of the São Antão and goes on denouncing that many of the projects that had been initiated on the island - for which the government originally had promised financing - now had reached a state of total paralysis due to a lack of governmental funds. Given "these facts," Santos claims the situation under which the island lives comes close to a "political boycott" from Praia, the Cape Verdean capital. Therefore he wishes that the voice of the islanders may be listened to in the international community, which he requests to intervene. Meanwhile, being reported simultaneously from the island of São Antão, this week it has become public that an Italian company is going to explore oil wells close to Porto Novo, offshore the island. The agreement, which the island of Santo Antão is set to achieve with the company, gives the Italians the right to explore the island's oil wells during a period of 25 years. It is anticipated that the agreement, whose details are still being negotiated, will be signed already in September this year. According to the information that has bee made public until so far, there are hopes that the reserves from the island's crude oil deposits may reach between six and seven tons.
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